America

Beckiboo

Beckiboo

Active Member
Thinking of a little girls-only road trip to America for the new year and my birthday (so basically the first few weeks in Jan).
Has anyone ever been at this time and can you give me any ideas of where I should go?
We're looking at about three and a half weeks, one of our ideas was to fly into Miami, then hire a car and drive up to New York and fly home. Is this feasable?
Also, what will the weather be like at that time?

I dont really want to take any internal flights as I want to see as much of the country as possible.

Come on you Americans, tell me where to go! :p
 
Beckiboo said:
Thinking of a little girls-only road trip to America for the new year and my birthday (so basically the first few weeks in Jan).
Has anyone ever been at this time and can you give me any ideas of where I should go?
We're looking at about three and a half weeks, one of our ideas was to fly into Miami, then hire a car and drive up to New York and fly home. Is this feasable?
Also, what will the weather be like at that time?

I dont really want to take any internal flights as I want to see as much of the country as possible.

Come on you Americans, tell me where to go! :p
Click to expand...

can i come??
 
Robbie G said:
Do you get a 2 for 1 deal then? :lol:
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:lol: yeah, which is a good ploy cos it's not like you'll need it a second time!!

but clearly they didn't think i'd bring a mate along. in fact, it could be like one of those "introduce a friend - we give you £50" type set ups.:lol:
 
grego said:
:lol: yeah, which is a good ploy cos it's not like you'll need it a second time!!

but clearly they didn't think i'd bring a mate along. in fact, it could be like one of those "introduce a friend - we give you £50" type set ups.:lol:
Click to expand...

Tempting as it sounds I'm afraid ill have to decline you there mate :lol:
 
while not my taste, Miami is probably best in January= peak season, beautiful weather, packed bars/clubs/etc. I would not suggest driving north to NY - the weather can be quite bad even as far south as Georgia (snow/sleet/cold) and except for Baltimore/DC there rerally isn't that much to see on the way during the winter. IMO, you're better off going to Los Angeles or San Diego, renting a car and driving up the coast of California, or to Las Vegas (the desert is beautiful) then new york, then home. That time of year flights to NY from Europe/UK are cheap- spend a night ot two in NY, book a budget NY- LA flight - car rental/gas/hotels are pretty cheap on the west coast.
 
Hi Becks :)

As an Eastcoaster, of course I'd recommend a trip from Miami to Boston.

Miami is it's own animal. I wasn't thrilled with it, but it is interesting and the clubbing is decent.

Next stop is Atlanta. or Hot-lanta, as they call it. Quite a decent place and you've got to head up to the Buckhead area for an evening of shopping after spending your day touring downtown, the Martin Luther King memorial, Coca-Cola, CNN, etc.

It's a long drive north from there but my hometown, Washington, DC, would be your next stop. Great museums, the White House & Capitol, a decent bit of dining and nightlife in areas like Dupont Circle & Adams Morgan (but get ready... those areas close at 3 or 4am!).

You could do Baltimore or Philadelphia. I'm not a fan of either.

NYC. 'nuff said.

And finish off in Boston, also known as Beantown or The Hub. It's the hub of New England and a wonderful town. The first time I went to London in 1997, my first remark on the ride into the center was "this looks like Boston" (that was 2.5 years after I'd lef the city after 6 years living there). Fabulous coffee shops, brew pubs, Harvard Sq, Beacon Street, and about as much history as you're going to find in the US (aside from the Native Americans).

All togtether, I guess that's about 25 hours of driving if my math is good. I've never done it direct but it is about 9 hours DC to Boston, 18 hours DC to Tampa via Atlanta (Tampa is out of the way on the route we're talkign about) and 3.5 hours Tampa to Miami... so that must be about right.

A cross-country trip is at least 2 weeks for it to be any good and even then you won't get to sample as much as you should. If you're going to to that, I'd suggest NYC - LA, but definitely through Pittsburg, Chicago, Denver, Yellowstone National Park, Salt Lake, Las Vegas, San Francisco and LA. You can choose other points along the way. (I haven't been to Vegas and when my family did the cross-country trip in '82 we skipped Chicago in favor of Detroit... what were my parents thinking!?!?!)

More questions? Glad to help :D
 
For what it's worth here is my $0.02.

In the East Coast, I highly recommend DC because of the historical significance. I have not been to Miami so I will not say anything about it. With regards to NYC, I think that you can get a ticket from UK to NYC anytime of the year at very reasonable prices. Hence, why take a trip from a place with miserable weather to another place that has miserable weather? Just my 2 cents.

From the east coast, I would recommend flying over to Arizona. The Grand Canyon is beautiful and comfortable this time of the year. From there you can go to Palm Springs, San Diego, Orange County, Vegas and then LA. You might have seen or glimpsed on MTV Laguna Beach the Real OC, Newport Harbor and the Life of Ryan. All three towns Laguna, Newport and San Clemente are within 60km (i.e. San Clemente and Newport are 60km apart and Laguna is about 40km north of SC and 20km south of Newport). I am not suggesting visiting OC because of the shows, but because of the fact that the beaches in OC are the best in SoCal. Santa Monica and Venice Beach are OK with regards to the characters you see there, but the beach itself is not pretty. Just straight shorelines aka boooooringgggg. San Diego itself is not only gorgeous but also a culinary hotspot. BTW, I forgot to mention that if you are in SD, you can for a day go to Baja Mexico. Let's face it, in comparison to SoCal there are hardly any places in the world where whether it is the middle of summer or the dead of winter where one can sit outdoors with shorts on an have a cup of coffee without getting burned or frozen.

From LA drive up Highway 1 to San Francisco. As Phil mentioned the drive is breathtaking. If you and your girlies are wine freaks the you can also hit Napa Valley after San Francisco. From there drive up the coast of CA and Oregon to Seattle or even Vancouver if y'all want to.

I would highly recommend y'all visiting Austin, TX, New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville (TN), Chicago, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana so that you get a flavor of our heartland and meet the average Joe and Jane in the US. But most of these places are pretty cold (except Austin and New Orleans) in winter. Middle America is also resonably cheap in summer so that can be done some other time.

If you decide on visiting SoCal, and need the local-yokle low down, then feel free to PM me. I will try to help out in any way possible.
 
Also big advantage for west coast compared to east coast is in'n'out burger pitstops

4x4 8) (droools)
 
Thanks for everyone's advice, obviously I'd love to see ALL of America and one day i will :p But I've only got three and a half weeks so I dont want to rush things, but I want to see as much as I can.

I definately want to do NY, you can't go to U.S and not go there IMO. So I'm guessing the three possible routes would be:

Fly into Miami - drive up to NY / Boston - Fly out of NY

Fly into LA - drive up East Coast - fly Vegas - NY - Fly out of NY

Fly into LA - do Coast to Coast trip - Fly out of NY (would I have enough time for this?)

We have to fly out on NY because we want to do loads of shopping and dont want to carry it round with us everywhere :lol:
 
All I can say is that I'm DEAD jealous of the prospect - a road trip across America is probably (one of) my dream holiday(s)! :D
 
Phil - yes, the East Coast is more built up but the cities are better :p (I'm a city boy at heart)

Beckie - All three are very good routes. I think it just depends on time and the type of weather you want.

If time is short, do the East Coast for urban variety or the West Coast for weather and natural beauty.

If you've got more time, coast-to-coast is the great American road trip (all the glory and the horrors :lol:).
 
Dan x said:
All I can say is that I'm DEAD jealous of the prospect - a road trip across America is probably (one of) my dream holiday(s)! :D
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I did the trip once in 1982 - from DC to California and back. It was amazing - American Football Hall of Fame in Ohio, then Detriot; Windsor, Canada; Denver, Pike's Peak and Colorado Springs; Yellowstone National Park (gorgeous!), the Utah salt flats; San Francisco; a week in Los Angeles; San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico; Pheonix, Arizona and the Grand Canyon; El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico; Galveston, Houston (including the space center) and Dallas; Nashville, Tennessee; the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, TN; and the Natural Bridge in southwestern VA.

Remember much of it like it was yesterday - little vignettes like stopping off in the Utah desert and buying jewelry from the Navaho. My dad standing a little too close to the Grand Canyon's edge for my comfort. That wacky pentacostal church in Windsor, Ontario. Driving through Reno, Nevada and seeing the casinos and brothels (what's this, dad? Las Vegas?). The Houston space center. Getting the R-rated movies to play in the Nashville hotel while the parents were at the Grand Ole Opry. Sitting on the beach with some family friends near a bondfire in San Diego. An LA Dodgers baseball game. Disneyland.

If I did it again, it'd be more of a city tour. Places like Cleveland, Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwuakee, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, San Fran, LA, San Diego, Pheonix, Santa Fe, St Louis, New Orleans, Memphis. Cities with their own unique stories to tell, whether it be Blues music in Chicago or Memphis, New Orleans Jazz and Cajun cuisine, Portland's microbreweed beer, or the counterculture of San Francisco.

I'd love to see the country like that again now that I'm grown up....
 
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