A very rough guide for coast to coast road trippin’

It’s a sense of freedom you don’t get with other holidays. No, I’m not talking about the Caravan Club. I am talking about the type of adventure that should be on every intrepid explorer’s bucket list – a coast to coast USA road trip. 

I am fortunate enough to have accomplished this feat twice now, the first time when I was 29 and the second time when I was… older. Both times were journey-of-a-lifetime experiences. These have allowed me to boast that I have now set foot in over 30 states – some of which even most Americans don’t visit. Along the way I have met many memorable people, seen some awesome sights and got up to some jolly antics, all the while racking up around 15,000 miles in total. 

Below is an extremely broad guide for anyone thinking of making this trip. It’s nowhere near definitive and it’s not going to list every place I have been in exquisite detail right down to which bars are best on a Tuesday afternoon in Knoxville. Instead, it’s just a quick guide for those thinking of embarking on this adventure. 

Where should I start and which route should I take?

Where do you want to go? Is there anything you must see? How long have you got? These are the fundamental questions before any road trip anywhere in the world. The problem with the USA is there is just so much on offer that unless you plan on taking early retirement – and are rich enough to do so – its unlikely that you will hit every target. 

An easy way to start is seeing where you want to begin and end, and fill in the gaps from there. On both trips, I started in Boston. Why? Because I have an old schoolmate who lives there and there is nothing like free accommodation and a local tour guide to start you off. If you do not have friends or family to head to first, it’s obviously no big deal – just pick the best East Coast city (or West Coast city if you are weird and want to do it in reverse) for you. 

Trips one and two varied hugely after Boston. 

On trip one, I was younger, poorer and knew which cool cities must be seen. So me and my driving partner aimed for all the metropolises between Boston and LA. Taking in New York, DC, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, Austin, Vegas – and many other places – along the way. When not boozing away in these cities, we did find a bit of time for the Grandcanyon, but in reality we just wanted to go out every night. 

For trip two, the final destination was Seattle and, being in my mid-30s and having already been to the sites above, I was more interested in rural America, epic landscapes and driving for the sake of driving. This didn’t mean no big cities – Chicago is officially my favourite US city now – Minneapolis is cool and taking the northern route gave us a chance to pop into Canada and stay in Toronto for a couple of nights. Interspersed are some great University towns, such as Ann Arbour and Madison, as well as some surprisingly awesome places like Boise, Idaho. 

The nature is more stunning – if massive voids of wilderness stretching as far as the eye can see and mountains are your sort of thing. You also get Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, cowboy country and the forest passes of the Pacific NorthWest.

Also, if you like beer, even the most humble hamlet on the northern route seems to have a local brewery. If you think the UK has a lot of craft beers, you have not been to Wisconsin. 

When should I go?

Like with much of this guide, the answer will be – when do you want to go and is there anything seasonal you wish to do? 

One piece of advice though is to avoid US holidays. Any search during your planning period will reveal a surge in prices on everything from flights, to accommodation to car hire when our cousins across the pond decide to take a break. For both trips I went May/April when things were cheaper but Summer had pretty much arrived. 

How long should I go for?

Both trips were achieved in just shy of a month. This gave enough flexibility to stay in a few places we liked for a couple of nights if we wanted, with not too many drives taking all day. It’s still a relatively demanding schedule though and you will have to be comfortable with some pretty long driving times to make it work. 

What should I drive?

OK, let’s state the obvious. This is a road trip and therefore you have to drive. If you are thinking of going Amtrak or Greyhound, then this is not the guide for you. There is also a reason why this section is quite long. It is a vital part of the holiday to get right. 

As mentioned previously, I like driving for the sake of driving and therefore it was imperative for me to have a pretty cool set of wheels, even if this ended up being by far the biggest single bit of expenditure – especially on the second trip. 

I would seriously recommend doing some decent research on this a good while before heading off as getting a good car makes the difference between the driving parts being a fun part of the journey in and of themselves – or being just a necessity to get from A to B that you put up with. 

On the first journey, being inexperienced in this, all we knew is we must do it in a convertible. We saved a great deal of money by hiring a “pot luck” car via the brokers Holiday Autos. Its obviously a risk, but the gamble paid off when we rolled out of the airport with a BMW 4 series convertible. On the entire journey there was only a couple of hours where it rained so much we were forced to put the roof up. This is still not cheap though, with a face value cost of £1,800.

Unfortunately, in the five years between then and the second trip this year, prices have gone up a fair amount. The extremely sporty Mustang we hired cost £2,500 at face value. And this was after a sneaky 30% discount at the counter because – honestly without asking or fibbing – the rep decided we deserved a discount usually reserved for service personnel. I’m still paying off my half with a monthly payment plan. But it was worth it. 

You obviously do not have to be this extravagant – SUVs and the like are far cheaper if pointlessly fast driving is not your thing. Petrol is also extremely cheap, which is a bonus. 

A couple of things to note – if it is given as an option I would not recommend trying to be so hardcore as to choose a manual. Road stints of 8 hours a day or more are not uncommon and an automatic with cruise control makes all the difference. If you do go manual, I applaud your foolhardy determination and ask you to get in touch to let me know how it went. 

I mention face value costs. This is what they say you owe when booking. But at the desk they will: A, try and upsell you to a new even sportier car (a temptation we fell for on the second time round) and B: there will be all the usual extra insurances etc. Take it all if you can afford it. It will give you peace of mind. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than being stranded on a Wyoming highway with a flat tyre with no number to call and 1 car per hour driving past. 

In addition to this, you will likely get the option of being registered for EZ Pass. This is a toll system that covers many – but not all – US states. Both times we have got this as you don’t want to be queuing for the only booth which takes payment and avoiding tolls would probably add many hours to your journey. You don’t want to wake up one day realising you are stuck in Memphis with half a continent still to go and only three days to do it in.

Who should I go with?

No joke, this is a serious thing to consider. If you are in a relationship, odds are you will go with your partner, but if not you will need a driving companion. I say need because you will be putting in some serious mileage and its not just company you need – you need a co-driver. 

For logistical reasons I did spend 6 days driving by myself between Chicago and Minneapolis on my second trip (I swapped mates half way through holiday – not because of any fall out, but both have real jobs that meant limited time off). This was fine as I’m confident enough to travel alone and tend to find my own company quite splendid. But boy it’s exhausting and you will eventually miss a bit of chat. You also have to figure everything out for yourself, which is a pain. 

Therefore, go with someone who also likes driving, you know you won’t fall out with and – I can’t stress this enough – someone who understands it absolutely fine to just sit in silence and enjoy the views for a long time. There is really far too much drive time for small talk to last. 

Shared interests obviously help a lot, as you will want to go to the same places and do the same things. When i’m not driving, I like drinking (never combined!), so going with a teetotaler would not be a great choice for me. But you also have to do what they want to do to make things work. I have no interest in Star Trek, but I still had to spend a night in Bozeman, Montana. I was repaid though with a drive to iconic filming sites for Twin Peaks in Washington state. Swings and roundabouts. 

 

Killing time. 

Driving is fun. But half the time you won’t be driving and playing eye spy won’t get you very far – especially in South Dakota where there is nothing to see for miles around. You therefore need something to occupy your time. 

A playlist is all well and good. But unless you have 20,000 songs that you actually enjoy, even a well thought through road trippin’ list – no matter how mandatory you think it should be – will soon become tiresome. 

So on the second trip, it was all about the podcast series. The Casual Criminalist, Hardcore History and Revolutions were just a few that provided hours of easy entertainment. 

The first trip was even better though. As my travel companion is as bigger Harry Potter nerd as myself, we simply bought every HP audiobook and listened to them in order. Nothing says cool like driving a BMW convertible through the streets of New York with the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry announcing your arrival on the scene. 

Where to say?

Obviously you will need to rest up for the night and hit the town. Fortunately, America has such an abundance of capacity when it comes to hotels, motels and Airbnb accommodation that, even in peak season, I don’t think you will find yourself sleeping in the car. 

Cost will always be a consideration. On the first trip, our budgets meant we opted for some seriously downbeat motels at places. In one delightful establishment in New Orleans, we found a massive cockroach, my bedding had cigarette holes in it and there was no running water. It was far too late to head anywhere else so, naturally, we decided to stay out until dawn to avoid being murdered there and look for new accommodation the next day. 

On the whole, we probably did save some money, but perhaps not as much to justify all the bad locations all the time, as a few of them then required taxis to get into the town centre anyway as walking was either too far or stepping outside of the vicinity meant risking a mugging. 

Then again, the approach we took was also liberating – we never bothered booking anywhere. Whoever wasn’t driving simply looked for somewhere cheap on Google maps. There is the added bonus of being able to up sticks if you decide you no longer like the town and wish to leave with no commitment. 

The re-run five years later took a more planned approach and, as our budgets stretched further, meant more booking.com and lastminute.com. This meant nicer places, more centrally located, and there were still good deals to be had – even if only booking a couple of days in advance. But it does mean constraints on flexibility. In one city – that shall remain nameless – we hated the place so much that booking 2 nights there was a major source of regret. 

And finally, some miscellaneous advice.

Its a trope, but for good reason – your British accent will get noticed and will become a topic of conversation. Especially in the weirder and wilder badlands where a British accent has never been heard before beyond TV. I chose to think of it as quite a charming level of interest, but explaining the same story over again will be something you have to get used to. 

I cannot recall any outright rude or hostile Americans, beyond some specific examples. I would say 99% of them are extremely courteous and have a sincere interest in what you are doing. One thing I discovered is how few of them have toured their own country, so having some lads from England come over and do it is something many find quite fascinating.

Oversharing is a bit of a downside to this friendliness, as a Brit I don’t want to give my life story. I especially don’t want to get too stuck into American politics. It can be super interesting, but you have been warned it can get explosive.

Try not to be alarmed by the love of guns, even if it is to the point they have one on them and the fact they will be sold in Walmart between the cheese aisle and the baby clothes aisle. 

No joke, bartenders are often as they are portrayed in films. They will chat to you for hours if you let them and are an excellent source of local knowledge. They never hesitate on telling you where the other great bars or clubs are, or what sites there are to see in the day. If in a big city that has many tourists, you can find out where the real locals go and get off the beaten track. 

An example of why I rate yankee bartenders so highly was during my stint alone on the second trip. I popped to a fine bar called The Nitty Gritty in Madison and got chatting to the barman. I told him it had been my Birthday whilst out in the USA and he said its bar policy that people drink for free on their birthday. I explained it had been two weeks ago, but he said it was no problem, put my name on the celebration chalkboard and I proceeded to enjoy free beers for the rest of the night. 

There are no speed cameras – at least none we were aware of. Speed limits seem quite slow in some places, but everyone seems to ignore them. The way you get caught is by Highway Patrol and they can usually be seen a mile off. If you want to go fast, just don’t go as fast as the fastest car nearby and you should be fine. 

Lastly, there is one segment of American society I can say without hesitation are represented by the rudest, most officious individuals you will unfortunately have to meet. US border agents. Perhaps I have twice been unlucky or perhaps Boston airport is particularly bad. But a look at chats online and anecdotal evidence – even from Americans themselves – is these people are on a power trip. 

It may not be so bad if you state you are there for a week-long holiday in some hotel. But be prepared, if you are road trippin’ red lights seem to go off in their heads. I don’t know if they think you are trying to sneak into the country to stay permanently, but for the country that I feel invented the concept of a road trip they do not seem to understand this at all. 

You may be asked for; the location of everywhere you are staying – an impossible task if you are doing a road trip properly; your job – don’t accidentally let slip you are recently unemployed, it made my life no easier; how much money is in your bank; and stupidly inane questions like “why are you going on this trip?” All in an extremely hostile and belligerent manner. 

My sole advice is to have every single document handy. Print it all out so they can read it properly. This means your ESTA, your return flight details and especially the booking documents for your car. When you can convince them that, yes you have spent £2500 on a car, you are dropping it off again on the other coast and you do have solid proof you are then leaving, they will let you go.

It’s a painful 30 minutes, but don’t let a lack of preparedness spoil your trip of a lifetime. It’s so worth it.