|
Road Trip Resources
The following is a list of resources
which I've used when planning road trips. They have been invaluable for booking flights, checking driving distances,
saving $$$$$ or £££££ (depending on your currency!) and finding out the local
weird and wonderful sights.
Presumably, you've decided which part of the world you wish to visit
- and that can be a challenge in itself! Once you've done this, it's best to list the places you want to visit first, then
determine the most suitable route to take. Check whether a circuitous route can
taken. By taking a round trip, this will considerably reduce costs than if you have to fly in and out of a different airport and the
also the hefty increase in charges for one-way car hire.
Guide books are often useful to find out the key sights in an area, my recommendations
are the
Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Moon Handbooks and the bible of all road trips -
Road Trip USA by Jamie Jenson. You can find out more about this book
by clicking HERE.
This fantastic book by Jamie Jenson is available at major online book stores - see top right of this webpage. The book focuses on
offbeat destinations and sticks to highways and historic routes rather than
the interstates.
Once you have selected your start and end points,
you'll need to determine how long you will be travelling between locations. One of the best resources for this is
Map Quest. Simply enter you start and end points and the online software will calculate the distance, trip time and provide a map of the route.
Now that you have worked out how long you will need, take the plunge and purchase your flights. Return flights to the USA always fall considerably in September rather than August and even further if you travel in October. I suspect this is also the case if you plan to travel in April and May rather than
during the summer months.
The three companies I use the most are
Expedia,
Lastminute.com and
Net Flights.
However, my preference overall would be to use
Expedia.
Once you have booked your flights, it is essential that you book your first nights accommodation, this will save
a great deal of hassle with US immigration as they will demand to know your first place of stay.
It will also make things easier for you knowing where you first hotel or motel will be. Package deals with flights and accommodation can be booked on
Expedia.
You may also wish to book your last few nights accommodation, this helps if you are driving a rental car and finishing your trip in a city as you can ditch the car and save on the car hire
costs at your final destination.
Car hire rates can vary significantly between companies. In my experience
Budget
and Dollar via
Net Flights
have been the cheapest, you might also want to try
Easy Car.
Upgrading to the Gold or Platinum packages always seems a good deal too. This usually covers all insurances, cover for up to 4 drivers and a full tank of fuel.
Once you are on the road, accommodation is usually cheap, pick up a vouchers booklet from a service station and use the coupons for the motels. You can get some real
bargains this way. If you can't find one then go to
www.travelcoupons.com and print them out. If you really want to plan ahead then go to the motel websites such as
Motel 6 and Super8.
| 
