Driving from NY to CA tips/advice??

Ok,

So after trying my hand at another degree I've had enough of this country and all of the shit that goes on my life here. Like I did last time I'm gonna run away but rather than put myself through the hell of working in another country (see here http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22686)
I'm gonna hit the states and then south america.

What I want to do is fly to New York, get a car and then drive to california where I can meet some family. Then I'm gonna get a flight to Peru and meet a friend there who is travelling from the otherside of the world.

I haven't got a clue where to start, I've googled around but most of the websites tend to be aimed at those already in the states.

I'm 24 so car hire could be an issue but apparently it's just an extra fee until you are 25 which isn't an issue. Can someone clear this up for me? Also are there companies which deal with these long distance one way schemes?

The most important thing to me is budget. Of which at current I have £5000 maybe a little more. I want this to get me to the bottom of the country, over to peru and then home again...can't really see it happening.

So if anyone has any tips, thoughts, comments I'd love to hear them.

 

I never did such a thing in the US nor do I live in the US so my advise is crap, but I think it should be no problem at all to hire a car in NY and leave it in LA from any manjor car rental company as I did this in other countries before wo problems.

Alternative and more risky is buying a cheap second hand car that shouldn't cost you too much, but the question is will it get you where you want to go? I don't think you want to end up in some horror redneck village where some farmer will take your car apart and keep you there for weeks like in the movies lol

 

It will be expensive....

 

How expensive? A ballpark figure would be great, I just need something to work with.

 

Going on a 10 minute search on Google maps and a few car hire places...

Well lets say you drive direct from John F Kennedy Airport to San Francisco Airport. It's nearly 3000 miles, so if you can manage 500 miles a day (basically driving for 12 hours straight and hoping you do an aveage of 42 mph...) then you can do it in a week. Hiring a car for a week, for a reasonable comfortable car, with a likely $25 a day fee for being under 25, another $26 dollars a day for full insurance and roadside assistance, $70 a week for a GPS system, $10 a week for a toll pass device plus taxes and the like and you are looking at $1500... Petrol would be another $300 assuming you get 30mpg... Add $100 a day for a motel and food and you are already at $2500. (Assuming that your credit card will allow you to authorise the $1000 deposit, else you'll have to pony up $1000 as a deposit.)

You will pass through... New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevarda and California. You'll go through or be in throwing distance of Cleveland, Gary, Chicago, Iowa City, Des Moines, Omaha, Lincoln, Salt Lake City, Reno and Sacramento.

Remember lots of planning and realtistic targets to get to places...

 

With that budget, I'd save the money and go straight to Peru where living expenses are a fraction of those in the States and where you might be able to get some quick jobs on the side as well. Friends of mine have survived 6 months on budgets smaller than yours over there.

 

Enterprise Rent a Car

-hl718

 

Avis, Alamo and National all seem to allow State to State car hire, although it's added into the price with unlimited milage. Avis, do seem to have cheap car hire but there is a $1000 charge for the state to state hire.

 

When are you gonna be in California?

 

If it where me I'd just pick up a cheapie in NY and drive it. If it dies midway, lather rinse repeat. And if it happens to make it all the way, either ditch it with the family or sell it for what I can get.

That said, if your passing through Utah and you need help or a place to crash, I'm here. That's how you should do it, just crash at Assembler member's places on your trip, save on hotel rooms.

 

This.

A friend did exactly that, bought a car for $800, traveled through the states and sold it for $950.

 

I second ASSEMbler's suggestion of just catching a train. Long-distance driving just really isn't that fun (furthest I've done is NJ->MN and that was more than plenty), and from what I hear there's not all that much interesting stuff to see on the way. If you just want to cross the entire USA at 55mph, a train works just as well and doesn't require your continuous attention. Looking at Amtrak's fares, it seems that you can get a NYC->LAX train ticket (with a few stops) for a few hundred dollars.

 

Probably late jan/feb maybe earlier, I could stop by and pay you a visit if you like.

All this advice is great, seems like there are a lot of expensive and inexpensive options to consider.

 

I can confirm this. I did this year 18 000 km in 4 month in Australia and if you want to do 3000 mil I would say, you are looking for a month of drive at least.

 

Why do you want to take such a journey? I know you are in some deep shit but I think that this decision is a bit exaggerated, I don't want to sound like an asshole but you can't run away forever, someday you'll need to settle down.

 

I'm not running away per se, just I had a choice a few months back between travelling and moving back to my university town and I chose the latter. I now believe that to be a massive error and I can get out without having lost too much money.

Not running away but just getting out of a place which is giving me a lot of grief and doing something I've always wanted to do.

 

When did your life turned around completly so fast? A few moths ago you were rather happy, you had 5 woman wanting to have sex with you and everything, when did everything went so wrong?