Road Trip California on a Budget?
My fiancé and I are planning on a road trip to America for our honeymoon next July. We'd close to to see as much of California as possible in 3-4weeks. We undoubtedly would've just compensated out hugh for our wedding so we're hoping to do the road trip as cheaply as possibly.
Obviously paying for gas and motel/hotels, how much roughly do you surmise it would cost? I remember when i was on holiday within Florida a few years ago you can get rooms for $20 a darkness.
Or do hire companies rent cars/vans you can sleep in too? and can you freshly pull over and sleep any where on earth?
Thanks!
Answers:
We drove the Pacific Coast Highway for a month and we were competent to do it on a very tight budget. The most crucial thing you can do is contact the local visitor’s center for respectively city you are planning on visiting. Ask them to distribute you their FREE visitor’s packet; this has map, attraction information and COUPONS which saved us a ton of money on our trip. There are some places where on earth you can get hotels/motels for approaching $50 a night depend on what city you are staying surrounded by I might try to stay away from some of the cheaper ones. They are usually not located in great areas. I would also look into staying at hostels; they can be process cheaper than motels/hotels and a great way to gather round people. Most own private rooms and dorm beds for rent. I might also suggest camp a night or two, campsites are cheap and resourcefully you can still go out to guzzle. We would camp similar to every 4th night to store some cash. It wasn’t doomed to failure and you don’t need much since you are doing this for solitary a few nights. Most of the places we camp had everything you entail, showers and stuff like that. There are some great places to military camp in CA some awesome places right on the shoreline. This can be better than any hotel/motel.
The other thing that I recommend is appropriate a cooler with food, guzzle at least one lunchtime out of the cooler a day; this can hide away you a ton of cash. We made it a point to bring sandwich, drinks and other snacks. Getting them at the grocery store is much cheaper than stopping at the gas station for a soda. When you get low on supplies merely stop at the nearest grocery store and fill up on supplies. There are adjectives kinds of state parks and picnic areas that are free to the public. I cannot stress the have need of to plan and over plan for this long of a trip. Believe it or not 3 weeks away from home is a long time, make sure to recompense all your bills contained by advance so you do not hold late fees. Have your correspondence stopped and pick it up when you come back, hold a neighbor pick up newspapers contained by the yard so it looks close to someone is home. Get some timers and have your lights rotate. You don’t want to come backbone from vacation and hold something happen while you be gone. I also recommend to over budget for gas. Right not depending on when you are going gas is running about $3.30 a gallon if higher. This can move over the course of your trip so be prepared; I would also over budget for hotels. We did not book any of ours in mortgage and had no problem finding rooms. Plot your course and form sure it is gas friendly, don’t cut back to cities save time and gas. I would also look at some of these websites if you like wacky roadside attractions these will backing you find them. There are some crazy things to see if you are driving Highway 1, all kind of things will just spring out.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/
http://www.eccentricamerica.com/
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/LA-Roads...
http://www.theamericanroadside.com/
http://roadsidetourist.com/
http://www.wlra.us/
http://www.americanprofile.com/article/4...
http://www.eccentricamerica.net/
For unique places to put away along the way you might be interested within these sites:
http://www.dinercity.com/
http://www.dinercity.com/caDiner/caDiner...
http://www.roadsidepeek.com/roadusa/sout...
http://www.travelingusa.com/Food/Diners/...
http://www.route40.net/culture/diners-ca...
For travel information I would check out these sites:
http://www.visitcalifornia.com/AM/Templa...
http://www.sandiego.org/nav/Visitors
http://www.carmelcalifornia.org/
http://www.touringca.com/
http://www.napavalley.com/
http://www.latourist.com/
http://www.montereyinfo.org/
http://redwoods.info/
http://www.visit-california-online.com/
http://www.classiccalifornia.com/
http://www.lakecounty.com/
http://www.northerncalifornia.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_...
http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/127...
http://www.us-101.com/
This is a great article about how to rescue money driving down the coast:
http://www.budgettravel.com/bt-dyn/conte...
For Hostel information check these sites out:
http://www.hostels.com/en/us.ca.html
http://www.norcalhostels.org/
http://www.totalescape.com/lodge/hostels...
http://www.hostelhandbook.com/usa/ca.htm
For camping info check out these sites:
http://www.totalescape.com/active/campst...
http://www.parks.ca.gov/
http://www.rvandcampoutwest.com/
http://www.socalcamping.com/
http://www.ca-camping-review.com/
http://www.gocampingamerica.com/Californ...
For deal on hotels check out these sites;
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g28926...
http://www.allcaliforniahotels.com/
http://hotel-guides.us/california/ca-hot...
http://www.beachcalifornia.com/californi...
http://www.hotelscheap.org/states/califo...
http://www.ca-hotels-review.com/
I think you adjectives would have a great time doing this trip, trust me if you can spend 3 weeks surrounded by the car near someone you can spend the rest of your life beside them no problem. Be sure to stop at the visitor’s center everywhere you go they own coupons for everything and hey 15% off dinner is better than zilch! With some good planning and your eye out for deal you all will know how to do this. We spent a month and only spent close to $1700, so trust me it can be done on any budget! Congrats on your wedding and enjoy a great trip!
You should visit http://www.bayareavisit.com/ for budget opinion and routes, pictures.
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