The Great American Road Trip: East Coast to Disneyland?

[DOOM1001]

I've wanted to do one of those cross country trips to California my whole life,the problem is that being in South Florida the drive to California will take forever.Don't get me wrong I still want to do it one day but I've done a couple of trips from South Florida to Cedar Point in Ohio then going to Boston and New York and hitting other theme parks like Six Flags in Atlanta and Busch Gardens in Virginia on the way and what you realize is that even a trip like that requires "A LOT" of driving.I also have family members who've done that California trip and they say Texas alone felt like they were never going to get out of that state.With what gas costs it's probably a better idea to just fly and rent a car,we did one like that to San Francisco,we rented a car saw most everything we wanted to see in the Bay area and drove to Lake Tahoe staying overnight as well as Napa valley.When you think we did this in 6 days you start thinking about just how much time you would need to see most everything you want to see on a road trip also taking into account the time you need for driving.If I had a month,a big comfortable car,and 20K for the trip I'm in,I'm as adventurous as they get but I've seen National lampoons Vacation too many times,probably 500 times as it's my favorite movie so I know you would have to be ready and planned out for a trip like this.Until I can get this much time off or have the money it's probably easier to fly into an area and rent a car and spend 6-7 days seeing everything you can in that general area.

 

[Keyser]

Kind of late to jump in, but I did a cross country trip with my family back in high school (>20 years ago...). My parents planned/saved for it for years. We had a great time, and I have many many good memories of that trip to this day (along with a few bad ones that we laugh about now!). We went NY to California and back, in about a month. Things I remember along the way:
- Niagara Falls
- Toronto (CN Tower)
- Chicago
- Dairy in Wisconsin
- South Dakota: Badlands, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore
- Devil's Tower Wyoming
- Cody Wyoming
- Yellowstone
- Custer's Last Stand Battlefield
- Idaho moon-like area
- Salt Lake City
- Portland Oregon and tall forests
- Crater Lake
- Yosemite
- San Francisco - Alcatraz, Lombard St., Market, Golden Gate Bridge, Redwoods
- Giant Sequoias
- Other stuff in CA: Winchester House, Pebble Beach drive, Hearst Castle
- LA area: Disneyland, Hollywood, Universal Studio
- Las Vegas
- Hoover Dam
- Grand Canyon
- 4 Corners
- Mesa Verde
- Santa Fe, Albuquerque, El Paso
- Carlsbad Caverns
--- And the rest of the trip was from Texas to NY, which we'd done many times and didn't do any sightseeing on...

If your goal is to basically drive as fast as possible with an occasional stop, I don't know that it would be that enjoyable. But, if your main goal is the drive itself, it can be a fun trip.

 

[taaren]

In 2000, I moved from Michigan to San Diego by car and spent a little over a week visiting friends and places I wanted to see along the way ... it was pretty cool. Its a little fuzzy now, but I remember driving through the cornfields of Iowa and Nebraska was broken up by the monotony of meeting people, stopping in Denver, that was cool (particularly the mountains surrounding were majestic), enjoyed Vegas/Hoover Dam. Fortunately gas was a lot cheaper back then.

Worst part was southern Utah. Most direct route for what we were trying to accomplish but deadly dull and wind trying to sweep you off the highway constantly. Will never drive through southern Utah again. I'd recommend a Northern route ending in SF/Bay Area to get to the coast then head south along the 101, taking at least three days since that is gorgeous country.

 

[EPCOT66bye]

Well, gang, we're now close to six months out and we may not be going. The water heater died and the car needed $600 worth of work and then we hit Christmas expenses and now the dentist is sending us to an orthodontist for DS13.

However, I still think this is worth the time and effort as it really could be the trip of a lifetime for us. I'm starting to look at airfares to phx or lax or sfo or San and shortening the trip to cut the hotel costs. I'm finding airfare for about $1300, so if we stay only 2 weeks ($1400 for hotels), we might still get away with this for a budget of $5000. Maybe.

In fact, I'm actually holding a room for two nights at the Grand Canyon! Wishful thinking. And I'm trying to narrow down our sites to the most important: LEGOLAND, Anaheim, and the WDFM in San Francisco, plus the aforementioned canyon. We'd still be able to see route 66, some desert and the CA coast.

I appreciate all the great stories and suggestions! Please keep'em coming!