US Roadtrip Advice Needed
Hi Guys
Next summer My friend and I are gonna be 18 years old. We’re British; we want to do a roadtrip across the US over 2.5 months. Typically young people do Europe by rail in the summer holiday before uni, but we wanted to do something a bit more adventurous and different. The route we are thinking is roughly as follows:
New York -> DC
DC -> Chicago
Chicago -> Nashville
Nashville -> Atlanta
Atlanta -> Houston
Houston -> Dallas
Dallas -> Zion State Park
Zion -> Las Vegas -> LA
LA -> Seattle (via Pacific coast highway)
These are just some of the major cities, in reality we will of course stop at many more towns and cities on the way. I am aware that this is a crazy long distance/a really crazy long road trip, which is why we are keeping around 2 - 2.5 months to do it.
We both have been to the US many times and I have a lot of family living all across the US, some of which I am very very close to and visit often.
My main queries are regarding two things:
Firstly, the car. My friend and I have about £7000 to spend on car and accommodation. We plan on sleeping in the car outside of major cities/in middle America; large, safer truck stops with showers etc are what I’m thinking. In the major cities like New York and LA we are thinking hostels. This leaves quite a bit of money for the car.
I’m not sure if we should buy or rent the car. I am aware that renting will be very expensive as we are only 18 and that not every company will rent to us, but again we have quite a high Budget. Secondly, we have no idea where to do long term rents for multiple months from.
The other option is buy. The main issue here is the reliability of the car, but I’ve been able to find some late 1990s Toyota 4Runners for $3000, albeit with very high mileage. There are decent number of (less cool) Camry’s and Corollas as well. How safe are these purchases - is it naive to assume that the Toyota badge means they’ll be perfectly fine for this trip? I am not concerned about registration and address issues because I have family living in the US who can buy the car for me (ofc i transfer them the money). I am aware the insurance will again be very high.
With this all in mind, should we rent or buy?
Thanks for the help in advance
PS: I should add that we KNOW this is a difficult endeavour. It will be challenging and take effort, not just to plan but to do. But that’s one of the reasons why we want to do this. To have a real adventure. (We have both travelled abroad alone before, and are both capable drivers and planners etc)
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