• Need help with gathering some info regarding my Canada + United States road trip
    7 replies, posted
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/E1FXjif.png[/IMG] (Route may vary) So because i lost my longer post because facepunch still hasn't fixed that fucking annoying cloudflare captcha bug, here is a shorter one: My and my buddy are going to Canada this Summer in July next year for a month long trip through the US. We need some information regarding the following subjects: - Should we rent or buy a car? The journey is 4000 kilometers and 30'ish days so that is quite the bill i think regarding hiring a car. -- If we should totally buy a cheapo car, what kind of car and what things should be considering? I got a uncle in Toronto who would get the car for us in case we purchase one. - Any laws we should be aware off regarding camping? Do we always need to be located at a camping? - We will occasionally sway from our route, what towns/cities/sightseeing/experiences should we totally visit? - Our budget is €3000 (at minimum) per person so that pools at around €6000, we aim at 50$ a day for gas, food and other stuff. Is this a good estimation?
$0.02 incoming You will be passing by Galax, Virginia, where the New River trail is. If you like cycling as much as any self-respecting Dutchman, this is where I did my 56-mile trip. Probably my favorite trail for it, used to be a railroad so mostly level. Canoeing there is also great and there are good campgrounds for it. I would stick to established campgrounds, they won't be hard to come by. A little bit out of your way in West Virginia is Cass Scenic Railroad, another one of my favorites in that area. Worth the side trip, just driving in West Virginia can be an adventure in good and bad ways. As for the Carolinas, I am a native of Charlotte and live in Columbia so I can tell you plenty about those. Not the biggest tourist hotspots but a good place to stop and see. I'd recommend changing the route a little bit to see Charleston & Savannah, both great old colonial cities. I've only been to Charleston but I know where to get tips about Savannah. St. Augustine & Cape Canaveral are the highlights of Florida for me, camping in the Keys might be good too, you'll learn why "Mosquito Control Chief" is an elected position. Haven't been to Nawleans but I've always wanted to go. As for the budget, it sounds reasonable enough. Right now gas is ~$2.00/gallon, how much you spend will depend on the mileage of the car. I'll see what rates my Euro friends paid for a car rental, but I anticipate purchasing a car might be better. Anyways let me know if you want more detail on any of this, and who knows, I might still be living in Charlotte or Columbia by then. Wouldn't be the first time I've hosted roving Dutchmen.
Doing some math, 6000 euros is about $6450. An economy class car rental for a month in Toronto, like a Kia Rio, is about $1100 CAD, which is ~$800 USD. So $6450-$800=$5650 left over. If you want to limit yourself to $50 a day for a month, then that's around $1550, so that leaves you with $4150 for things like hotels and such. So, to answer your questions: 1. Rent, don't buy. 2. With that much left over, you should go to hotels rather than camp. 3. Most of what you're going through is absolute nothingness, but since you're going through Florida, I recommend the Kennedy Space Center, Universal Studios, and Disneyworld. 4. With gas prices around $2.50ish, in a Kia Rio you get about 36 mp/g with highway driving, and with a 11.4 gallon tank, that's a 410.4 mile range, so you might want to refill maybe once or twice a day. $2.50*11.4 is about $28.5, so if you refill once a day, that's totally reasonable on the gas side. With food, you might spend about $20-30 on a meal for two, so that would land just [i]slightly[/i] out of your budget. So maybe a limit of $100 a day would be more realistic. That takes your "hotel and other things" budget down to $2,650, but that should be more than enough for 3 star hotels.
-snip-
Stop in Savannah, Georgia. Definitely one of the most beautiful cities in the South. But absolutely try to avoid speeding in South Carolina and Georgia. The're are so many cops on the highway in those states and they will ticket you. The Kennedy Space Center is overpriced and there isn't shit there. Skip going there. If you have the extra time, the Air and Space Smithsonian in DC is way cooler and is actually free.
[QUOTE=DarklytheGreat;51377980]Doing some math, 6000 euros is about $6450. An economy class car rental for a month in Toronto, like a Kia Rio, is about $1100 CAD, which is ~$800 USD. So $6450-$800=$5650 left over. If you want to limit yourself to $50 a day for a month, then that's around $1550, so that leaves you with $4150 for things like hotels and such. So, to answer your questions: 1. Rent, don't buy. 2. With that much left over, you should go to hotels rather than camp. 3. Most of what you're going through is absolute nothingness, but since you're going through Florida, I recommend the Kennedy Space Center, Universal Studios, and Disneyworld. 4. With gas prices around $2.50ish, in a Kia Rio you get about 36 mp/g with highway driving, and with a 11.4 gallon tank, that's a 410.4 mile range, so you might want to refill maybe once or twice a day. $2.50*11.4 is about $28.5, so if you refill once a day, that's totally reasonable on the gas side. With food, you might spend about $20-30 on a meal for two, so that would land just [i]slightly[/i] out of your budget. So maybe a limit of $100 a day would be more realistic. That takes your "hotel and other things" budget down to $2,650, but that should be more than enough for 3 star hotels.[/QUOTE] We checked on rentals and came on a Chevy Spark for about 2300 euros total including the extra fee you gotta pay when you are younger then 25 so we will end up renting. As for the current route, it came straight from Google Maps without really having putting any stops or points in it to witness some local attractions so yeah the route needs some work, we had the original intention to go off the interstate here and there to visit small towns to visit the local bars, hear out some stories. [editline]18th November 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Propane Addict;51388703]Stop in Savannah, Georgia. Definitely one of the most beautiful cities in the South. But absolutely try to avoid speeding in South Carolina and Georgia. The're are so many cops on the highway in those states and they will ticket you. The Kennedy Space Center is overpriced and there isn't shit there. Skip going there. If you have the extra time, the Air and Space Smithsonian in DC is way cooler and is actually free.[/QUOTE] Since we kind of aim to take the relaxing road tripping approach we have no intention to really speed anywhere. Taking note of said locations though! Will be putting that on the route and when it comes to visiting attractions or monuments we are still limited to our budget since we can't do it all anyway. [editline]18th November 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Amfleet;51371296]$0.02 incoming You will be passing by Galax, Virginia, where the New River trail is. If you like cycling as much as any self-respecting Dutchman, this is where I did my 56-mile trip. Probably my favorite trail for it, used to be a railroad so mostly level. Canoeing there is also great and there are good campgrounds for it. I would stick to established campgrounds, they won't be hard to come by. A little bit out of your way in West Virginia is Cass Scenic Railroad, another one of my favorites in that area. Worth the side trip, just driving in West Virginia can be an adventure in good and bad ways. As for the Carolinas, I am a native of Charlotte and live in Columbia so I can tell you plenty about those. Not the biggest tourist hotspots but a good place to stop and see. I'd recommend changing the route a little bit to see Charleston & Savannah, both great old colonial cities. I've only been to Charleston but I know where to get tips about Savannah. St. Augustine & Cape Canaveral are the highlights of Florida for me, camping in the Keys might be good too, you'll learn why "Mosquito Control Chief" is an elected position. Haven't been to Nawleans but I've always wanted to go. As for the budget, it sounds reasonable enough. Right now gas is ~$2.00/gallon, how much you spend will depend on the mileage of the car. I'll see what rates my Euro friends paid for a car rental, but I anticipate purchasing a car might be better. Anyways let me know if you want more detail on any of this, and who knows, I might still be living in Charlotte or Columbia by then. Wouldn't be the first time I've hosted roving Dutchmen.[/QUOTE] If it is possible to rent a bike around there i would definitely take the trail! We don't really want to take the typical tourist route, i have done it before in Ireland where we just went from one small town to the other and we had a blast discovering the local bars, restaurants and usually great stories you can get there (just saying to a local about what is something we should totally do around here is enough to get some great tips). We wish to camp to save some buck since we don't really need to blow all our cash away anyway. How is the weather by the way around July in Virginia / North Carolina? If the nights are decently warm then it would ideal to just camp wherever we can. As for your sleeping offer, we would gladly accept it!
It will be more than just warm in July, like nothing I had in Holland. A thin sleeping bag will do well at night. I brought my own bike but there are a ton of sport rental companies in that area. PM me around May or so if you're still coming this way, I should have a better idea of what I'll be doing over the summer by then.
When you're riding through the MS Gulf Coast I'd def recommend checking out Biloxi. Lots of stuff there for a small city, including good restaurants and casinos. Lots of local sights and culture too.
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