U.S. Road Trip

[skippymoss]

Just been discussing holidays for next year with the wife and 8yo daughter
We would all love to go to the U.S. having never been there before
We've been reading guide books that discuss road trips along the west coast e.g. from San Francisco down to Tijuana
The guide book waxes lyrical about how good the camping is
And then we found this: http://www.californiacampers.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Only £100/day - but the idea of driving a nice Californian Westy (maybe even a Westy California for that matter) along the Pacific Coast for a few weeks is nectar!
Has anyone done this?
Was it as good as it sounds?
Any advice, observations or experiences to share?

[horns]

We did Los Angeles up to San Francisco a couple years back. Awesome trip - thoroughly recommend it.

Don't know how many places there are to camp though. We just stayed in motels, as rather than the Westy we had a soft-top Mustang.

[Madwitch]

My sister and bro in law spent 4 months travelling round the US in a hired camper. Had a great time. They managed to do quite a bit of wild camping but said that what campsites there were, were VERY expensive (in the region of £80 per night - and for very basic facilities). They also found the camper quite hard to drive round the towns - the six lane highways were few and far between and I think they ended up causing quite a bit of damage to the van in arguments with bridges and walls!

[skippymoss]

Hi Madwitch & horns,
Thanks for the replies
That doesn't sound too promising
Wild camping is only a limited option due to having a little one
About the damage, was the camper a VW or one of those dirty great RVs?
A car and motels is sounding more attractive at the moment

[Madwitch]

Camper wasn't huge RV - I think perhaps about 6-7m long but the roads were much smaller and tighter than they expected. Having said that, they had a fabulous trip. The van did have its own toilet and shower so no reason why you couldn't wild camp with a young one - plenty do!

[horns]

Motels is probably the easiest way to go - they're plentiful along the coast route and cheap as chips too.

Also, I heartily recommend the Mustang.

[skippymoss]

Where did you get it from horns?

[horns]

Just one of the regular car hire places near the airport in LA, I forget which one now. They were all out of boring economy cars, so I had no choice but to hire a Mustang. I was gutted, as you can imagine.

[terryvanman]

A little tip,, if you are thinking of driving along any coast road,,try and do it by keeping the sea on your right...much more easy to pull up on the beach,,,they drive on the wrong side of the road...so do San Francisco to LA, not other way around OH yes and the weather gets better going south

[thechubbsdub]

We did a three week road trip about 5 years ago. Picked up a PT Cruiser at LA airport, it was the cheapest thing they had. We went up the coast to San Francisco then inland through yosemite national park and Death Valley to Vegas then over to the Grand Canyon, down through the arizona Desert towards the Mexican border then headed west to San diego and back up the Pacific highway to LA via Palm beach. We also used motels and paid around $50 a night in most places. Look out for the money off voucher books in tourist info places and motel chains, they are full of motel and restaurant vouchers.

[SixtySpeedTwin]

Hi

the coast road 101 above LA is simply fantastic, especially in a mustang

Yosemite is breathtaking, its worth stopping off at mammoth as i did Yosemite to Death valley in a day and its a bit far for the passengers.
Artists drive is a not to miss in death valley. Then on to Vegas - amazing, cheap and a perfect base for hoover dam, fire valley, red rock canyon, and grand canyon.
Motels are cheap and easy to book, i did a month on one trip with a rough guide just phoning and booking my next stop.
Its very unlikely that you will be insured to enter Mexico, i would recommend you go on a tour bus as you really dont want to end up in regular border control - you'll be there for hours.
i get my mustangs from dollar, you can haggle, i'm fortunate enough to get them for compact money now - mind you maybe not next time as i did park it in a stop sign.....

Cheers
Clive

[skippymoss]

There's certainly a lot of love for Ford Mustangs on this VW forum!

Especially considering the swear filter will replace that marque's name with 2 dots!
Thanks for the replys - lots of good advice so far...

[captain Byrne]

Did a trip myself a few years ago using California Campers but went North instead of South. The van was great and well equipped, no problems at all. We drove from SF up route 1 then onto the 101 at Leggett. Carried on all the way up to Oregon. Came back south on the 84 then 15 to Salt Lake City then West through Nevada on the 80. Bloody marvellous, can highly recommend it. Not sure what sort of campsites charge £80 a night? The ones I remember averaged around £15 sometimes less than £10.

[Alice]

When I was 14 my family flew into LA and hired an RV and spent 2 months driving around, had the most amazing time. We only wild camped a bit as the national park sites were so fantastic and cheap, they also have amazing visitor programmes, the campfires talks and walks organised by the rangers were amazing and really informative. We drove all the way up to the Canadian border, then back down to Vegas and the Grand Canyon. My brother and I had the best time.
A friend was so inspired by my raving about this trip that she's planning to do the same this year with her brood. There are loads of free places to camp, google threw up this straight away

http://www.freecampgrounds.com/results.aspx?s=7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and there are a load of sites elsewhere on google for between $20-$30 a night.

As in this country, I find the cheaper sites are usually much more to my taste than the more expensive ones, much more grass and much less concrete!

Good luck on your trip, I'd love to be able to give my kids this kind of experience.

[Peter-T]

I can't offer any advice, but a firend and I are planning a three week road trip from Key West up to New York, accross to Las Vegas, and onto San Francisco. Also planning to do it in an open top Mustang!