My friend and I are planning a trip to the USA this summer. We are planning to drive from New Orleans to San Francisco. We are going to use about one month on the trip.
We are going to drive this route: New Orleans - Houston - San Antonio - Santa Fe - Durango - Grand Canyon - Las Vegas - Los Angeles - San Francisco.
Does anyone have good advices on what roads to drive? We dont want to drive the major highways, but take more senic routes.
We also want to know of the best (cheap) places to stay, eat and see along the route. We are not interersted in hiking, we want to see most of it from the car. ( Of course there is going to be some hiking, but that will be from the car to a viewpoint)
Will there be a problem to find places to sleep if we don't bookin advance? Since we don't know when we are going to be at those places it is difficult to book in advance.
We also want to know of nice places in Texas. (Between San Antonio and Santa Fe)
Is it expensive to buy a cellular phone with calling card? Since we are staying for a while it will be nice that people can reach us from home (Norway).
We will be grateful for all kinds of advices on where to go!!
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go to Cafe Oasis (I think thats what its called). It is by
far the most bizarre restuarant that you'll ever experience.
San Antonio was a pretty big disapointment as far as I'm
concerned. Rather, I suggest going to Austin which is only
an hour north of SA. Not as much history in Austin, except
the state capital, but its definetly more lively.
In San Francisco, make it to City Lights book store in North
Beach. You'll see why its one of the most famous bookstores
in America.
Good Luck
If you're looking for nightlife and a party scene, yes,
Austin will be more lively than San Antonio. However, if
you're looking for historical sites, such as the missions
and the Alamo, then San Antonio will be more what you seek.
To me, San Antonio also has more authentic Mexican food
restaurants, too! Another advantage of San Antonio over
Austin is that it is not as difficult to find a motel room
for a night in San Antonio as it is in Austin! I have seen
the entire city of Austin completely booked in the
summertime by 7:00 pm!
Good places to stay that are reasonably priced are usually
chains: Motel 6, Days Inn, Hampton Inn, Ramada Inn. All of
these have 800 numbers for nationwide reservations, and most
locations can make reservations for other locations, too.
The drive between San Antonio and Santa Fe, however, will be
quite boring. Most of Texas' population lies to the east of
I-35, so you'll be traveling through some pretty desolate
areas with no cell phone coverage! Most of these little
towns are quite friendly- they usually have a Dairy Queen
restaurant that serves decent ice cream, and possibly a
local museum or historic site. I would recommend going from
San Antonio to Lubbock, stopping for the night, then going
over to Santa Fe from there. It's definitely too far to
drive in a day! Email me for more details if you like- I
lived in West Texas for 6 years and can recommend lots of
specific things to do, eat and see.
As for the cell phone, it will be difficult to buy a phone
without a permanent US address to send the bill to! We do
have prepaid service here, but you have to have a credit
card to charge it to, or pay the monthly bill through the
mail. I might recommend the new Ericsson dual-model phone
that will work in both GSM (Europe) and CDMA (US) markets as
an alternative. Keep in mind that international calls on
cellular hones are EXTREMELY expensive- it will be better to
buy the pre-paid calling cards at gas stations and use them
from your motel phone!
Have a safe and fun trip!
Looks like you're covered for my home state, the only other
suggestion I'd add is to go to austin360.com for info on
what to do there. Santa Fe is gorgeous, don't miss the
Grand Canyon whatever you do, and plan on spending 24 hours
tops in Vegas. It's amazing, but you get "the point" pretty
early on. Stop in Caesar's Palace, it will be the Las Vegas
experience you were expecting. Before you head to San
Francisco, check out the sidewalk.com section on SF - it's
the best place on the web to find out what's hot in the city
- most locals use it pretty reguarly. Have a great time!
I did a similar route a few summers ago.
You might consider camping along the way. This cuts down on
the costs and you can also see more of the American
landscape. We never made a reservation, just pulled into a
state park and usually found a spot.
You might watnt to join AAA (the automobile club) It will
cost aroun $45 and they will provide you with maps and
guidebooks galore. They will even help you plan a route
along the "blue highways" of the US. Also, the offer
towing and road stide assistance in case you run into
some problems. You'll want to check out some stretches of
the old Route 66 through Arizona. A goofy place to stop is
the Snow Cap in Seligman.
Happy travels!!!!!!!!
Big towers to make car phones practical have now been erected
all along I-25 north and south from Santa Fe to the Mexican
border, just within the last year or two. Coverage on
back roads over toward Texas is much more limited; motorists
report going into and out of coverage toward Lubbock, Texas.
One of the natives.
Elliott Moore
Whew! what a trip. Sounds great, albeit tiring. If you
can get the time, you might to see how you can go from
Durango to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, rather than
dropping down to Arizona and the more crowded, deserty
south rim. North rim's cooler, greener and a bit less
crowded. You might be able to hit Dinosaur National Park
(monument?) and/or Arches Park, then Grand Canyon, Zion,
Bruce and then Las Vegas. Then to L.A. Mainly interstates
are feasible from LV to LA, though you could head over to
Highway 395 and 14 (even via Death Valley if you want yet
another diversion), and south, via old mining towns of
Johannesburg and Randsburg (site of the White House Saloon
and Floozy House) and Red Rock Canyon State Park into the
north side of L.A. I think they still give tours at the
space shuttle landing site next to Edwards Air Force Base
in the desert, too. Have fun.
Forget going to Houston, there is nothing there of interest,
It is very hot, boreing. People who live there really don't
seem to like it. It offers nothing, waste of time. Forget
houston.......
Thank you for your answers. It is nice to hear from somebody who have been to those places we want to go.
I still wonder about cell phones. I realize that the phone company needs an adress to send the bill to, but what I was wondering about is if there is possible to buy calling cards you can use. In Norway it is possible to buy a card you plug in the phone, and you could talk for different periods of time, depending on what card you buy. This means that you have payed for the service before you have used it. Is it a similar system in the US?