Brits On An American Road Trip: Five Top Tips

August 17, 2009 at 3:14 PM | by londontown | Comments (5)

Planning a road trip? HotelChatter contributor London Town is on one from LA to New York at the moment. Some top tips from a week on the road�

Don�t plan ahead too far
On our last road trip, we planned our stops by the day, which made for guilt aplenty when we made unscheduled stops, and crazy-fast driving to make up the time. This time, we�ve sussed out accommodation options for where we want to be, and where we�ll likely be, and called from the road in the afternoon. As a result, we�ve had plenty detours and we�re all the better for it (if a week behind schedule).

Don�t rely on GPS
Yesterday, we asked our GPS to take us through Texas from Abilene to Austin, via Crawford, to stalk George Bush. It swore that the fastest route would go on the interstate through Fort Worth and take nine hours. Luckily, we looked at a map that showed that that would be like doing two sides of a triangle, ditched the GPS and went cross country. It took five hours.

Drive early, not late
We are late birds, but driving late at night is a killer, plus in Texas, we�ve realised they knock the speed limit down after dark. So we will be endeavouring to beat the heat and enjoy the views and leave before 8pm from now on.

Talk to the locals
We come from London, where making stray eye contact on a bus can lead to you getting stabbed or landed with a stalker, so this has been hard for us. But it has also been revelatory. We�ve realised that most people have something interesting to tell you, whether it�s that they�re Demi Moore�s godfather, like a guy in Roswell the other day, or that they would like to give you their Stetson, as a nice cowboy in New Mexico decided to a few nights back. Talking to people has actually been the best part of our trip (we write this now as a reminder, as we�ll forget it once we get back to the Big Smoke).

If you�re foreign, make sure you have a full tank by sunset.
Not because that�s when the vampires come out, but because the gas/petrol pumps get cranky about your funny foreign card, and driving through tiny towns looking for an open station when you�re about to run out will get you thinking about that scary motel film Vacancy. Not good.

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Comments (5)

Return to » Brits On An American Road Trip: Five Top Tips

One point I would add is when you are planning consider how big the United States and how very very far apart things are. When my British boyfriend started planning his US Roadtrip he wanted to visit New York, Chicago, Yellowstone. New Orleans and DC- all in the Span of three weeks! I had to gently break it to him that if he tried to do this by car he would be doing nothing but driving all day long. There's a lot to see in the US- particularly out west so make sure you give yourself enough time to take it all in. Other than that sit back and enjoy all the attention you get for your lovely accent! Stephanie http://twenty-somethingtravel.com/

so true - your maps are deceiving. i'm a week behind schedule, have had to cut out half of what i was planning to see, and just paid $170 to push my return flight back. money well spent though

If you use a GPS with the latest software update and map update, I'm sure it will bring you to the exact location easily. Singapore Rent a Car

some top tips i especially like the one about petrol. When we went over we picked up van rental in florida, headed west and ran out of petrol a few day later, we walked about 5miles to the nearest station, but we couldnt use our cards luckily we bargained with the attendent, left our phones there and went back after we filled up and paid up.

Any advice on what to do about transport. For eg, is it best to hire a car, or buy one ?? And ho much does this usually cost??

Jaunted

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