Wanna help me plan a US trip?

[Melody303]

Hi all, so my first trip (around April-May 2019) was to Energylandia, Phantasialand, and Europa Park (my favorite coaster of that trip was Blue Fire). My second trip (just a few weeks ago) was to Phantasialand (had a season ticket, so why not), Toverland, and Walibi Holland (and my favorite after that trip is without a doubt the RMC, Untamed).

 

And now I'm in the planning stages of a USA coaster trip for May-June 2020. The definite must do's are Magic Mountain and Cedar Point, but I intend to include a lot more, and the more RMC's the merrier. This is a very frugal and low budget trip (the only way I can travel), but it's still pretty huge in scope.

 

Here's what I've got so far:

* Fly from Israel to Barcelona on May 8th, spend a couple of days at PortAventura & Ferrari World, then fly out to LAX on May 11th.

 

* Rent a car at LAX, and spend a week there, mostly at SFMM and at Knott's Berry Farm, but possibly also hitting up SFDK & CGA (are they worth the driving time and fuel? Nor sure yet.)

 

* Fly over to DFW on May 19th, rent a car there and spend 3 days between SFFT and SFOT, then a couple of days at a board game convention.

 

** I would very much like to hit up Silver Dollar City for Outlaw Run & Time Traveller around this point, but I haven't found a way to make it work in the plan so far. To a lesser extent the same goes for Adventureland & Lagoon. Are these three worth making the effort for? How would you make it work?

 

* Fly over to CLE on May 24th, and rent a car there for the major road trip portion of the trip, but first starting with 2+ days at Cedar Point.

* Hit up Kings Island, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Dollywood (Why so expensive? damn, I mostly wanna visit it for Lightning Rod), Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, maybe Six Flags America (it's on the way), Hersheypark, and Six Flags Great Adventure.

** Is Nickelodeon Universe at NJ also worth a day? Probably.

** I'd love to include a visit to SFNE at this point too, but so far I'm not seeing any way to make it work.

 

* Fly from JFK to Belgium on June 8th, visit Bobbejaanland + a friend.

* Fly back home on June 11th.

 

I've got this working on under $1000 for flights and pretty nearly $1000 on car rentals, with another $250 for the fuel budget.

The budget for the parks themselves is around $500, and around $550 for food and soft-drinks budget. I'm not budgeting for hotel stays. I might be able to stay at a friends place in Los Angeles, but for the rest I'm planning on sleeping in the car. This is a solo trip, I'm going alone.

Note that the stops in Europe are not as much about having fun in Europe as they are about the cheapest way back home, but while I'm there I might as well enjoy a couple more parks, so there's not much use looking at cutting those sections of the trip short or cutting them out entirely.

 

The actual budget in my pockets after I'll pay for the flights and the car rentals is $2000.

 

Help?

[Taylor Finn]

I cannot provide too, too much help. But can provide some general advice. If you are planning to go solo AND sleep in your car, I think you run the risk of falling asleep at the wheel. By the time you get to the major road trip portion of this adventure, you'll be already working on exhaustion. At the very least, you should look into air bnb's/hotels for *some* nights throughout the roadtrip portion.

 

Also, $500 budget may not cut it. I assume you are going to grab Six Flags and Cedar Fair platinum passes? That should get you going in the right direction, I guess. But then, Hershey, Dollywood, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Busch Gardens, etc. will put you over that number.

 

As for Dollywood, if your main reason is only to go there for coasters, you're missing out on much of what the park has to offer. Also the area of Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Smoky Mountains is pretty cool with lots of stuff to see and do (even if you only do the mountains which are beautiful).

 

Also, I would work in Knoebels for a day and consider Kennywood over some lesser parks on your list (Nickelodeon Universe). Even if Kennywood doesn't work out, Knoebels should definitely be possible and a nice driving break (close to Hershey).

 

If you're going through the trouble of flying all the way over to the US to tackle all these parks, try to do it in way that ends up actually being enjoyable for you. If that means cutting 3 parks from this list and taking break days to explore the country, so be it. There is a lot more to see and do around many of these parks than just coasters and flat rides. Obviously this is a personal choice. Glad to see you 'll be dedicating some time to do that in California, at the very least.

 

Hope this helps.

[JG-77]

100% agreed with everything Taylor said. I'd also add that you need to keep in mind just how huge the US is geographically. It's about 75% the size of all of Europe. From Carowinds to Six Flags Great Adventure is a continuous 10 hour drive assuming no bathroom or food breaks, and assuming ideal traffic conditions (which you can't be guaranteed to have the whole time). Those parks are nearly 1000km apart.

 

The danger of sleep exhaustion is real; a severely sleep deprived driver can be as dangerous as a drunk driver.

I strongly recommend picking one region of the US and sticking to it, saving other parts for future trips.

 

Also, Taylor recommended Knoebels, and I cannot agree with this recommendation enough. Knoebels is one of the best parks on the continent, and IMO, is the best park in the Northeast

[jarmor]

* Rent a car at LAX, and spend a week there, mostly at SFMM and at Knott's Berry Farm, but possibly also hitting up SFDK & CGA (are they worth the driving time and fuel? Nor sure yet.) You're not gonna be able to get from LA to northern CA in a short time. We are talking about like a 6 hour trip so that's roughly a day of travel to get between the regions. why no seaworld?

 

* Fly over to DFW on May 19th, rent a car there and spend 3 days between SFFT and SFOT, then a couple of days at a board game convention. Again,why no seaworld?

 

** I would very much like to hit up Silver Dollar City for Outlaw Run & Time Traveller around this point, but I haven't found a way to make it work in the plan so far. To a lesser extent the same goes for Adventureland & Lagoon. Are these three worth making the effort for? How would you make it work?

 

* Fly over to CLE on May 24th, and rent a car there for the major road trip portion of the trip, but first starting with 2+ days at Cedar Point.

* Hit up Kings Island, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Dollywood (Why so expensive? damn, I mostly wanna visit it for Lightning Rod), Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, maybe Six Flags America (it's on the way), Hersheypark, and Six Flags Great Adventure. This leg seems to really test your strength as a human.

** Is Nickelodeon Universe at NJ also worth a day? Probably.

** I'd love to include a visit to SFNE at this point too, but so far I'm not seeing any way to make it work.

 

* Fly from JFK to Belgium on June 8th, visit Bobbejaanland + a friend.

* Fly back home on June 11th.

 

I've got this working on under $1000 for flights and pretty nearly $1000 on car rentals, with another $250 for the fuel budget.

The budget for the parks themselves is around $500, and around $550 for food and soft-drinks budget. I'm not budgeting for hotel stays. I might be able to stay at a friends place in Los Angeles, but for the rest I'm planning on sleeping in the car. This is a solo trip, I'm going alone.

Note that the stops in Europe are not as much about having fun in Europe as they are about the cheapest way back home, but while I'm there I might as well enjoy a couple more parks, so there's not much use looking at cutting those sections of the trip short or cutting them out entirely.

 

The actual budget in my pockets after I'll pay for the flights and the car rentals is $2000.

 

Help?

Ok, i'm gonna start out by saying this trip is very ambitious for one person. I don't know if you considered the weather in the south in May and June. It can get quite hot. I would definitely NOT reccomend sleeping in your car. I would suggest finding a cheap place or an AirBNB to get the proper rest because unless you're on some serious drugs like meth, your body will crash. Lastly, with so many parks in one trip do you think it would be better to split it up? Like, are you really gonna enjoy it if all you're essentially doing is hopping from park to park?

Edited November 12, 2019 by jarmor

[coasterbill]

I would focus on a specific region and stick to it. You'll have more fun.

Edited November 12, 2019 by coasterbill

[Rai Fox]

Seconding/thirding/fourthing/whatever we're up to on not trying to cover the entire country at once. You're just spending too much of your time and energy on travel; unless you're superhuman, you won't be able to really enjoy the parks that way.

 

As far as American Dream/Nickelodeon Universe, it hasn't really been open long enough to say if it's worth your time yet, but it doesn't look like it'll be a good fit into a budget trip as it stands; it's anything but cheap for what you get, going by current prices. If you're going to be in that area, though, you won't be far from Knoebels...If you're just looking for coasters, you almost have to hit it just for Phoenix. If you're looking for more than coasters...well, Knoebels has the best flat rides, food, and scenery, too. It's also one of the most affordable parks around, for a budget trip.

 

Overall though, I can completely understand the enthusiasm for getting to as many parks as possible at once, but I do think you'll have a better time if you focus on making sure you can really enjoy some of them, than just dragging yourself zombie-like through them all.

[SharkTums]

Sleeping in your car, in the US, in May and June is a very bad idea for a single female and others as well.

[coasterbill]

Yeah, if you pick one region you can take the money that you'll save on flights and by dropping your rental car off in the same location where you picked it up and spend it on hotels or Airbnb.

 

If you stay at hotels and you're trying to save money the cheapest way to do it would be to create free accounts with certain chains and take advantages of any promotions that they might be running. I'm fairly confident based on your dates that Choice will be running "Stay twice get a Free Night" which will save you hundreds of dollars but they haven't announced that yet so I'm just guessing based on previous years. Wyndham may run this too as well as some other smaller chains. Signing up for a rewards account with any hotel chain is free though. Some of them will try to get you to sign up for a credit card but it's not necessary to earn and redeem rewards.

 

That said, depending on location and room sharing preferences AirBnB may still be cheaper than hotels.

Edited November 12, 2019 by coasterbill

[Melody303]

I cannot provide too, too much help. But can provide some general advice. If you are planning to go solo AND sleep in your car, I think you run the risk of falling asleep at the wheel. By the time you get to the major road trip portion of this adventure, you'll be already working on exhaustion. At the very least, you should look into air bnb's/hotels for *some* nights throughout the roadtrip portion.

 

Also, $500 budget may not cut it. I assume you are going to grab Six Flags and Cedar Fair platinum passes? That should get you going in the right direction, I guess. But then, Hershey, Dollywood, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Busch Gardens, etc. will put you over that number.

 

As for Dollywood, if your main reason is only to go there for coasters, you're missing out on much of what the park has to offer. Also the area of Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Smoky Mountains is pretty cool with lots of stuff to see and do (even if you only do the mountains which are beautiful).

 

Also, I would work in Knoebels for a day and consider Kennywood over some lesser parks on your list (Nickelodeon Universe). Even if Kennywood doesn't work out, Knoebels should definitely be possible and a nice driving break (close to Hershey).

 

If you're going through the trouble of flying all the way over to the US to tackle all these parks, try to do it in way that ends up actually being enjoyable for you. If that means cutting 3 parks from this list and taking break days to explore the country, so be it. There is a lot more to see and do around many of these parks than just coasters and flat rides. Obviously this is a personal choice. Glad to see you 'll be dedicating some time to do that in California, at the very least.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks.

I'm gonna think some more about which of all of those parks I mentioned on the major road trip portion I can skip for this trip. And yes, I'll also look into booking a few airbnb's to get a proper night's sleep along the way.

I did the last 2 trips to Europe super-structured, with practically everything planned and booked in advance, and I want to do it a little more freeform this time around. And I do have another grand to spend in the budget between more parks and more night rests.

 

What is it that Dollywood has to offer beyond the rides themselves?

 

I'll look into the ride selection at Knoebel's again and see if I want to add it to the itinerary.

 

As for Kennywood, it seems to make sense for the trip only if I pass on Dollywood & Carowinds (and with the distance being pretty much the same between Hersheypark and Kings Dominion as between Hershey and Kennywood but in different directions, it also doesn't seem the most sensible).

[Melody303]

100% agreed with everything Taylor said. I'd also add that you need to keep in mind just how huge the US is geographically. It's about 75% the size of all of Europe. From Carowinds to Six Flags Great Adventure is a continuous 10 hour drive assuming no bathroom or food breaks, and assuming ideal traffic conditions (which you can't be guaranteed to have the whole time). Those parks are nearly 1000km apart.

 

The danger of sleep exhaustion is real; a severely sleep deprived driver can be as dangerous as a drunk driver.

I strongly recommend picking one region of the US and sticking to it, saving other parts for future trips.

 

Also, Taylor recommended Knoebels, and I cannot agree with this recommendation enough. Knoebels is one of the best parks on the continent, and IMO, is the best park in the Northeast

 

Thanks.

Fortunately there are parks that are worth a visit between SFGA and Carowinds, so I have no plans of any drive that long. Though there are quite a few driving segments that'll be around 4 hours each, and I'll likely have ideal traffic conditions because I'll be doing most of this driving in the very early hours of the morning.

 

Taking the rest to heart.

[coasterbill]

I'll look into the ride selection at Knoebel's again and see if I want to add it to the itinerary.

 

You do. Skipping Knoebels is criminal. Just looking at the ride selection isn't going to sell you on it, it's one of those things where you have to just go there. The rides are all better than you think they are. The wood coasters are world class and the food is ridiculous. The fact that you're considering going to Nickelodeon Universe in New Jersey and Six Flags America and not Knoebels is nothing short of a tragedy.

Edited November 12, 2019 by coasterbill

[bert425]

^^ Knoebel's is about WAY more than just "the rides"

 

it's a full day experience, and is one of the best (if not the best), park in the USA to give you a great selection of activities (Museums, Eagles, Fascination!), food (Periogies, Cheese on a stick, Old Mill Ice Cream, Cessari's Pizza), atmosphere, as well as classic rides (both coasters, and classic carnival rides).

 

absolutely worth a full day stop.

 

and it's in a gorgeous setting in the hills/mountains. (and it's free to park, and to get onto the grounds just to walk around)

[Melody303]

* Rent a car at LAX, and spend a week there, mostly at SFMM and at Knott's Berry Farm, but possibly also hitting up SFDK & CGA (are they worth the driving time and fuel? Nor sure yet.) You're not gonna be able to get from LA to northern CA in a short time. We are talking about like a 6 hour trip so that's roughly a day of travel to get between the regions. why no seaworld?

 

* Fly over to DFW on May 19th, rent a car there and spend 3 days between SFFT and SFOT, then a couple of days at a board game convention. Again,why no seaworld?

 

** I would very much like to hit up Silver Dollar City for Outlaw Run & Time Traveller around this point, but I haven't found a way to make it work in the plan so far. To a lesser extent the same goes for Adventureland & Lagoon. Are these three worth making the effort for? How would you make it work?

 

* Fly over to CLE on May 24th, and rent a car there for the major road trip portion of the trip, but first starting with 2+ days at Cedar Point.

* Hit up Kings Island, Holiday World, Kentucky Kingdom, Dollywood (Why so expensive? damn, I mostly wanna visit it for Lightning Rod), Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, maybe Six Flags America (it's on the way), Hersheypark, and Six Flags Great Adventure. This leg seems to really test your strength as a human.

** Is Nickelodeon Universe at NJ also worth a day? Probably.

** I'd love to include a visit to SFNE at this point too, but so far I'm not seeing any way to make it work.

 

* Fly from JFK to Belgium on June 8th, visit Bobbejaanland + a friend.

* Fly back home on June 11th.

 

I've got this working on under $1000 for flights and pretty nearly $1000 on car rentals, with another $250 for the fuel budget.

The budget for the parks themselves is around $500, and around $550 for food and soft-drinks budget. I'm not budgeting for hotel stays. I might be able to stay at a friends place in Los Angeles, but for the rest I'm planning on sleeping in the car. This is a solo trip, I'm going alone.

Note that the stops in Europe are not as much about having fun in Europe as they are about the cheapest way back home, but while I'm there I might as well enjoy a couple more parks, so there's not much use looking at cutting those sections of the trip short or cutting them out entirely.

 

The actual budget in my pockets after I'll pay for the flights and the car rentals is $2000.

 

Help?

Ok, i'm gonna start out by saying this trip is very ambitious for one person. I don't know if you considered the weather in the south in May and June. It can get quite hot. I would definitely NOT reccomend sleeping in your car. I would suggest finding a cheap place or an AirBNB to get the proper rest because unless you're on some serious drugs like meth, your body will crash. Lastly, with so many parks in one trip do you think it would be better to split it up? Like, are you really gonna enjoy it if all you're essentially doing is hopping from park to park?

 

The SeaWorld at San Diego might be worth it, but I don't see enough of a draw for myself at San Antonio.

And yes, I know it's a 6 hour drive to San Francisco, which is why I'm wondering if it's worth it for those two parks in the area.

 

It tends to be equally hot if not hotter over here in Israel, so I'm not too worried about the weather. I've pushed my body this hard on the last trip too (and though that one didn't include driving, it was jam packed and included very little rest, including several nights without any sleep at all), but Yes, I'll definitely pepper a few airbnb stays here and there.

 

I am going to enjoy the parks greatly (and hopefully some good eats too), but probably very little else on the trip, and I'm fine with that prospect. I prefer to experience more of my bucket list on this trip than to get less of it with a lot more comfort.

 

Cheers.

[Melody303]

Seconding/thirding/fourthing/whatever we're up to on not trying to cover the entire country at once. You're just spending too much of your time and energy on travel; unless you're superhuman, you won't be able to really enjoy the parks that way.

 

As far as American Dream/Nickelodeon Universe, it hasn't really been open long enough to say if it's worth your time yet, but it doesn't look like it'll be a good fit into a budget trip as it stands; it's anything but cheap for what you get, going by current prices. If you're going to be in that area, though, you won't be far from Knoebels...If you're just looking for coasters, you almost have to hit it just for Phoenix. If you're looking for more than coasters...well, Knoebels has the best flat rides, food, and scenery, too. It's also one of the most affordable parks around, for a budget trip.

 

Overall though, I can completely understand the enthusiasm for getting to as many parks as possible at once, but I do think you'll have a better time if you focus on making sure you can really enjoy some of them, than just dragging yourself zombie-like through them all.

 

Thanks, I haven't looked at the prices for Nickelodeon yet, as I didn't consider it as essential, I just saw they have their version of Takabisha and thought it might justify a visit, but not at any cost.

[Melody303]

Yeah, if you pick one region you can take the money that you'll save on flights and by dropping your rental car off in the same location where you picked it up and spend it on hotels or Airbnb.

 

If you stay at hotels and you're trying to save money the cheapest way to do it would be to create free accounts with certain chains and take advantages of any promotions that they might be running. I'm fairly confident based on your dates that Choice will be running "Stay twice get a Free Night" which will save you hundreds of dollars but they haven't announced that yet so I'm just guessing based on previous years. Wyndham may run this too as well as some other smaller chains. Signing up for a rewards account with any hotel chain is free though. Some of them will try to get you to sign up for a credit card but it's not necessary to earn and redeem rewards.

 

That said, depending on location and room sharing preferences AirBnB may still be cheaper than hotels.

 

Thanks for the tips, but yeah, Airbnbs are far more likely to fit in the budget than hotels (even with promotions like the ones you mentioned).

[Melody303]

Sleeping in your car, in the US, in May and June is a very bad idea for a single female and others as well.

 

It's generally a bad idea everywhere, but if that's the only way I can make it work, it'll have to do, but thanks for the warning.

[PKI Jizzman]

Sleeping in your car, in the US, in May and June is a very bad idea for a single female and others as well.

 

It's generally a bad idea everywhere, but if that's the only way I can make it work, it'll have to do, but thanks for the warning.

 

If that's how this is going to go I don't think there's much advice or help for this 'trip'. All advice is getting thrown aside, especially if you're just looking to credit run places like Dollywood and Knoebels. Sounds like you're just going to do what you want to do how you do it. This all sounds unhealthy and miserable. I'd recommend saving up a bit more and listening to what the other experts have to say in order to have a memorable and fun trip.

[Melody303]

Sleeping in your car, in the US, in May and June is a very bad idea for a single female and others as well.

 

It's generally a bad idea everywhere, but if that's the only way I can make it work, it'll have to do, but thanks for the warning.

 

If that's how this is going to go I don't think there's much advice or help for this 'trip'. All advice is getting thrown aside, especially if you're just looking to credit run places like Dollywood and Knoebels. Sounds like you're just going to do what you want to do how you do it. This all sounds unhealthy and miserable. I'd recommend saving up a bit more and listening to what the other experts have to say in order to have a memorable and fun trip.

 

"All advice is getting thrown aside" This is incorrect. I'm considering a visit to Knoebel's now, and to cut out a few of the parks I wanted to visit, thanks to replies I've gotten in this thread so far.

 

And I'm not about credit-whoring those places (or any places for that matter), but I do want to visit mostly for the rides themselves. You won't find me on a kiddy coaster for a +1, that's for sure.

 

And yes, I'm definitely going to do what I want to do and how I want to do it, that's gonna be accurate no matter to what degree I follow advice I receive here. But what I want to do is affected by the discussion.

 

Unhealthy? Yes. Miserable? No.

 

Saving up more means waiting longer and missing out on the cheap flights that are available, thus requiring even more saving up. And also, May-June are preferable to July-August in terms of how crowded parks get for the most part.

[thrillseeker4552]

Like Coasterbill said, I would recommend picking a region of the US and sticking to it. I've done trips like this in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2019.

 

Here are a few examples of trips we did:

2014: Cedar Point and Kings Island. Round trip out of Cleveland.

2016: Hersheypark, Dorney Park, SFNE, visited NYC, SFGAdv, and SFA (I know, we skipped Knoebels, I regret that to this day). This was round trip out of Washington DC.

2017: One way trip - started in Charlotte, ended in Cleveland. Did Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Kings Island, and Cedar Point. All excellent parks and just needed a single Platinum Pass.

2019: Similar to 2017, but we went back to SFA, did KD and Carowinds again since they each got great new coasters, and tacked on SFOG. One way from DC to Atlanta.

 

Obviously you have different intentions, and being from outside the US I totally get it. I'm not suggesting you "replicate" any of the trips above, but my point is just to stick to a region and do as much as you can in a round-trip out of an airport. America is HUGE and driving across the great plains and midwest sucks.

 

I'm not sure if you're familiar with Theme Park Worldwide, but they did an entire America trip and hit a gazillion parks in a month's time and they encountered many issues with tiredness, grumpiness, barely any sleep, and more. Spending all of your time driving between parks sucks when you could pick a region with EXCELLENT parks and spend ample time and multiple days at them!

 

Do as you please and have fun! Just my two cents.

[Melody303]

Like Coasterbill said, I would recommend picking a region of the US and sticking to it. I've done trips like this in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2019.

 

Here are a few examples of trips we did:

2014: Cedar Point and Kings Island. Round trip out of Cleveland.

2016: Hersheypark, Dorney Park, SFNE, visited NYC, SFGAdv, and SFA (I know, we skipped Knoebels, I regret that to this day). This was round trip out of Washington DC.

2017: One way trip - started in Charlotte, ended in Cleveland. Did Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Kings Island, and Cedar Point. All excellent parks and just needed a single Platinum Pass.

2019: Similar to 2017, but we went back to SFA, did KD and Carowinds again since they each got great new coasters, and tacked on SFOG. One way from DC to Atlanta.

 

Obviously you have different intentions, and being from outside the US I totally get it. I'm not suggesting you "replicate" any of the trips above, but my point is just to stick to a region and do as much as you can in a round-trip out of an airport. America is HUGE and driving across the great plains and midwest sucks.

 

I'm not sure if you're familiar with Theme Park Worldwide, but they did an entire America trip and hit a gazillion parks in a month's time and they encountered many issues with tiredness, grumpiness, barely any sleep, and more. Spending all of your time driving between parks sucks when you could pick a region with EXCELLENT parks and spend ample time and multiple days at them!

 

Do as you please and have fun! Just my two cents.

 

Thanks for the two cents. The portion of my trip that includes a lot of driving is not all that dissimilar from the trips you took (except the 2014 one).

I'm familiar with that channel and I watched their US trip vlogs, it definitely gave me some pointers too.

[JG-77]

One random note, while I agree that riding kiddie coasters just for the credit is silly, I would recommend rising Kosmo's Curves at Knoebels, possibly the country's best kiddie coaster not located at a random farm in Arizona.

[DirkFunk]

So here's the thing: 95% of the time when people ask for advice, what they want is mostly reinforcement that they have a good idea with the added bonus of information valuable to them and their idea. It's not just that heat is somehow unique to America that we are telling you this is a bad idea, for example. You being a single female trying to sleep in your car in either parking lots or truck stops is simply unwise for your own personal safety in a nation with 300,000,000 firearms. Like, why not just hitchhike while you're at it and save on the car rental? At least buy yourself a tent and air mattress and find camp sites along the way at minimum. It isn't as if you're backpacking if you have a car.

 

You could alternatively do a one way rental from Dallas to Cleveland/Pittsburgh/Detroit/Chicago and go from Texas through to Silver Dollar City and then up to the Cedar Fair parks in Ohio and/or Six Flags Great America and St. Louis before flying home. It would give you a great cross section of the central United States and there's a ton of routings you could do.

[Melody303]

So here's the thing: 95% of the time when people ask for advice, what they want is mostly reinforcement that they have a good idea with the added bonus of information valuable to them and their idea. It's not just that heat is somehow unique to America that we are telling you this is a bad idea, for example. You being a single female trying to sleep in your car in either parking lots or truck stops is simply unwise for your own personal safety in a nation with 300,000,000 firearms. Like, why not just hitchhike while you're at it and save on the car rental? At least buy yourself a tent and air mattress and find camp sites along the way at minimum. It isn't as if you're backpacking if you have a car.

 

You could alternatively do a one way rental from Dallas to Cleveland/Pittsburgh/Detroit/Chicago and go from Texas through to Silver Dollar City and then up to the Cedar Fair parks in Ohio and/or Six Flags Great America and St. Louis before flying home. It would give you a great cross section of the central United States and there's a ton of routings you could do.

 

Fair enough, I'm in that 95% group, though I do know to begin with how intense (in both good and bad ways, but definitely aware of the bad) this trip is, so I wasn't expecting to get thumbs up from everyone when I started the thread, but the focus really is on the added bonus of information that'd be valuable to me and my idea, as you put it.

 

I'll look into camping sites I could stop at and see what kind of solution I can come up with. Probably not the air mattress, but I'm sure I'll find something more comfortable than sleeping in the car. And you're right, my mindset has been the backpacker's one, remaining from my previous trips. Being mobile with a car does afford me better options.

 

I did consider the road trip from DFW option before, but it's too much of a drive and too many extra days to rent a car, such that it would nearly deplete my budget, which is why I gave up on it, but I'll reconsider.

 

Oh, and btw, at least in California I do have a friend's place to stay at.

[SharkTums]

So here's the thing: 95% of the time when people ask for advice, what they want is mostly reinforcement that they have a good idea with the added bonus of information valuable to them and their idea.

 

QFT!!!!!

[jarmor]

Quick question, have you been to the states before?