I've absolutely fallen in love with traveling, and since last summer, I decided it was perhaps time to stop saying 'one day' and actually get planning in terms of where I want to go. As cliche as it sounds, one thing I've always wanted to do is go on a road trip across America. I've travelled before, but in my eyes I've never actually travelled. I think mostly I've just been on holiday to places - I've never really had the opportunity to travel somewhere for the sole intention of just getting stuck into a place and really soaking up the culture and the history. So recently I decided maybe it's time to get off my arse and actually do something about this dream, especially since I never really had a gap year before I went to university. My friend Amy has decided that it's something she'd really like to do as well, so we've started planning to go this year if funds allow (but it MAY have to be pushed back until next year if we can't afford it). We're hoping to either go in the summer (Warped Tour!) or in October. We're leaning more towards October because we know how hot it can be in the summer and that we wouldn't be used to such hot climates and if we go in October it will mean our trip will coincide with Halloween. Halloween is my favourite holiday and it saddens me that it's not celebrated as big in the UK. Whereas in America, they go all out.
Why America? America has always fascinated me, from the people to the culture and the food - I've just always loved the idea of going there and soaking up absolutely anything and everything to do with the place. Over the years I've discovered quirky oddball places I'd love to visit - all those real American off road places that are just known for being weird, and I've fallen in love with different states that I can't wait to step foot in. I want to spend the evening in a run down typical Texas bar, chatting animatedly with all the different people there, hearing their life stories.
I've set up a travel blog too here! (It's still being worked on by the way!) I've trawled the internet for hours for planning tips and have found lots of useful websites, but I haven't yet seen a blog/website documenting both the planning process and the trip from someone who doesn't already live in America. Obviously there's a lot more to take into account being English, such as flights, visa's and how the hell we're going to remember to drive on the right side of the road...
But in the meantime, I thought it would be nice to just blog an introductory post about my idea and some locations we'd like to visit. I also spotted that moneysupermarket.com are currently doing a competition for bloggers to enter to win £1000 towards their dream holiday. It's perfect timing really, isn't it?!
Doing a road trip across America is going to be so much more expensive than your average holiday because we'll have to pay for flights, a rental car, gas and places to stay. We're hoping to mix it up a bit on the trip, hopefully staying with some American friends on some nights, camping on others. Really, the where we'll be sleeping part is the least fun, but even I know that it's something that needs to be planned in detail because if we're going to be driving a lot, we'll need a good nights rest. If I won this competition, the £1000 would make it so much easier to make my dream into reality. Even though I've already began saving little bits here and there, to have that money ready specifically for the trip, it would definitely push me to save a lot more, knowing that the trip would definitely be going ahead.
To try and cut down the cost of our trip, we're planning to use couch surfing websites to find suitable roomies to crash with! Although this sounds dangerous, we'll be using only trusted websites and I think the idea that we'll be able to do this will really make the whole trip more fun. We'll be making friends, who can then go on to give us tips on places to go, and I think the people you meet on your travels is half the fun. Like I mentioned above, I can't wait to meet such people and get to know them better.
We'll be planning things quite far in advance such as hostels/hotels we'll be staying at and researching cheap places to eat, as well as doing a few little things just to save cash. Some tips I've found from other websites suggest getting a cooler box and stocking up on food and drink when you can, so that we'll have things to eat on the journey without wasting money to eat out every day/night. Other websites suggest always checking out visitor centers in every state - not only will we find ideas for things to do and see, a lot of them might offer money off coupons for food or passes into different attractions.
Finally, where will we actually be going? Well that's a tough one, because we both want to visit so many different places, but we're also open to suggestions. Generally we're hoping to do a coast to coast trip, so the places that we'll definitely be going include..
Arizona, San Francisco, Vegas, New Orleans & New York - images taken from Google!
We'd also love to visit Miami, Texas, Ohio, Los Angeles and more to be added...
But there's so much more to blog about! I've found some amazing and helpful planning websites, and I'd love to go into detail about why I want to visit each place (Amy doesn't really blog so I'll be taking care of that side of things!). And off course, the most fun part of all, I can't wait to put together the soundtrack for the trip! Once I get the blog up and running I'll do another post and link to it and, fingers crossed, we can hopefully get some sponsoring/freebies for the trip for things like food and places to stay, in return for mentioning them when we blog about the trip.
I'm really, really hoping we manage to go this year, but if not, next year will just be as fun. The great thing is that with a blog we can keep all the planning in one place! And fingers crossed I'll win this competition and get some funding towards it as well ;)
But in the meantime, I thought it would be nice to just blog an introductory post about my idea and some locations we'd like to visit. I also spotted that moneysupermarket.com are currently doing a competition for bloggers to enter to win £1000 towards their dream holiday. It's perfect timing really, isn't it?!
Doing a road trip across America is going to be so much more expensive than your average holiday because we'll have to pay for flights, a rental car, gas and places to stay. We're hoping to mix it up a bit on the trip, hopefully staying with some American friends on some nights, camping on others. Really, the where we'll be sleeping part is the least fun, but even I know that it's something that needs to be planned in detail because if we're going to be driving a lot, we'll need a good nights rest. If I won this competition, the £1000 would make it so much easier to make my dream into reality. Even though I've already began saving little bits here and there, to have that money ready specifically for the trip, it would definitely push me to save a lot more, knowing that the trip would definitely be going ahead.
To try and cut down the cost of our trip, we're planning to use couch surfing websites to find suitable roomies to crash with! Although this sounds dangerous, we'll be using only trusted websites and I think the idea that we'll be able to do this will really make the whole trip more fun. We'll be making friends, who can then go on to give us tips on places to go, and I think the people you meet on your travels is half the fun. Like I mentioned above, I can't wait to meet such people and get to know them better.
We'll be planning things quite far in advance such as hostels/hotels we'll be staying at and researching cheap places to eat, as well as doing a few little things just to save cash. Some tips I've found from other websites suggest getting a cooler box and stocking up on food and drink when you can, so that we'll have things to eat on the journey without wasting money to eat out every day/night. Other websites suggest always checking out visitor centers in every state - not only will we find ideas for things to do and see, a lot of them might offer money off coupons for food or passes into different attractions.
Finally, where will we actually be going? Well that's a tough one, because we both want to visit so many different places, but we're also open to suggestions. Generally we're hoping to do a coast to coast trip, so the places that we'll definitely be going include..
Arizona, San Francisco, Vegas, New Orleans & New York - images taken from Google!
We'd also love to visit Miami, Texas, Ohio, Los Angeles and more to be added...
But there's so much more to blog about! I've found some amazing and helpful planning websites, and I'd love to go into detail about why I want to visit each place (Amy doesn't really blog so I'll be taking care of that side of things!). And off course, the most fun part of all, I can't wait to put together the soundtrack for the trip! Once I get the blog up and running I'll do another post and link to it and, fingers crossed, we can hopefully get some sponsoring/freebies for the trip for things like food and places to stay, in return for mentioning them when we blog about the trip.
I'm really, really hoping we manage to go this year, but if not, next year will just be as fun. The great thing is that with a blog we can keep all the planning in one place! And fingers crossed I'll win this competition and get some funding towards it as well ;)
Would you ever go on an American road trip? What would your dream holiday be?
P.S Keep your eyes peeled for a few more upcoming posts based around 'Our Big American Road Trip' and please check out the blog I've set up for it here!. In the meantime, check out the inspiration board I've created on Pinterest...!
