AboutStephen Tanenbaum Expertise FREE GLOBAL & DOMESTIC TRAVEL which always beats discount travel. In
recent years we have enjoyed free travel to such destinations as Africa,
Israel, Australia, Brazil, France, New Zealand, Hawaii, England, Greece,
Alaska and our lower 48. Other budget travel areas include such as air
brokers, rebate travel agencies, renting a Paris/Barcelona apartments for as little as $65/night (depending on length of stay and size of apt.), sightseeing and general TIPS on travel related comfort, safey/convenience and day to day SAVINGS.
Since we travel Free 95% of the time I DO NOT OFFER ADVICE ON CHEAPEST, LOWEST PRICED AND/OR LAST MINUTE AIRLINE FARES. Such deals are best found by diligent Google research & reading the N.Y. and/or L.A. Sunday best in the U.S. Travel
sections. FREE airline deals may NOT be available to non-U.S. residents.
Experience Past/Present clients Hired by Sunnyland Tours to do a 10 minute promo film of their Crocodile Nile river cruise ship in Egypt, by VW Tours to do a ten minute promo video of their MS Vampolov cruise ship sailing on Lake Baikal in Irkutsk, Siberia and by Citadel Press to write two (Vacations & Cruising) travel guides.
Partial Travel BIO: England, Scotland, Paris-Lyon-Provence, Greek Islands, Egypt, Petra, Isreal, China, Hong Kong, Thailand (Bangkok and Chiang Mai), Cruises including Rio to San Diego (32 days $2,089 each), Maui, Moorea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Spain and Alaska, Canada et al.
Question Next summer four friends and I want to travel across the US. The original plan was to backpack across Europe, but we figured we better get to know our own country first. The five of us will be rising college freshmen. All of us will be 18. We want to learn about traveling cross country. We would like to see the country firsthand. We would start in Tidewater Virginia, we would like to travel to the Pacific Northwest, down the Pacific Coast, go through the southern states, and finally return home. We are willing, and would like to go camping to save money. We have the problem of deciding the means by which to travel. We are all good drivers, and would like the freedom to change our plans and spend extra time at places we find interesting. On the other hand we feel that train travel my be a more secure and more budget friendly means of travel. We checked the Amtrack website, but it was hard to follow pricings and freedom of travel. We would like to spend between $200-$500 each on the trip. We would have 2-3 weeks to do the trip. So in short our question is "Can you point us in the right direction to resources to help us chose. Is there a rail pass that would allow someone to travel to any station at there leisure.
Answer Hi Ryan:
Couple of more points. My better half reminded me that you are planning 14-21 days max so that you have much ground to cover on a bi-coastal drive. I recall driving part A NY to Denver in 3-4 days and then did some sightseeing en route to the coast.
Most of your liesure return would be Northwest downt he coast and back home via southern routing perhaps 12-14 days. Rushed but doable.
Your memories of the trip over just two weeks would likely be a blur.
Finally, looks to me like Amtrak's high season national rail PASS is $455 for two weeks and a whopping $565 for 3 weeks (actually good up to 4 weeks) which is greater than your total budget of up to $500 per person for the entire trip.
That would seem to eliminate the 'rail' option.
For most the ONLY times for long periods of travel are when you are YOUNG, like college age, like you all, and when you are old like retired or in our case we early retired and have been traveling to all corners of the globe six months per year these past six years traveling 3 months twice per year. Soooo, you should really aim for an awesome, memorable trip of at least one month or better 6-8 weeks. Camping would take care of the brunt of expenses (sleeping), gas won't change whether 2 weeks or 8 weeks except for a bit more local miles here and there and food in the U.S. is still CHEAP unless you are into sit down resaurants....NOT.
