Santa Monica Travel Forum

I want to go to Santa Monica from NY.Could you tell me what is the most interesting and atractive way to go.
I`ll be happy:-)

The most practicle way is to fly, it is well over 2000 miles. I would say that the second option would be to drive. Driving gives you tons of options, taking a northern route across the country if youa re travling in summer, or across the middle of the country in sping or fall, or going south the Georgia and taking I-10 across the south in the winter. You can take Amtrak cross country with a couple of route options, but the train service is slow and you will find very limted schedule options.

David

It's all about time. How much time can you devote to your trip.

Also, do you / can you drive and how much is your budget.

is this an open question or what?!

You probably need to let us know when you are planning to do this and how much time you have. Then a more informative answer can be provided to you. For a road trip, I say you need 3-4 weeks to do this and enjoy the trek. Otherwise, I would fly.

Thank you for your answer it`s very practical for me.I am planning the trip in the summer next year.Could you tell me haow much money should I have to drive form NY to LA and how many times does it probably take when you want to do it without hurry and when you want to visit interesting places durning your trip.
I live in Europe so distances are shorter than US.I can drive.Is it safe to rent a car and travelling alone or should I have a company?
Have a nice day.Thanks once again.
Barbara

You would need at least 4-5 days for the drive alone, plus anytime you want for sightseeing along the way. I would plan on 2-3 weeks to make the drive and enjoy some of the sights along the way.

How much money? I would plan on $150-$250 per day for hotels, food and sightseeing. Hotels are more expensive in cities, but less expensive in small towns. Gas is around $4.25 a gallon and the typical rental car will get about 25 miles to the gallon on the open road(in other words you will use 4 gallons per 100 miles; for a gas cost of about $17 per 100 miles.)

A one-way car rental from New York to California will be more expensive than a local rental with the car returned to the same place that it is picked up (driving round trip would be huge amount of driving.) I would use some of the travel search sites to estimate the cost of the rental.

Try one of the map sites like google maps to look at possible routes. I would plan this in segments from point to point that I wanted to see in between. From New York I would go west, along Lake Erie through western Pensyvania. West to Chicago, north from there into South Dakota and the "Badlands" and Mt Rushmore. From there I would go through Devner and stop in Las Vegas and onto the north rim of the Grand Canyon. There may be other things you want to see along the way, start planning a route.

The interestate highways are safe to travel. I would minimize time in major cities to avoid trafic.

It sounds like a great trip, I would allow 2-3 weeks travel time.

Enjoy!

DG