From the moment I got home from my road trip across America, I had people messaging me asking how we did it and how much it cost, asking advice etc.
So I thought I’d go into a bit of detail with you all and go through the costs of going on a road trip across America. Now obviously depending on many, many things the price would vary for people but for me and my friends this was the cost of our month long trip.
Flights: £555 per person.
My friend had been researching flights and found: outbound Glasgow to Boston and San Fran to Glasgow return flights for £750 each. We had all assumed this was the cheapest we could get, but then I had a look myself. Using STA Travel I found we could get Glasgow to Boston via Amsterdam and San Fransisco to Glasgow via Amsterdam again for almost £200 less than my friend found. BARGAIN!
Car Rental: £2015.40 – £503.85 per person.
We used usrentacar when booking our car. Our car rental was for 26 days, picking up in Boston and dropping off in San Francisco. We also left it later than originally planned to book our car so this did add on to our price as we only booked it less than 4 months before we headed on our trip. Most was paid when we booked but we did have to pay just under £500 when we actually picked the car up (this did include us getting a sat nav from the company when we picked the car up as well which was $100/£80). This was a young drivers package as well, as I was 23 and my friends 22 so that did make a difference to the price.
Motels/Hotels: £2586.34 – £646.59 per person.
Now for this you could probably spend a lot less than we did, we stayed in motels the whole trip apart from Las Vegas (where I insisted we had to splurge and stay in a hotel) so that did add a bit more to our trip. You could easily cut this price down a lot though, but I think £650 per person isn’t bad at all for a full months stay in America.
Excursions: £287.91 per person.
We didn’t get up to too much on our trip excursion wise. In Boston we went on a duck tour, in NYC we went to see Les Miserables, in Nashville we went to the zoo, we stayed at the Grand Canyon so paid for our car in there, we went to Universal in LA and Alcatraz in San Francisco. Definitely you could save so much here, our most expensive were definitely Les Mis and Universal Studios which would save you almost £200 if you didn’t do either of them.
Gas: £480 – £120 per person.
So for this one, I am lying slightly as I can’t remember the exact price because we each put $150 (£120) in at the start but had money left over at the end. It is so surprising how cheap gas is in America, like it cost literally nothing. We would usually only let our tank get to a quarter tank before filling up which usually cost $30 to completely fill up UNTIL we got to the west coast when it went up to about $45.
Spending: £4000.
Obviously this is completely up to yourself how much you think you’ll spend on your trip and actually I could have taken a lot less than this (although I came home with $7/£5.50) but this was because I did go on a bit of a spending spree in Sephora (so much make up, so beautiful – forgive me as we don’t have it in the UK).
TOTAL: £6197.50
I have seen it done for so much less, so I know I’m probably on the higher end of the scale as to how much it cost. But this was it. This was just over a years saving for a month long trip of a lifetime with my best friends.
Have you been on a similar trip? Comment and let us know. Maybe you have some ideas as to how to spend a lot less than I did?
Yasmin x
Yasmin Travels 