Route 66

Hi all. Were thinking of doing the route from Chicago next summer. Has anyone done this before? What's the best way to do it? Book a itinerary package or DIY? And what sort of costs are we looking at?

On a pure personal note, I would always do any sort of road trip independently as you will be on your own schedule and will be able to stop where you want to - not where a travel company wants you to.

We added this to out must do holiday list last week after seeing the first episode of Billy Connolly's road trip on route 66 on tv.
See if youbcatch the show.

#1 Son did this a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it...save for a couple of places where skinny english boys with gelled hair stood out like a sore thumb.

Personally I'd always DIY on a US road trip; the planning is all part of the fun. As to cost, well, depends on standards of accommodation you want, the number of nights you want to take, the size of car etc.

Have fun with it..

Paul

I agree with all those saying to book your tour independently - it means a shed load of research and planning but it does mean you get to spend the right amount of time in the places you want to be!

I haven't done this tour yet but have done about 7 or 8 RV tours in the US & Canada. Are you thinking car & hotel/motels or RV? Remember that although the price of fuel is great in comparison to the UK, their cars do far less to the gallon and, depending on how far you are travelling, this will make up quite a bit of your costs!

Could go on for hours but I may start boring myself ii)

[Darren Wheeler]

My top tip would be:

Be realistic about the distances you plan to do each day.

It's very easy to plan long days behind the wheel, but then you never get time to stop and see things and will arrive at your next hotel exhausted.

Other tips.
Book the size of car you need, then go up one size. More room and space for an extra bag after some shopping.

Get a cheap cooler and carry a supply of drinks and food in it. Then stop at scenic spots for a picnic.

Use chain hotels like Best Western. Great value and as you go along you earn miles and loyalty points. After a 2 week trip, you'll be on a level where you get room upgrades.

Pay for fuel with cash. Many filling stations take a $100 impress on your card as security. You then have to wait for it to be returned. Can take a week.

Thanks for the tips. We were thinking of car and hotels.

Have driven parts of the old route 66 during previous trips to the U.S.

Best tip I can give is to get one of the many route 66 guides and use this as the basis of your planned stopover(s) en-route.

If you count on doing around 200 - 300 miles a day (with stop-off's) it is quite manageable - would recommend you end it with at least a two or three day stay in L.A just to kick back and relax after the long drive.

Much of route 66 only remains in small sections as the newer Interstates have long since replaced it

That said, there are still many great stop-off's and Route 66 museums to see along the way

T.A has a forum for road trips and can throw up some useful information on planning & tips - enter route 66 in the search function.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum- ... Trips.html

Have fun planning

JB

Just to reiterate the others - careful planning is essential and give your self several options for diversions.

But watch the driving distances.

300 miles in a day might sound feasable but at a max of 55mps that's nearly 6 hours driving whihc to me as a non driver sounds like a lot and not a lot of stop-off time.

Darren's idea of a cooler is a good one - just remember no open booze containers in the car - keep it in the trunk !

Even better link I dug up from my favourites toolbar - good selection of maps showing the route as it stands by state - and a useful forum too

http://www.historic66.com/

JB

Hi everyone,

Anyone interested in doing a trip along Route 66 should try and get hold of copies of the Route 66 Magazine. Excellent quarterly publication full of interesting articles and ads for places to stay, attractions along the route, etc, together with lists of various R 66-related publications, DVDs and CDs

Take a look at their website at:

http://www.route66magazine.com/

The annual sub for UK readers is $55, but if you prefer to pay in sterling and would like the magazine mailed to you from within the UK, then get in touch with:

UK Route 66
Fast-Trak Accreditation Centre Ltd
14 Yeomanry Road
Battlefield Enterprise Park
Shrewsbury SY1 3EH

Tel: 01743 450303

email: [email protected]

Kind regards,


John

Was browsing the above website and saw this video:

http://vimeo.com/29335812

Stunning! Just makes me want to book a trip ASAP.

I did a slightly longer version of this as a round trip drive years ago, and on the outbound leg covered 2300+ miles in four days. We had to get to the destination. It was pretty intense. Return leg was leisurely and nice

The main thing I realized was that, however bad it is to have a TA plan everything for you, you might not want to leave this totally to chance. Finding a room can be trivial in a decent sized, not too touristy town like Amarillo, but extremely difficult if you plan to stop in Flagstaff and go to the Grand Canyon. I had a couple of experiences with drive around evenings looking for rooms after a long day in the car, and ending up spending too much money for what we ended up with. If there are stops you really care to make, find a hotel and book yourself in there in advance. Chances are you've picked a place others want to stop in too, rather than Norman, Oklahoma, say. You can allow some flexibility between the stops you care, but it's really worth picking out the ones you do and making some plans around them.

Since the road doesn't exist anymore, you can be flexible with the routing

I'd definitely go through Santa Fe, a much nicer town than Albuquerque. And I might consider popping up to Vegas, but that's just me. I would definitely be very creative in how I explore Arizona, given the significant number of naturally beautiful sites out there. In the end you're planning a great road trip from somewhere in the Midwest to LA. If there's a place you want to see nearby, it might be worth finding a way to get there, you won't do this too often.

Is the original road still available to drive? As in keep off the new highways and stay on the old one. Or has it completely gone in places?
Can see the sense in ore booking hotels in popular places. Thanks

You don't get a Route 66 anymore on any official map, but there are many sites which will give you detailed instructions for how to tack closely to the old route avoiding Interstate segments as much as possible. You'd sort of need to decide, stretch by stretch, whether it is worth your while doing that. Some states (Arizona, Oklahoma IIRC) have stretches of a road they label State Route 66 (it's a state, not a national road).

As if by magic the BBC are showing a feature on Route 66 on the news channel. Its a look at the social issues rather than a tourist look.

It is on iPlayer until Sunday 2nd October

Our World - Crossing Steinbeck's America