What is the best way to travel the US on a budget?

Q I’m looking to travel to the US on a budget this autumn. Really not very fussed on where (although ideally somewhere with good public transport links).

Have you any suggestion for a good destination and any cost-saving tips?

James F

A Autumn travel is ideal in much of the US. You could go “leaf-peeping” in New England as fall arrives: the changing colours, from New York State to Maine, are spectacular. But that’s not a great budget option, because it depends on renting a car rather than relying on perfectly good (and often very cheap) public transport.

I particularly recommend a journey through California: San Francisco to San Diego, chasing the sunshine as you move south, is a great way to fill two weeks. But if you have a week longer you could start at Portland in Oregon, Seattle in Washington or even Vancouver in British Columbia.

For transport, I recommend two great oceanside runs on the national train operator, Amtrak: from Vancouver to Seattle and Los Angeles to San Diego. For the intervening parts, see what works best for you between more Amtrak, the competing coach firms of Greyhound and Flixbus and local services – for example you can travel the length of Los Angeles County for a couple of dollars.

You could also contemplate “driveaways”: delivering a car for someone. There are plenty of agencies that enable this deal, whereby you are given, say, five days to drive from Portland to Los Angeles; you pay for all the gas apart from the first tank.

In terms of cheap accommodation: the US has some outstanding backpacker hostels. For example, the official youth hostel in Santa Monica is superbly located a couple of blocks from the Pacific and the pier.

Finally, there is no need to retrace your steps: get an open-jaw ticket (out to your start point, back from your last stop). And to keep fares low put up with indirect flights to your start and end points. Nonstops tend to be a lot more expensive.

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Q Has there been a big switch to card transactions in Europe since Covid? I'm going to the Netherlands next week. I am not sure whether to rely on my Halifax Clarity credit card and take minimal cash.

Lyzz

A One of the most significant lasting effects of the coronavirus pandemic on travel has turned out to be the remarkable acceleration away from cash to plastic. This was already happening in the Nordic nations; for years it’s been possible to negotiate pretty much anything with a credit card in Iceland. Now, plastic payments are a feature of everyday life in countries where previously cash was king – including the Netherlands and Germany.

For any substantial Dutch transactions, including paying for accommodation, public transport tickets, taxi rides, cafes and museums, you can fairly safely assume it will be possible to pay with a credit card – Mastercard or Visa-branded, at least; American Express is less widely welcomed. You have wisely obtained the Halifax Clarity Mastercard, which continues to be the most straightforward way to avoid the swinging charge of almost 3 per cent that is added to overseas transactions on most other credit cards. For debit cards the pain is increased with, often, a transaction fee of £1.25 or thereabouts.

A number of travellers who have their debit card added to their phone for Apple Pay will find out too late, I fear, that for small transactions they have paid dearly. For example, a €3 coffee would cost about £2.50 on your Clarity card but almost £4 with many debit cards. Also avoid Dynamic Currency Conversion, whereby you are offered the chance to pay in sterling; always choose local currency. Take a few euros in cash; there may be the odd restaurant or taxi where the credit card machine is said to be broken. In addition, I always prefer to tip in cash, and keep a supply of €1 and €2 coins plus €5 notes for this purpose.

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Q I’m due to travel from Manchester to Miami on Friday via London Heathrow. Originally I booked to go to Fort Lauderdale. But the flight was cancelled so they offered Miami. I asked about transfers to Fort Lauderdale but they declined and offered to cancel my ticket for a refund. I’m not sure on the rules, as it was not a short-notice change – this happened two months ago. Should I have expected they would arrange a car for me to reach my rental car, or arrange car hire at Miami?

Simon A

A I am slightly puzzled about your question for several reasons. First, as far as I am aware there have never been direct Heathrow-Fort Lauderdale flights; for a while before the coronavirus pandemic there was competition between British Airways and Norwegian on the Gatwick-Fort Lauderdale run, but both carriers ended the link long ago. I can only imagine you were booked on a US carrier (American, Delta or United) via one of their hubs. But in that case, there are many flight combinations that would get you to Fort Lauderdale, including going on a Manchester-US transatlantic flight – which from all points of view would be better than going through Heathrow.

Anyway, you are where you are, flying to Miami with (presumably) a non-refundable car rental reservation in Fort Lauderdale; if it were refundable then the obvious course of action would be to switch to a Miami airport pick-up. You could make the case for the airline to pay upwards of $100 (£73) for a limo transfer between the airports, but in your position I would take the budget option: on arrival, find the free shuttle to the Miami airport Tri-Rail station, pay $3.75 (under £3) for the 38-minute journey to Fort Lauderdale airport station and hop on the free shuttle to the terminal. The whole trip could take a couple of hours if the timings don’t work well, but I think it would be less onerous than trying to claim money back for a limo.

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