Road trips: the best driving holidays in the US, as chosen by the Independent's travel team
The epic landscapes of the US are made for driving - here are our top picks for the journey of a lifetime that still delivers plenty of bang for your buck
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Your support makes all the difference.Each week, The Independent’s travel team go head to head to see who can come up with the best version of a particular trip. Today we’re tackling a US road trip this autumn.
Simon’s choice: an Oregon fly-drive
Price of car hire and airfare for two: £1,700
There are two possible reasons you might want to delay this road trip until next summer: the first non-stop flights from the UK to Portland begin in May 2017, and on 21 August a total solar eclipse will make landfall at Lincoln City, Oregon and then sweep west-east across the state. But my advice is to travel this month and then return next year if you’re hooked.
Portland is one of those rare US cities where not having a car is a real advantage. So fly in on Delta via Seattle (with a return flight via a range of US points) for around £750, based on a 20 September departure for a week, and spend 48 hours there. Then rent a car from a downtown office (which can also help avoid airport surcharges). Avis is charging £200 for a Ford Fiesta for five days from downtown Portland.
Head south-east into the Cascade Range and follow it south, through Mount Hood National Forest and as far as the magnificent Crater Lake National Park. Then head west, ignoring dull Medford in favour of Grant’s Pass and the route to the Pacific Coast. US Highway 101 runs the entire length of the state’s shoreline, culminating in my favourite American seaside resort, Seaside. Depending how you are fixed for time, you can either head straight back to Portland along Highway 26, or treat yourself to the longer Highway 30 routing via the Columbia River valley.
Simon Calder, travel correspondent
Nicola’s choice: classic California
Price of car hire and airfare for two: £1,444
I’ve been on a fair few American road trips as an adult, but one I’d like to repeat is the trip through California I took with my family as a teenager. It’s a cliché, sure, but a rightly popular destination, taking in the photogenic Pacific Coast Highway and national parks, as well as some amazing cities.
You can fly into San Francisco and out of LA a week later for £642 with United Airlines (based on a 24 September departure). The advantage of an open-jaw flight is that you won’t have to go back on yourself, and most car hire companies will allow you to collect and drop off your car in different locations. Holiday Extras is offering a week’s rental of a Kia Rio for £160 with Alamo - curiously a few pounds cheaper than booking direct.
Spend a couple of days exploring the delights of San Francisco before heading either straight down the coast, stopping at towns like laid-back San Luis Obispo – the midpoint between LA and San Fran – and upmarket Santa Barbara, or go inland to Yosemite National Park, with its waterfalls, giant seqouias and vast expanses of wilderness. You could drive through the spectacular Mojave Desert en route too; the glorious thing about America is that there is an abundance of cheap motels almost everywhere you go, so there’s no pressing need to plan in advance. Round off the trip with a few days in LA, where Santa Monica and Venice offer laid-back beach vibes to counterbalance Hollywood’s assault on the senses.
Nicola Trup, head of travel
Laura’s choice: iconic New England in coastal Maine
Price of car hire and airfare for two: £682
When I once asked my partner, a card-carrying New Yorker, where I’d find North America’s best road trip, the answer was immediate: Maine. It might not be the stuff of engine-revving pedal-to-the-metalry or daring hairpin bendery, but it is everything you could ask from New England: sweeping sea cliffs, toy-town quaint lighthouses, and gentle picture-postcard harbour communities just itching to fill your face with fresh lobster. And that’s without even mentioning Acadia National Park: beaches, granite peaks and glaciers all perched on Maine’s Mount Desert Island.
My advice would be to first fly into Boston – Norwegian can get you there direct from Gatwick for about £248 return if you’re flexible with dates (ie, leave and return on, say, a Monday). Avis currently offers seven-day car hire from $245 (£186) for a Ford Fiesta, with pick-up at the airport, if you pay online in advance rather than at the counter. From here, it’s an easy three-hour drive to Maine’s Boothbay Harbour, a picturesque waterfront village of Victorian houses with great whale-watching. Rest up here and then continue up the coast to Bar Harbour, on Mount Desert Island, at your own pace – it’s an easy, scenic 118 miles on US Route 1. Bar Harbour is your gateway to Acadia and, though busy, is convenient for organising tours and fuelling up on seafood.
When you’ve had your fill of Acadia, tootle back to Boston by way of the highlights north of Portland (picturesque Camden, artsy Rockland, Pemaquid Point lighthouse). A stop at Portland itself – not the hipster hub Simon recommends in Oregon, but a buzzy food and beer town on a much smaller scale – is definitely worthwhile. Then it’s just over 100 miles back to Boston.
Laura Chubb, deputy head of travel
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