California Road Trip for Foreigners

Lets get the boring bit over with (feel free to skip this, you can always come back to it).

I assume you're going to need a car and that the road-trip will last a couple of weeks or more. You can do a road-trip in less than that, but if you include travelling to the US (e.g. from the UK), jet lag and acclimatisation are going to have a detrimental effect on a larger portion of your holiday.

The two week duration is important throughout this lens, so bear it in mind if you're travelling for a different length of time.

Lots of hotels in the US charge a daily fee for access to the minibar. That's on top of the exorbitant prices that every hotel charges for products in the minibar. Some motels provide a fridge for you to use, not all.

So when you get there, become independent and buy a fridge. Try a Walmart or similar. Since you're getting a 12V fridge, you can use it in the car as well. What better for keeping your cold drinks cool.

At the end of your stay, you can give it to another set of road-trippers. Maybe your final hotel will let you post a note about it. You could try to sell it if you had a mind to, but I like the idea of giving it away knowing it will make someone else's life better. Now that's good karma for something very simple.

Hints:

Buy one of the small fridges that fit in cars and run on 12V DC. Make sure that it will run on 110V as well.

It could be worth reading the car manual to check that the socket switches off when you turn off the ignition. You don't want to wake up to a flat battery

Car hire companies in the US will rent you a Sat-Nav/GPS but consider the cost of that rental over two weeks. If often comes close to what you would pay to buy one.

And best of all, if you buy one, you get to use it after your holiday as well. Bonus.

Make sure that you purchase one with full US maps as well as those for you home country.

I've done road-trips with normal paper maps and with sat-nav/gps. The sat-nav option wins hands-down.

Hints:

You don't need an expensive Sat-Nav unit, just a basic one with full US and UK maps will do you

You're going to have to listen to the Sat-Nav a lot in two weeks, so it's worth taking a few optional voices with you so you can change part-way through

I wrote this one from the perspective of a UK holidaymaker going to the US, but you can change this for your own country.

There's little point buying a UK-US electrical adaptor for every electrical item you're taking. Hotels hardly ever have enough sockets anyway.

A collapsible multi-way is a great way to plug in phones and camera batteries to charge.

Hint:

I wouldn't connect anything that generates heat (e.g. hairdryer, kettle, iron) to the multiway. Better off plugging them straight to the UK-US adaptor into the main socket.

This was the best use of the Sat-Nav/GPS ever. Really.

Before leaving for the US, enter all the major destinations (hotels, restaurants, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Hearst Castle, etc) in order into the Sat-Nav, saving it as an itinerary. It should only take an hour if you've got all the details and it will save a lot more time on holiday than that.

When you're out in California, you won't have to find and programme the exact details of each leg, instead just select the next destination per journey and off you go. It makes life so much easier.

Not really a massive tip: check out price comparison sites for hotels, but also check the hotel's own website. Many hotels, even those in large chains, have their own websites.

Booking direct can give you extras, but sometimes the comparison sites have access to rooms and upgrades you couldn't get yourself.

...and read it before you go.

Rough Guides and Lonely Planets are ideal guides for road-trips. Read it before you go and you can plan your itinerary. Check the publication date of the edition before you buy it, you want the latest.

I've done it with a 1 year old edition of Lonely Planet and a 2 month Rough Guide. The good thing about the Lonely Planet book was that we had a bit more time to read it and that it covered Las Vegas and California. That Las Vegas part was very useful.

That convertible car sounds great, but how practical is it for your trip?

First off, it's hotter in California than in the UK, air conditioning in a closed car is more comfortable than an open top. It's not the same experience but how long will the novelty last? Maybe get one car for the first week and another for the second week.

Secondly, how much luggage are you going to take?
And more importantly what type of luggage? Many smaller items fit into a car better than a few big, bulky items. The typical convertible in California in 2008/9 is a Chrysler Sebring. Go and have a look at one locally, there's little bootspace.

Thirdly, what roads are you travelling on?
If you want to take a trip to Bodie (well worth it), a mile of it or so is on un-tarmaced road. Most insurances don't cover this. I was happy for a 4x4 SUV

Fourth, watch the categories carefully
For example, a mid SUV isn't a middle of the range in size, it's a small 4x4.

Hints:

If you're used to driving around UK cities, then you'll like the freedom on the US roads where you can do 400 miles and have an easy drive

Keep an eye out for the car share lanes on the freeways, very useful for cutting down your travel time

A broker or intermediary (e.g Holiday Autos) can provide a better price for the package and their sales promotions can be geared more towards what you want out of a road-trip hire package.

Brokers and other intermediaries often provide the customer with a voucher for the car hire that is honoured by the rental company.

But turn up at the car rental company with a voucher and you join the back of a queue that can take an hour or two to get through.

If you'd booked direct with the rental company (e.g. Alamo), then there may be an electronic check-in (similar to what you get at checking in at the airport). No queue and a lot less hassle. Is that worth the difference you would have saved by going with a broker?

Next time, I'm going to book direct with the car rental company. It was enough of a struggle adjusting to the climate difference on landing at Las Vegas (ok, not California but close enough) without the queue for a car.

Hints:

Check your bank and credit cards, breakdown cover, other loyalty cards for discounts on car hire

Keep an eye for the sales promotions at the rental companies and look for all inclusive promotions, maybe including additional insurances and fuel. You can save a lot that way

I last went at the beginning of the recession and the exchange rate was nowhere near the 2USD:1GBP that it was 6 months before. Shame.

Despite that I was still about to buy branded t-shirts for £6 in the outlets. There are a lot of clothes/designer outlets in California and they're a nice experience for breaking up a journey.

Next time, I'll take enough for a few days and buy the rest. Just watch your customs limits or you may end up paying import duties and VAT on entry to the UK.

I'd suggest deciding on whether you want data roaming for your phone or not. At least make sure you know how much it will be. The rates were very expensive last time I looked, a lot more expensive that data rates in your own country.

There are a lot of free wifi access points in California. If you can wait to check your emails and search for anything else you need, then wait for them.

Hint:

The Maps application on iPhone requires data roaming. Be prepared to do without it if you don't want data roaming enabled

It's a road-trip and you'll be spending a lot of time in a car. Most new cars now have an audio-in port for mp3 players. This 3.5mm audio cable will be the connection between your mp3 player/iPod and the car's stereo.

You need a stereo cable with 3.5mm jacks at either end.

Your Sat-Nav probably only needs between 1Gb-4Gb for all the software and maps. You can use the rest of the card for backing up photos, videos, carrying ebooks, etc.

In addition, depending on the Sat-Nav, you may be able to use it for in-flight entertainment.

How are you going to keep in touch with those back home? Maybe just a postcard. Nowadays though, people have higher expectations of keeping connected.

Think about email, phone, IM, etc.

Hint

Before you go, ring your phone service provider and ensure your phone and service will work abroad

As part of keeping in touch, a lot of people now expect to be able to see photos even before you've returned.

Rather than email photos, it's easier to get an account at Flickr, Google Photos or similar online service? You can then point people to your online galleries.

"Backups, we're on holiday. We don't need no backups"

Actually you may. We all lose things, maybe even have some stolen.

If you've got a laptop with you, you can burn any photos from your camera onto 2 sets of DVDs and put one in your suitcase and one in your hand-luggage.

If your photos or videos aren't important, then you don't need to do this.

The US doesn't provide easy access to free healthcare. Might as well say it doesn't exist there.

So make sure your travel insurance covers you + family + accompanying travellers for emergency healthcare, repatriation, etc. It's best to have the insurance in place before booking the holiday.

Does it cover you for the length of time that you're travelling? A lot have 31 days limits.

Also ensure that you're covered for what you think you're covered for. While that may sound silly, it's worth realising that most travel insurance policies I've seen are geared for package holidays, where the flight and hotel are purchased from a broker through a single company. DIY holidays like a lot of road trips don't fall into that category. The result is that if your outbound flight is cancelled, you may not be able to claim for any hotels, car rental or other prepaid items.

I'm not an insurance expert, but thought I'd point a couple of things out above. It's up to you to seek advice from an accredited professional.

For iPhone, you may want:

FlickIt (for uploading to Flickr),
YumYum (or similar for finding restaurants),
Cambio (for converting measurements),
a currency exchange app,
Skype or IM app,
Facebook,
games,
movies and music

Want to do image processing and backup on a PC, then maybe you need Picasa. On a Mac, may as well use iPhoto unless you have better.

Here are a few ideas:

Buy some noise-isolating earphones. The Sennheiser CX300s are as cheap and basic as you really want to go and they're only £17 online. Even at £17, they block out a lot of the plane noise and are way better than the foam headsets the airline give you. You can pay £60 if you look in the wrong shops.

Buy a two-prong-3.5mm airline adaptor. Should be less than £5.

Buy a single 3.5mm-double 3.5mm adaptor. Great for two people to watch the same iPhone.

A cheap 4Gb mp3 player is useful for £20 if you don't have anything else

The quality of hand-held iPhone video is a lot better than the back of the seat screens. It's much clearer and easier to watch due to fewer reflections.

Hints:

Look at the capabilities of all your other gadgets, e.g. phone, pda, sat-nav, camera. They may prove useful if you want to take fewer gadgets.

A lot of sat-navs play video files. Great for on the plane, but make sure it's got some battery power left for your destination. You'll need to know where you're going.