Indigo Airlines Online Booking - Tips crossing America by Car,

Here are a few pointers, so for any of you that aspire to make such a trip. We had thought through many things in planning our trip across America but inevitably we learned a few lessons along the way. And we are no exception, experience is sometimes won the hard way.

Guides and hotel discount books, we also always stopped at State Welcome Centers to add to our collection of free maps. The Florida Homes and Travel website has a link to websites where you can print off coupons or order the books. We also made a point of picking up a copy of the hotel discount coupon books in each state, which contain a wealth of information on hotels, in addition to the AAA Travel Guides. State tourist offices in the UK will happily also mail you brochures and maps. But don't hold me to that, i am told that if you are a member of the AA in the UK you can also get the AAA's guides and maps for nothing. We are members of AAA and their free Travel Guides and maps were invaluable. First of all when planning your trip use any resources you can obtain for nothing.

But no one had told us, it's like a secret code. So as we gathered them on our travels it got easier to find the right side of town, we discovered that the hotel chains own guides usually list adjacent restaurants. And then look at the hotels in the vicinity, . Etc, olive Garden, red Lobster, first find the likes of Outback. We soon worked out that the better restaurant chains are never on the wrong side of town. What signs? But we kicked ourselves for letting our guard down and for missing the obvious signs, he was a beggar and $5 sent him on his way. But as soon as we were unloading our things to put them in our room we were accosted by a black man whose opening words were " Don't worry I'm not going to rob you", the Day's Inn looked fine and the immediate area didn't look run down. Alabama on the second night of our trip, we made this mistake in Montgomery. So they give no hint that would alert you to hotels in questionable areas, neither wish to upset their advertisers. Don't get too obsessed by low hotel prices in either the AAA guide or the discount coupon books. However a cautionary tale.

We always insisted on seeing the hotel room before we committed. We preferred to make an early start so that we arrived mid-afternoon and could explore a place in daylight and be relaxed enough to search out an acceptable hotel and not worry if it took us a while. Our worst experience was in a supposedly three star Ramada. Though we had good examples of both, in general we found that we got a much better room and a far better breakfast in a three star hotel such as Hampton Inn or Comfort Suites than in a two star property such as Ramada or Super 8. The highest we paid was $84 and the lowest was $33, which cost us $157 in the only hotel there, apart from Monument Valley. Equating to about $45 a night before taxes, including taxes we spent an average of $52 a night on a hotel. While others were lavish spreads, some being little more than a muffin or doughnut and a coffee, mind you the breakfasts certainly varied. It seems to be a very common thing now. A free continental breakfast was provided by all but 4 of the 24 hotels that we stayed in. It proved to be unnecessary and we wouldn't do it again. As we can't stand a cooked breakfast every day, from our earlier articles you will know that we were taking a big coolbox with us complete with our breakfast cereals.

I guess you would have to raise your car's bonnet and hope someone stops. How else could you call for help if you broke down? Police patrols are almost non-existent in the dessert so we were grateful for our trusty Tracfone that never once lost a signal. By the way it is essential to carry plenty of water or other drinks in case you were to breakdown. It can be a long distance between places out west and some rest areas have no toilets let alone food or drink machines. Even on Interstate highways, as surprisingly often proved to be the case, we filled it with hot water before leaving each morning so we could stop and make ourselves a coffee or tea if we couldn't find anywhere to buy one. In the sparsely populated dessert areas our Thermos flask was also a lifesaver. Ensured that we could make ourselves a hot drink in our hotel room when it suited us, . Etc, that and our electric kettle and mugs. Our small one was invaluable, while we wouldn't take our big coolbox again.

And another for storing the collection of maps and travel guides that we accumulated, to keep the car boot reasonably tidy we also had a bin for spare shoes. When that was due we ensured that we chose a hotel with a guest laundry. The dirty washing accumulated in a plastic bag in the car boot between a once a week wash. That way most nights we only needed to take one suitcase into the hotel. The other case held all our other clothes. We found the weather forecasts remarkably accurate! We had a smaller suitcase that we used for the clothes we planned to wear for the next three days. With good weather an emergency set of cold weather gear stayed in the holdall in the car boot the whole trip. We organised our clothes into three groups.

So anyone renting would have to allow for this additional expense, owning our own car meant we didn't have to hire one. Entrance fees to various things and the odd souvenir added a further $14 a day to make an average daily cost for the whole trip of $133, the show we went to in Las Vegas. Something of a contrast to UK prices, 827 miles cost us $371 an average of less than $8 a day, petrol for the 7! Lunch costs are buried in the $24 a day we spent in cash. Dinner cost us an average of $35. Such as a sub or a salad and then have a cooked meal in the evening once our day's travels were completed, we preferred to have a cold lunch.