We have a 21-dat trip starting next Wednesday in Chicago and the cost breakdown has interested me. I've not a complete inventory of stuff but roughly the flights (Newcastle to Chicago....the Lax back to Newcastle) plus the hire care is circa £2000. I booked the flights back in December 2015.

We've booked some hotels in bigger places: Chicago, Death Valley, LA. which is 6 pre paid nights in total and the rest will be winging it on the road.

I do know that gas now is $2 per gallon so fuel should be cheap enough (compared to the UK that is)

We've set aside £6k for everything else, but are expecting NOT to spend it all - best laid plans and all that. There are 2 of us by the way.

We'll wave if we see you en route then folks.

BM007 said
Dan

Wow those flights were cheap. I hope you have factored in the one way fee for the car. You will pay this when you pick you car up. Who are you renting from?

Not sure how long before you go but if you can, sign up for a Halifax Clarity Credit card. They have very good rates for using abroad and you can withdraw cash from ATMs for no fee, most cards charge about 3% per withdrawal, so on this one you just pay interest. Although the ATMs normally charge you ($2 -$6 in Vegas)

As I was advised (by wanted33) in other threads, credit cards are accepted almost everywhere and sometimes you can even pay your tip on the card. They give you the bill, you write your tip on it, hand it back to them, they give you another bill which you sign and some places you will leave the tip on the table. Its actually a little bit confusing and took us a while to work it out. Small cafes or souvenir shops might be cash only, its not that different from here in the UK.

So we mostly used credit cards but we took cash which we bought in the UK so it made sense to use that up because we had already paid for it.

If you are booking hotels as you go check out Airbnb. We didnt use it until the end on our trip and stayed in 2 really nice places at very reasonable prices and were much nicer than the general motels we were staying in up till then.

As wanted33 said, all the gas stations we used were 'pump your own gas', 'pay at the pump' stations but I think every time I had to go in first and prepay, either because my card wasnt accepted or a zip code was required. In this case you just go in and ask to prepay and tell them how much you want. $30 was normally enough for us, for a day, but gas gets more expensive the further you go West. If you dont use what you paid for, the remaining will get refunded back to your card.

I hope that helps, if you have any more questions please ask.

wanted33 £2627 works out to around $2000  

Yeah we did good with the flights, we fly out to New York on Monday morning (5th).

I plan to use my current credit card with Barclays. I didn't consider getting another one to be honest, I don't even know what their rates are etc but it's too late in the day now...my main concern at the minute is if I have boxers and socks!

We have a $500 one way fee to pay like you mention. The supplier is National although we booked it via a third party called "usrentacar" they seemed to have the best deals for what we require, which is:

3 Drivers
Young Driver Frees Included (age 23)
Insurance and all that good stuff

No satnav but I've stuffed my iPad with offline maps etc

In regards to Airbnb, we have actually used this for LA

So this pre pay for fuel...is that card you top up or something? And anything you don't pay gets refunded back to the card that was used to pay for the top up?

I read the comments above with interest.
Now, how about travel insurance for oldies (late 70s) in the US?
I'd heard that if you're over 70 it's hard to get car insurance, let alone medical insurance.
Comments on both of the above appreciated.
GM

We booked a midsize vehicle through Autoslash.com from LAX to Detroit Metro Airport in September 2017 for $1063.00 USD, unlimited miles for 21 days.
The rental company was Hertz and they up graded us to a SUV no charge when they heard we were driving Route 66.
Never prepay the fuel always fill up just before you return the vehicle. I do not recall any toll roads Santa Monica to Chicago.
If you rent out of California there is no charge for an extra driver. We did not purchase extra auto insurance since the policy I have for my personal vehicle would have covered any issues on the mother road.

Have you considered taking the Amtrak train as an option for travel. I've heard some folks say it's a cheap and cool option. You can select various dates and stay longer in places you really want to explore. In my opinion. Chicago, Santa Fe, Arizona and California are the best places to visit. There are a lot of historic rt 66 shops and motels along the way. In AZ there is actually a Caboose train motel from the 40's right off the 64 fwy to Grand Canyon that you can sleep in. There is also an AWESOME espresso boutique in Seligman- you can't miss it. When you drive through, it's the only huge bright blue building in town. Rt 66 pretty much ends at the Santa Monica Pier- which is worth a visit. Oysters on the half shell are BOMB at the restaurant at the very end of the pier. Disney, Universal Studios, Hollywood, Beverly Hills. Rt 66 is great, but you could literally drive it in under a week. Better to add some fun things (VEGAS, baby) - you know what I mean? There's only so much....... Oh, look, another cow....another tree.....another gas station... a person can pretend is cool before they wished they would have planned better.
As far as cost/
motels 65-100 pr night
gas/ 35 pr day (prices are at 3.50+ right now)
food LOTS of grocery stores have tables to sit and eat. Great deli options. CHEAP alternative to restaurants
Tours/ honestly- skip the formal $99 blah blah tours and just go! The Grand Canyon is free during the Gov shut down right now!
***for a bit of added fun, plan your trips around when car clubs are doing their rt 66 annual runs and rent whatever car the event is around/ ie... Camero/ Corvettes...can't think of the names of the other ones.
Light Ray