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Interstate-10 is the straighforward route between Los Angeles and Houston. Motel 6, Super 8, Quality Inns, and La Quinta are budget motels along highways near most cities.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is near Las Cruces, New Mexico -- it has thousands of bats. Big Bend National Wildlife Refuge, Texas, is a popular migration wintering ground for waterfowl and birds. Along Interstate-25, north of Las Cruces, is Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge with thousands of sandhill cranes wintering over before returning to their Arctic breeding grounds in February. On return, you could jog north of Interstate-40 at Williams to see the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Edited by: trekker502

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... suggestions on budget accommodation, car rentals and of course a good route to travel up and down Houston.

Budget accommodation - look at the the Super 8 website - they cover not only Super 8 (good value under $80.00 per night) but a range of other budget (to high end) accommodation options within the group.

We are non-Americans, and have used www.carhire3000.com a few times to rent a car prior to arrival - they are competitive in price, and intelligent to deal with. Not sure if Americans can get the same deals, but I suspect so.

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OOOOh Carlsbad and Apache Wildlife Refuge.
I was thinking Monument Valley, but I've now just added two items to my bucket list.

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Go to Expedia, and enter in the dates for car rentals you wish to rent, the weekly rates will pop up and choose from there. This will not include insurance, if you own a vehicle and have insurance for that, it may suffice for the rental, or also maybe your credit card too. If not, just to insure the car you rent is $12 day. That does not cover anything or any other vehicle you have an accident with. That is another $12 day for coverage.

Hotels will be along the interstate, depending where you are, they tend to be cheaper outside the major cities and also all together with fast food chains and so forth as well.

If you Look at a map, like Google Map, and then use the GET Directions Tab, and enter in the two places, Start LA and End Houston, it will map out the fastest and most direct route. You can zoom in and see any area in Green are National and State Parks.

The first day you can aim for Phoenix/Tucson AZ area, that is about 8 hours from LA. The next day is rather boring and a stop will be just to sleep.

You dont mention interest or time you have to make the trip.

Its 1500 miles, or 24 hours, so figure 3 days at 8 hours a day, that is tiring to say least. The average 4 door sedan will get 350-450 miles per tank, so 4-5 tanks of gas at $65 tank each way. Hotels figure $80 to $100 a night, 3 nights each way.

Totals-

Car Rental $200-$300 week minimum x 2 weeks =$600 plus
Gas 8 tanks @ $65 tank = $520
Hotels 4 nights $100 night = $400
Food for 4 people, figure $100 day @ 6 days = $600 or more

Total
Car $600
Gas $520
Lodging $400
Meals $600

TTL $2200

Flying Southwest or other airline. $350 per person nonstop roundtrip, 3 hour flight. TTL $1400- You save almost $1000 by flying, and not 3 days minimum in a car, with cheap hotels and crummy unhealthy food....

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Hi All

Thank you for your help and suggestion. These are valuable information to me.

I would be going to spend 25 to 30 days for the round trip. It would be good to fly direct, but in Houston, using it as a base, it is not very accessible to anywhere, say for example drive to Dallas is 5 hours one way.

With that in mind, I thought of take my time to travel down in Houston, then spend a week there to catch up with friend., and then slowly drive up.

The challenge of my trip is that I am disable, not that bad, but on clutches. Site seeing and minimum walking would be good for me.

Thank you SoloHobo for the quick calculation and comparison, thank you trekker 502 for the various websites for accommodation, and ianw6705 and LongislandBob.

I hope to hear from you all again.