what to do

If youre going to take a run to the boarder, probably better to do Nogales from Arizona. Have not been there in a bit but seemed safer than TJ and others.

Find it hard to believe you would go all the way to Florida just to see Sea World? -youre kidding, right?! I mean I could see Epcot or Disney World...

Have you thought about going up the west coast or taking a train or something? Anything else is going to be awefully expensive and tedious. Maybe just hitting a region instead of trying to bite off the whole thing?

Most of what you are doing is going to depend on the time of year. The summers in the Northwest are awesome.

Assuming you're travelling east to west, I think you could do better with (a) a cheap flight NYC to Orlando, to see whatever you need to see there, (b) a week seeing NYC and the NE area (as far as Boston north, and Washington DC south), and (c) fly to Las Vegas and spend ten days with a car visiting two or three of the top ten national parks in the US (Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion for starters). I also think you could increase time in the US west (to see places like San Francisco and much else) and perhaps a little less in Hawaii - with a week being sufficient. On the bigger scale - if this is a one-year RTW trip, three weeks in the US might be a little light - it's a great and diverse place. But your call of course. <BR><BR>There are not a lot of hostels, as noted above - the good ones are fine - but they are rare. See HI, hostelhandbook and hostelz (as above). Have a look at say the Motel6 budget motel chain, and budget say $US75 per night for accomm (some nights in the west may be cheaper, some in cities a LOT dearer), and about $US30 for food etc between you, if you buy ingredients in supermarkets or delis and you self-cater. The rental cars, fuel, and so on are extra.

1) Yes easily, but keep in mind the drive itself is about 4 to 5 solid days.

2) Grand Canyon, if you're only going to see 1. But if you like outdoors stuff you should work in at least 4 or 5 more, IMHO.

3) C'mon, this is a Guidebook question. Be a lot more specific about what you like or loathe. The US is larger than western Europe and by a long ways.

4) Some of this will depend on gas prices, if you camp, motel, hotel etc. But done cheaply I've gotten by for under $100 a day, all in.

Ed

I should have said "all in" excepting the car itself. The $100 figure does include fuel, lodging and food. All done as low cost as possible, and using a small economy car that gets good to very good mileage. It means no meals in restaraunts at all-sandwiches out of a styro cooler-no amusement parks etc. It also means camping where possible and sensible, motels and priceline.com for everything else. But it certainly IS doable, and for the price I mentioned or slightly less.

Ed

cheers for the replies, As for sea world, strangley it is the one place i have always wanted to see. epcot and disney are on the list but if i can only choose 1 then. i want to see lots in florida.

yes the plan is east to west, but apart from what i have mentioned, i dont really know what else is there in the states. that is why i am looking for ideas. I would like more time there but I only have a year to travel and the world is a big place with far too much to see and do. also on hte cards for us is fiji islands, New Zealand, Australia (will need to work there to get some cash), Thailand, china, and siberian railway, then back to london.

once again thanks for the replies, i will be tackling the map at home this weekend, trying to work out some sort of route

cheers

I work at Grand Canyon - by all means come here, and don't rush the matter. I think you are biting off more than you can comfortablyy chew. I would shelve Florida and if you are going to drive cros country, which can be a wonderful experience or tedious, go for a more direct route. Look at your road map and stop off in state parks and lesser known NAtional Parks, National Monuments, and historic sights. The interstate highways are usually fast and direct, but boring. Aim for secondary roads when practical. This question of yours is a mouthful - scale back your ideas and don't waste your time on tourist attractions.

No, three weeks is not enough time to drive to the destinations you list. You will need to use a combination of fly/drive as suggested by ianw6705. You will still have plenty of driving time.

One suggestion off the top of my head: there is a Sea World in San Diego which is only a few hours from LA (rather than Orlando which is over 1000 miles from NYC. If Sea World is really the only factor luring you to FL, you may want to consider going to the San Diego one. And there is also Disney Land in Anaheim (even closer to LA).

If you go from LA to Las Vegas, I really recommend going through Death Valley National Park. It looks like you are doing a southern route but if you end up more northern, I loved the Badlands in South Dakota.

Are you flying from Europe? Flying into New York? I think there may be a few too many places, especially if you are driving. If it were the winter, I might include places like Florida and Las Vegas. If it were summer, I would skip those and fly from NYC to Arizona or thereabouts for the Grand Canyon (picking up your car there), then drive to L.A. and up to San Francisco (a must) and then further up the coast through northern Califorina, Oregon, and Washington State, including perhaps Olympic National Park (a great park, though there are other great ones on that route). You could drive to Olympic National Park in Washington (on the Olympic Peninsula) coming up, then put the car on a ferry to Seattle. Then you could fly back from Seattle. In the winter I think a little Mexico might be good, but in the summer I would skip it for the northwest. As one poster noted, summer in the northwest is great. As for Sea World, you could take a whale watching cruise near Seattle and see some orcas in the wild. There may be other possibilities for whales and such on the West Coast as well.