The key to a low cost cross country road trip is the ability to find free campsites. Pretty excellent spot for a free campsite! How to find cheap places to stay while on a road trip The one night that we did stay in a hotel, it cost us $56, including taxes. Three of the campgrounds charged small fees – $10 per night. Five of the eight nights that we camped were completely free. We camped eight out of the nine nights we spent driving cross country. Free Camping our way cross countryĪs I said before – the answer to how we accomplished this is really simple. Nine nights and 3,200 miles later, we arrived back in Pittsburgh, a bit road weary but only slightly lighter in the wallet. We embarked mid-morning on Friday, after a hearty brunch and last minute supply run. I flew out on Thursday evening, arriving in time for a late dinner and drinks together. Dirk flew to Reno a couple days before me to address a few minor maintenance issues on the 911. After 16 days and 4,500 miles, they stored the car in Reno and flew home for winter. The Speedster, in spite of an engine swap Dirk and I completed, was still not cooperating. While I was taking a European road trip with my wife and daughter in July 2018, Dirk and another friend were finally scratching the itch, driving a 1969 Porsche 911 to the California coastline. However, the yearning to drive cross country in an antique Porsche did not abate easily. No matter we adapted on the fly and ended up taking a wild camping adventure of a lifetime. As detailed in the Astrophotography blog linked above, we discovered a last-minute engine failure that prevented us from taking that trip. Way back in 2017, Dirk and I were in the midst of planning a cross country road trip in a 1955 Porsche 356 Speedster he was building. But first, a bit of background about this trip. The answer is simple – so simple it almost defies logic. HOW? How to take a cheap Cross Country Road Trip And this does not include the expense of other supplies that we already owned that made the journey possible. The car was already waiting in Reno for our arrival. Our flights out west to start the trip were about $200 each. So other than what we spent eating lunches in local restaurants, our food didn’t cost any more than what we would’ve spent at home. We cooked almost all of our breakfasts and dinners. The cost of gas, supplies, and souvenirs was about $300-400 each. We spent exactly $86 total for nine nights of lodging. In other words, we spent less than $100 – for both Dirk and I – to lay our heads down every night on our cross country road trip. What we WERE able to do was to drive cross country for less than $100 in overnight accommodations expenses…. Even with a hybrid vehicle in the car, the cost of gas would push the price over $100 pretty quickly. No, I did not complete a cross country road trip for a grand total of less than $100 – that truly is impossible. I’m going to own up to the slight deception in the title of this blog. Budget travel is always a challenge, and taking a drive across the country can’t be realistic, can it? The cost of gas, food, lodging, souvenirs, maintenance, and other unexpected expenses can destroy even the heaviest wallet… The ability to take a cheap cross country road trip seems nearly impossible, especially with the price of gas these days.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |