Welcome to the first leg of our epic 6 week family holiday in the USA and Europe. This is the main page for our...
Two Week USA Road Trip for a Family
Landing in Los Angeles after what seemed like an eternity ... 12 hours and 10 minutes. New Zealand sure is far away from everywhere!
Our next challenge was getting through US border security. Even though we had diligently filled in or ESTA visas online and weren't breaking any rules I am always a little nervous until we come out the other side. At the time I thought the lines were long, but as we learned on our return visit they were actually quite short. We landed at 6am so maybe that is a good time to arrive.
Tip: Make sure any drinks or water bottles are empty!
Off to get the rental car we went. Thankfully I put my phone on international roaming for the first few days. (We later did get a local sim and e-SIMs, but I will add a link here when that post is written.) It was only a short walk from our terminal to the shuttle service, and a short crazy hectic drive to the rental car lot.
After meeting the least friendly customer service agent (the rest were all awesome!) we had the keys to this beauty. I had booked a Chevrolet Equinox but ended up with this GMC. It was nearly new and drove like a dream. We did have quite a few extras to pay, but I wanted the security of a straight swap if there were any issues. Our travel agent had booked this car for us but next time I would do it myself. It appeared cheaper to use the agent but the extras soon took care of that. It was also booked for the incorrect driver, so we had to pay an extra chunk for an additional driver. For those that are here for the numbers, the original cost was NZ$1420.40 (US$823.83 / €767.02) and the extras including the second driver came to NZ$704.91 (US$408.85 / €380.65). Pretty much half of the original price.
Tip: Make sure the car is booked in the name of the person driving and that they have a credit card in their name to pay for it.
We both had an international driver's license but this was not needed here. Definitely did need those in the Netherlands though.
Two Week USA Road Trip Map
Los Angeles - Palm Springs - San Diego - Tucson - Grand Canyon - Kanab - Bryce National Park - Zion National Park - Las Vegas - Los Angeles
The map above shows the general plan we had for our two week (14 day) road trip from California to Arizona to Nevada and back to California again.
The Total Cost
You might notice that we went well over budget for our accommodation budget of NZ$200 per night. This was solely because of our 3 nights in Las Vegas. We had a hotel booked right on budget but decided to splurge and stay at the Flamingo...because when in Vegas right! This was entirely not necessary and totally doable within budget if you need to.
We travelled in December 2024, so costs are from that time.
This is very general and I will add more detailed breakdowns (links below) as I write the posts. They will include activities, where we stayed, what we ate and of course the breakdown of all the costs!
Thank you for reading!