How much is a USA road trip?

Our roadtrip started on July 24 in the morning and our flight home was on August 23 in the evening. This means we spent 31 days in the United States, and now we want to share the costs of our roadtrip with you, in order to help you with the planning. One thing right away – we are no low-budget travellers. When we find the time to go on holidays, we want to enjoy it to the fullest, therefore we would never sleep in hostels or put up with a lot of effort just to save a few dollars. We do not need a lot of luxury, but a certain comfort is a must on all of our trips. I would describe our budget as mediocre.

And here is what we paid for our roadtrip in total (for 2 people):

This means we spent about 5300€ per person. In some categories you could for sure save some money, but in some categories you could also easily spend a lot more. Some categories definitely need some further explanation, so here you go:

We flew with American Airlines and paid around 750€ per person. We started quite early from Munich, and with a 4-hour-stopover in Dallas on the way there and a 7-hour-stopover in Charlotte our flight times weren’t too bad. On the way there I would not recommend a stopover shorter than 3 hours, because the immigration process really takes at least 2 hours. On the return flight you can definitely go for shorter stopovers, because there it’s just the usual procedure as at any other airport, if you didn’t leave the US during your trip. Due to our jobs, we couldn’t book the flights too long in advance. If you book 3 or more months in advance you might get cheaper flights. This is the price we paid 1.5 months before takeoff.

We booked our rental car via billigermietwagen.de, this is a German platform which compares the prices of all the rental agencies. We thought it was quite clearly arranged and easy to handle. As we drive a SUV at home, we also wanted this comfort on our roadtrip, that’s why we paid a little bit more for a SUV. A “normal” car would have been 30% cheaper. We rented and returned the car in San Francisco – within CALIFORNIA THERE IS NO SURCHARGE for returning the car at a different city, but if you want to return the car in a different state, there is an extra charge. So try to avoid that. Try to rent the car from the airport, as they have the biggest choice and you can usually choose between different cars from the same category ;). As we were exploring SF without a rental car, we picked up our car from a small facility in the city center. There was only one SUV, so we didn’t have any other choice than the Hyundai Tucson, which was quite okay, but a Jeep Compass would definitely have been better.

This category includes an extra-insurance for our rental car (20€), our international driving licenses (30€), which you can buy at every ÖAMTC or ARBÖ with a valid driving license and a passport photo, and also the registration fee of our drone (10€), which you can get here . Next, it also includes our ESTA-fees (28€), which you need to apply for PRIOR TO YOUR TRIP here, a Lonely Planet travel guide for the Westcoast (25€) and our transport to & from the airport via Flixbus, (80€). Oh, and a small gadget to be able to charge our phones in the car, you can find it here. 

This is another category where you could indeed save some money, if you stay at hostels, or book everything in advance via airbnb or something like that. We wanted to stay as flexible as possible, and we only booked our accommodations for the first week in advance. One thing right away – San Francisco and L.A. are by far the most expensive places to stay. In San Francisco we had a really shabby hotel for 3 nights, and it still cost more than 300$ per person, just to give you an idea. In LA we absolutely wanted to stay at Venice Beach, and we booked a really cute airbnb in advance for about 500$ for 4 nights. After that, we always drove until we got tired, then stopped at a restaurant with wi-fi and booked our room for the night. Although it was high season, this worked out very well, and we always stayed at motels. Motels cost around 60-80$ per night, and as we really just slept there and continued driving on the next morning, we didn’t book any fancy hotels or luxury stays. Sometimes we booked motels with a swimming pool to take a quick dip in the morning. You could of course save some money here if you plan your whole trip in advance, but for us that was no option. Hostels or couch-surfing is also very popular and might be a lot cheaper as well. In Las Vegas we stayed for 4 nights, and after all those motels, we booked ourselves a nice room at the Luxor hotel, which was quite expensive with about 500€, but there are of course also cheaper options available JThis category really depends on you and your minimum needs of comfort and privacy.

This category I would say has been kept quite cheap and you could spend a lot more on food & drinks as we did. Our tip: most motels include breakfast, and we always had quite a lot for breakfast, then just a small snack for lunch, as we were mostly exploring or hiking anyways, and then a warm meal in the evening. As food options in the USA are quite monotonous (burgers, pizza, burritos) and unhealthy, we sometimes also just took some salads from the supermarket to our room, as it was much cheaper than eating at a restaurant. Food is really expensive in the US, and if you want to save some money you gotta stick to supermarkets, especially 7-Eleven from time to time. However, we of course also went to restaurants mostly, as it is simply more comfortable and less complicated. However, with an approximate budget of 25-30€ per person per day, we are still rather on the low-budget side within this category. 

As I already told you in my previous post, we purchased the “America the Beautiful” pass, which gives you unlimited access to all National Parks. The price for this annual pass is 80$ and is valid for up to 4 people in a vehicle. I can really recommend to buy this annual pass if you plan to visit 3 or more National Parks, as a single entry costs between 20-40$ per National Park. However, there are also State Parks and some places that belong to the Native Americans, and these parks are not included in the annual pass. Places that are not included in the annual pass were: Alcatraz (80$), 17-Mile-drive (11$), Horseshoe Bend (10$), Antelope Canyon (110$), Four States Corner (10$), Monument Valley (20$), Gooseneck State Park (5$) and Valley of Fire (10$). Furthermore we visited the Universal Studios in Hollywood, and our Express Tickets cost (520$) – if you are not interested in this, here is where you can save some money :D!

This category was really for our personal pleasure, and if you do not go shopping, you can save a lot of money again… However, this is not so easy, as the USA really have enormous outlets, and the prices there are really crazy, sometimes up to -80% on the regular price. So long story short… we spent a hell of a lot of money on clothes… Precisely 880€ on shoes and clothes (I won’t tell who spent more :D) and about 140€ on souvenirs. 

If San Francisco, L.A., and Las Vegas are on your plan, be prepared to pay A LOT OF parking fees… Parking lots are rare and the prices are sometimes absolutely crazy… Especially in San Francisco and L.A., some parking garages cost up to 50$ per day – that’s why we decided to pick up our rental car a few days after our arrival when we left SF… Also at beaches like Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, be prepared to pay 30$ or more for parking. We always tried to stick to street parking, even if that might be more risky, especially over night, as it happens quite often that cars are broken into. At least make sure that you never leave any valuables in the car over night :O! To save some money, do not take the garage or parking lot closest to the center, be patient and you will find a cheaper option for sure. Our tip for Venice Beach: just a few side streets from the beach you can find free street parking J

Fuel is relatively cheap in comparison to other stuff in the USA. The prices advertised at the gas stations are always per gallon (=3,8 liters), and we paid from 2,40$/gallon in Kingman up to 4,60$/gallon in San Francisco. The general rule is: the bigger the city, the more expensive the fuel. So try to fuel up in smaller towns. Basically, there are always enough gas stations, even in the middle of the desert you will find some… but anyways, it is better to be prepared – distances might be longer than expected… We mostly fueled up the car when we saw a cheap gas station, even if our tank was still half full. For 6741 kilometers, we needed 490€ for fuel, which is quite okay I think.

This point includes all the other stuff that didn’t fit into any of the other categories :D it includes 40€ for public transport (in SF we didn’t have a rental car and we also had to take the train from the airport to the city), about 25€ for toll roads (e.g. the Golden Gate Bridge which we crossed twice). Furthermore this category includes the price for the day-rent of a Mustang (160€), the beach cruisers we rented in L.A. (60€) and the entrance fees for several gyms or Crossfit boxes (150€) and some money we lost when gambling at the slot machines in Vegas (60€). I am sure that many people can save a lot of money here from this category, but for us it was worth every cent J

Find out more about our USA road trip here on our blog:

• 13 steps to plan your ultimate USA road trip
• 4 week west coast itinerary
• Best national parks on the US westcoast
• 10 things to see and do in LA
• 10 best stops along Highway 1
• Top 10 things to see in San Francisco

WATCH OUR ROADTRIP VIDEO HERE