Honeymoon Discussions

Road trip from NH to Vegas?

My fiance and I are thinking of taking a road trip from NH to Vegas - stopping at national monuments, museums, and fun attractions along the way. Has anyone gone on/known someone who went on a road trip honeymoon? I think it will be fun to be just me and him on an adventure. Any must-see attractions between NH and Vegas would be appreciated too. Neither of us have traveled outside of New England much!

Note: The road trip is more about the stops along the way than getting to Vegas. We may end up making Florida or somewhere the "turn around" spot.
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Re: Road trip from NH to Vegas?

  • not too many tips, but i just wanted to say that the road trip idea sounds really, really fun!  i'm getting married in january, otherwise i'd probably consider it also.  depending on if you're going north or south across the country, you could plan on stopping in Austin, TX which is a really cool city, and then maybe drive west to the grand canyon before heading up to vegas?  if you've never been, the grand canyon is absolutley incredible, and i'd highly, highly recommend. 
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_road-trip-from-nh-to-vegas?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:c2cb2fde-3968-4057-8afc-e91761cb9685Post:e1f0fac7-2852-4c3a-b3af-f4a30f62c2bb">Road trip from NH to Vegas?</a>:
    [QUOTE]My fiance and I are thinking of taking a road trip from NH to Vegas - stopping at national monuments, museums, and fun attractions along the way. Has anyone gone on/known someone who went on a road trip honeymoon? I think it will be fun to be just me and him on an adventure. Any must-see attractions between NH and Vegas would be appreciated too. Neither of us have traveled outside of New England much!
    Posted by alisonmae[/QUOTE]

    How much time are you taking for a honeymoon? Don't get me wrong, it sounds like fun, but you're looking at four 10-hour days of driving, and that's <u>one way</u> with no construction, no detours, no unexpected delays. That doesn't include stopping to look at and do stuff.
  • Thanks! We're really excited and neither of us have been to the Grand Canyon... on our to do list! :)
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  • We are planning to probably take 2 weeks, more if needed. I want to spend 4-5 hours of driving per day, and stop and stay at different places along the way. Example: From where we are to NYC it's about 4.5 hours. We can get up and go in the morning, spend the afternoon and evening there, and then get up in the morning, and spend 5 hours or so driving to the next fun location!  Its more about the trip than actually getting to vegas. We will probably only spend a night or two in vegas before turning around to hit a few more places on our ride home!
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  • We were originally going to do something like this.  We are getting married in Vegas and wanted to road trip toFlorida then back to MN.  But ultimately we decided against this just because I was having a hard time budgeting for gas and such.  We decided for an AI instead.  But I think it sounds like fun!
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  • Two weeks there and back with 4-5 hours of driving does not seem possible, it will be closer to double that time in the car.

    I've driven cross country twice - I would recommend the southern route though if you're going out and back you could make a loop.
    - Mammoth Caves in Kentucky
    - Hot Springs in Arkansas

    The northern route through Colorado will be tougher on your car and there is a good chance your brakes will over heat.
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  • Not to be a jerk about this, but I think you're being overly optimistic about how long it's going to take you to get to NYC from NH, which makes me think that pretty much all of your time estimates are going to be off.  I know MapQuest or whatever is telling you 4.5 hours, but as someone who lived in Massachusetts and had to come home to the greater-NYC area for family events often, I can tell you it was always at least a 4.5-5 hour drive from Mass. to NYC - considering NH was another hour at least north of where I was living at the time, I'm having a really, really hard time believing there is anywhere in NH that's only 4.5 hours to NYC.  

    Point being: don't rely on Google maps to figure out how long it's going to take you to get somewhere, especially if you've never been there before.  Frankly, in the Northeast (and down through Virginia-ish), you pretty much need to add at least 45-60 minutes to those estimates, because there will always be some sort of traffic, congestion, construction, or delay.  If you're going to do this, you may want to look up "road trip itineraries" or something on Google to get more accurate time estimates.  It would completely suck to think you've got a 4.5 hour drive and then be sitting in the care for 7 hours because you didn't know about the traffic.
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  • oh wow.  Thats a LONG road trip.  I can honestly say that if FI and I were to do that for our honeymoon we would probably be divorced by Texas or so! haha

    But if thats your thing then go for it!!
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  • I managed to drive from Vegas to seacoast NH in three days...the first two days were 12 hours behind the wheel, and by the time I reached PA, I kept going and so the last day of driving was about 24 hours.

    A roadtrip can be alot of fun, but I think you are underestimating your drive time. 4-5 hours a day isn't enough really, espcially if you want to stop and see things. We recently drove to Gettysburg and that took us about 7 hours. You WILL get stuck in NY, and if you have ever driven through CT, that will take forever, too. We are planning roadtripping in Colorado for our HM, but we are flying to Denver and will stay in a few places out there.

    I would recommend using AAA. They can help plan your trip, give you actual road maps (which I recommend HIGHLY when driving that far), and they will point out consturction and tolls. Plus, they will point out places to see.

    HTH and good luck!
  • I'm not sure on the time estimate issues mentioned by PPs, so I won't get into that, but just one thing I figured I'd mention in case you haven't considered it....have you thought about renting a car in NH, taking your time driving across the country to Vegas, and then leaving the rental car there and then just flying home?  Might save some time, as well as significant wear and tear on your car.  Depending on what your currently drive, you might even save some $$ on gas? 

    That way you could drive out at your leisure.  Have you and your FI done long road trips together before?  We have, and it's gone fine, but even I'm not sure if I'd want to spend a week driving, then a few nights in Vegas, and then turn around and do the whole thing again.  At least if you plan on flying home, if the drive out turns out to be more stressful than you'd imagined at least you know that you can hop on a plane and go home and don't have to endure the whole drive all over again?  Just a thought.  Good luck with the planning!  I think it sounds like a great trip. 
  • Thanks for all the tips! We haven't done a long road trip before, but the "road trip" itself is what we are after. I only used Vegas as an example - even if our road trip consisted of driving from nh to PA and back we want to spend time in a car traveling from one place to another on an adventure.  Also the times were just an example as well, so try not to focus on the "details" just the over all idea.

    Renting a car and then flying back does sound like a good option - which I hadn't considered. I'll be looking into that for sure, mostly for the sake of my car! :)
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