Has anyone gone on a road trip honeymoon?

LarraO2530

My FI and I have decided we would like to travel Rt 66 for our honeymoon from Chicago all the way to the Pier in CA. The one snag we've been trying to iron out is how does renting a car for this work, because we are from the East Coast and will fly in to Chicago to pick up the car we will drive out. We are looking for a nicer vehicle, something that is fun to drive on winding roads with t-tops or convertible, but that we are able to leave in CA and fly home without being penalized by the rental company. Anyone have suggestions/has done something similar?

climbingsingle

From my experience, most rental companies allow you to rent a vehicle in one state and return it in another. I don't know if there are added fees to this, though. But they should allow it. Check out some websites - I think you can price out what you're looking to do. 

emmyg65

You can usually rent in one place and return in another, but there's a fee involved. When we looked at doing this this in CA, it was about $200 most places. Honestly, for what you're planning, it would be worth it to me. But you might have different opinions.

ETA: It looks like Budget does no-fee one-way rentals: http://www.budget.com/budgetWeb/html/rentals/one-way-rental.html

LarraO2530

Oh that's awesome! Thanks for the info and input!! 

mlg78

Also with Budget check out renting from places that offer like a 15-25% discount if you pay in advance.  I do one-way rentals with Budget before/after cruises when I fly into one airport and have to drive to the port.

My husband's best man did a roadtrip for his honeymoon.  They left from the Cleveland area and over the course of a week headed down to Florida and back stopping in a few places. 

CMGragain

This plan would be my worst nightmare!  DH is a nervous traveler, and he drives me crazy on road trips.  He fusses about everything, refuses to ask directions, and the man gets lost in his own backyard!  He has to calculate the mileage he got on every tank of gas, and worried about food and motels.  (Fear of bedbugs.)  Gaaah!
I hope you and your FI have traveled on the road together before.  Otherwise, you may be in for a surprise.  Three years ago, my son-in-law and daughter took a daytrip with DH.  I'll never forget the dazed look on poor SIL's face when they returned.  The poor young man was in shock.
Magic words that have saved my marriage more than once: "Give me the @#%$! keys!  Now!"

LarraO2530

@CMGragain, yes we have traveled together from Delaware to the Florida Keys and we had a blast. He doesn't mind driving, even though he currently drives fuel trucks for a living, and I love to take pics of the scenery while we drive. We made pit stops when we needed to and never got fussy with each other, except the few miles that I drove, but it's a running joke even when we just drive from home to the grocery store, that he gets nervous bc I can't see the hood of the car (I'm only 5'0 tall and drive a Dodge Charger). We take day/weekend trips semi-regularly to various beach areas and attractions and truly enjoy each others' company. 

I'm more of a planner than FI, but when it comes to road trips he is on point with mapping out over-night stops, restaurants along various mile-markers to try if we're hungry when we get to them, and since he's a truck driver, he's amazing at re-routing on the fly. He's constantly logging on to websites, forums, and tripadvisor to check and double check that where we plan on stopping has good reviews with few complaints and there aren't any reports of illness or bedbugs! 

Thanks for all your input everyone! We are looking forward to traveling this historic route!!

CMGragain

Have a great time!  If you are using I-70, stop in Grand Junction CO and drive through the Colorado National Monument.  The rock formations are amazing!  Also, fill up your gas tank, because west of here, gas stations and cell phone service are few and far between!

SBmini

It won't be a problem to return the car in CA. In fact- since CA is such a hot market they may not mind it at all. I'm a huge fan of National because you get to pick your own car. You just get in and drive off- it's fantastic for people who care about what car they get. For a trip like that I would definitely recommend you find a car that is comfortable in addition to being fun. I've rented a number of Fords and find them to be excellent all around vehicles. Something like a Fusion or even a Mustang would be a great option. I got something like 34 MPG in the Fusion I rented too. Drove it a full tank all around LA, it was fantastic. 

LarraO2530

Thanks for the tip @SBmini !! We currently own a Mustang and a Charger, which are both fabulous, but we were hoping for something a little less every-day. FI is thinking we'll be able to rent something outrageous (Lamborghini, Maserati...) I'm thinking a little ( a lot ) less on the $$$$$ and more on the comfort and practicality like a t-top Camaro or targa top Corvette .... I have a feeling much more research will be put into this idea before a decision is made on which car to drive lol!! Heck we may even end up renting a nice, newer Charger with a sunroof (mine doesn't have one *hmpf*) because of the trunk space and comfort. 

And @CMGragain, thank you for the suggestion to take the drive through Colorado National Monument! We are excited to map out all the awesome sites along the way!

jenna8984

Last time we rented a car (May) it was $500 a week for a standard sedan with a $120 drop fee (diff city). The convertibles were $2,000 per week so be prepared for this to not be cheap. Also, I'm pretty sure I have read that RT66 is all busted up into pieces and detours. It's not a solid road that you can just stay on anymore. Might want to look into that. 

SBmini

I would not rent an exotic for a road trip. In addition to being really, really expensive it's going to be uncomfortable, loud, hard to get in and out of and not have a lot of space for luggage. If you want to splurge I would go for something like a small BMW, or the Camaro/Corvette idea. 

LarraO2530

We still have a ways to go before we have to make any decisions, our wedding isn't until 2016. We will definitely plan our route and research possible detours etc before nailing down the trip. I expected it to be a "rugged" trip, but thanks for the tips, we will make sure to research the status of 66 before heading out. As for the exotic cars being loud, that's not an issue, both the Mustang and the Charger have been upgraded in the performance and appearance dept . I'm slowly talking him into looking at a more practical vehicle, as I did price out a 1 day rental to possibly have for our wedding day to take pics, but since we live in DE the closest rental is out of Baltimore and in extra mileage fees to drive it from MD to our location in DE it would cost a small fortune, let alone the actual rental of the car. He was quite surprised lol. We are looking to get married during Maryland's Car Cruise weekend so that we can have a mini-moon after our wedding and still get our car fix. 

SBmini

I'm a car person too- I own an S2000 that is so low that backing out of the driveway takes the precision of a surgeon.  I've also driven a lot of road trips in sports cars- including 7 hours in a 996 the 5 hours in the S2k. You will be hating life after a few days of that, especially on degraded, poorly maintained roads. 

LarraO2530

We have been talking about maybe renting a Charger with a sunroof or maybe even a Jeep so we can take the top off. We definitely want something that will ride nice with plenty of room for our bags/souvenirs. 

We had our Charger loaded down for the trip to Florida, we had our bags for a 10 day trip, plus 2 extra suitcases for his parents and siblings since they flew down and didn't want to pay for checking luggage. Plus we dropped off my two bunnies to his grandmother's house on the way out of DE so she could take care of them while we were gone, so all of their stuff was in the car for a few hours as well. 

He'll just have to understand that we can't really rent a car with all the bells and whistles that we have on ours hehe.