West Texas to West Coast road trip

Hi Jamie,

We are Hungarian students in Lubbock, and planning to go on a road trip. We found your website while we were searching on the net on road trips, and think it is very helpful and entertaining. We would begin our trip on the 8th of August, and we will have 3 weeks to go. This will be the last 3 weeks for us in the States, so we would like to try make the best out of it.

Our original plan was something like the following: Lubbock-Denver-Mount Rushmore-Yellowstone-Portland-San Francisco-Los Angeles-Lubbock

Do you think it is realistic in 3 weeks? Or should we cut out something? We are interested in nice cities, cultural things, but we are more into scenic views/parks/ nice sites. (We would like to drive along the coastal road in California, and we found some scenic routes in Oregon which we might drive through.)

Is there anything what you would recommend along our way? Maybe any events/festivals or just a good restaurant? Any recommendation, suggestion or advice would be very helpful to us.

Thanks a lot, looking forward to hearing from you,


Judit and Gergő

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Dear Judit and Gergő --

Thank you for writing in to Road Trip USA, and sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Hope you're still planning to make the trip!

Your plans sound very manageable and enjoyable, perfect for a memorable 3 weeks, for sure. In my books (and on the website), I cover quite a lot of the territory you'll be visiting. I give lots of ideas for the Yellowstone-to-Portland section in the "Oregon Trail" chapter of Road Trip USA, and if you find you have the time on your way west from Yellowstone, I would suggest you make the scenic detour up into the Sawtooth Mountains (north from Boise Idaho), along what I cover in the US-93/Border to Border route.

Stanley Idaho is a fabulous little place, and the whole drive is pretty stunning!

Further west, Portland Oregon gives you easy access to the beautiful coastline -- the whole drive from Astoria down into California is fantastic (when the sun shines, at least...). And I think you'll like the Humboldt Redwoods area around Arcata and Eureka in northern California, where there is a lot of music and culture and good food in a very pretty coastal forest setting.

Then, on your return from LA to Lubbock, you can travel along famous old Route 66 as far as Amarillo -- where you can take photos of yourselves at Cadillac Ranch.

I recommend restaurants and hotels as well as great hiking trails throughout the Road Trip USA books, so I hope you can check it out -- and let me know what you find on your trip! Thanks again for writing, and

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
--
Road Trip USA

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