re: USA Road Trip: Houston to Detroit in 3-4 days In US, you can normally cover 1300 Miles in 2 days with a break at night. Since you have planned for 4 days for the trip, you can stop and visit some places along the way. Rental Car: You can book the car with any of the popular rental companies - Hertz, Budget, Enterprise, National, Avis or Alamo. Typically you can find better and more popular cars with Hertz and the rates vary from company to company. While you can also try with aggregator sites like Kayak for better rates, some sites like Hotwire do not always guarantee good cars. But lookout for any discount codes on the net.
Based on the details provided, you are not returning back to Houston and are going to drop the car in Detroit. It would cost you extra for one way rental usually. Check with the rental company DL and Insurance: You can drive in US with UK DL. However in Texas they may ask for a secondary ID which can be your passport. If you dont have any insurance cover already, I suggest you buy the insurance with the rental company while booking the car. The following are the components to be covered
1. Loss Damage Waiver/Collision Damage Protection - This protects against any damages to the car during the trip
2. Personal Accident Insurance - Protects you and others travelling with you in the car
3. Supplemental Liability Protection - This is the most expensive component of the insurance and most important as well. It will cover for any damages sustained to third parties in an accident caused by you
Depending on your risk appetite, you can buy one or more of the above.
Most US cards, especially AMEX covers the insurance when you book the car using the card and pay a nominal amount. Pls speak to your card company to check for coverage. If not buy it from the rental company. Even though its expensive, it gives you peace of mind. I am speaking from experience, never take chance with insurance in US. Trip Route: You can try the below route instead of what you mentioned
Houston -> Memphis -> Nashville -> Louisville -> Cincinnati -> Detroit. This route will have similar time and distance however you can try to cover a few places along the way. With this route, you can try for
Day 1: Houston -> Nashville
Day 2: Nashville -> Louisville/Cincinnati (depending on what you want to see)
Day 3: Louisville/Cincinnati -> Detroit
Alternate Day 2: Nashville -> Knoxville -> Smoky Mountains National park (You can spend the rest of the day exploring Smokies even though its too less a time to visit such a vast park.)
Alternate Day 3: Smoky Mountains -> Lexington -> Cincinnati -> Detroit. Again you can break further along this route and proceed into Day 4 Places you can try to cover: Houston -> Memphis goes through southern states like Arkansas, Mississippi, where its better to stick to highways and not venture into too much of rural areas. As is, these states dont have many places of interest. Anyways, for a good part in Texas, you will be going through state highways covering the rural areas.
Nashville has a Nissan plant where you can take a quick plant tour if you reach there in time and if you are interested to see.
If religious places are of any interest, Nashville Ganesh temple is another place you can stop by. While temples are there in almost all major cities in US, this one is gaining a lot of popularity offlate
Between Nashville and Louisville, you will come across a city called Bowling Green which has a Corvette museum. This is a nice place to try. There was a sink hole in this museum where cars got buried. I dont know if they have covered it up now
After Bowling Green there is Mammoth Cave National Park which has the largest cave network in US. This is on the way to Louisville
In Louisville, there is a Ford assembling plant. But Louisville is more known as the birthplace of KFC and you can visit the Colonel Sanders(KFC) Museum here
Louisville is also the place of the famous Kentucky Derby
If you are willing to take a little diversion from Louisville towards east and try to do Louisville -> Lexington -> Cincinnati instead directly doing Louisville -> Cincinnati, in Lexington, which is considered the horse capital of US, you can try Kentucky Horse Park.
Near Lexington, there is a Toyota Camry plant(which is the only Camry plant outside Japan) in a place called Georgetown.
Infact the interstates I-65 and I-75 in these regions all the way till Detroit are known are automobile super highways for the number of assembling and manufacturing plants along these freeways.
In case, you take alternate route to Smoky Mountains, on the way from Smoky Mountains to Lexington, there is Cumberland falls which should have water now and is quite scenic
Pick from these places based on whatever suits your itinerary General Tips
1. Keep more than one card which will work in US
2. Ensure you have sufficient cash, in case cards dont work
3. Keep 2 phones with 2 service providers and ensure that atleast one of them has sufficient data plan
4. Rental cars in US are mostly basic low end models of the brand. So unless you ask for a car which has GPS in it, you may not have it. If you take GPS separately, it will be charged extra on per day basis. If you are carrying phones with good data plans, then you can use your phone as the GPS
5. You can get good hotels at good rates along highways for overnight stays. Pls make sure you book ones with breakfast option so that you can optimize on time spent searching for the same. If you have a fluid plan, you dont need to book them in advance and can book as you go along the way. In such case, book hotels which are slightly away from cities to get better rates
6. Almost all cities in your route will have Indian restaurants, but unless someone local recommends a specific place or you are craving for Indian food, you can keep away from them and try the regular American restaurants. Never get into Chinese buffet places.
7. Driving in US, especially in the route you are going to travel, will be a breeze. Dont need to worry about it.
8. Exits from freeways at certain places can get pretty tricky, if you are not used to the exits in US. In case you miss an exit, dont panic. proceed forward and take the next exit and stop by at the nearest gas station and recalibrate your route. GMaps will automatically do it for you for the most part.
9. Since its summer time, it can get pretty hot there. Carry sunscreen lotions, in case you want to spend extended periods under the sun.
10. Watch out for the speed limits in different stretches of the freeways. Normally you can go at +10 over the speed limit without getting caught by cops. For 65MPH limit, you can go at around 75MPH without the risk of being caught. However in Texas they are a little more strict, so its better to stick to the limits.
11. Speed limits on the same freeway change from state to state. The Southern and Midwestern states have higher speed limits compared to the eastern states. For example, Tennesse allows for 70MPH - 75MPH limit on most sections of the freeways where as in Ohio its limited to 65MPH. Also apart from Texas, Ohio is one of the stricter states where people get ticketed for speeding violations. As a thumb rule, make sure your are around the stated speed limit or follow the traffic around you
10. Carry your passports and other documents which you prove your stay in US is legal |