Route 66, advice and Advice and Opinions please

[goffahsez]

(a pea-roast from the American forum)


My OH and I are planning in doing the route 66 trip. My only real requirements are a traditional American v8, and possibly a detour to Vegas towards the end.
We are allowing ourselves around three weeks, within which to cover the distance.

My question basically is, from your point of view, what is worth stopping to do/see, and what's best skipped past?

From reading another thread I gather Hertz are pretty sound for car rental. Any other opinions would be great.

Thanks in advance.


Oh, this is possibly inspired by the idiot abroad episode, loved it.

[RDMcG]

Here are a few threads I posted that might be of itnerest:

November trip:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=107...

side trip to Davis Monthan Aircraft graveyard:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=107...

Return including Las Vegas

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=107...

A section I hit in December

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=108...

April trip:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=113...

I strongly recommend the E-Z guide to Route 66 by Jerry McLanahan as the best book, as well as the 8 map set he produces. Invaluable. There is also quite a good book called Ghost towns of Route 66. ROute 66 is far from complete, especially from Chicago to Missouri, but it gets much better after that. Make sure you keep an eye on the weather. It can be dangerous and unpredictable on the Panhandle and NM. I am going back again in November and have mapped out other sections I missed. You do not need any special car, but go for something good for long distance cruising.

[goffahsez]

That's great,

Thanks a lot. Will give all of these a read. A great chunck of info to get started with. :-)

[RDMcG]

By the way, always go West. the whole of 66 facilitated Western movement and most of the convenient exits from the main highways are Westbound. One other thing you might want to look at which is quite good fun is Billy Connolly's Route 66 video set..

[goffahsez]

RDMcG said:

By the way, always go West. the whole of 66 facilitated Western movement and most of the convenient exits from the main highways are Westbound. One other thing you might want to look at which is quite good fun is Billy Connolly's Route 66 video set..

just been flicking through your posts funnily enough. Going to have to spend a lot longer on them http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/imgs/2.gif.

Amazing photos, thanks so much for sending the links over. Yeah, we were planning on doing it westbound, as we would like to do Vegas nearer the end.

I really enjoyed the bits and pieces of Billy Connelly's show, must remember to catch up with all of it.

Cheers again, very very helpful.

Oh and by the way, lovely cars! http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/imgs/9.gif

[fatboy18]

Williams in Arizona is a must, You can get a train to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and get entertainment wile on board, my family loved the day trip to the rim and back on the train.

As you get into LA there is also the NHRA museum at Pomana http://www.museum.nhra.com/ also near this is Irvindale motor speedway track http://www.irwindalespeedway.com/
Its worth checking the websites see what events are on, you may end up taking your family to a Drag racing meet or a NASCAR meet, my family loved it and my Missus is not really into cars! Its slightly off track but Bryce canyon in Utah is outstanding. One thing we did do which was good was to pull up in the middle of monument valley and watch the sunset, however there is a slight hitch if doing this, its in the middle of nowhere, so when the sun sets it turns to total blackness and there is no town for bloody miles! I had to hoof it in the car to find a motel well over 100miles away!.....We found a great place in a town called 'Kenab' this was in Utah. We managed to find a Hotel which was mentioned in the unoffical rough guide http://www.parrylodge.com/ by the time I got there they had just finished serving evening meals, this meant that they would not serve you any Beer! So I had to drive to a Fuel station/ 7/11 store, buy a 6 pack of Bud, put it in a Brown paper bag, put it in the Boot of the car NOTE Alcohol must not be within the passenger areas inside the car, it must be in the trunk , and return to my hotel room to chill out after a bloody long days drive. There are Western movie sets around this area We then moved onto a town called Page and ended up staying at Bashful Bob's Motel http://www.bashfulbobsmotel.com/ Really quirky and well worth a visit Your traditional old school old time motel.
Wish I could do it all again, but dont have the funds at the moment Enjoy your trip

Edited by fatboy18 on Tuesday 7th August 09:57