In 2010, I took a six week road trip around the US and Canada! The tri[p took in much of the North East side of the US and Canada – as far west as Chicago and south as Washington.
North America road trip route
This trip took place in the US cities of Boston, Burlington (Vermont), Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington and New York, plus the Canadian cities of Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, London (Ontario), Chatham and Sarnia. The road trip also included the incredible Niagara Falls and trips to all but one of the great lakes, plus we got to spend 4th July Independence day celebrations on the banks of the Charles river in Boston!
Road trip – The Car
We hired a Dodge Caliber Automatic from Europcar on Commonwealth Road in Boston. The car was an excellent way to road trip america – enough room for two to stretch out, carry all our tents and backpacks and was economic enough on fuel. The downside is that, in the US, car hire comes without basic insurance, so whilst the price of $800 for 6 weeks split between two of us was great value, we had to add an extra $600 for insurance which wasn’t detailed prior to hire.
Road trip accommodation
We stayed in loads of accommodation types in the US and Canada – hostels, hotels, motels, tents and friends spare rooms! In general, the US and Canada do not have the quality or number of backpacker hostels that south asia of europe has, and many are surprisingly expensive. Some of the highlights for hostels were
- Montreal: We stayed in Auberge L’Apero – a small hostel a 20min walk from the old town. This is a excellent, friendly and cheap hostel where we met some great people and had a lot of fun
- Toronto: Backpackers on Dundas was our second hostel in Toronto and superb compared to the – worst hostel in toronto. Small and friendly, air con and comfy beds. Global Backpackers – NEVER go there – noisy, hot, disgusting, leaking roof, filthy showers – yuk!