We’re planning a trip to the USA in July/August this year, on a budget(hopefully).We’ll be starting with a visit to family in Washington and then the plan is to fly to Chicago, pick up a car and drive Route 66 through to LA with a few day in Vegas. I have lots of questions - first what are the best airlines flights will be Manchester Uk to Washington, Washington to Chicago and finally LA to Manchester. Will there be any problem collecting a car in Chicago and dropping off in LA? Finally I understand lots of the old Route 66 has disappeared and I know there are parts where there’s not much to see so what do people recommend as a must see? All help/tips are gratefully accepted. Thanks 
Washington, DC I presume? Anyway, too difficult to answer this early. You might want to book with a travel agent, if you can find one anymore. They are much better with complex itineraries, especially international. Sometimes travel on holidays is cheaper, so you may want to look into DC-Chicago on July 4th.
Just know that in July/August you will be travelling through the hottest parts of North America at the hottest time of the year. It is possible that you will start in near 100°F temps (38°C) and have 120°F (49°C) in parts of Arizona and Nevada. Carry extra water both to drink and several gallons for radiator overheating. AC is mandatory.
You will want to stop off in Santa Fe, NM, and Flagstaff, AZ for a respite from the heat. It will be brutal.
No problem with the rental car. Pick it up at O’Hare and drop it off at LAX.
Some friend of ours from the UK drove about half of Route 66 a few years ago starting from Chicago. They stayed with us for a couple of days.
You should be able to rent a car one way; however, it will cost extra. You certainly want to book the vehicle in advance.
Same goes for the flight. Round trip fares are cheaper so landing at Chicago then returning from LAX might be more expensive.
For these issues a good travel company, even an internet one like Orbits, should be able to help.
One problem with Route 66 is that it’s not just one road in many places. They would build better roads and bypasses so that there may be more than one ‘Route 66’ road between the same two places. I suggest that you get a guide book to help you plan your driving trip. Amazon.doc should have more than just one.
When near St. Louis, Missouri, I highly suggest that you stop at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Missouri River. You can’t drive on it; however, it’s open for walking and bicycling during daylight hours. It’s a very interesting bridge with a strange bend near the middle of it. Parts of the movie Escape from New York were filmed on it. I suggest parking on the Illinois side of the bridge as you get to drive over the Chain of Rocks Canal Bridge to get to the old bridge that way. You may get to see large river barges on the Canal part of the river.
A friend has been looking into something similar and found that one-way car rentals were hugely more expensive than returning the car to the starting point.
Fun kferr fact: In the early 80’s I lived on Route 66. It’s known as Martin Springs Drive as it passes thru Rolla, Missouri. I was attending UMR. There wasn’t enough student housing so the university rented all the motels along the old Route 66 thru town.
There are some good online Route 66 websites for trips such as yours.
Have fun!
I hope you’ll rent a car that is suitable for a Route 66 drive…something like a Mustang or a Challenger. You’ll probably get stuck with a V6 with an automatic transmission from all the major rental companies, but at least you’ll look cool!
You can rent all kinds of sports cars, exotics, etc. in Vegas, so if you get an econobox for most of the trip, you can always spend a day in a Viper cruising the Vegas strip.
Enjoy the trip…a lot of us Americans have never had the pleasure of driving cross-country or checking out Route 66 (myself included).
Do you have any experience with driving trips of this length, namely, 2400 miles or just a bit less than the distance between Paris and Moscow? Are you aware that only 85% of Route 66 is even paved? That this might cost you perhaps $500-$700 in fuel?
Route 66 Planning website:
A couple years ago I went out to Vegas with a group of friends in July. Two of us thought it’d be fun to rent a convertible and drive to the Hoover Dam. Five words of wisdom: Heat stroke is quite sneaky.
Here’s a website with pretty detailed information about the trip. There are maps and guide books available.
A note of caution. As Hello Again says, it’s a 2,400 mile drive. The origianl Route 66 disappears and reappears, and is comprised of everything from modern 4-lane highways to narrow roads with broken pavement that literally follow native trails. Sightseeing depends on your personal interests and quirks. Do your tastes run toward bizarre Americana like the Cadillac Ranch, natural landmarks like the Petrified Forest, small towns, big cities or whatever.
There’s a popular Rt. 66 landmark in Springfield, IL called the Cozy Dog. You can skip it. It sucks.
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Yikes. 2400 miles, assuming only 20mpg, will use 120 gallons of fuel. If that fuel costs $4/gallon, you’re under $500 bucks.
Most rental cars will likely get better mileage (even a Corvette gets over 20mpg highway), and the national average fuel price is closer to $3 than $4.
At the current national average fuel cost of $3.30, you’d have to average just 11.3 mpg to spend $700 in fuel.
This depends on the balance of cars in those cities at the particular rental company. If they happen to have too many cars in Chicago and not enough in LA, then the rental could be cheaper. If there is a shortage of cars in Chicago and an over supply in LA, you’re going to pay a premium.
It does seem that some cities are always oversupplied, espcially those with major airports. Most one way rentals want to drop their car at the airport.
Youre right - I used AAA trip fuel calcator, selecting a small SUV since not all of the route is paved. But it looks like I must have read the “round trip” line instead if the “one way” line. I haven’t owned a car since gas was over $4, so it didn’t immediately strike me as incorrect.
The lower end of my range, $500 is not a totally unreasonable estimate, assuming side trips.
Agreed, not at all!
I’ve done 66 from Chicago to LA once and driven sections of the Mother Road many many times. It’s kinda hard to follow in spots, even with a guidebook. Some states have better signage than others, and it’s easy to miss a turn or two. I think the best way to approach the trip is not to get too hung up on following the exact route and just have an adventure. There are a bunch of “must sees”, but you won’t have time to see them all. (Not to mention a whole lot of places along the way that aren’t really “official” 66 spots)
My favorite stretch is the run between Seligman and Kingman. Make sure you stop in at the Snow Cap Drive-In and the barber/gift shop next door–if you’re lucky you might run into Angel Delgadillo.
If you fly into to Reagan National you could start your trip from Rosslyn, Va - right where route 66 starts. It goes due west and ends at 81. Not a very big deal though.
While not a 4 star establishment Cozy Dog does not suck.
While passing thru Springfield, IL, make sure to hit the Dana-Thomas house, the best (IMO) Frank Lloyd Wright design.
I drove this section of Rt.66, many years ago. Even then the businesses along the road were dying (or dead). If you like creepy old motels (complete with spiders and scorpions) RT.66 is for you. I did have an excellent steak dinner in Kingman, AZ-it was a dusty old dump, but excellent food.
Santa Rosa NM bases much of its economy on Rte 66 and still has a lot of old hotels and restaurants from 50 years ago.
If you want to make a detour, it’s not far from Fort Sumner, which has the Billy the Kid Museum and the Long Walk Museum. (The Long Walk was when the US Army forced the Navajos and Mescaleros to walk across New Mexico to an army base outside Fort Sumner with tragic results.)
In Albuquerque Rte 66 is known as Central Avenue. A lot of the old motels have been torn down in recent years due to general disrepair or them being sites of drug activity but there’s still many things to see. A few of my pictures:
For our OP from across the pond, know that Interstate 66 (I-66) in Rosslyn, Virginia is in no way part of Route 66, “the mother road”.