Please find below some tips we live by while in the states… we’ve gotten the US road trip down pat. We even have folks contacting us before they go now for travel tips, preferred routes, and ideas in regards to particular attractions.
Travel routes and accommodations need to be planned in tandem, and well thought through choices here can make your life a lot easier. Explore multiple options when researching highways as well as walking routes, then link to where you’ll stay. Our choice of accommodation is the Hampton Inn, so we often look at that locale (they are almost always conveniently located for driving tourists) when city slicking and reach out from the particular accommodation to nearby attractions, public transportation (such as using our Charlie cards to move to/from Fenway), food service, etc.
- As I mentioned, we stayed at Hampton Inns/Hilton brand hotels while on the road. We like it because there are no surprises – Hamptons include wi-fi, full breakfast, most often include parking unless you’re in the core of a major city and are worth the rate. We collect Hilton Honurs points and double dip on Aeroplan miles as well. It’d be our first recommendation as a family on the road.
- We did have occasion/required accommodations well off the travelled route as we made our way to Great Spruce Head. We did an Inn, and very much enjoyed the experience. In a future tour, more removed from the city track, I think we’d be very open to experimenting more broadly with Inns/B&B style accommodation.
- The Toyota performed well… with Janie and I the sole passengers we got even better mileage than usual. Loaded with both paper maps and GPS, we rarely found ourselves in any sort of driving disarray.
- We actually “didn’t” call the card company before leaving! We posted a travel notification ourselves through online banking (I recommend you advise your bank in some fashion to avoid a card freeze due to unusual activity). Always a super idea to use the “Alerts” service too… Automatic e-mails that help with budgeting and screening for fraud.
- Many gas stations won’t accept a Canadian Credit Card at the pumps without a zip code. We got this figured out (Click here). Worked like a charm!
- The Canadian dollar is weak stateside… around .76 cents. It has diminished the bonus that gas, food, clothing and accommodation were a few years back. We emptied our sock of US cash and managed just one bank machine stop (at a Scotiabank affiliate which foregos any bank fees). Not many provincial plates in Maine!
- Have your paperwork in order at the border… you know what they’ll ask about and possibly for! Don’t be like that dude at the airport that has broken every security rule and slows down the process… be ready and organized. Janie uses a spreadsheet App on her iPhone to tally everything up. Slick!