More than 2000 miles through Nevada, Arizona, Utah and California. Flown on to Florida, visited friends in South Carolina and finally New York. And all these plane tickets cost no more than €540,- in total!
My number 1 website for looking for airline tickets is skyscanner.com. I searched for tickets from the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium to the USA to compare the prices. It didn’t matter to me exactly where in the USA, because I would plan the trip around that. I never search for an exact date, but for the entire month for a price overview per day. I found a ticket from Dusseldorf (Germany) directly to Las Vegas for €250,- and 4 weeks later a direct flight from New York to Amsterdam for €150,-.
After booking those tickets I checked the domestic flights and quickly found Las Vegas – Tampa (Florida) for €80,- and Charlotte (North Carolina) – New York for €60,-. Tickets complete!
South West itinerary with Las Vegas as starting point
NB: for full information check the South West USA blog
- Las Vegas
- Death Valley
- Hoover Dam
- Williams / Grand Canyon
- Flagstaff
- Monument Valley
- Kingman
- Route 66 (Via Amboy / Roy’s Vacancy)
- Twenty Nine Palms / Joshua Tree National Park
- Los Angeles / Santa Monica
- Calico Ghost Town
- Las Vegas
Las Vegas – Tampa, Florida by plane
Florida itinerary
- Tampa / Clearwater Beach
- Everglades National Park airboat tour
- Key West
- Miami
- Fort Lauderdale
- Cocoa Beach
- Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
- Universal Studios Orlando
- King’s Bay Park at Crystal River glass bottom boat ride (spot a manatee)
- NFL Game (the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Miami Dolphins)
Florida – Charleston, South Carolina by car
Because friends of us are living in Charleston, they’ve picked us up in Florida by car to visit them. It is also possible to skip this step and fly directly from Florida to New York.
South Carolina itinerary
- Charleston
- Hilton Head
- Myrtle Beach
- Congaree National Park
- Ceasars Head State Park
- Cypress Gardens (Lake from the movie “The Notebook”)
Charlotte, North Caroline – New York by plane
Because the flight from Charlotte to New York were cheaper than Charleston to New York we decided to rent a car and drive to Charlotte to fly from there. Even with the rental car drop off at another place it was still cheaper than flying from South Carolina.
New York itinerary
- Central Park
- The MET
- Grand Central Station
- Statue of Liberty / Ellis Island trip (tickets must be bought upfront)
- 9/11 Memorial
- Times Square
- Edge Observatory, Hudson Yards
- Wall Street
- Brooklyn Bridge