Travelling America/NFL Road Trip

[bergeroo]

In general I found the buses ok. My biggest advice would be to try and arrive in daylight.

Rolling into downtown LA at 1am on the greyhound with no place to stay that night was not one of my favourite experiences!

 

No experience on bus travel in the States, but I believe many of the bus stations are in the gansta part of town. For a shrewdie, no problem. Enjoy your trip, sounds great.

[celtic]

Trip sounds incredible.

Report would be good too. And pictures of your new slim body too please 👍🏼

[ChipRich]

I did a three month road trip with no car around the US West Coast several years ago. Not always easy to be carless but very possible. Best trip I ever did and I'm sure you'll have a great time.

Also lived in Oakland for a couple of years on and off before Black Friday. Very underrated city.

Will write a bunch of stuff when I have more time in the next few days, but one to add to your schedule.

Stanford v Washington State, Sat 8th October. Fits in with your plans in the Bay Area and is easy to get to from SF/Oakland.

Stanford a cracking shout. Didnt no it was close to San Fran tbh! Will insert that into the plan i think. Actually closer to San Fran than Levi's Stadium it looks like.

Thanks, thats much appreciated mate.

Just checked actual flights from New Orleans to Atlanta, Atlanta to Tennessee, Tennessee to Indy and Indy to New York and it looks just as much as train so maybe flying for that part of it is the way forward.

[ChipRich]

Trip sounds incredible.

Report would be good too. And pictures of your new slim body too please 👍🏼

I dno about that mate!  Not quite there yet until I can do some gym work after my ankle surgery 7 weeks ago!

[Longy]

Sounds incred.

I have done similar stuff to this in the past but ironically the only thing on sporting place on your list I have done is been to the Chargers stadium, which to be honest by American sporting stadia is well past its sell by date.

You have UCLA in la and Cal in the Bay Area for more college stuff. Though i would go whole hog with the college stuff when you are in the Deep South as they take ridiculous seriously. If you want an alternative area in the us that is sporting mad I would recommend the Pacific north west, a Seahawks game in particular.

You into the other Big 4 us sports as you will catch the playoffs in baseball and the start of the NBA/NHL season which you could tie into the trip. I would recommend highly NHL games even though it is the least popular of the sports I think it is the best one to watch live.

Not sure how much of a sightseer you are but California is amazing especially with the car. Especially the coastal road from la to San Fran is stunning and Yosemite national park is incred as well.

Basically you can't go wrong apart from watch yourself with the buses, they are very ghetto. I personally would stick with hire cars and planes but if you are on a strict budget then fair dos.

If you have any questions feel free to ask, this is a bit of a specialist subject of mine!

[Longy]

Just seen you don't drive, sigh that is a bit of a handicap in the states with the exception of a few big cities.

[bergeroo]

If you want an alternative area in the us that is sporting mad I would recommend the Pacific north west, a Seahawks game in particular.

If your route isn't yet set in stone then I'm also a big fan of Seattle and Portland and they are two of the most easy cities in the US for non car drivers. Three Pac 12 teams quite close together up there and also the Seahawks you could be able to see a bunch of games, plus they might be more fun cities than Indianapolis and Atlanta - though I'm prepared to be proved wrong!

[ChipRich]

Sounds incred.

I have done similar stuff to this in the past but ironically the only thing on sporting place on your list I have done is been to the Chargers stadium, which to be honest by American sporting stadia is well past its sell by date.

You have UCLA in la and Cal in the Bay Area for more college stuff. Though i would go whole hog with the college stuff when you are in the Deep South as they take ridiculous seriously. If you want an alternative area in the us that is sporting mad I would recommend the Pacific north west, a Seahawks game in particular.

You into the other Big 4 us sports as you will catch the playoffs in baseball and the start of the NBA/NHL season which you could tie into the trip. I would recommend highly NHL games even though it is the least popular of the sports I think it is the best one to watch live.

Not sure how much of a sightseer you are but California is amazing especially with the car. Especially the coastal road from la to San Fran is stunning and Yosemite national park is incred as well.

Basically you can't go wrong apart from watch yourself with the buses, they are very ghetto. I personally would stick with hire cars and planes but if you are on a strict budget then fair dos.

If you have any questions feel free to ask, this is a bit of a specialist subject of mine!

Thanks for that.

Yeah I plan on seeing 1 or 2 baseball games & basketball games. Hadn't thought about NHL tbh, but will consider that now. Just getting the route decided and then will plan other things around the NFL i think is the best bet.
Yep, not driving not ideal at all, but hoping it can be done. At least will be with mates that have car for the LA/SAN DIEGO/San Fran section and from what I've read New Orleans & Tennessee seem ok without a car but I could be wrong. Unsure of Atlanta & Indy yet.

Think I have swayed across from idea of buses for now unless it really needs to be done to get somehwhere!

[ChipRich]

If you want an alternative area in the us that is sporting mad I would recommend the Pacific north west, a Seahawks game in particular.

If your route isn't yet set in stone then I'm also a big fan of Seattle and Portland and they are two of the most easy cities in the US for non car drivers. Three Pac 12 teams quite close together up there and also the Seahawks you could be able to see a bunch of games, plus they might be more fun cities than Indianapolis and Atlanta - though I'm prepared to be proved wrong!

Yeah, we really did consider going to Seattle over the LA/SD/SF leg straight from Vegas but the scheddy didn't really allow for it with Seahsawks away week 4 and on Bye week 5 I think. Could go there straight from San Fran to get there for week 6 I suppose but kinda have my heart set on that Panthers @ Saints game week 6 now!

Not that fussed about Indianapolis, but it just fell in nicely with going up there a few days after the Thursday Night Football in Tennessee before heading over to NY.

[Woodsey]

Research is the key, some bus routes would probably be OK, you just need to find out about the area they drop you off in as someone mentioned. It's a long time since I used the buses there, but that was my experience when I used them a few times. The trains aren't always better either, the stations are often in the downtown areas, they can sometimes be pretty ghetto too.

This is the site that I always use for train info to give you a flavour of what's possible.

http://www.seat61.com/UnitedStates.htm#.VxILatR4WrU

Don't know what sorts of places you are planning on staying, but I stayed in a lot of hostels when I backpacked there. That enabled me to meet a lot of people and I managed to get a couple of lifts to places with people who had rented cars and I gave them some petrol money in return.

[ChipRich]

Cheers, il have a good look at that site.

Thinking about just going by flights now as they seem cheap enough and possibly changing the route from New Orleans onwards

Thinking:
New Orleans (week 6)
Miami (week 7)
Tennessee (week 8 - Thursday)
Chicago (week 8 Sunday)
Then onto New York onwards, starting Eagles @ Giants (week 9)

Over

New Orleans
Atlanta
Tennessee
Indy

Will have a good look online and decide.


Yeah, about where to stay. Have been looking at hostels too. Never done anything like that before, but from what I've heard they're absolutely fine and like you say, good way to meet people etc.
Any bad experiences with them or anything?

Thanks again

[booder]

Trip sounds incredible.

Report would be good too. And pictures of your new slim body too please 👍🏼

[bobby1]

Sounds fantastic bud, I've been to a few of those places but a bit stuck for time at the moment. I would deffo echo the idea that seeing a Seahawks game in Seattle would be a great addition (it's incred) and you also have The Sounders soccer games if the timing is right. As a non driver myself the stretch between New York and Washington is really easy to get around by Amtrack and it's quicker and cheaper to get the train between Washington, Balti, Philly and New York ( obviously you aren't going on that trip to save up but as an example the taxi fair from JFK to Time Square is about $70) and you can get the train from Philly to Washington for about $40 if you book in advance. I noticed you didn't have those cities on your schedule but if you are flying back from New York and going to be based there at the end if your trip than games in any of those places will be easy to get to. Think it's just over 4 hours to Washington from New York, about 2 1/2 from Philly, Baltimore less. For sport watching Philliy is perfect as most of the main sporting venues are in the same area so you can minimise travel costs there and the underground station is about a 10 minute walk from the arena area.

If you could find a stretch that goes Washington, Balti, Philly and the New York by train at the end of your stay it will be easy for you to get around without a car. I once flew from NY to Washington. It took 45 mins and 70 bucks  from Time Square to JFK, I got there 90 mins before the flight, it took about 1 hour 20 to fly to Washington and we flew over the Redskins stadium 30 mins before we landed. RR airport is at the opposite side. By the time I've got off the plane, got luggage and got the train to the Redskins side of town it had taken over 6 hours from hotel room to hotel room and you can just get in the Amtrak in New York and get off at the main train station in Washington which is about half a dozen stops from the Redskins area in 4-5 hours instead and it will be much cheaper. Baltimore is the main stop before Washington too so great options by train along that stretch if you can spot games you fancied. I would try to avoid the buses too bud, I've mainly got them too and from Atlantic City from Philly and as its only a short journey you could go there too but you see plenty of 'characters' on some of those bus trips.

[ChipRich]

Thanks for that Bobby.

I would love to go Seattle and see a game tbf. Just not sure I can make it work properly within this scheddy and timescale etc.

Been looking miss off the second game Week 10 Rams @ Jets after week 9 Eagles @ Giants and head over to Boston to see Seattle @ New England then head straight back to New York for the MNF Bengals @ Giants. Obviously not the same as in Seattle but will be hell of a game!

Anyone know when tickets go on sale? Do you buy them early or go on the nfl fan ticket exchange or stubhub nearer the time?

[marcro]

Since you cant drive I would strongly recommend to travel only to the major cities.  Public transport will be very limited.

Stick with taking flights.

The planned itinerary looks very good indeed.