John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints

Summary of Costs of a Fly/Drive Holiday from the UK to the USA and Canada in the Summer of 1997

In May and June 1997 we flew from Norwich to Amsterdam with Air UK (now called KLM UK) and from Amsterdam to Washington DC (Dulles) with Northwest Airlines, using a Northwest Fly/Drive (subsequently called Fly Drive USA and now called Holiday-America) package which was booked direct with them.

We spent four weeks touring the Shenandoah National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Natchez Trace Parkway, the Great River Road, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Manitoulin Island, the Bruce Peninsula, the Muskoka Region and Algonquin Provincial Park, the north shore of Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River, Niagara Falls and western Pennsylvania.

The following costs are for the four weeks, for three adults. Where relevant all the costs are for all three of us combined, NOT per person. Please bear in mind that your costs in the USA and Canada may vary considerably depending on your lifestyle.

Paid to Northwest Fly/Drive

Flights (UK£350 each) UK£1050

Airport tax (UK£25 each) UK£75

Car (I4 grade) (UK£83 per week) UK£332

Supercover option (covered top-up insurance, CDW and state sales tax) (UK£18 per day) UK£504

10% discount -UK£188.60

Because we elected to take the "Supercover" option there were no separate payments for top-up insurance or to Alamo in Washington.

Insurance

Britannia Continental - normal holiday insurance UK£172.80

Motel Costs

Average motel costs in the USA were US$51.37 (the equivalent of UK£34) total for three adults per night including tax. We used a mixture of chain and independent motels in the USA.

Average motel costs in Canada were CDN$55.50 (the equivalent of UK£25.23) total for three adults per night including tax (the GST tax was later refunded). We only used independent motels in Canada.

USA Car Details

The car was a brand new four door Buick Skylark (2.4 litre) rented from Alamo, with three miles on the clock when we picked it up.

We drove 7712 miles in four weeks.

The average petrol consumption was 36.4 miles per Imperial gallon.

The average petrol price in the USA was US$1.178 per US gallon, equivalent to UK£0.195 (19.5p) per litre.

The average petrol price in Canada was CDN$0.5853 per litre, equivalent to UK£0.2658 (26.58p) per litre.

Petrol (gas) price conversion charts

Current petrol (gas) prices

Costs

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As with all the other pages on this personal web site, all the information on this page is solely the opinion of the author, who has no connection whatsoever with any of the companies and organisations mentioned other than as an actual or potential customer.
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Most recently modified 8-Feb-01