John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints


Summary of Costs of a Fly/Drive Holiday from the UK to the USA in the Spring of 2001

Introduction

In April 2001 we flew from Norwich to Amsterdam with KLM UK (previously called Air UK) and from Amsterdam to Los Angeles, returning from Los Angeles via Amsterdam, using a Holiday-America) package which was booked direct with them.

We spent four weeks touring southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, southwestern Colorado, southern Utah, and the southernmost tip of Nevada.

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 may vary considerably depending on your lifestyle.

Currency Conversion Rates

On this page currencies have been converted at the rate of 1UK£ = US$1.405, which was approximately the rate applicable at the time.

Paid to Holiday-America

Flights (UK£219.00 each) UK£657.00

Airport tax (UK£73.70 each) UK£221.10

Car (I4 grade for four weeks including CDW/LDW, state tax and Top-Up insurance) (UK£193.00 per week) UK£772.00

Insurance (UK£39.60 each) UK£118.80

Because we booked directly with Holiday-America, we received a 10% discount on the airfare. The above costs are the figures after that discount was applied, in other words what we actually paid.

Paid to Alamo in Los Angeles

No charge (the car rental voucher included all costs).

Motel Costs

Average motel costs in the USA were US$50 (approximately equivalent to UK£35.60) total for three adults per night including all taxes.

The highest we paid was US$110 per night (approximately equivalent to UK£78.29) at an independent motel in Indio, California. The lowest we paid was US$35.84 per night (approximately equivalent to UK£25.51) at an independent motel in Cortez, Colorado. These rates include all taxes.

We used Motel 6 for eighteen nights, Super 8 for one night and independent motels for nine nights.

USA Car Details

The car was a four door Chevrolet Malibu rented from Alamo, with 3056 miles on the clock when we picked it up.

We drove 6514 miles in four weeks.

The average petrol consumption was approximately 32 miles per US gallon.

We purchased 204 US gallons of petrol for a total cost of US$322, giving an average cost of US$1.58 per US gallon. Prices varied from US$1.31 per US gallon in Anthony, New Mexico to US$1.96 per US gallon in Needles, California.

The overall average cost of petrol was equivalent to approximately UK£0.28 per litre. This compares with a petrol price in England of about UK£0.73 per litre at the time.

Remember that these petrol prices were recorded in April 2001 and will very quickly become out of date. In addition there is very considerable variation in petrol prices from state to state, within each state, and to a lesser extent from one petrol station to another within each town.

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 23-May-01