The Ultimate American Road Trip

Twenty-nine nights coast to coast in a motorhome, from Los Angeles to New York, which is the longest thing this operator runs.

Los Angeles takes the first two nights, then Palm Desert by way of the aerial tramway at Palm Springs, Needles through Joshua Tree, and two nights in Las Vegas at the only RV park on the Strip. The Grand Canyon follows, then Route 66 proper: Winslow, the Meteor Crater, the Petrified Forest and its painted desert, and Gallup, which calls itself the Indian capital of the world and produces a large share of the Native American art sold in the country.

Albuquerque and Santa Fe come next, then Tucumcari, the Texas panhandle, Amarillo and horse riding at Palo Duro Canyon. Oklahoma City takes two nights, with the cowboy museum and the fried onion burgers at El Reno, then Fort Smith by way of the Ozarks and Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, where the street signs are in both English and Cherokee. Little Rock, Nashville, Memphis and Graceland follow, then Washington, and three nights in New York at the end.

Twenty-five days of motorhome hire with a three-thousand-two-hundred-mile pack and a provisioning kit, five nights of hotel accommodation and the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum are included; campsites, personal kits and international flights are not. Thirty days for a continent is a serious undertaking and the price reflects the vehicle rather than the hotels. Spring and autumn are the better seasons, since the desert half is hot in summer and the eastern half is humid.