Trans America

Twenty-eight nights from New York to San Francisco, coast to coast, which is the crossing most people mean when they talk about driving across America. Flights, car and hotels are arranged together from the UK with a road book.

The first week is cities: four nights in New York, then Philadelphia and two in Washington. The car is collected in Manhattan or at Newark, and the road heads for the mountains, with a night at Mountain Lake Lodge in Pembroke beside the New River Gorge, then two nights in the Great Smoky Mountains, two in Nashville and two in Memphis.

The middle is the stretch other routes skip. Hot Springs in Arkansas has a row of Edwardian bathhouses along Central Avenue and a museum devoted to the gangsters who used to take the waters there. Oklahoma City follows, then Amarillo, with the Midpoint Cafe and the Route 66 Auto Museum at Santa Rosa on the drive to Santa Fe. Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and Zion come next, then two nights in Las Vegas, Death Valley, two nights at Yosemite and two in San Francisco to finish.

Around 3,730 miles across eighteen stops. The Tioga Pass into Yosemite is open June to October, which shapes when this can run. One practical point: this itinerary takes long enough to price that the operator charges a fee for a full detailed quote, deducted from the trip cost if you book, with rough guidance free. The itinerary is bespoke and departures are arranged around your dates. It suits anyone who wants the genuine crossing rather than a regional loop.