leaving texas for first time, $2800 budget and 21 days, where should i travel?

If you're willing to tolerate some odd connections you can fly to Asia roundtrip for less than $1,000. If you go to Hong Kong there are a lot of cheap flights to other parts of Asia and you can do OK for $80 a day. That said as a first time traveler it will probably be tough for you unless you go with someone experienced.

Other than that I agree with the other suggestions of the West. I also agree though with getting your car situation fixed. If you plan on driving you don't want to breakdown in the middle of nowhere in the desert.

 

As was mentioned earlier, the dollar is very strong now. Months ago, it was about a $1.40 to buy 1 Euro. Now it's about $1.06 - $1.07 per Euro. In English, that's a huge increase in your buying power during a trip to Europe. Heck, my significant other and I are considering a trip sometime this year ourselves. We're much older than you are, and that's good for you in comparison. You can get a Eurail Pass far cheaper due to you age (I'm assuming that you're somewhere between 18 and 25), and there is a network of youth hostels across Europe that are very cheap, and most are co-ed.

In many places, like Amsterdam for instance, you'll find a variety of accommodations for students. Do you have a student ID you can lay your hands on? Everything over there (not just in A'dam) is much cheaper for students. Getting into museums, places to stay, places to eat, transportation. Check online, do some research, and I bet you can find cheap flights to places like Dublin. I suspect that there are still student charter flights that are cheap - they had plenty of them when I was in my early 20's back in the day. Make reservations in advance for flights and accommodations, of course. It locks in your costs and the good hostels fill up.

My daughter went to Europe for about 6 weeks last summer for a high school graduation present, both from us and herself (she graduated with 30 hours of college credit - long story), and she was 19. Went with a friend. We paid for a good part of it, but she had saved nearly half of what it cost. The entire trip wasn't more than your $2800, including air and rail travel. She flew into Dublin, spent a couple of days drinking good Irish beer (at least I hope she did!) and seeing the sights, and once you're across the pond, "short" flights are cheap. She flew from Dublin to Amsterdam for about $88 dollars and stayed at least a week there, then used a student Eurail pass to go to cities like Paris, Interlaken in Switzerland (from there you can go up into the high Alps - hostels everywhere) and went hang gliding off a mountain, sailing very high over Interlaken with spectacular scenery in every direction. You ride with a "pilot' and they videotape and photograph the whole thing, giving you a copy (I gave her a hundred bucks when I took her to the airport to leave on her trip and told her to blow it on something fun - that's what she did!). Went on to Venice and Rome in Italy, and some other cities, flew from Rome to London, then back to Dublin, and then the long flight back to Austin. It would have been significantly less had the exchange rate been what it is now.

Some other folks here told you about getting your passport, which you should have anyway. These days, they are good for 10 years. Good investment. Just some ideas. I'm jealous that you're young and can do these things so cheaply. I did this a lot a very long time ago, when the dollar was even stronger than it is now (much stronger). It will open your eyes. The world, despite what you see on cable news, is an amazing place. Go see some of it! -

 

Hit up your old science teacher, buy a used RV, travel to New Mexico, find a secluded desert and start cooking.

 

If you're driving to Cali then I'd recommend a stop in Vegas. Even if you don't gamble the city offers a ton of tourist attractions and the women are hot. Have fun with whatever you decide.

 

Too True [Except New Orleans]
More Joke than anything . ..
Cause living like a King in Oklahoma. . . is well .. . imagine being the king of Oklahoma


Rocket River

 

you can find a plane ticket at a better deal then that. no more then $700-800 to a city in europe from houston.

and to book a hostel and get an idea about the costs of one check out hostelworld.com

you can even do some random jobs to get a free night or two where you stay to save a couple hundred bucks.

seriously though man screw california. save that trip for somewhere in the future. you can easily get a passport and organize a trip within your budget to europe.

good luck

 

If you follow his route, skip Crater lake and go down the Oregon coast instead.

 

When you get to Oregon, say hi to my ex for me... she's pretty hot too (at least she was 11 years ago).

 

West>East

 

Spoiler

 

I wouldn't lump Arkansas with Mississippi, Oklahoma etc. Do a Google image search for waterfalls in Arkansas and you'll see that there's some beautiful nature there.