I’d be happy to drive any ol’ reliable car Maggie8K 
Yep, have a valid driver’s licence and clean record (touch wood)
Thanks everyone for your input. I now have a clearer idea about how to approach this next stage of our adventure.
Brookhaven? I was there for three years. At first I was living on site. Then I got a driving licence and a Buick and lived in Center Moriches.
I haven’t found a way though to get a car insured if you come to the US as a visitor.
I have considered housesitting in the US, however the cost of renting a car on a monthly basis is much much higher than in many places in Europe and would defeat the point of having a low-cost stay. I lived in Australia for a while, and there it’s quite straightforward -even as a visitor - to buy and insure a car.
For the US however, it seems near impossible to get the car insured if you’re not an official resident. Which means no point buying one either… (happy to hear though if you’ve heard of any ways to make it possible)
Google is your friend.
BTW, there are tons of road tripping sites and forums online. Plenty of foreigners come to road trip in the U.S. and they’ve discussed for decades how to buy cars and insurance, rent RVs, etc. You might want to check out such sites.
I’ve been on such groups, because I’ve road tripped for decades. I wasn’t even looking for info for foreigners and couldn’t avoid stumbling across such discussions as I looked for stuff relevant to me.
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You beat me to it!
Hi @Maggie8K - I have Googled this extensively in the past, but usually the conclusion is: near impossible. Because if you buy a car, you have to register and insure it.
And that’s the problem: you usually need to show that you have a valid address in a US state (not just a friend’s address), may have to show that you have ties to that place (not just a visitor), and then get the thing insured as well. Some states may also require a US driver’s license or social security number.
I’ve read many articles etc about it before, and when I type it into Google now, the same things come up again: very very tricky except via some questionable routes, the most common of which seems to be registering an LLC in Montana via an agent or online service. And then using the LLC to register and insure the car.
So that’s the problem - in practice it’s very difficult for a non-resident / visitor to the US to buy and legally insure a car due to the registration requirement.
Usually people who do this use a friend’s or family member’s address. People who are nomadic often do the same thing.
BTW, this is one of the largest insurers in the U.S. and this is their guidance on how to get insured as a foreigner: Car Insurance for International Drivers in U.S. | Progressive
Also check out the top of Google results. Look at all the sponsored ads (meaning companies are paying to get users who are searching for X — in this case I searched for “how to get insured as a foreign driver in the usa.” These companies want to sell foreigners insurance — that’s why they paid advertising money to Google).
Cold Spring Harbor
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Looks like Maggie8K is all across this.
Cold Spring Harbor is a stop on the Port Jefferson branch of the Long Island Railroad, with direct connections to Penn Station in Manhattan. Or the Huntington stop may be closer.
There you will also find HART buses.
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We did a two year road trip in North America. Most of it was house sitting with stays in Airbnb inbetween.
We bought a car as all the places we wanted to visit had no public transport or the transport was for tourists and very expensive Eg. Yellowstone Park, The Grand Canyon, all the National Parks in Colorado and Utah.
It all depends what you want out of your experience. Visiting cities, you either walk or take the bus or tram. But be aware most suburbs do not have pavements and the roads are a dangerous place to walk. Going to rural places you need your own transport.
There are only two states in the US a foreigner can buy a car without an official number (can’t remember what it’s called). One of them is Maryland. The insurance for a non American to drive is very expensive. Third party was well over $1000 for a year. We didn’t even contemplate fully comprehensive. In saying all this, having the car made a trip of a life time for us. We travelled from Key West in the south to Prudoe Bay in the Artic Circle. From New York in the east to San Diego in the south west and everything inbetween. Canada is empty and vast. The distances and empty spaces blow your mind. Next June we are taking a ten day cruise up the Inner Passage to see the west coast of Alaska and look at some Glaciers. No pet sitting this time …… well maybe a little.
I would go back to North America and do it all again in a heart beat.
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Wow @ ElsieDownie Thanks so much for sharing your experience and your memories.
Excellent @ pietkuip. Now all we need to do is get some sits!
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Yes, if you look into all the details, the answer is pretty much: LLC in Montana. Nearly all other options have very challenging or insurmountable stumble blocks here or there.
For example, the states in the article you screenshotted indicate things like “need your original out-of-state title (and registration)”, “copy of driver’s license” (that’s a US license) etc. So these are all no-gos for a visitor. Re friends/family - I don’t have any in the US; I’m from Europe. And you need to have a pretty good relationship with them, since their address will be on the insurer’s certificate…
I think Maryland as Elsiedownie says is out as well, because the state requires a local address and driver’s license issued by the state.
All of that doesn’t make it a piece of cake to register a car! E.g. having someone establish an LLC in Montana for you costs about $800 of what I read, and that’s just one of multiple steps to take. And the LLC is certainly not a risk free route…
I wouldn’t go the LLC route, because that sounds sketchy. An LLC is a limited liability corporation setup, which sounds odd for a tourist to set up if they’re not doing business.
For buying a car, check out road trip groups, because there have been visitors who’ve done it in various states — they posted about such and I don’t think people would randomly lie about having done it. As I recall, those people have included Europeans and Australians. I remember that, because they had months of vacation time. They often had itineraries covering national parks and Route 66. Some foreigners are enamored with driving the latter for some reason.
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The old route 66 is full of pot holes, crumbling roads and is not comfortable to drive. But …. Wow…… the fact that we drove some of it was unbelievable to us. It depends how old you are and what music you were brought up with. I stood on the corner of Winslow, Arizona…… and saw a flat bed truck taking a look at me ……
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