THE MAN in the vest across the bar raised his beer glass heavenwards, the amber contents sloshing over the side, and, his voice slurring slightly, said: “My good, good friend Paul, would you please be so kind as to say a few words for my brother Alex who has just been incarcerated? Would you make a toast?”

“Of course I will,” I answered, before I, rather nervously, raised my glass and addressed the ten or twelve other people in the bar; “To Alex, may his five-year sentence pass in an instant, and may his family not miss him too much.”

Nathan, the man in the vest, bumbled wearily round the bar and clasped me in a hug. He smelt slightly sour. “Man,” he said, “that was really, really beautiful. Thank you, bro.” He looked up and shouted to the barman: “Hey, Joe, another Jack and Coke for my good buddy Paul and another glass of wine for his fine woman.”

My girlfriend, Donna, and I were in the Murray Bar in Livingston, Montana, halfway through our most recent American road trip. We were staying in the 104-year-old Murray Hotel (www.murrayhotel.com), once patronised by Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane and Sam Peckinpah, slap-bang in the middle of this small town's historic downtown.

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I have now been on eight US road trips, three solo and five with Donna and, early on, I learnt two very important lessons. First, avoid driving on interstates (the Interstate Highway System) whenever possible and, second, try never to stay in interstate-adjacent chain hotels - always aim to find a hotel in the heart of a town's downtown. The reason for this is simple. You rarely get a feel for an area if you stay in the bland chains - after all, the sole reason for their existence is convenience.

Downtown hotels, conversely, are often the hub of a town's social activities and, as with the Murray in Livingston, they usually come with a bar, where interaction with friendly locals provides a much richer experience than your cookie-cutter chain could ever hope to offer. Even if that experience involves toasting a convicted felon whom you've never met.

Downtown hotels seem to be experiencing something of a renaissance after years of decline. One of the unfortunate side-effects of America's brand of unfettered capitalism and abundance of space means that many downtowns have been bled dry by interstates and out-of-town malls.

However, in recent years local chambers of commerce and communities in general have become keener to preserve their heritage. As a result, even compared with a decade ago, when I embarked on my first road trip, it's a lot easier to find a decent establishment

Which is just as well since we rarely plan trips in forensic detail - we usually have a rough idea of our route and then play it by ear on the road (a laptop, mobile phone and a couple of guide books are our tools).

This year we drove from Chicago to Los Angeles via Montana and Utah. Even starting in a large metropolis such as Chicago, you need to be careful where you stay. We tried to steer clear of the chains and ended up in the Hotel Sax (www.hotelsaxchicago.com), right in the heart of the city.

From there we headed through Illinois and into Iowa, where we found the charming Blackhawk Hotel (www.blackhawk-hotel.com) in Cedar Falls, a hotel that has been in operation since 1853. It lacked a little in the way of swank, but made up for that by offering great tapas and sushi and an extensive Martini list.

Western Iowa, all rolling farmland and nondescript towns, is not riveting driving at the best of times, but when it is blanketed in thick heavy cloud and mist it becomes rather depressing. Nebraska, however, is a little-visited gem, its eastern reaches verdant and bucolic. The hotel we found in Bassett was a surprise, too. Built in 1949, in the Art Moderne style, the Bassett Lodge (001 402 684 3376) is being slowly restored to its prime by the Bassett Development Corporation, which rescued it from neglect in 2005. It's hardly luxurious, but has bags of character.

We drove west and the disappointments (the Badlands were a tad underwhelming, Mount Rushmore was obscured by clouds) were soon erased by the sheer scale of Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada.

The Pulizter prize-winner Wallace Stegner once wrote of the western states: “In the west it is impossible to be unconscious of, or indifferent to, space.” The region is simply astonishing. Montana, alone, is three times the size of England, but with a population slightly lower than Birmingham.

As well as being ferociously beautiful, the west also has some grand hotels. We had fantastic seafood and steaks in the Pollard Hotel (www.thepollard.net) in Red Lodge, Montana, in the shadow of the Rockies, drank with cowboys in Jackson Hole, Wyoming's Rusty Parrot Lodge (www.rustyparrot.com), experienced old-fashioned downtown Vegas at the Golden Nugget (www.goldennugget.com) and were baffled by Salt Lake City's arcane alcohol laws in the opulent Peery Hotel (www.peeryhotel.com).

But, strangely enough, after 4,000 miles and dozens of small towns we found the best hotel neighbourhood bar in the least likely location - downtown Los Angeles at The Standard Downtown (www.standardhotels.com). It is famed for its hip but rather snooty rooftop bar, but the real treasure is the downstairs bar run with caustic New York humour by Frankie.

As Frankie himself said when we told him of our trip: “You always gotta head downtown - that's where the heartbeat of America is, where it's always been.”

NEED TO KNOW

Virgin Atlantic (0870 5747747, www.virginatlantic.com) offers flights from Heathrow to Chicago and Los Angeles. To fly out to Chicago and back from LA costs from £425.

Car hire Autoeurope (0800 899893, www.autoeurope.com) has ten days' mid-size car rental from Chicago O'Hare airport to Los Angeles airport from about £190. One-way fee may apply.

Read Road Trip USA: Cross- country Adventures on America's Two-lane Highways by Jamie Jensen (Avalon, £17.99); On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Penguin Modern Classics, £8.99)

On a budget If you would rather let someone else do the driving (and save on car hire and petrol costs) Greyhound has a seven-day “go anywhere” tourist-pass for $329 (£210). More information, and buy online, at www.discoverypass.com

Best downtown hotels

OVER the years we've accumulated an extensive and rather sad collection of photos of abandoned city-centre hotels, from the giant Hotel Chisca in Memphis, Tennessee, to the more modest Don Pratt Hotel in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. Yet we've found some truly memorable, vibrant places, too, establishments that allow you to plug directly into the buzz of small communities.

The Gage Hotel (www.gagehotel. com) in the tiny town of Marathon in west Texas offered us our first real experience. After a dinner of moderate quality we repaired to the bar, where we were almost immediately engulfed by a cast of eccentrics that wouldn't seem out of place in a Thomas McGuane novel. The nutty artist, the chess-loving cowboy and the stoic, desert-dry law-enforcement officer were such good company that we ended up with a $200 bar bill (which was more than the lovely room cost).

The rough-edged Hotel Monte Vista (www.hotelmontevista.com) in Flagstaff, Arizona, as well as being within striking distance of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, also offers a raucous Saturday night out in one of the loveliest western towns.

Deadwood in South Dakota benefits from having had its entire downtown declared a National Historic Monument. The result is a bewitching town centre and a selection of good old hotels. But there's a downside - it's full of fruit machines. However, as we were told by a local at the bar in the Celebrity Hotel (www.celebritycasinos.com): “Gambling saved Deadwood. Thirty years ago downtown was dead.”

However, for sheer small-town bliss it's difficult to look beyond the Broadway Hotel (www.broadwaymontana.com) in Philipsburg, Montana, a gorgeous town centre hotel in an idyllic town.

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