I've traveled through Europe and across the USA. My advice would be to buy a one way ticket to Europe and travel that way. Stay in hostels, party with fellow travelers from across the world, and see whats outside of the USA. As long as you stay out of Paris and London for extended periods its probably cheaper. Costs add up quicker in the US because you dont have low cost lodging options (ie hostels). Fortunately gas prices are low so that should help.
On my cross country trip I went from Charleston (recommend) to Tuscaloosa (decent college town). One of my takeaways from driving across the USA is that there is a whole lot of nothing. Just an insane amount of absolutely nothing. There are some cool things to see in the Southwest (national parks). But middle America is a vast wasteland. If you do want to travel across the country and try to bang chicks I'd recommend sticking to the Southern route (Savannah, Florida beach towns, New orleans, Austin, TX, Dallas) and maybe stopping in college towns when you want to break up the drive. But I basically drove from Charleston to Tuscaloosa to Dallas on back to back days and essentially covered about 100 miles. Hung out in Dallas and Austin for a few days, then drove to White Sands, NM (recommend), Grand Canyon, Vegas, and SoCal, then up the coast. Again, all cool things, but if you are traveling solo and staying in hotels you are going to drop alot of cash pretty quickly.
One other point - you will have the opportunity to visit most American cities at some time in the next 10 years of your life - even if its just for a quick weekend getaway. Getting 30 days or more to get over to Europe is probably something you will never have the chance to do again.
On my cross country trip I went from Charleston (recommend) to Tuscaloosa (decent college town). One of my takeaways from driving across the USA is that there is a whole lot of nothing. Just an insane amount of absolutely nothing. There are some cool things to see in the Southwest (national parks). But middle America is a vast wasteland. If you do want to travel across the country and try to bang chicks I'd recommend sticking to the Southern route (Savannah, Florida beach towns, New orleans, Austin, TX, Dallas) and maybe stopping in college towns when you want to break up the drive. But I basically drove from Charleston to Tuscaloosa to Dallas on back to back days and essentially covered about 100 miles. Hung out in Dallas and Austin for a few days, then drove to White Sands, NM (recommend), Grand Canyon, Vegas, and SoCal, then up the coast. Again, all cool things, but if you are traveling solo and staying in hotels you are going to drop alot of cash pretty quickly.
One other point - you will have the opportunity to visit most American cities at some time in the next 10 years of your life - even if its just for a quick weekend getaway. Getting 30 days or more to get over to Europe is probably something you will never have the chance to do again.