New Orleans to Nashville Road Trip
 

Hiring a car in New Orleans and we have 9 days to get to Nashville for the 2011 CMA Festival. After the festival we have 4 days to get back to New Orleans so we are going to travel the Memphis , Jackson route then. The question is, do we explore to the West (San Antonio, Dallas, Oklahoma)? Or take the Eastern gulf route (Tallahassee) then up to Atlanta?

I personally think the Western route would offer more tourist attractions. Here is my suggested route. You may need to tweak it a little.

Day 1: Plantation Country outside N.O.
Night 1: Stay at Plantation overnight (Madewood)
Day 2: Cajun Country (Avery Island then St. Martinville, then Lafayette)
Night 2: Stay in Lafayette
Day 3: 4 hr AM drive to Galveston/tour Galveston PM
Night 3: Stay in Galveston
Day 4: 4 hr AM drive San Antonio/tour SA PM
Night 4: San Antonio
Day 5: Hill Country/Austin
Night 5: Austin
Day 6: 3.5 hr drive to DFW/tour DFW area
Night 6: stay in DFW area
Day 7: 3.5 hr drive to OKC/tour OKC Memorial
Night 7: OKC
Day 8: 5 hr drive to Little Rock/tour Clinton library
Night 8: Little Rock
Day 9: All day drive to Nashville (skip Memphis since you'll be seeing it on the return trip)
Night 9: Nashville

That should do it.

Instead of Little Rock, do Hot Springs! Stay at the historic Arlington hotel and ask for a park view. Walk the little town, and stop in at the Buckstaff for a hot mineral bath and massage!!!! only $55.00 for an hour and a half of wonderfulness!http://www.buckstaffbaths.com/ walk back to the Arlington on the boardwalk behind the bathhouses. Have lunch on the outside patio of Rolando's. For dinner, drive to the Fishermans Wharf for seafood!http://www.fishermanswharfhs.com/

I would visit Natchez, MS for 2/3 days and tour the antebellum homes there. Then I would go N on # 61 to Vicksburg for lunch and then spend the night at the 4 * Alluvian Hotel owned by Viking Range. I would visit Greenville and have dinner at Doe's Eat Place. Have dinner in GW at Lusco's. Visit Clarksdale and the blues museum. Go to Ground Zero Blue's Club. You can visit the casinos's N of Tunica on your way to Memphis. Head N to Memphis for 2/3 days and visit historic Beale Street. Eat some good Memphis BBQ. Head E to Nashville for 2/3 days. Head S to Montgomery, AL for a night then head S to Mobile for lunch and spend a night on the MS Gulf Coast before you go back to NOLA

Neither.

There's no way I'd do that four day route through Texas. I've had to do it for business, but would never do it for a leisure trip.

There are some good ideas about Hot Springs and Vicksburg, etc. I think the missing questions are, where are you coming from and what do you like to do.

I'd spend at least a couple of days in New Orleans, see a couple of plantations and then head for the beach. Maybe a stop in Fairhope, AL and then a couple of days at Pensacola Beach or another place on the sugar sand beach of the gulf. Head up via Montgomery, Birmingham, Huntsville and stop at things that are of interest to you or head over to Chattanooga for a night or two before going on up to Nahsville. Stop in Memphis and Vicksburg on the way back to NOLA. But it all depends on what you enjoy doing and seeing.