Road trip plan help - DC to Florida -
 

Hi

We are a Danish family on a road trip on the east coast of the US. We are in washington now and will fly from from orlando 19 september. This is our remaining plan. Do you think it makes sense or is it too ambitious. What would you change?

1: We drive straight from Washington from Charleston
2: Savannah
3: Atlanta
4: Nashville
5: Memphis
6: New Orlean
7: Destin
8: st Pete
9: Miami beach
10: Other florida ideas
11: orlando

Does this make sense or is it too ambious to go to charleston and savannah first and then go deep south? should I skip charleston and savannah and go to smokey mountains and ashville and then deep south?

what should I do from new orleans and going into florida? what is nice to visit?

Hope you guys can help!

Hi donmarder, since you are looking at approximately 3 weeks, it seems to me you would do better to reduce the number of stops. I don't see the need to go to both Charleston & Savannah, since they are somewhat similar. Charleston has more to offer & might be the better choice. Atlanta isn't really known as a visiting destination, and while it would be an interesting place, I'm not sure it's a key place to visit during a trip like this.

I'd head straight to Nashville from Charleston, perhaps with a one night stop in Asheville along the way. Then Memphis and New Orleans. These three cities (Nashville, Memphis & NO) are key cities in American music and are not to be missed. Nashville for Country (try to work in a performance of the Grand Ole Opry if you can), Memphis for the roots of Rock and Roll, and New Orleans for jazz.

It also seems to me you have too many stops in Florida. Most of the coastal cities have certain characteristics in common so to some extent you may be seeing the same things in multiple places. I'd say that you need perhaps one stopping point between New Orleans and Miami, probably somewhere along the FL panhandle or west coast, but just for one day/night.

If you did something like that, you'd have six primary cities to visit (Charleston, Nashville, Memphis, NO, Miami & Orlando), and you could spend 2-4 nights in each place depending on your interests.

One thing to keep an eye on is the weather. This is hurricane season in the southeast US, and you may have noticed that one made landfall in Texas in the last few days. That storm will probably be pouring lots of rain on New Orleans soon. Chances are that you won't be affected, but there are usually tropical waves moving through, some of which may develop into strong storms. It just makes sense to pay attention to weather reports in case you want to alter your timing or route due to bad weather.

10: Other florida ideas
St. Augustine (America's oldest city)

Personally, I would not skip Savannah. Drop St. Pete.

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Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

Before I recommend you drop any of these I would want to know WHY they were picked in the first place.

For example, I agree that Atlanta (and in my opinion a couple of others, too) would NOT be my top choice(s) to visit BUT your reasons for visiting are probably a lot different from my own.

So, PLEASE, give us some insight. Otherwise, MY advice would be to DROP Nashville, AND Destin AND St. Petersburg as well as Atlanta. See what I mean?

What Dukey1 said. I, personally, would head for the mountains from DC, either due west and drive Skyline Drive to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Asheville or southwest and just the BRP, but you may no interest in that.

Then I would head back east to Charleston and Savannah and St. Augustine, although you could contnue west to Nashville and Memphis.

I would skip Atlanta any time, and this seems like a bad time to head for the Gulf Coast.

Do keep an eye on the weather stations and make sure you can visit the cities along the gulf or even Charleston and/or Savannah.

I do agree with others that skipping Atlanta makes sense. The plan that smetz1 posted makes sense IF the weather cooperates and the coastal places aren't still suffering from flooding/storm damage.

I would add St. Augustine and the Everglades (maybe the NP at Shark river) to your Florida destinations. There is a different feel to the west and east coasts of Florida, so try to visit both if weather permits.