Driving from Kentucky to Florida
 

My husband and I are looking at making a trip to the USA next April - our plan is spend a few days at Lexington, Kentucky, then travel to Florida (probably Orlando area, or further south). We´d like to drive and see a bit of the country on the way - any suggestions for the best route and stop off points ?

You can use mapquest.com to plan the route. Where you might want to stop off on the way depends on your interests and it would be helpful to know some of those.

As Dukey says, we need a little more info about what you like and how long you'd like to spend getting to Florida.
Atlanta has a terrific art museum. You could go all the way to Charleston on the coast. You could go to the Florida panhandle beaches. And actually nearish Lexington you might enjoy the Shaker village of Pleasant Hill.

I just drove from NC to St Pete beach for a wedding. I stopped in St. Augustine, FL, drove down A1A, then cut over to Orlando. I stopped at a rest area outside Orlando-NEVER AGAIN. Screaming tweens, yikes. Anyway, I enjoyed St. pete, Tampa and the beaches. I stopped in Charleston in my way home to visit with my pals.

How much driving do you plan to do in a day?

Hi folks
Thanks for your replies.
We live in the Canary Islands, on Lanzarote, which is a small island (about 40 miles by 20 miles), so we have got out of the habit of long drives !!
Ideally we'd be looking to drive for about 4 hours max per day, but want to have a route plan and hotels booked. The last time we did a driving part on holiday, we had no real plan and no accommodation booked, so ended up going from Wickenburg Arizona to Santa Barbara in California in one day then Santa Barbara to San Franciso in one day - both much too long !
We have no firm plans at this point, so could spend 5 - 7 days en route.
As far as interests - mmm - hubbie likes golf and does not like cities ! - I like a bit of sightseeing / horse riding and generally lazing around in a nice location !
Is Nashville worth a visit ? - makes the journey a bit longer, but I am a bit of a country music fan and have been told its a good place to see ?

Yes, Nashville is lovely and fun. Four hours is really not very much per day, but....
Memphis? Down to Mobile--might be able to play some golf. Drive along the coast.
I would imagine that these highways have more ability to just pull off and find a motel than the Arizona one.
But if you have a computer you can consult hotels.com and find a hotel near where you are or will be.

In April I don't think you would have to pre-book hotels, I can't think of any holidays and it's before school is out. The only thing would be spring break but that would involve beach hotels and I don't think you would be all that interested in beaches coming from the Canary Islands. Shaker Village is an interesting walking tour close to you.
http://www.shakervillageky.org/
Atlanta has a great aquarium: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/
Of course there is Disney in Orlando and if you want to beach it for a while as was stated above St Pete/Ft Myers/Naples the coast is loaded with beaches. And of course, if you liked driving, there are the Florida Keys which is a beautiful drive.

Be very aware of the vast differences between the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast beaches in Florida.

What does that mean? LOL

Assuming you stick with Orlando -

Nashville is worth a visit and most especially if you're a country fan. It doesn't take you too far off the most direct route (via Knoxville to Atlanta - Lexington to Knoxville is 2.5-3 hours, Lexington to Nashville is a 3-3.5 depending on construction).

Chattanooga is a fun town worth an overnight or two. Atlanta, of course, has a lot going on. If your husband doesn't like big cities he might not care for it, but there's a lot to see.

If you just want to go to the beach and aren't set on Orlando, a more direct route from Nashville takes you straight south through Alabama to the Destin/Ft Walton Beach/Gulf Shores area. Or you could take a different tack entirely and go to Charleston, Savannah, and/or St. Augustine. I'd prefer any of those to Orlando, but I'm not a theme park lover.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions - certainly given us a bit to think about.
Via Nashville and Memphis sounds like a good start - not sure about Atlanta though.
We live on a small island with great beaches within 10 minutes drive of our house, so not a priority on holiday !
We are ´big kids´ at heart and do actually enjoy some of the parks - but stayed in Orlando before and didn´t like it much, so we´ll be looking for something in the area, but nicer. We visited Celebration last time and liked it, so might look at spending a few days there.

If you are in Pensacola on a Tuesday (I think) you can see the Navy flying formation practice.
Even though you don't want a beach, the seafood on the Alabama coast is wonderful.
if you aren't doing the Park, why do Orlando?
St. Augustine?