Fort Lauderdale to New York
 

My husband and I (both 60yrs) are planning a trip to USA, and thinking of a cruise 7-10days from Fort Lauderdale and after hoping to visit New Orleans, Nashville and open to other suggestion, and then on to New York to perhaps do a land tour taking in the north. we were thinking April 2018, but not sure of the weather???
Any suggestions or ideas are welcomed, or places not to miss, as we are coming from Australia. We were thinking of about a 4-5 weeks.

Many thanks
Pachet

I live in Fort Lauderdale. The weather for your cruise should be fine. Here on the beach at that time of year you should expect an average daytime temperature of close to 27 degrees C; we often have considerable humidity here so be prepared fore that possibility.

As to the cruise itself: which cruise line? Are you aware that almost every cruise can be purchased at a discount and there are numerous suppliers?

How are you planning to travel to New Orleans and Memphis after the cruise? By air or overland (car)? If by air there are three so-called "budget" air carriers which fly non-stop from Fort Lauderdale to New Orleans.

I live in the northeast. April is a little early to enjoy traveling in this part of the country, with highly variable weather the norm. We can get beautiful sunny days above 20C, or many cloudy, rainy days around 10C. Still warm enough to be outside without freezing, and it's shoulder season for travel so hotel prices won't be sky high like they are in peak season.

So April is ok for visiting cities in the Northeast. If you want to visit places outside the cities then you'll get better weather late April into May.

Native NY'er, so NY can be cool and rainy in April but it is never hot. The best advice is to have two lists of activities Indoor/Outdoor and depending on the day that is what you do.

A few years ago, I was in Manhattan in mid-April for 5 days, and the weather went from snowing to warm and glorious within that time frame. I'd personally push the trip to later in the month or into May.

Excellent replies from all, about the weather, and very appreciative for your help.
I am open to any suggestions on how we should get to New Orleans and Memphis, ( or any suggestions of any other places in that area we should visit) but we entend to fly to New York, from wherever, no driving for us Aussies on the opposite side.
Pachet

To FLY from FLL to Msy (New Orleans) you could use a search emgine such as kayak.com or hipmunk.com

You could also access airline websites directly

www.Iflyswa.com for Southwest

www.jetblue.com for JetBlue

www.spirit.com for Spirit Airlines

Be aware that Spirit, in particular, pretty much charges for everything. Southwest is more forgiving in terms of included baggage, etc., but only has a couple of non-stops to New Orleans per day. JetBlue has three different fare levels depending on how much "extra" you need such as checked baggage, etc.

You do NOT need to go to Miami for a flight...take it from HERE.

I will leave it at this and hope you have a wonderful trip.

pachet, I am from NZ, and our first trip to the US we were in New York at the beginning of April, We froze, it was so cold. If you can leave it to towards the end of April or into May I think it would be much nicer.

We have flown Southwest airlines and JetBlue, I actually preferred JetBlue, as you get assigned seating, Southwest you get A, B, or C boarding depending in how soon you check in online when it opens 24 hours before the flight. However Southwest you don't pay for checked luggage, (up to two bags), so swings and roundabouts.

We also fly between cities, don't want to drive on the other side of the road either!!!