I am planning a road trip for myself and 7 fellow travellers for spring 2014. We love music, and are particularly keen on the Blues. We are thinking Memphis, possibly New Orleans, and Chicago, with various places in between, but are not sure how best to allocate our time. We will probably have about 14 days, though this will depend on our flights. I should mention that we are coming from England, and so have very limited knowledge of distances etc between key points!

I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions!

How will the 8 of you travel? Are you renting vehicles, and if so, have you checked the rates for dropping the cars off in a different city than you pick them up?

There have been a couple of long posts on this, so you should do a search on this idea. Some of them had very specific recommendations for food, venues, lodging, etc.

When you have an outline, come back for details. It is a fabulous trip from Chicago or St Louis to NO, via Memphis and the Delta. But getting a single vehicle ( people mover) for eight may cost a lot more than two smaller cars for four.

Tabernash2 and Ackislander - Thank you! I will definitely search further for the long posts you mention. I searched for ages on TripAdvisor, and have to admit giving up quite quickly on here! Regarding travel - I had anticipated a people carrier for 8, but you have made me think twice: I will get on to investigating travel methods next.

Again - thanks for pointing me in a meaningful direction. I'll post again as and when I come up with some ideas.

If you click on my name you can find some of those posts that I commented on with themes of southern road trip, blues, highway etc.

I lived in Mississippi for a long time and have traveled extensively in the South.

Hi, Jan57.

I live in Chicago and have often driven a 250-mile drive to downstate Illinois to visit family and I'll say right off -- the drive is not at all scenic. Getting out of Chicago alone is tiring, and our rural areas--while they may be of some interest to you as Englishmen, will lose their charm, pronto. Illinois is quite boring, and you never know what sort of weather you might get. We didn't have tolerable weather until the end of May this year-so you could see icy roads and cold weather before then.

With eight people, I'd encourage you to look into Amtrak. I take Amtrak often, too, down to Bloomington or Macomb. The route from Chicago to Memphis to New Orleans offers "family" rooms for very affordable rates if you book in advance.

Would save you so much stress rather than having two new-to-the-US drivers on the interstate. On Amtrak, your friends can relax, read guidebooks, drink a few beers in the cafe car, sleep. So much nicer than "road-tripping" with so many people.

In Chicago, Union Station is a wonderful old building right downtown. You and your friends could easily walk from the hotel to the station, or vice versa.

Chicago is a great city for the blues, restaurants and theater -- but all that driving, traffic, expensive gasoline fill-ups and heart-clogging roadside restaurant chains (cracker barrels, bob evans, mcdonalds, etc.) may cast a pall on your trip. With the great cities you'll be visiting, a train would make a lot of sense.

http://www.amtrak.com/city-of-new-orleans-train

I hope you have a wonderful time in these cities! Best of luck with your planning!

I wholeheartedly agree with ChgoGal about the train.
You can get cheap lodging at the HI hostel on Congress.
This is the largest HI hostel in the US.
About 3 blocks east of Chicago Union station along Jackson Blvd. is the Willis Tower (formerly Sears). It's worth a visit.
The City of New Orleans leaves at 8PM every evening and gets to Memphis in the morning. Spend 24 hours in Memphis and then get on the train to New Orleans.

Fly to Memphis
2 days in Memphis. See Elvis, Beale Street, Eat BBQ(I like Blues City Cafe), See Peabody Duck(also great Sunday Brunch at Peabody)

Drive to Nashville
2 days there Eat at Loveless Cafe, Country Music Hall of Fame, Hermitage Home, Etc

Drive to Mammoth Cave Also see Corvette Museum and Corvette Factory

Drive to Gatlinburg.
2 Days See Gatlinburg and Smoky Mountain National Park

Drive to Ashville See Biltmore Mansion

Drive to Natchez Missippi
See a few of the plantation homes.

Drive to New Orleans
Spend 2-3 days there.

Drive River Road and see Oak Alley Plantation and Nottoway Plantation(many more there too).
Then drive back to Memphis

You could start this trip out in Atlanta and do the same loop in either direction. Atlanta might make an easier place to fly into as you would probably not have to make any connections.

Spring is a great time to visit the south. I would definitely include New Orleans in your trip.

With 8 people, I would rent 2 cars. Foreign travellers typically can rent with no one-way drop off fees so make sure to verify that. Also,I would try to have 2 drivers per car which could add to the rental cost - I'm not sure if foreigners get a break on that but I doubt it.

If you get 2 cars, just switch people around between cars every now and then. Otherwise its easy for the group of 8 to segregate into 2 groups of 4 with different agendas.

There are lots of smaller towns/cities along your route, taking a train would eliminate the chance to meander and be spontaneous. Stick with the idea to drive yourself.

Depending on when exactly you are visiting, it may make sense to start in Chicago or New Orleans....I would check for festivals/events in either city that you may wish to attend or avoid and plan your starting point accordingly.

Oh, wow, guys - thank you so much for such amazing information! I really appreciate all the advice and detail about stops etc. I can see that what seemed like a straightforward road trip needs more thinking through - but your posts have made me even more eager to visit these places!
I will investigate Amtrak, car rentals and flights.

I'll keep you posted!

You can often get reasonably priced flights on Southwest airlines from Chicago (Midway airport) to Nashville - they're both hub cities, so often have good prices between the two. It looks like flights to Memphis are available too, if you'd rather skip Nashville. It may not make financial sense with 8 people (I'm not sure what car rentals and train tickets would run you), but it's a lot more appealing to me than driving through Illinois to Memphis or Indiana/Kentucky to Nashville!

I wouldn't do Amtrack. Just my opinion.