Vita

Hi, all. I was thinking of doing a road trip from DC to New Orleans in October. I like the mountains, scenic highways, and hiking. I also would like to see the fall foliage if possible. Why New Orleans? I thought I might avoid the crowds that are going to New England and I've never been to New Orleans.

I was thinking of an itinerary something like this:

October 6-8 Leave DC and make my way toward New Orleans maybe through the Appalachians?, spend 2 nights in accomodations in two different towns maybe in the mountains or maybe 2 nights in one town so I can explore

Octber 8-12,4 nights to see the sites of New Orleans

October 12-14, make way back up to DC

Is this doable without being stressful? Any ideas for a good route? Is this a good time of year to go?

Polly

I can't comment on the itinerary, but do you have reservations in NO yet? We will be there at that very time; got reservations several months ago (an ace in the hole) and have been shopping around to upgrade to no avail. There are several conventions in town that week and most of the good places are full, full, full.

Vita

Thanks for the heads up, Polly. Is it just for that week or is it the whole season? I can always postpone for a week or maybe go in November. I don't want to go the week of Halloween because I think the atmosphere would be similar to the craziness of Mardi Gras and I have no desire to be part of it.

Sally

If you do some checking, I think you will find that hotels in New Orleans are quickly becomming empty. I reserved a room at the Omni New Orleans this afternoon for Oct. 11-13 and received a very low promo rate for a delux room. Most of the hotels everywhere are at a very low capacity with people cancelling. We are taking a road trip from Cleveland down the east coast and over to New Orleans leaving next week and have found no problems finding rooms at hotels that would normally be booked this time of year.

John

Sally is partially correct...you won't have trouble finding a room. The city will not be "empty" however as October is still a big convention month and many of the top hotels still have 10-20 sold out dates during the month.