Jikke

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum but already found a couple of very helpful tips and suggestions for cool road trips. Just to get all my bases covered, the following questions;
We are a couple (35-40) from Amsterdam, Netherlands and are in love with USA. Our honeymoon we spent traveling highway 1, last year we did Florida, we never miss a year without going to NYC, in short; we love America!
The next trip i wanted to plan i really need your advice;

Next May we will fly to New Orleans, spent a week there for the road trip:
New Orleans - Vicksburg - Meridian - Montgomery - Mobile - New Orleans
Then we will fly to Atlanta for a weeks trip of:
Atlanta - Macon - Savannah - Charleston - Myrtle beach - Columbia - Augusta - Atlanta

These cities/towns i indicated are not set in stone, they are just the points in our route which way we would like to travel (1000km in a week seems do-able)

We're a big fan of the south, would love to experience southern way of living; the food, music and culture. Love the "True Blood' feel of plantations, swamps, humidity etc. I know; may sound weird, but you will get it once you've been in Amsterdam ;-)
My dream was also Savannah due to "Midnight in the garden of good and evil", also; you'll find me nuts but again; visit Amsterdam ;-)

Would really appreciate all tips and suggestions ons both road trips, maybe visit other cities/town, or take an entire route altogether?
Would love to hear from you.

Gretchen

Stick with only one thread. Good luck. You can click on your name to bring up your threads.

jayne1973

You should get some good True Blood vibes in Louisiana and probably Vicksburg, too. Be sure to go to Café Du Monde at least once in New Orleans, maybe get a Tarot or palm reading in Jackson Square and take one of the cemetery tours. You can take some good plantation tours from there as well.
Coming from Amsterdam, the French Quarter might seem fairly tame, but I think you will be impressed with all the free live music.

Jikke

Hi again Gretchen, you'r right but since we do 2 road trips i wanted to make 2 different threads, now i don't know how to remove them ;-)
Thank Jayne for your tips, anything on the east side of my trip (Montgomery Mobile etc) that you have any tips for?

jayne1973

I don't have enough experience with those places to offer good travel advice, but my best suggestion for your roadtrip is to plan some time off the Interstate highways to get an authentic experience of the areas you visit.
Interstates are great for getting down the road, but you miss the local flavor of small towns and instead get a lot of chain retaurants and stores.

Katzgar

http://neworleans.about.com/od/festi...ew-Orleans.htm

Katzgar

http://www.stfrancisville.net/

Grcxx3

From New Orleans to Vicksburg - take a little time to visit St. Francisville (LA) and Natchez and Port Gibson. Lovely old towns with lots to see and lots of southern charm.

You can take I-10 to Baton Rouge (and still hop off to see the River Road plantations) and then take HWY 61 north.

jayne1973

Highway 61 is The Blues Highway-- such an integral part of the history of that whole area. Here is a pretty good travel article about it. My apologies for the long link.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christ...b_3973075.html

Jikke

Hi all,

Thanks so much for your replies and great tips. We've been going a bit back and forth on were to go exactly and have decided to skip the Montgomery/Mobile area and go from New Orleans to Memphis/Nashville and than fly out from there to our next destination on the east coast. All tips are welcome!

jayne1973

In Memphis, we enjoyed the Sun Records tour. Stack Records is supposed to be good, too. Of course there's the famous Beale Street as well. I am sure you will good advice from others.

Also in the Memphis area is Clarkdale, Mississippi. There's a good blues museum there and several "juke joints' as well as Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero club.

http://www.groundzerobluesclub.com/

nanabee

I've been to Vicksburg, Mississippi a number of times. It's a charming small town with lots of Civil War history. Be sure to visit the Civil War Memorial

http://www.nps.gov/vick/index.htm

My aunt's (by marriage and from a long time Vicksburg family) brother & his partner bought and restored the VICK HOUSE which I believe is a historic registered house. They do tours. I don't know if they still own the house anymore, but it was beautiful and charming.

http://www.visitvicksburg.com/explor...s.aspx?id=2015

judybg

I recommend the swamptour and visiting some of the plantations near Baton Rouge and the river cruse/cemetary tour in New Orleans. Natchez, Missippi has stately old southern homes.
for more info check out:

www.lipstickhorizons.com

cd

You might want to check out the Natchez Trace Parkway. It's a National Park that goes from the New Orleans area to Nashville It is a lovely drive but slow as the speed limit is 50 but you can go thru Vicksburg, stopping at the Military Park if interested in Civil War history. We did love Vicksburg. We stayed at a plantation in Natchez that I can really recommend for it's beauty and history: http://www.monmouthhistoricinn.com/

cd

PS forgot to include link to Natchez Trace; http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm

Grcxx3

cd - my mother used to give tours at Monmouth during the Natchez Pilgramage.

cd

Grcxx3, we loved Monmouth and the dinner in their dining room! Your mom had a great place to work!

Cranachin

Make sure to check what the drop fee will be for a one-way car rental from New Orleans to Memphis.

HOTS

You are missing out on some great food and beautiful sites in Mobile