My husband and I (both 67) will be flying into Atlanta from the UK on April 6th for a 4 week tour of the SE corner of the USA. We are interested, particularly, in the Civil War, the music and the wildlife. Currently, the planned route is Charleston, Savannah, Talahassee(missing the Pan Handle), New Orleans, Lafayette, Natchez, Vicksburg, Memphis, Tupelo (just to do a bit of theNatchez Trace Highway - worth it?), Nashville, Knoxville, Chattenooga and back to Atlanta. We would welcome any advice - diversions to make, places to avoid! Also, advice on accommodation would be welcome, either individual B & Bs or any Motel Chains which are clean/reasonably priced. We like to mix it up to keep the cost down. Our last trip to the USA was to the Eastern States, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC etc. and we received some excellent advice from the Fodor Forum so we thought we would try again, fingers crossed.

You say you want to go from Tallahassee to New Orleans but "missing the Pan Handle". I'm not sure how you would get from Point A to Point B any other way, unless you plan to fly(!).

Interstate 10 runs from Tallahassee to Louisiana along the Gulf Coast, passing through Mobile, AL. Even closer to the water, many of the small towns from Gulf Shores, AL through Bay St Louis, MS were really cute before Hurricane Katrina; from what I hear the reconstruction is going along well in these areas. The coast has always been a popular vacation destination, so there's lots of restaurants and other activities going on.

You can take Route 90 right along the water - with your interest in the Civil War, definitely make a stop at the Jefferson Davis house, where he lived I believe until his death. The stretch of Gulf Coast in MS is sometimes referred to as "the Redneck Riveria" because of all the hotels and casinos; you'd have no problem finding a range of lodging options in Biloxi or Gulfport.

I'm sure others will chime in about other parts of your itinerary!

April will be a lovely time to visit. Landing in Atlanta and going to Charleston and Savannah and Tallahassee is a good little bit of driving for that leg with not a whole lot in between. Charleston/Savannah will probably be pretty crowded perhaps with azalea/garden tour season. SueWoo can probably chime in. Your motel cost may be up==may want to look across the river in Mt.Pleasant.
South of Charleston is Huniing Island for a bird preserve.
How much time do you want to spend in each place? And then the longish better-part-of-a-day drives need to be counted in.
Even with a nice amount of time that 4 weeks is, some editing may be necessary to really enjoy some of the places.

Apologies for that. I've always thought the Panhandle was the Florida Peninsula because of its shape. I daren't tell my husband!

Thankyou Gretchen. I suspected that but we felt we couldn't miss out on Savannah. Might have to think about it.

> We are interested, particularly, in the Civil War

A book you MUST have is Alice Cromie's _Tour Guide to the Civil War_.

It explains, in a very compact and readable form (1) what happened at a specific site, (2) why it mattered, and (3) what you can see if you go there.

For CW buffs like me, there are few things worse than either (1) being close to an important CW site and missing it, simply because you didn't know it was there OR (2) going to some place that you think WAS important, but finding that nobody bothered to place anything there. I've had both happen; this book helps avoid both problems.

Well, truly for the Civil War interest you shouldn't miss charleston!! Those troublemakers got it ALL started!!
Sue, I heard Joe Riley talking about the Sesquicentennial celebration being planned and my already over the top admiration for him went up a hundred points. He is a national treasure.

Oh phew, UKLynne - as long as you knew *where* you wanted to go or not, even if you were *momentarily* confused on the nomenclature.

Here's a few thoughts on places to possibly whittle down:
- I have only been on the Natchez Trace right around Natchez, but wished I could have taken it farther. You mentioned Tupelo for being on the Trace, but you could take Natchez-Memphis, then head to Nashville on the interstate.
- Similarly, unless there's a compelling reason, you could skip Knoxville and take the interstate between Nashville and Chattanooga.
- My one brief trip to Vicksburg and Natchez had me wishing for a little more time in Natchez (we had a day and a half) and not needing any more than our one day in Vicksburg but we only went to the park there and didn't see any other sites. (Downtown Natchez was more lively than that of Vicksburg.)

You sound like seasoned travelers, so it's likely you already know of this little tip, but I'll add it just in case. Google Maps is a great tool for mapping out travel plans; if you sign up for a (free) gmail account, you can save, customize, annotate your maps. (I don't even use mine for email!) I also like that it's easy to "drag and drop" the route line and it will instantly recalculate the directions and time. (I've even discovered that it will prevent the line from being dragged onto a road closed for construction/etc.)

At any rate, I plugged in all 14 of your stops (with ATL at beginning and end) and got a clear picture of the overall loop. Very handy!

You should stop in Franklin Tennessee (right outside of Nashville) and see the Carter House and the site of the Battle of Franklin! It is a fascinating look at a place where the Confederacy lost 14 Generals - 6 or 7 killed and the others injured or captured, including the loss of perhaps the best division commander of either side, Patrick Cleburne. The tour is done very well and the site/museum is small but well preserved. Nashville is very close and there are many more activites in Nashville. Welcome to the South and I hope you have a great trip!

We took the Natchez Trace from Tupelo to Jackson on a trip that started in Memphis with a jog to Shiloh, then down to Tupelo and onto the trace and over to Vicksburg from Jackson. DH is the Civil war buff, but I found the trip quite interesting and the Trace was great. It is much more relaxing than interstate driving and we even got to see a pack of wild boars being chased across the road.

Vicksburg was quite impressive, the town and the battlefield.

Have been to some of these cities -- good choices.

My experience suggests that depending on interests 3-4 days is a good amount of time for Charleston, 2-3 for Savannah, 4-5 for Memphis, and 3-4 for Nashville. One could spend a lot of time in New Orleans (I was there a little more than a week and found plenty to do).

Montgomery was the first capital of the Confederacy and the First White House of the Confederacy is located there, along with some worthy civil rights based attractions. You may or may not want to spend a day there.

I would not spend a day/night in Montgomery but I would go to the Southern Poverty Law Center and see Maya Lin's very wonderful and moving civil rights memorial. I can't see 3-4 days in Nashville with all the other possibilities on the list. Just my opinion.

As far as Florida goes, two sites of interest might be

Natural Bridge Battlefield State Historic Park (near Tallahassee), the site of the battle in 1865 that preserved Tallahassee as the only Confederate capital city east of the Mississippi that did not fall to the Union army

http://www.floridastateparks.org/nat...ge/default.cfm

Fort Pickens (on Santa Rosa Island, near Pensacola Beach), one of only four forts in the South that were never occupied by Confederate troops. The National Park Service says of it "Fort Pickens was as important as Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., during the crisis between Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860 and the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861."

http://www.nps.gov/guis/planyourvisit/fort-pickens.htm

For information on the mainland forts held by the Confederates, see

http://www.nps.gov/guis/planyourvisi...-barrancas.htm
http://www.nps.gov/guis/historycultu...ed-redoubt.htm


Other coastal forts include Fort Morgan in Alabama (http://www.azaleacity.com/fortmorgan/information.htm)

Fort Gaines in Alabama, across the Mobile Pass from Fort Morgan and connected to it by a ferry (http://www.dauphinisland.org/index.html - there is also a bird sanctuary there)

and Fort Massachusetts, on West Ship Island off the Mississippi coast (http://www.nps.gov/guis/historycultu...sachusetts.htm)

Don't miss sights in the Atlanta area (from the viewpoint of an Atlanta native):

Kennesaw Battlefield (which is north of Atlanta on I-75, you could stop on your way back into the city from Chattanooga);
Atlanta History Center;
Cyclorama at Grant Park;
Martin Luther King Center.

Thank you all for your comments - very useful! We weren't aware of the Google gmail facility, ggreen. Will try it out in a couple of days when we get back from visiting our month old (first) grandson in Liverpool. Am intrigued to know why one of the comments was removed by the moderators.

Any thoughts on visiting Lafayette or should we go straight from New Orleans to Natchez. Nice to see Gretchen still harbouring a grudge about Charleston folk after 150 years.

The Natchez Trace Parkway between Jackson, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee (via connections) is an incredibly boring road, lined with trees of the same species most of the way, no vistas over the countryside, relatively low speed limits, and no connection whatsoever to the surrounding states, which, whatever their virtues and faults, are real places with real Americans living real lives.

Sorry, UK person, you missed the humor--must be a Brit thing. I LIVE in the South, but do not need to fight the Civil War over again. I DO love its history. You DO know that SC was the first to secede and it happened in Charleston Harbor, I trust.
My homage to Joe Riley (the Mayor of Charleston for 35 years and the reason Charleston is NOW what it is--he SAVED the historicity of that city) was that with his planning, they are including ALL the facets of the Civil War--not just the glory of the Confederacy but the part played by slavery. I hope you get all the background, not just the battles, plantations.

The removal could have been an advertising post or such.

This year is the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, and many places are planning special activities. Check out http://www.nps.gov/fosu/planyourvisi...centennial.htm for some info on those activities. Your timing is perfect for being in Charleston by April 12th.

By this time 150 years ago, in a span of 5 weeks South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia have seceded from the Union. The next will be Louisiana on Jan 26, and Texas on Feb 1. On Feb 18th, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as President of the Confederacy, followed by Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as president of the United States on March 4th. At 4:30 on the morning of April 12th, Charleston harbor's Fort Sumter is fired upon by the Confederates and will fall 34 hours later. The war has begun. Virginia will secede six days later. Followed by Arkansas (May 6), North Carolina (May 20), and finally, Tennessee (June 8).

Have fun. The southeast is a great place to visit, especially at that time of the year.

I didn't realize NC seceded on May 20. I believe that is Mecklenburg Declaration Day--the day that supposedly a declaration of independence from England was signed on in 1775--a year before the July 4th Declaration--here in Charlotte. A copy has never been found but references to it abound. Interesting juxtaposition.