Washington to Atlanta - Scenic route!!

[buckolfc]

Hi,

Me (30yo), my wife (25yo) and our 11month old son, will be in the USA this July/Aug. We are flying into Washington DC to visit family then driving down to ATL for more visiting.

From DC we were hoping to head through Virginia and head for the coast to take in NC/SC coast and visit Charleston and Savannah, ( and everything along the way. OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS), Before heading back up to ATL.

We have two weeks in between DC and ATL, so we have plenty of time.

We just enjoy being in the USA and seeing all the small towns and way of life, and being on the road so all suggestions welcome.

Any tips for travelling with the baby also welcome.

I have used this forum every time I travel to America and always get brilliant advice, so Thank you in advance!

[AZBuck]

Think snake. For your first part 'heading down through Virginia' I'd suggest that you head west to start and take I-66 to Front Royal and hop on the Skyline Drive south through Shenandoah National Park to Waynesboro. Then head east to Charlottesville and walk the campus of the University of Virginia and visit its designer's home, Monticello. Continue eastbound on I-64 through Richmond and down to the Historic Triangle which includes Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown. From Norfolk take VA-168/NC-168 south to pick up US-158 to the site of the Wright Brothers' first flight in Kitty Hawk and the first attempt by the British to colonize America in Manteo, and then continue4 down the Outer Banks on NC-12, stopping at some of the beaches and lighthouses. You'll need to take a ferry from Hatteras Island over to Ocracoke Island (free) and a much longer ferry (reservations recommended) from the town of Ocracoke over to Cedar Island on the mainland. You can pretty much just follow the coast and US-17 at this point down through Myrtle Beach to Charleston (for sure take the boat out to Fort Sumter, and see if you can get a tour of the CSS Hunley) and Savannah. For the last leg inland to Atlanta although I-16 would be the fast route, I think that something like GA-17/GA-171/GA-16/GA-212 would be far more scenic and relaxed.

As for the baby, that really depends on whether he has started walking yet, but one of the real under-appreciated aspects of staying off the Interstates is that you will be driving through many small towns with local parks, school playgrounds and small bodies ofr water that will keep him quite amused without too much further worry.

AZBuck