Roadtrip: Atlanta, GA to Flagstaff, AZ

[fushi]

Hello,

I am making a solo trip from Atlanta, GA to Flagstaff/Cornville, AZ. I have looked at previous posts on this forum and numerous individuals have indicated it takes to 3-4 days to travel by car. Knowing that this is a solo trip does anyone have any recommendations of where I could stay such as hostels, safe locations for motels/hotels that are relatively cheap, or places in general to rest? I planned on taking I-40 through Memphis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, and on.

Also, what about recommendations for National Parks, places to eat, and visit that run in junction with I-10 & I-40?

This is my first long distance by myself, so any helpful advice would be appreciated.

Thanks for your help!

[glc]

Welcome!

If you need to get there quickly, take I-20 to Birmingham, US-78/I-22 to Memphis, I-40 to Flagstaff, I-17 to Exit 293. You can do it with 2 overnights, Russellville AR and Tucumcari NM. Both towns have a choice of reasonably priced hotels/motels near the Interstate. You can research prices and reviews right here, look to the right of your first post in this thread.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

The only item in your list of requests that might be hard to find, or at least precisely where you need it, is a hostel. They're still a bit hit and miss in the US, and those where you can put yourself and all your belongings safely behind a locked door at all times are fewer still. That said, places to take time outs abound along the Interstates, and safe affordable (if not necessarily cheap) lodging can be found at nearly every exit.

If you're going to try to make this in three days as a solo driver, you should pre-book your rooms so that you don't waste time looking for a place that suits your tastes and requirements each evening when what you really need is to get off the road, relax, and prepare for a good night's sleep. You'd want to look at getting past Little Rock to around Conway AR on Day 1, and past Amarillo to say Adrian TX on Day 2. The advantage of staying in relatively small towns like Conway and Adrian is that room rates tend to be a bit less than in large cities and certainly less than in vacation destinations. I had no trouble finding rooms for $45-60 in Conway and for $50-60 in Tucumcari, including WiFi and breakfast, using our own hotel search engine.

If you're willing to give yourself four days for the journey, then you can take a much more relaxed pace, see a few things along the way in a bit more detail, and decide where to spend each evening as the mood or interesting sites move you.

AZBuck

[glc]

Very minor point, but there was a reason I mentioned Russellville instead of Conway. The software that Buck and I use hasn't been updated yet to reflect that US-78 has been updated to Interstate standards, so you can get further than the computer on that day. To split the 3 days equally, Conway to Tucumcari would be a bit longer day than the first and last day. I also came up with far western Texas for the second night, but there really isn't much out there between Amarillo and Tucumcari.

If you go through Amarillo around dinnertime, you could stop at the Big Texan if you want a good steak dinner. If you want to spend the night there, the on-site motel is acceptable and reasonable, otherwise drive about a mile and a half farther west down the service road, there's an acceptable Motel 6 down there. If you do that, the 3rd day is going to be pretty long and you may want to think about stopping in Holbrook, the Motel 6 there is very reasonable and is the nicest Motel 6 I've ever stayed in. If you do take that 4th day, you could take the scenic route into Cornville - Alt-89 through Sedona.

I don't know if they still do it, but when I stayed at the Big Texan, they gave me a free voucher for breakfast at the restaurant - which is a full buffet with omelets to order. No wi-fi in the rooms, but the restaurant has free wi-fi - if you can get a room close enough on the 2nd floor you can pick it up.