Advise needed - triangle trip NYC-New Orleans-Orlando-NYC

[Darka]

Hi everyone! We are two families of four from Europe, visiting the USA for the first time and we definitely need your wisdom and experience. It's four adults and four children a- two aged 10 and the other two 7. The plan it to travel next summer, probably in June. We'll have some 3 weeks for everything. Our first stop will be NYC, where we'll stay 1 week. For the rest, we know we want to visit New Orleans, Orlando (because of Disneyland, of course) and go back to NYC. On our way, we'd like to see Savannah or any other town that has the atmosphere of the American South. We're struggling with different ideas - whether to fly to New Orleans and rent a car from there, or fly to Orlando, or not to fly at all...We all enjoy road trips and we are really keen to see as much interesting things as we can, assuming that we'll not just run from one point to another, also having in mind that we're travelling with the kids. So, basically, if you have any idea of which road is more interesting to take, what would be interesting things to see...any advise is very much welcome.
Thanks, Darka

[Lifemagician]

Hi, and Welcome to the Great American Roadtrip Forum.

To do a loop trip you would be looking at about a week of driving time, leaving a week for sightseeing along the way and time in Orlando. As to whether you should fly one of these legs is completely up to you.

Since this trip is not till next summer, the best first step you can take is to get some good detailed paper maps. If you are not able to get these locally, I would suggest you get one of the most popular road atlasses - Rand McNally - which is available from the RTA store at the bottom of this page. If you order it now, you will have it in a couple of weeks.

These maps do not just have all the roads as well as cities and towns, they give a lot of detail about what there is to see along the way, natural attractions, historical attractions, touristy attractions and more.

You will also see the roads and routes graded from hispeed highways to local roads and little used back roads. As well, the scenic routes are highlighted with a dotted line.

Paper maps are invaluable while planning a trip and essential when on the road.

When you have the atlas I would suggest that you follow the suggestions in this paragraph:

Start with maps. Not GPS, not software, not Google, but real honest-to-god paper maps that show you your entire route, that you can mark up (and erase), that you can stick pins in, and that show something about the land you'll be driving through. Those are your essential tool in any RoadTrip planning process. Start by marking all the places you know you want to visit. Then connect the dots. Then look for more places of interest and scenic routes along the lines connecting the dots. Repeat until you've got as many sites and roads as you think you want.

Feel free to ask questions as they arise.

Lifey

[Darka]

Thanks. It's a useful advice - will follow.

[DonnaR57]

Please also note as you are planning -- DisneyLAND is in Anaheim, CA, and is the original park. The Orlando complex is called Walt Disney WORLD, and the original theme park there is called the Magic Kingdom. I point that out so that if you are searching, you won't be looking for information on the wrong park. Disney parks are about my favorite theme parks -- nothing ever comes close to a Disney park, in my heart. With 4 major theme parks, several water parks and other complexes in the Orlando WDW, you could spend a week there and not see everything. We spent 3-1/2 days but we did not ride every ride, see every attraction.


Donna

[AZBuck]

Since your plans are pretty vague at this point and you're just looking for ideas, I'd suggest you read this post which describes two basic routes between roughly New York City and 'the south'. It will give you a good idea of some of the routes and sites available to you if you decide to do either of the major legs by car.

A couple of other things that you should be aware of as you plan your car rental. First, since you plan to fly into New York and send some time there before heading south, note that renting a car from the airport is expensive (lots of fees and taxes) and not at all necessary for your time in the city. Driving and parking in New York City is difficult and expensive. You'll do much better using public transportation (cabs, busses, subways) while in the city and only picking up your car from a 'local' (non-airport) franchise when you're ready to leave. Also, if you plan to fly one of the major legs, note that there is typically a fairly substantial one-way drop off fee if you return the car far from where you picked it up. However, you can often get this fee waived if you book the rental through a European consolidator such as rentalcars.com or europcar.com.

Finally, if you end up deciding to visit four or more of our national parks, note that you can buy an annual pass that is good for entrance fees (but not concession fees) for everyone in the car for $80. These should be purchased at the entrance to the first park you visit, since the year starts at the time of purchase. And even if you only visit a couple of parks, be sure to sign the children up for the Junior Ranger Program at each park that you do visit. This is designed to give them some activities to do to help them enjoy and learn about the park, and at the end they get some very nice (and free!) souvenirs.

AZBuck

[Darka]

thanks! It means a lot to us, as it's our first trip to the USA, plus we travel with the kids and we want to plan it well...