Los Angels to NYC - Road trip itinerary suggestion needed

[DianaRo]

Hi,

My boyfriend and I planning a road trip from Los Angeles to NYC in the end of this month for 26 days.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Do you suggest any changes? How would you recommend to divide our time?
Regarding the places I've marked in yellow I have a few questions:
1 - Would you recommend after Grand Canyon to stop at Durango (to do the white water rafting) or drive directly to on route 66 to Santa Fe?
2 - After New Orleans is it recommended to stop at Memphis or drive directly to Nashville?
3 - After Nashville would your recommend to visit Great Smoky Mountains National park or Chicago? (I think due to time limitation we can choose only one place)

Last thing, would recommend to make a stop in Albuquerque?

Many Thanks!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Unfortunately, neither your map (such as it was) nor your text indicates how long you plan to devote to this RoadTrip. So it's essentially impossible to tell you how to apportion that time. I can say that you'd need at least six days to a week just to drive from Los Angeles to New York by the somewhat circuitous route indicated in your text. About the only other thing I can tell you is that, if indeed you are subject to some "time limitation", then it makes no sense to add Chicago to an itinerary that is otherwise heavily weighted towards sites south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Beyond that we would have to know what your interests are and, as noted, what your time constraints are, before we can offer any useful advice.

AZBuck

[Southwest Dave]

Buck has obviously missed the part where you mention having 26 days available, which is a nice amount of time and allows to wander quite a bit. The thing with 'Either, or' questions is that it really comes down to personal interests and what appeals to you the most, how long you like to stay in one place, or if you simply prefer to 'breeze through' the places on your list. You have obviously done some research so what I would recommend you do is post up a first draught itinerary and how you would like to divide that time. That way it is easier to follow your thinking for the trip and get a big picture, then we can offer meaningful suggestions and tweaks that could benefit your trip. Given a choice, I would take the opportunity to visit Natural wonders over City's every time, but we are not all the same and that's what makes each road trip so unique.

[DianaRo]

Thank you for the fast reply!
Sorry I didn't mention, the trip is 26 days.
We are 31 years old, and we love both nature/parks and urban cities. We visited before NY and LA and would love to the see less touristy places. We love country music, so we really looking forward to visit Nashville and places in Texas.

I agree regarding Chicago, but is this a good season for visiting
Great Smoky Mountains National Park instead?

[DonnaR57]

Well....if it were me.....if I didn't have family in the Chicago area, I would avoid it completely and head for someplace more natural. Like SWDave, my husband and I will choose a national park or monument over a city any time possible!


Donna

[DianaRo]

Hey!
Here is our first draft of our 26 days itinerary, with the number of nights we planning to stay in each place. We are not sure if we should also add Amarillo. Also, after White Sands National Monument do you recommend a stop at San Antonio or drive directly to Austin?
Would love to hear your thoughts on this itinerary.

Los Angeles - 3
Las Vegas - 2
Grand Canyon – 2
Santa Fe - 1
Albuquerque - 1
Truth or Consequences (Hot Springs) - 1
White Sands National Monument - 1
Amarillo – Not sure if we should go (What do think? Should we add this as well?)
San Antonio - 1
Austin - 2
Houston - 2
New Orleans - 3
Nashville - 3
Great Smoky Mountains National Park -1
Lancaster (Aimish) - 1
New York -2

[howard]

Albuquerque - 1
Truth or Consequences (Hot Springs) - 1
White Sands National Monument - 1
Amarillo – Not sure if we should go (What do think? Should we add this as well?)
San Antonio - 1

Since you'll already be so close, I'd add a visit to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Albuquerque
Truth or Consequences (Hot Springs)
White Sands National Monument (Maybe staying overnight in Cloudcroft or Ruidoso, up in the mountains)
Carlsbad Caverns
San Antonio

[Southwest Dave]

It appears that you do prefer the City life ? I personally would have chosen to drive to Durango from GC as you could drive through Monument valley, perhaps visit Four Corners for a 'tacky touristy' photo of having one limb in each of four States (the only place in the US this is possible] and perhaps visit Mesa Verde NP. Durango has a great mountain train ride to the lovely town of Silverton through some amazing scenery. You could pamper yourselves in the Hot waters of Pagosa Springs, but of course this all takes time.

I would also consider breaking the journey to Nashville and visiting Memphis, possibly visit the home of the 'King of R&R', Gracelands. If you are at all interested in Elvis [or the history behind the music] you could also detour through Tupelo, his birthplace.

[DianaRo]

Thank you for the advice. We will check regarding adding Durango to the trip.
As far as how we divided the time between cities and attractions. Does it look fine or would you suggest some changes?

[Southwest Dave]

All your drives are doable in between the attractions but how much time you should spend in each place is for you to decide based on your research and how much appeals to you in one city. For example San Antonio to Austin and Austin to Houston is under 5 hours driving so even if you had 1 night in Austin you could spend the best part of 2 days there. Have you found enough to keep you interested in New Orleans and Nashville for 3 nights. It's great if you have but that's what you need to work out to see if you can make time to go to Durango, Memphis and other possible places along the way. The balance of the trip is also personal choice and a quick count shows you will spend 20 nights out of 26 in a city, again nothing wrong with that if it's what you want to see.