Roadtrip LA-Miami this summer. Seeking advice.

Hi all.

I've been following this forum and reading articles for quite some time and decided to post one myself.

We're two friends arriving in Miami late in July, driving coast to coast and flying home from L.A. 31 days later. We're planning on using the "Southern Pacific" route in Jamie Jensen's Road Trip USA Guide. We would like to see New Orleans, Austin and San Diego and stay off large interstates. Besides that, we really haven't decided much else (plane tickets and rental car are booked though).

I would therefore like your opinion on the following:

- Which route should we choose in Florida going north from Miami?
- Should we stay close to the coast while driving to New Orleans (Panama City, Pensacola etc.) or instead go further to the north and west thru southern Alabama?
- What's the best way after leaving New Orleans? Thru the southern Louisiana and Houston or go north instead?

Also, feel free to comment on the route as a general and regarding cities, sights, things to see, places to stay etc.

Thanks a lot!

- Jakob, Denmark

Velkommen! Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

I tend to like the detail Jamie offers on his routes, but the point of what he does is to follow the old transcontinental highways, with no options for detours. As a backbone for a non-Interstate cross country route, US-80 is as good as any (except that it doesn't actually exist west of Dallas/Fort Worth). So with that recommendation and caveat, let me see if I can answer your specific questions.

For a non-Interstate way north through Florida, I don't think you can beat US-27. It will take you by Lake Okeechobee, but almost pathologically avoids the coast - which in Florida is nearly impossible to do - thus also avoiding most of the large cities.

To give you the chance to see a bit more of the diversity of the US, I think you should probably head up into southern Georgia and Alabama for your initial westward leg. You can then use US-11, which parallels I-59, to come down to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. West from New Orleans, US-90 and the Creole Nature Trail would let you see a unique bit of America.

Then a good option would be to stay generally south and go through San Antonio, Big Bend, and White Sands before completing the trek westward along the "Southern Pacific".

With those highlights as reference points, do a few searches through the forums here and that should lead you to lots of other options along that general route.

AZBuck

Thank you for your great advice, AZBuck. We've used your suggestions and come up with this route. This way we'll take the US-27 through Florida, go north and see parts of Georgia and Alabama, see New Orleans and the Creole Trail, visit Austin and Big Bend before ending up in Tucson (which I've heard is a nice place). From here on we haven't really decided, but more on that under the Arizona questions.

Of course, we will use the drawn route as a guideline, not necessarily follow it down to the very mile.

Still, we have some questions regarding a few places during the trip and especially the last part of it.

Alabama & Georgia:
- Any good cities to stay/eat around our route? Places like Albany, Moultrie and Selma looks good.

Texas:
- After visiting Austin, is it worth driving the extra distance to go see Big Bend or should we just go proceed west through the San Angelo/Odessa region?
- Should we stay/visit/avoid Houston?

Arizona:
- After Tucson, should we go west towards San Diego, or head north to see Grand Canyon? I've heard so many great things about Grand Canyon but it's probably overrun with tourists as we're arriving in the middle of August. Also, the 400 mile drive from Grand Canyon to L.A. looks pretty, but maybe a little dull. (Unless we take a detour a go to Vegas of course).
- If we end up going north, should we go to Phoenix?

Lastly, are there any "must doos" when driving through the south? We would like to see an authentic gospel concert (is this possible, and where?), but otherwise we're open for anything.

Thanks a lot!