10-12 days trip starting and ending in NYC

Hi,

We are two 30 year olds from Sweden going to the US for 15 days in the end
of July 2008. We are flying in and out of JFK New York.

I am totally new to this forum and this is my first post, but I have read so many inspiring articles here, so I thought I´ll give it a try...

My question is where should we go on this rather short road trip? And where shouldn´t we go? What route should we chose? I´ve been living in New York for a couple of months a while ago, so I am fine there, but I have never been outside of the city, so this is where I need some input. We pretty much like it all when it comes to travelling and roadtripping, but I´d say that judging from our other road trips in Europe and Asia, we are more the "off the beaten track" travellers than the ones that strictly go for main attractions. Camping, big city life, coffee, lonely roads, museums, snorkelling, nature, clubbing, climbing hills, buying old records, bars & restaurants, we like it all and beyond, as long as it´s real...

Going south, west or north doesn´t matter. The only thing is that it has to
be doable in 10-12 days, and it would be good if we didn´t have to backtrack. We have no problem driving for 3-6 hours a day.

All info is highly appreciated. Sometimes "there´s this great little coffee place near the little town of bla bla", is better than "don´t miss out on the Niagara Falls"..., meaning that for us it is the small little details that really makes the trip...

Thanks everybody! If you ever going on a roadtrip in Sweden, contact us here and we´ll let you in on some best kept secret places over here :-)

André, Sweden

Välkomnande! Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

The nice thing about New York is that it is well located to act as a jumping off point to visit a number of different sections of America. In 10-12 days, you could easily see a lot of this country. Just to give you some ideas, you could start off down the east coast seeing some of our history (and some of your own) on your way to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. From there, you could swing down through South Carolina as well before heading inland and following the Appalachian Mountains for a while, including the Great Smoky Mountains, the Blue Ridge, and Cumberland Gap. The final big leg would be along the rivers and canals of the American near-Midwest, including the Ohio river and Erie Canal. As I say, that's just one possible trip that can be done at a reasonable pace, lets you see a good bit of the country, and loops you back to New York. Once you have a general outline, maybe we can fill in some of the details, but it is, after all, a big country.

AZBuck