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I will be traveling from Southern Massachusetts to Tampa, Florida during the 2nd week of July - me and 3 boys (ages 7, 11 and 12.) I am looking for places to stop that would capture their interest and not be expensive (as gas is going to cost us so much as it is!) We will have up to a week to make the trip. Any suggestions on either sites to see or places to stay overnight would be great!
Deborah
When going down, you should cross the Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel in Virginia. It is on the US 13, its scenic, and you bypass Baltimore, DC, and Richmond.
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There are 3 possible routes, each of which has many free to low-cost attractions that would appeal to young boys. The first would be the old "Ocean Hiway" which pretty much follows the coast, offering access to a number of beaches, wildlife refuges, bridges, ferries, and other attractions particularly suited to young boys, including the Bridge-Tunnel mentioned by the previous poster, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Grand Strand and Charleston in South Carolina, and Okefenokee Swamp. The second would be I-95 with major attractions in Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond/Petersburg, South of the Border, and the aforementioned Okefenokee. The third would be a route down the Appalachians basically following I-/84/I-81/I-75 that would include the Delaware Water Gap, Hershey, Gettysburg, Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, Stone Mountain and Andersonville. Those are your basic options and each can easily be done in a week with lots of time for fun along the way. So discuss it with your travelling companions and see if one route has more appeal than another (hopefully, they won't each choose a different one!) and then start looking in detail at what it has to offer.
AZBuck
Looking at the options I am thinking the Appalachian route is what I would like to do - we did the I-95 route at Christmas time (and went to Petersburg on the way back) The boys have not really seen the Smokey's so it would be fun to show them some of the amazing waterfalls! Looking at the information I have found here so far some of the places I am considering are:
Warm Springs GA – FDRs Little White House (not as exciting for the boys - more for me!)
Kentucky – Mammoth Cave (not sure how out of the way that is yet)
Smokey Mountain National Park
Stone Mountain GA
Any further thoughts would be great!
Deborah
So here are the places I've really enjoyed along that route. Some will require minor detours, but all are worth it. Start early with the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry and Dinosaur State Park just south of Hartford, take US-209 from Port Jervis, NJ down through the Delaware Water Gap (see if your can rent a canoe or two for some flat water work), spend some time at Hershey Park before continuing on to Gettysburg and Fort Frederick (You don't have to tell them they're learning some history!), visit Shenandoah National Park and follow the Blue Ridge Parkway before turning west on I-64 and the Bluegrass Parkway to Mammoth Cave National Park before doubling back east on the Cumberland Parkway, I-75 and US-441 to the Great Smoky Mountains, rejoin I-75 near Atlanta after a visit to Stone Mountain, and by all means stop at FDR's Little White House (I certainly enjoyed it) as well as Andersonville and Okefenokee Swamp. That should fill a week!
AZBuck
Thanks for all of the good ideas! After mapping it out Mammoth Cave might be too far off of our path - I am going to play that one by ear.