Atlanta to LA

My boyfriend and I are planning a trip from Columbus, GA (hour and a half south of Atlanta) to LA. We will have about $3000.00 and 18 total days. We want to drive as straight as we can to Vegas and stay a couple nights there. Then over to Anaheim to visit my father. We will stay with my father for 5 nights. Then we want to take our time coming home to see the sights. We want to come home a different way then we go out. I am wondering if $3000 should be enough. We want to spend $500 total in the casinos. Also, we don't really know what we want to see. We don't really have a clue axept we know we want to see the Grand Canyon and The Hoover Damn. Pretty much we just don't know what is in the areas we will be traveling. For one we aren't completely sure of the route. If anyone has a route they would like to share, we would really appreciate it.

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Your general plan will work just fine, but a couple of minor 'tweaks' should make it even better. Since you want to stop in Las Vegas on your way out to Anaheim, the route that works best for that is to take US-78 from Birmingham to Memphis and just follow I-40 west. At just under 2000 miles this leg will make a very comfortable 4 day drive. Since we normally recommend around 550 miles as a good target for a day on the road, you should be able to get to northern Arizona with enough time to take the afternoon of the fourth day on the little 'detour' north from Flagstaff on US-89 to Cameron, then west and south on AZ-64 along the Rim Drive of the Grand Canyon and then still make it across the Hoover Dam and on to Las Vegas by late evening. Depending on how far you've gotten by the end of the third day, that fourth day could be a relatively long one, but then you're going to be 'resting' in Las Vegas for a couple of days afterwards.

On the way back, when you have more time, you can take I-10 to west Texas and then I-20 home. Places worth looking at along this route include (but are certainly not limited to) Saguaro National Park, Kartchner Caverns, White Sands National Monument, the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, Gibsland LA (where Bonnie and Clyde got gunned down), Vicksburg and others. Again, this is about four days of driving, so you can spend your two 'extra' days enjoying time spent at those sites or even looking for other nearby sites that appeal to you and your boyfriend.

AZBuck

3 *long* days (10+ hours) will get you from Columbus to Flagstaff - with overnights in Little Rock and Amarillo. This will give you some real breathing room to properly tour the Grand Canyon, you can spend the next night in Tusayan (expensive) or Williams.

It's always hard to answer that question because it depends on what kind of motels and meals you plan on, and what other entertainment. This post has some tips to help you breakdown your budget so you can start getting an idea of what you'll need.

After you've had time to play around with your route and budget, come on back and share so we can help you tweak things if needed.