Our First Formal Road Trip From Atlanta to California
Hello,
My family and I are planning to take our first planned road trip in June and would like to travel from Atlanta to California over a 3 week period. There will be 5 of us including our 3 children ranging in age from 7 to 17. We are interested in taking the following route: From Atlanta - Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California. We also hoped to see Arizona and New Orleans on our return trip. We are interested in visiting museums, national parks, amusement parks, and are open to anything that might be fun for families. Although, we want to travel for 3 weeks, we can do 4, if necessary.
We are seeking any information regarding best routes, attractions, economical but nice hotels, and whether or not we're being reasonable with the number of states we hope to see in a 3 to 4 week period.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much!
Dee
Quite a Lot of Road for a First Timer
Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!
Well, you're looking at anywhere from 4500 to 5000 miles (or more) for any reasonable loop trip out to Los Angeles and back. Add in miles for detours to attractions and whatever else you want to see and do in California and you are looking at 10 days at least of serious on the road time. So three weeks would allow for a good mix of driving and actually doing stuff. I seldom say this, but four weeks might prove to be a bit too much 'togetherness'. A basic loop would take I-40 one way and I-20/I-10 the other. Highlights of such a loop would include Memphis, the Ozarks, Cadillac Ranch, Santa Fe, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Disneyland, desert and cacti, Carlsbad Caverns, the Alamo, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. You can certainly take a third route that goes through Colorado, Utah and Nevada as you indicate while only adding a couple of hundred miles.
So. at this point your first priority should be coming up with the basic outline of your trip. We can, as above, offer suggestion but this is really up to you and is actually (in my opinion) one of the most enjoyable parts of any RoadTrip - the daydreaming. Get your family, including the kids, involved in this most vital aspect. Show them a few routes that you are considering and have them all take some time with a good map or on-line figuring out what attractions are along each possible route and what they would prefer seeing. What I would recommend isn't nearly as important as what they choose for themselves. Then, once you have a basic pair of routes out and back, let each family member choose a couple of particular sites and be responsible for doing the research on them: when are they open, how do you get there, stuff you should know before you get there, what will you do and see when you get there, Then they can act as your guide for that attraction. It's a great way to get everyone, particularly the kids, invested in having a great time.
AZBuck