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Hi guys, I'm moving to Los Angeles in the next week and I'm driving. I'm leaving Orlando early morning on Saturday, October 27 and I'm staying that night in New Orleans, the next night in Austin, the next night in El Paso, and then driving straight to LA. Any tips for the drive and is there anything I shouldn't miss?! Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Welcome to the RTA forum!
The best advice we can give is to add at least another half day to your trip.
The first 3 legs of your trip are ok. New Orleans is going to be a full day, getting to Austin should be pretty easy, and Austin to El Paso is a reasonable day.
El Paso to LA, on the other hand, is not a reasonable distance to try to do in one day. Its more than 800 miles, which significantly more than professional drivers are allowed to do, and doing it as part of a multi-day trip - especially on the last leg of such a trip - really is a bad idea. I'd strongly recommend you no try to get farther than Blythe, on the AZ-CA border, which will have plenty of places to spend the night. If you're looking for a place with more excitement and things to do, then stop in Phoenix, before making the last haul into LA.
If you won't add a 5th day to your trip, then you just barely have enough time to make the trip, if you treat it like a job. That means focusing on driving hard for 10-12 hours a day, and only worrying about finding a reasonable place to spend the night, as you just don't have time for any extras. In that case, you should look at spending the night in New Orleans (Slidell or Covington, skipping NOLA would actually be even better), your second night in Kerrville TX (skipping Austin), and your third night in Lordsburg NM.
Thanks Michael, that is very useful advice! I knew it was approximately 12 hours from El Paso to LA but I didn't think it was considered so difficult. Since I've never undertaken such a trip, I think I should definitely take your advice and spend the night in Phoenix.
The only way you could make it from El Paso to LA in 12 hours is if you never stopped, and didn't hit any traffic (which between Tucson, Phoenix, and all of SoCal is basically impossible). Real world conditions make that much more like a 15+ hour drive.
I'm assuming you got that time estimate from an online map program, in which case you should keep in mind that all of your travel days will be roughly 20% longer once you factor in the basic stops and slowdowns for food, fuel, traffic, etc.
Hubby and I just did the opposite of that trip this past summer. I can tell you that even Orlando to NOLA is going to be over 600 miles...well over 11 hours. Between I-75 and I-10, you'll encounter a lot of traffic. Other people have mentioned stopping in Phoenix overnight before going on to LA: GREAT IDEA. If you can stop in the Sun City area (west of Phoenix), you can then avoid morning traffic (which is NOT fun in Phoenix).
Donna
Another option is stay in Casa Grande, then in the morning take I-8 west to Gila Bend and take AZ-85 north back to I-10. This keeps you well out of the Phoenix rush hour traffic.
I agree El Paso to LA is too much. Tucson is interesting but still a long way from LA even with two or more drivers. Unfortunately you're not going to have much time to sightsee.