10 day roundtrip with Dog from NYC to Florida

Hey Roadtrippers!

We are planning to do a road trip with our dog for 10 days in Dec 2012 (during Christmas Week). She is a beach dog and is getting gloomy in the winter months in NYC :-s

We are not interested in specific destinations but are looking forward to a a scenic journey along the coast where it's warm and having a good time with our dog i.e staying at dog friendly motels, taking her to restaurants which are open air where dogs are allowed, running on the beach playing ball with her, drinking, etc so we thought doing a road trip down the coast of Florida would make the most sense, right? Especially since we have never been to Florida at all.

We'd like to zip past the the cold zones as soon as possible during the first leg of the drive so we can spend more time in different Beach/Port destinations like Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach, Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, etc and drive BACK to NYC. What is the best way to do this trip over 10 days and BACK without being too exhausted but spending as much time in 2-3 amazing warm locations.

Thanks so much for all your help guys!

Welcome!

You aren't going to get suitable beach weather till you get well down into Florida. Even Jacksonville can be raw in the winter. I've been in Myrtle Beach in the winter, and it was not enjoyable at all. I'd get down to Orlando as quickly as possible, this is a full 2 day drive. I-95 is the most direct, but traffic can be a bear till you get south of Richmond VA. If you do this, the halfway point for an overnight would be around Fayetteville NC. 2 days down and 2 days back gives you 6 days in Florida.

GLC,

I was thinking that even if Myrtle Beach and Jacksonville are not as great, at least they'd be more fun and warm than the colder areas where we are....Maybe you can suggest another route that is more exciting than the above places before we get to Orlando? I don't have an attachment to Myrtle Beach or Jacksonville in anyway :-)

Let me know because 17 hours straight with a dog is very tough!:-s

I'm not suggesting you even try to drive straight through - this is a 2 day drive at best.

If you want to take the coastal route without using I-95, this is going to stretch it out to 3 days or more. The alternates I'd suggest still using Interstates would be inland and would go into a 3rd day.

You have to decide on your priorities - with only 10 days and your desire for beach time, you can't waste time on the way down or on the way back. You also have to keep up to date on weather and road conditions.

Hey guys,

We are planning to do a 12-14 day road trip from NYC to SF in December, we want to take a southern route and visit places like Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis, Texas (Austin, Santa Fe, etc), New Mexico, Arizona etc all the way to SF (maybe via death valley, the canyons, or redwoods or up the west coast -- whatever works best). We'd like to get out of the cold areas on the east coast as soon as possible and then spend as much time doing fun stopovers via driving through scenic routes, like we hear the drive along the Mississippi river and southern Utah are gorgeous. We will have our dog with us as well, so this is really going to be fun and I would love to hear what you guys have to say on whether this is feasible to do in 12-14 and if so, what's the best route to take. Please also note that if we do 12 days then we'd be hitting SF on 31st but if we do this trip in 14-15 days then we'd probably have to plan our trip in such a way where we are in good location to spend New Years eve with our dog and then drive out on Jan 1st and get to SF by Jan 3rd. We plan to return back to NYC from the north route via yellowstone, etc but there is a lot more info on that that the south route.

Thanks for all the help ya'll!
PS: This is our first "long" roadtrip ever!

Please do not start new threads for the same trip. - Mod.

I take it you are no longer planning to go to Florida?

What I'm not very clear about is if the 12-14 days is for the entire round trip, or just the one way portion to San Francisco? That's going to make a very big difference in what you can actually do.

I'll also note that even the southern US is likely to be cold, and could very easily see snow and/or ice at this time of year especially as you head out into the southern plains and rockies (Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, etc) - so "escaping the cold" isn't as easy as you might think.

A couple other points to consider, National Parks are typically not very dog friendly, and you are often very limited on where you can go with pets. National Forest and National Monuments are often much better options when traveling with pets which you should consider as you figure out what are your personal "must see" places that will result in the "best route" for you. Also keep in mind that several National Parks do have seasonal limitations and road closures - Yellowstone, for example, is largely closed to cars in winter except for a small portion of the park.

Its 12-14 days one way i.e from NYC to SF. We'll return at a later time in the year (from SF to NY) and plan the north route then. For this trip via the south, we'd like to go through a warmer route as much as possible. National parks that are are not of interest. Does this help? I do understand if there are some places we may not be able to avoid then but we want to avoid "very" cold places as much as possible but temperature about 50ish should be fine.

How did this post get attached to my Florida post? That's off now.

Here's a rough suggestion. Take I-78 west to I-81, take that to I-40 and visit Nashville and Memphis. Take a scenic off-Interstate route to New Orleans. From there, you can take US-90 to Lafayette to pick up I-10. Take I-10 into Texas and go to Austin. From there, you can take I-10 to El Paso (or go to San Antonio and take US-90 back to I-10) and adjust your route from there depending on the weather/road conditions and where you want to go. Note that it can get quite cold and snowy in NM and Utah due to the altitude.

How about something like this: http://ow.ly/fEMUl I just picked a rough route, not keeping scenic considerations in mind so feel free to make suggestions. After Texas, I'm a bit lost on what the plan should be until San Diego. Also, I need a great route from SD to SF.

Do you suggest staying a night at each stop?

You will need an overnight stop between NY and Nashville and 2 nights would be advisable between Austin and San Diego. I would also plan on an overnight stop between LA and SF and follow the spectacular coast road around in the Big Sur area. The Cambria area would make for a good stopover point.

With any remaining time you have you should spend it where you find the most attractive to your tastes, whether it be New Orleans, LA or wherever. The weather will be what it will be at the time you travel and there are no guarantees that heading south will prove to be warmer, so pack layered clothing.

In the green tool bar above you will find the Map centre under 'Members' where you can create routes and search for attractions that are listed by RTA contributors based on personal experience, it's a handy planning tool.

Have a great trip !