Seattle to Atlanta

Hello!

I am moving from Seattle to Atlanta and will be driving my car (2014 Subaru Impreza, AWD) right after the Christmas. Two other friends will accompany me on this trip. We plan to make overnight stops and would love any advice. Things in particular that I would like a second opinion on are

-Best (least dangerous and quickest) route to take during winter
-Cities great for hotel/motel/hostel stops
-Places/landmarks to stop at along the way
-Any other advice to make this trip as smooth, safe, and fun as possible

Thanks!

Hi and Welcome to the Great American Roadtrip Forum.

The most important information you have not given us is 'how much time do you have for this trip'?

At more than 2600 miles via the most direct route, this is a solid five days trip - 4 overnight stops. And that is without sightseeing.

The best route for you will be the the most direct route which is going to give you the least chance of getting caught in a storm. So start watching the weather forecast in the days leading up to your departure, and see which interstate is most likely to have clear weather for the duration of your trip. Make sure you have an extra day, that should you get caught in a surprise storm, you can sit it out in a nice warm motel.

Drive safely

Lifey

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

There is no single 'best' route as that will come down to time and weather at the time you travel and it's just to early to predict what that might be. I-90 looks to be the most direct route and Interstates are a priority to keep clear and traffic moving, you should allow 5 days and have a little time in hand so that you can sit out a storm if need be. No route is dangerous as such, it's the human factor that can make it dangerous by not taking the care and time required to do the trip safely.

Places to stay and landmarks to visit come down to how much time you have and what your interests are, if you only have 5 or 6 days then you will need to break your days into equal segments and find places 5-600 mile apart. Treat it like a marathon and not a sprint, trying to do to much in the early part will leave you tired and miserable for the rest of the trip. Of course there are other routes to consider and if the weather was favourable I would certainly look at heading towards Salt lake City and take I70 through the Rockies and through St Louis MO.

Assuming your goal is to make it there as quickly as possible, and assuming weather is clear, the route I'd go with is I-90 to Sioux Falls, I-29 to Kansas City, I-70 to St. Louis, then I-64/I-57/I-24/I-75 through Nashville to Atlanta.

Suggested stopping points would be Butte, MT; Rapid City, SD; Omaha, NE/Council Bluffs, IA; and Paducah, KY. Those are all about 600 miles apart, making them about as far as you should travel in a day, and would only leave time for limited stops. If you want to see and explore things along the way, then you'd need to adjust as appropriate. You also could very easily have to adjust things and take some extra time in spots because of the weather.

If there is bad weather in the forecast for I-90/Montana, you could look at using I-84/I-80 via the Salt Lake City area and across Wyoming, however generally speaking, I-90 is at a lower elevation and is generally a bit easier to navigate in Winter.

Resist the temptation to think that going down to California would be a wise move in winter. Such a route would add 700+ miles to your trip, and still would have numerous opportunities to see bad weather (for example, I-40 across Texas would have been one of the worst places to have been trying to travel over the past weekend, due to an ice storm) and the extra miles would require at minimum 1 more full day on the road, and one less extra day you'd have available in case of a winter storm.