Open to ideas

Hey!

Next Spring I am planning a 7-8 day road trip. I am quite open on where it could be, and thought you may be able to help if I was to explain what I am looking for

- I want this to be a road trip, so I want to spend 7-8 hours driving a day with breaks. This means I can cover more distance, but I would prefer to avoid interstates where possible and use the US highays for a more picturesque drive.

- Something off the beaten track - I want to do a less trodden road trip, seeing some parts of the United States most people don't get to see and going through smaller towns as well as cities.

- Covering different landscapes, cultures and things to see as I progress on the trip.

- Authentic food to the area I am in

I considered doing the highway from Bismarck ND down to Mexico, and also the blues highway through Mississippi, but are there any other great routes I could try and incorporate into the trip? I would love to do something around Kentucky, Tennessee area but not sure that would fit the above requirements.

Welcome to the RoadTrip America Forum!

With 7-8 days you're not going to have time to see the wide swath of the country you've noted, which includes both the Appalachian areas as well as the Midwest/West. Where will you be starting from? Will you be flying into an area and renting a car, or driving your own vehicle, etc? Is this going to be a solo trip or will you have others with you?

Thanks for your reply!

To clarify, I didn't mean all the things I suggested in one trip! I am completely open to ideas on where, those were just things I'd seen that had caught my imagination. I can fly into any airport and depart from any airport. It would help if the start and destination were larger international airports though.

I'm a solo traveller and an experienced driver who plans to hire a car. I'm just looking for an off the beaten track route with differing landscapes, cultures and some sense of America outside the large cities.

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Originally Posted by boingskipjump

... and some sense of America outside the large cities.

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Get hold of some good maps and look at all the towns and highways other than the big cities and interstates. Once you set out on them you find the most amazing things and people.

I stay off the interstates as much as I can, and see and experience all those things which you are looking for. But I never plan beforehand. I just hit the road. Along the minor roads there is lots of accommodation, just not the five star type.

Lifey

There are some great books at your library (or via InterLibrary Loan) that can provide some great orientations for different road trips. Some examples include, but are not limited to:

• Road trip USA: cross-country adventures on America's two-lane highways by (by Jamie Jensen)
• The most scenic drives in America: 120 spectacular road trips (Reader's Digest Assoc.)
• Guide to scenic highways and byways: the 300 best drives in the U.S. (National Geographic)
• Southwest USA's best trips: 32 amazing road trips (Lonely Planet)
• Southwest road trip: Las Vegas, Zion and Bryce, Monument Valley, Santa Fe and Taos, and the Grand Canyon (Moon)

The last two on the list take different approaches as guides to the Southwest USA, but are complementary. You might find thumbing through both very useful.

Two web sites in addition to roadtripamerica.com include: https://roadtrippers.com/ and http://roadtripusa.com/ .