Moving from San Jose to Austin, solo

Hi all!

Super newbie here and a little nervous.

I'm trying to plan my trip to Austin from San Jose to go to school. I have a 2 door Altima coupe and will need to cram all my belongings in it, including a queen bed.

jk ;)

I don't have a bed or furniture, so I think I'm ok there. Mostly I am looking for advice on routes and cool places to drive by (not really looking to stop and spend time in parks or whatnot, unless you really advise it) I learn more towards the odd and different.

I will want to arrive in early August, and don't really have a set date to leave 0- but I guess doing it in around 5 or 6 days make sense?

Thanks in advance folks!
David

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

This is a drive you could cram into 3 days of solid driving so yes, 5-6 days is a good choice to keep at a relaxed pace and be able to stop and see a couple of things along the way. Have you done any research to see what's out there that appeals to you? Once you have a couple of places on the map it's much easier to start to form a route around them as you have many options. If you took I-40 you may want to check out some of the old route 66 towns like Kingman, Seligman (quirky) Williams and 'Stand on the corner' in Winslow. Perhaps Cadillac ranch appeals to your sense of 'odd'. If you decided on I-40/route 66 it would be a shame not to see the Grand canyon NP, especially if you haven't been before. Have a look at a decent map and research some options and when you have a basic idea of routing we can make more meaningful suggestions along the way. You can look at lots of possible route attractions visited and given the thumbs up from RTA contributors at RTA's route planning map.

I would also suggest I-40, because there's so many things you could see along the way. Adding to what was suggested above, here are two others:

Meteor Crater, near Winslow.
Petrified Forest National Park-kind of quirky, as wood has turned into stone here. This is in eastern Arizona, just east of Holbrook.



Donna

I-40 is a perfectly good route with a lot of things you could do, but it's far from your only option.

You could also head down to I-10, which would take you past National Parks like Joshua Tree, Saguaro, and Carlsbad Caverns as well as cities like LA, Phoenix, and Tucson.

If you haven't been to Yosemite, this could be a good chance to see it before you leave CA - also potentially going to places like Death Valley, Las Vegas, maybe even parts of Utah and Colorado.

As you can see, you've got a ton of options, but no one but you can decide what is most interesting to you.

Thanks everyone - sounds like a lot of great options!

Southwest Dave (maybe I should change my handle to Northwest Dave) thanks for the specific suggestions. I'm going to look into those (odd sounding) towns.

Donna, thanks a bunch. Petrified forest sounds awesome.

Midwest Michael - Vegas would be fun! Never been... and Death Valley looks really great.

And +1 to me having to do some research and decide myself. Thanks for giving me a start folks

Since you'll be crossing both Arizona and New Mexico, you should take a look at our new guide book, Arizona and New Mexico: 25 Scenic Side Trips. The book is filled with routes that take you off the Interstate highways into some of the some of the most beautiful countryside on the planet, and at the end of the day, they bring you back to the Interstate once again. There are eight different side trips off Intestate 40 between the California border and Albuquerque; with as little as a few extra hours, you can turn your drive to Texas into a real adventure! If you've never been this way before (or even if you have), the book has tons of useful information about this part of the country.

Enjoy the planning; for a lot of folks, that's half the fun!

Rick