Vegas to NYC - via the south

hi guys, hope everyone is well. Sorry for the long winded post in advance.

I'm from Scotland and have spent my last week or so trying to plan a road trip in the US for next year COVID permitting. I am wanting to travel the 50 contiguous states but will be breaking it up into 2 different road trips at different times.

The first one we are planning will be Las Vegas to New York via the southern states and some mid states, stopping in a city in every state and I have mapped out a route. Unfortunately we are a bit limited in how long we can be away from home for due to work commitments, so 31 days is my allocated time.

Because i have so much time to plan this, I am looking to make a proper detailed itinerary so that we have the best chance of not being caught out with any unforeseen problems which may arise.

I am not expecting anyone to reply to every leg of my journey, but if anyone can share with me some useful tips such as good lunch stops, fuel stops, must see landmarks or locations between each city that they themselves would recommend from experience that would be great.


Other useful info to me would be best time of year to do this trip, best company to rent a car/RV and drop it off at the other side of the country. And the other useful information im looking for from experienced roadtrippers are which problems can arise along these routes for me.

This is my proposed routes, and unfortunately I know it means ill only get to spend one night in each city, but that is something we are happy enough to do.

Las Vegas - Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix - Albuquerque, NM
Albuquerque - Denver, CO
Denver - Wichita, KA
Wichita - Oklahoma City
Oklahoma - Branson,Missouri
Branson - Little Rock Arkansas
Little Rock - Dallas
Dallas - Houston
Houston - New Orleans
New Orleans - Jackson Mississippi
Jackson - Birmingham Alabama
Birmingham - Nashville Tennessee
Nashville - Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta - Orlando, Florida
Orlando - Charleston, SC
Charleston - Charlotte NC
Charlotte- Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach - Washington DC
Washington DC- Baltimore
Baltimore - Wilmington, DE
Wilmington - Philadelphia
Philadelphia - Ocean city NJ
Ocean City - New York City

Sorry for all the questions in one post, and like i say i dont expect anyone to reply to each leg, but even if you have any experience of just one of the legs of my journey that would be very useful for my itinerary

Thanks for your time guys

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

At this point in your planning it's a bit early to give you any meaningful advice and rather than just throwing random suggestions out there, here's how I would get started. You can use the search function to find similar threads for different parts of your trip and read up on other trips and advice given. In the tool bars at the top and bottom of the page have many links to routes and attractions such as in the Map centre. You could work on how much time you plan on spending in any one area and break it down into days for each section of your trip and see how things will fit around the time you have. This will swap and change as you make more progress with your planning which is perfectly normal and as you do this we can answer any specific questions or help fill in blanks. At the moment it's just a list of city's but some of the most memorable places for me in the USA are the National and State parks, small towns and back roads so there os so much more to consider than ticking off a State and a city on your list of things to do, unless of course that is your goal for the trip.

Just a thought but have you considered doing a couple of loop trips rather than 2 one way trips, maybe one in the west and one in the east ? You will probably save money on flights and one way drop off charges on your car rental and quite possibly end up seeing more of the areas. As I mentioned, have a dig around and do your research and ask querstions as you go. Enjoy the planning it's a fun part of the adventure !!

Thanks for the reply Dave,

Like you say the planning is at the early stages yet, and these cities I have in mind are the result of some google searches and seeing as many as I can in the time I have. This is just a list im researching and seeing if it would be a good one for us. Certainly isnt set in stone.

Could you put this in a map format for easier visualizing?

If in some cases you just want to check-off a state, I'd think of something like Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City, OK.

Another suggestion off the top of my head would be to by-pass traffic hell of Atlanta, GA, dip down to FL instead and then visit Savannah GA on your way to Charleston, SC.

Flagstaff, AZ instead of Phoenix.

Since you are traveling the "South" for this adventure drive, I'd suggest avoiding the summer. Although the beginning of the trip has some elevation, so late summer going into fall.

As Dave mentioned, a good place to start at this stage is to look at past RoadTrip reports and scour them for ideas that you might find interesting to that end, here's one such report that covers much of the same ground that you're looking at.

AZBuck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by landmariner

Could you put this in a map format for easier visualizing?

If in some cases you just want to check-off a state, I'd think of something like Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City, OK.

Another suggestion off the top of my head would be to by-pass traffic hell of Atlanta, GA, dip down to FL instead and then visit Savannah GA on your way to Charleston, SC.

Flagstaff, AZ instead of Phoenix.

Since you are traveling the "South" for this adventure drive, I'd suggest avoiding the summer. Although the beginning of the trip has some elevation, so late summer going into fall.

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I have just taken two photos of the proposed route from google maps, however they didnt upload to here successfully for whatever reason so ive just copy and pasted the links here if that is okay? perhaps someone can let me know how to upload the photos.

http://https://www.google.co.uk/maps...29.9510658!3e0


http://https://www.google.co.uk/maps...38.9071923!3e0




Thanks for the input mate, thats exactly the kind of ideas im looking for like sidestepping Atlanta as its not a must see for me. All i did was google the quickest route to see whats perceived by some as the best cities in each of these states and worked on it. The only must sees on this route for me is Denver, Dallas (houston was the original choice by the google search, however I'm a massive fan of JFK and want to see this city for obvious reasons), Nashville, Orlando, Washington DC and Philadelphia, but i also want to see a city or town in every state on my way, so any other ideas for every other state to change the town/city I'm happy for suggestions.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AZBuck

As Dave mentioned, a good place to start at this stage is to look at past RoadTrip reports and scour them for ideas that you might find interesting to that end, here's one such report that covers much of the same ground that you're looking at.

AZBuck

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Thanks very much AZBuck, Ill have a look at this