Southern Pacific / Route 80 - General Advice and Recommendations

It would be an extra hundred miles or so to include Jackson in your travel plans between New Orleans and Montgomery. That's not a terrible amount of time, a couple of hours, to spend on the road if there's something or someone you want to see in Jackson, but it's a waste of time if there's no particular reason for you to visit Jackson.

Now you say that your current plans include 'spending a few hours' in Jackson, so presumably there is something in Jackson that caught your eye and that you want to visit. If that's so, then by all means do that - as long as you get an early start from New Orleans and spend no more than two or three hours in Jackson, then you can still make Montgomery comfortably by nightfall.

If, on the other hand, you'd like to spend fewer hours on the road, get to Montgomery earlier, and/or still have a scenic drive, then take the coastal route to Mobile and then head up to Montgomery on I-65. Gulfport, Biloxi and Mobile all have sites worth seeing, most notably the off-shore islands of the Gulf.

AZBuck

Thanks Guys,

I have done some research in Jackson but there was nothing overwhelming that I planned to see, quite honestly it was just so I could see how the capital of Mississippi varied from the surrounding areas.

I figured when doing the original plan that I'm probably not going to do this again so see as much as possible, but I now realise it's probably best to go through Biloxi & Mobile. I've only got the one night in Montgomery so if we get there too late then I doubt we'd have any time to actually look at anything before having to leave early the next morning to get to Atlanta via Birmingham.

Thanks for your help, I'll keep on planning. For anyone interested:

Cheers,

Clay

Having spent a night in Jackson this summer as we travelled down the Natchez Trace Parkway I would say there is nothing special to visit. A zoo, a large lake and the parkway were what I saw Jackson had to offer. I agree staying along the coast between Mobile and New Orleans would be time much better spent, with much better scenery.
-Pat

Thanks Pat, that's very helpful!

I suppose I'll reroute the trip then through Mobile. After doing some research I found that I'll probably enjoy this more as I'm a huge fan of to kill a mockingbird (what law student isn't...) and it'll take me past Monroeville where there are various monuments to the book and movie.

From there my next step will be to head to Mongomery and Birmingham. I've also done some research into these towns and I will see both but obviously will have to spend more time in one that the other for the night.

I just wanted to ask for those who have seen and done both: which of these places would you consider to be best to spend the night? Would it be better to stay in Montgomery for the night and then head to Atlanta via Birmingham for a few hours the next day or visit Montgomery for a few hours then head to Birmingham to stay the night?

Thanks for your assistance in advance!

Having passed through both Birmingham and Montgomery, with brief stops in both (not my first time in either), my vote would go to Birmingham. Just looiks like more options for most things.

Lifey

Thanks Lifey - it seems to be the best option.

And to Mark Sedenquist re: the mapping software - sorry! I didn't realise this site had mapping software as well, had only really looked on the forum part... Such a bad faux pas! I'll use this site's mapping software now to make up for it!

It's not terrible -- use whatever software is the easiest for you. Both Roadtrippers.net and RoadTrip America use the same Google Maps API source data -- we just do different things with it.

Mark

there we go :D

Um....

Oh my goodness -- You used the line drawn map. That tool was created for off-highway use or in places where no roads existed. If you have used the RTA Custom Mapping program, the application would have built the map for you (a lot easier) and it would actually follow the roads -- making it a lot easier to use. And then I could have displayed the map correctly above. (It's there -- you have to scroll over a bit to get it to display).

So, I created this one in about 3 minutes -- it doesn't go to all of your stops, because this program is limited to 8 way points + beginning and ending



Weird, it's still not displaying correctly -- got to work on this...

Using the RTA Custom Maps you could of also created this same map but asked the program to search for attractions within 10 miles of the route (or other distances). And it would have looked like this:

to open a new page -- easier to view look at this

Or you could have removed the way points and still added some attractions



or click here to see the whole page at normal size.


Mark

Hi Mark,

Yeah I did originally use the Mapping Tool which would have done all the points but as you said it was limited to 8 stops unfortunately. I just did the line trip to tell the destinations rather than the routes. It's good for general routing but I think I'm a little too specific in my plans compared to ordinary use :D

I might just redo it when I have some spare time into maybe 2-3 maps for different legs of the trip and have everything fit. I like the attractions bit though, it's going to be very helpful!

Thanks,

Clay