Please help - What is the fastest highway from Fayetteville, N.C. to Los Angeles?

I guess the question is pretty obvious. ;-) I'm leaving in a week or two from Nov. 17 and need to arrive in Pasadena, Ca. asap.

Also, what is the best way to find the lowest prices on hotels? Priceline, Triple AAA (Autoclub) or ??? I'm probably going to be staying at the Residence by Marriott Hotels...

Thanks so much, L

Hello L,

I-40 takes you all the way from Benson, NC (30 miles up I-95 from Fayetteville) to Barstow, CA. From Barstow, I-15 runs south into the LA Basin. Depending upon exactly where in the Fayetteville are you are leaving from and on what time of day you'd pass by Raleigh and RTP, it can be a bit shorter to come north up some of the state or US highways and intersect I-40 in the Raleigh area or between Raleigh and, say, Burlington. You surely want to avoid coming up I-95 to I-40 and through Raleigh during the weekday morning rush hour, for example.

From Raleigh, it's but a hop, skip, and 2,400 miles to Barstow. I can't help you with motel recommendations, but you can surely get familiar with Loves, the chain of fuel stops and fast food with a location every 50-75 miles from TN through NM. Clean restrooms, competitively priced fuel, and good coffee.

Good luck on your trip.

Foy

Foy, thanks so much! I do believe that 40 was the way a friend of mine drove us from L.A. to Benson. Not the prettiest way to travel but it was indeed the fastest! *S

Please, anyone know how to access the best deals on Courtyard by Marriot Hotels? Please read the above post.

Kindest Regards,

L

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Originally Posted by Caligurl

Please, anyone know how to access the best deals on Courtyard by Marriot Hotels? Please read the above post.

Kindest Regards,

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Hi there and Welcome to the R.T.A. forums.

You will still need to do some searching on the Internet to make sure you have the best deal but Marriot guarantee lowest prices. The responsibility is yours to do the checking though, so do a little research and then go through them direct and find out if they are the best deal, if not let them know.

Have a safe journey.

I generally use several of the multi-search sites, like Kayak, Expedia, Sidestep, and Travelaxe. Then when I find a deal I like, I then go to motel's website directly. Most of the chains have a best price guarentee, so sometimes you'll find the price for a little bit less.

I also use the "blind" sites like hotwire and priceline, which many times can result in a better price, but then you don't get to say which chain you stay at, and its harder to guarentee specific amenities. You also loose any flexibility with this option, so you need to make sure you won't want to change things at a later point.

I ran your route through Microsoft Streets & Trips, their fastest way is I-95 to Florence, I-20 to Birmingham, US-78 to AL-5, AL-5 to US-278, US-278 to AL-74, AL-74 to US-78, US-78 to Memphis, I-40 to Barstow, I-15 to I-210 to Pasadena. This is 2550 miles, 38 hours of straight driving. This is a 4 day speed run - 3 nights on the road. This puts your stops around Birmingham, Oklahoma City, and Gallup, NM.

Just a suggestion - on a speed run , you don't need expensive hotels with amenities such as the Marriott. All you need is a comfortable bed. I'd suggest the low to mid-price chains such as Motel 6 and Super 8. That's all I use on my speed runs, and I choose ones that are outside cities. This avoids getting caught in rush hour traffic in the morning, and also keeps the cost down. You can research most chain properties - locations, rates, amenities, etc. on each one's website, or use hotels.com. If you have a particular reason to use a Marriott property, look at the Fairfield Inns, those are their lower priced properties.

Note - changing the route to NC-24/NC-87/US-421 to Greensboro to pick up I-40 adds a nominal 30 minutes to the drive and about 10 miles, and I'd probably do that unless the weather is bad up over I-40 in western NC/eastern TN. This would give you Nashville as the first night's stop.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Southwest Dave

Hi there and Welcome to the R.T.A. forums.

You will still need to do some searching on the Internet to make sure you have the best deal but Marriot guarantee lowest prices. The responsibility is yours to do the checking though, so do a little research and then go through them direct and find out if they are the best deal, if not let them know.

Have a safe journey.

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Thanks so much Dave, but I'd made a mistake... I'm going to stay at La Quinta most of the time... I also am staying at one B & B. ;-)

Lisa

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Originally Posted by Midwest Michael

I generally use several of the multi-search sites, like Kayak, Expedia, Sidestep, and Travelaxe. Then when I find a deal I like, I then go to motel's website directly. Most of the chains have a best price guarentee, so sometimes you'll find the price for a little bit less.

I also use the "blind" sites like hotwire and priceline, which many times can result in a better price, but then you don't get to say which chain you stay at, and its harder to guarentee specific amenities. You also loose any flexibility with this option, so you need to make sure you won't want to change things at a later point.

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Hi Michael!

Thanks, I did check out Kayak and Expedia. I then found out that La Quinta has their own website, and if one books from their site (with the Auto Club % off) La Quinta's sites rates were lower than the other sites.

Also, I appreciated that you taught me about what the downside is when using hotwire and priceline. I had previously checked out Priceline and hadn't like the fact that I wasn't able to select a hotel...

People on this site are sooo very friendly and helpful. ;-)

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Originally Posted by Foy

Hello L,

I-40 takes you all the way from Benson, NC (30 miles up I-95 from Fayetteville) to Barstow, CA. From Barstow, I-15 runs south into the LA Basin. Depending upon exactly where in the Fayetteville are you are leaving from and on what time of day you'd pass by Raleigh and RTP, it can be a bit shorter to come north up some of the state or US highways and intersect I-40 in the Raleigh area or between Raleigh and, say, Burlington. You surely want to avoid coming up I-95 to I-40 and through Raleigh during the weekday morning rush hour, for example.

From Raleigh, it's but a hop, skip, and 2,400 miles to Barstow. I can't help you with motel recommendations, but you can surely get familiar with Loves, the chain of fuel stops and fast food with a location every 50-75 miles from TN through NM. Clean restrooms, competitively priced fuel, and good coffee.

Good luck on your trip.

Foy

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Hi Foy!

I'll be taking the I-40, and will be leaving the day before Thanksgiving. *sniff

Never have I been on a road trip during the holiday. Maybe I'll be able to find a Thanksgiving type meal on that day. Yikes.

Thanks so much for all of your advice!

Lisa

It was so sweet of you to be so helpful.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by glc

I ran your route through Microsoft Streets & Trips, their fastest way is I-95 to Florence, I-20 to Birmingham, US-78 to AL-5, AL-5 to US-278, US-278 to AL-74, AL-74 to US-78, US-78 to Memphis, I-40 to Barstow, I-15 to I-210 to Pasadena. This is 2550 miles, 38 hours of straight driving. This is a 4 day speed run - 3 nights on the road. This puts your stops around Birmingham, Oklahoma City, and Gallup, NM.

Just a suggestion - on a speed run , you don't need expensive hotels with amenities such as the Marriott. All you need is a comfortable bed. I'd suggest the low to mid-price chains such as Motel 6 and Super 8. That's all I use on my speed runs, and I choose ones that are outside cities. This avoids getting caught in rush hour traffic in the morning, and also keeps the cost down. You can research most chain properties - locations, rates, amenities, etc. on each one's website, or use hotels.com. If you have a particular reason to use a Marriott property, look at the Fairfield Inns, those are their lower priced properties.

Note - changing the route to NC-24/NC-87/US-421 to Greensboro to pick up I-40 adds a nominal 30 minutes to the drive and about 10 miles, and I'd probably do that unless the weather is bad up over I-40 in western NC/eastern TN. This would give you Nashville as the first night's stop.

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Hi GLC,

Wow, thanks for all of the research!

I've decided on the I-40 and the first day I'll drive all the way to Knoxville (8 hours?) and stay at a B & B. Ahhhhh.... They'll serve a huge buffet breakfast the next morning. Mmmmm...

Lisa

Somebody was here asking about restaurants in Albuquerque awhile back, so I put together a Google map of ABQ
showing where some decent restaurants and some of the local attractions are located.

Have a great trip.

If you are not going to drive much more than 8 hours a day, add 1 day to your trip. This would put your stops in Knoxville, Little Rock AR, Amarillo, TX, and Holbrook AZ. I show Fayetteville to Knoxville at 6 hours 45 minutes with no stops. What I might do is try to push the 4th day to Flagstaff if the weather is good, and get a very early start the next morning. This would give you the best chance to get into LA before the height of evening rush hour.

If you like good steak, I can highly recommend the Big Texan in Amarillo. This is the place where if you can eat a 72 ounce steak in 1 hour, you get it free. Their smaller steaks are excellent and the prices are reasonable, as I remember I think I got an 18 ounce ribeye dinner for about 22 bucks last year.

Lisa,
I personally don't care for the SC-GA-AL-MS route to Memphis, largely because it involves lots of non-Interstate, involves Atlanta, and is essentially the same distance to Memphis as I-40 would involve.

I concur on the NC 87 connecting to US 421 to reach Greensboro and I-40. Still, it depends a bit on what side of Fayetteville you're leaving from as to how much better this might be than I-95 to Benson and I-40.

Be thoroughly aware you want to start early on the Wed before T'giving. From at least Raleigh to Asheville, it's gonna be ugly on I-40.

Knoxville should be an easy first day--if you start early.

Please post a Report during or following your Road Trip!

Foy