Planning a Road Trip From FL to CT.

[robchi]

I am planning to take a road trip from Miami Beach, FL to Greenwich, CT., I would like to ask for the best restaurants along the way for my lunch and dinner. I would prefer those restaurants that would offer foods that are native to the place. I am planning to leave Miami Beach at 6 a.m., drive until 1 p.m. Have lunch, then drive again until 7 p.m. for dinner and finally find a place to spend the night by 9 P.M. I estimate that I will be in Georgia by lunch and hopefully in Virginia for dinner. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America forum.

I haven't seen too many specific restaurant recommendations on these various forums, and figuring out where you'd be on any give day at meal time is really up to you. A state is a pretty broad piece of real estate! But we'll get to that in a second. I think you have a bigger problem, namely your expectations about how much ground you're going to be able to cover. Miami to Savannah is 490 miles, Savannah to Richmond is another 475 miles. You are not going to be able to cover that in a day. A good rule of thumb, even on the interstates, is to plan on an average of 53-55 mph when stops for rest, gas, and food and delays for traffic are taken into account. Thus, assuming you take the time for a good night's sleep, you can count on getting to Richmond about 11:00 AM on the second day rather than 7:00 to 9:00 PM on the first day. So the first thing on your plate should be a more realistic estimate of where you'll be when.

Once you do that, check out this rather thorough evaluation of what's available along I-95, your basic route. You can also do a search on the state or town where you think you'll be for a meal and "farmers market" to find listings of when and where these open air food emporiums might be available along the way. For example, a simple search on "South Carolina farmers market" yielded this site among others.

AZBuck

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA forum!

I don't have any specific places in mind, but I've always had the best luck finding "native" restaurants simply by driving into the downtown area of a city of town, and looking for places that look unique. You can also generally find people walking around, and actually talk to the locals about their favorite spots too. Looking for places that have packed parking lots is also a good way to find out which places are popular.

Just one word of caution, your expectactions seem to be a little over-optimistic about how far you will get. You should be able to make it to Georgia in 7 hours. Miami to Brunswick, GA is about 420 miles. You'd have to average 60 miles per hour - including fuel stops and traffic. We generally figure 53 mph as a guide to how far you should reasonably expect to go when including stops, but if you limit yourself to just one or two breaks and don't hit traffic you could probably pull this off.

However, I don't believe you'll be able to make it to Virginia by 7. Remember, if you stop at a local restaurant, that will take you off the road for at least an hour. Brunswick, GA to Emporia, VA is 470 miles; that's a minimum of 8 more hours on the road - meaning you wouldn't get there until about 10pm.

Hope this helped!
MR

[robchi]

Thanks guys for the info. I really appreciate it and you were able to open my eyes on details like the distance and my driving speed. I should be able to plan my trip properly taking into account your feedback.

Thanks.