NYC to San Fransisco in 62 days

[Matt Derrick]

Hi there! I’ve just found this absolute gem of a website and have been reading on here about some of the awesome experiences people have had in the USA.

A friend and I (we will be 27) are planning on driving from NYC to San Francisco via New Orleans and the Southwest from 26th July – 26th September, so my questions are: what is good to see on the way and what are the highlights?!!

Just kidding... we’ve planned a (fairly easy going) itinerary, which I’ve outlined below. We are happy to be flexible and have read that a too-rigid itinerary could be a hindrance. We’ll be driving the whole way and sharing the driving. I just had a couple of questions that I couldn’t find the answer to in the forums.

Just to be specific, we’re interested in checking out out a few small towns as well as cities, meeting fellow travellers along the way, we both love music (looking forward to seeing Jazz, Blues and Hip Hop on the trip), seeing the countryside/national parks, and seeing some great American sport (basketball, baseball, American football, ice hockey)

So, the broad itinerary is:

- New York
- Philadelphia
- Washington DC
- Roanoke
- Nashville
- Birmingham (stop over)
- New Orleans
- Houston
- Austin
- El Paso
- Alburquerque
- Flag Staff (to see the Grand Canyon)
- Las Vegas – (we need to be here by 30th August)
- San Diego
- LA
- San Fransisco

The questions I had were:

Is Roanoke a particularly spectacular part of the Appalachian Trail or are there alternative places we could stop at instead? It’s a place that’s been recommended to us because of its beauty.

Instead of passing through Birmingham we could take the longer route to Memphis – it looks a significant detour, so if we’ve been to Nashville, is it worth seeing Memphis instead of seeing Birmingham?

Big Bend or Carlsbad – we’ve heard their pretty special, is one generally better during August? (I suspect it will be hot!) and would a full day be long enough to explore one of them (i.e. stopping over for a night)?

Any thoughts would be massively appreciated – good or bad!

I hope that makes sense and that I’ve been specific enough with what we want to get tout of our trip, thanks very much in advance for your help!

Matt