Blues Road Trip (Chicago-New Oleans)

[ATJS]

Hi all!
I found this site yesterday and saw very similar threads to the one I am about to post (sorry for the inconvenience) and I picked up some good advice. The trip we (4 people, mid twenties) are planning to make is the following: Chicago, Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago. We would like to do it in 7 days. We thought that a good itinerary will be the following:

********** Day 1 **********
Leave from Chicago early in the morning heading Nashville.
Almost 8 hours drive.
Get to Nashville and sleep there.
********** Day 2 **********
Stay in Nashville the whole day and sleep there again.
********** Day 3 **********
Leave from Nashville early in the morning and head New Oleans.
8 hours and a half ride.
Get to New Orleans and sleep there.
********** Day 4 **********
Stay in New Orleans and sleep there again.
********** Day 5 **********
Friday morning still in New Orleans
Then take the way to Memphis.
6 hours driving. Sleep in Memphis
********** Day 6 **********
Stay the whole day in Memphis and sleep there.
********** Day 7 **********
Stay the morning in Memphis then head St. Louis.
Almost 5 hours driving. Get to St. Louis and sleep there.
********** Day 8 **********
Morning in St. Louis and all the way back to Chicago.
5 hours driving.

What do you think? Is it doable? Any suggestions/modifications on the route will be highly appreciated as well as any feedback regarding cheap places to stay (hostels/motels). We are 4 international students from Spain who spent this last year in Chicago. We love jazz, blues and rock music and therefore looking forward to this trip. 2 of us will be driving.

Thank you in advance for your help!

[glc]

Welcome!

Add 20% to your drive times and re-evaluate your plans. It looks like you are using computer drive times, and they don't have to stop for anything and never get delayed by traffic. With that said, everything you have planned is quite doable, it's just going to take you a bit longer than you think.

With 4 of you, if you are all amenable to sharing one hotel room, this may be cheaper than hostels. Hotels charge by the room, hostels charge by the person. However, being that you want to stay in cities, plan on $100 a night for lodging.

[ATJS]

Thanks for your reply glc,

You're right. I've used computer drive times. Adding 20% would be more realistic. About the rooms, we do not mind staying out of the cities if that makes a big difference (economically speaking). It's just that we do not want to take the car there and pay for parking. I guess looking for some free parking hotel and then Public transportation to the cities would be an option.

Again, thanks for your help.

[glc]

You shouldn't have any kind of major parking issues in those cities. Example - you can park all day in the garage at the arch in STL for 6 bucks.