Great Smoky Mountains from Jersey City in NJ---Need Advice

[glc]

First off, rent a vehicle that can legally carry 9 people and will have room for your luggage. That would probably be a 12 passenger van. Second, get a GOOD night's sleep Friday night, leave at the crack of dawn or even before on Saturday morning if you are going to drive straight through. Do you only have 2 drivers? If you have 3 or more, use a proper rotation keeping both the driver and front seat navigator awake - switching off every 3 hours. If you don't have a 3rd driver, still switch off every 3 hours and use a non-driver for a navigator, switching them off too.

Do the same thing for the return trip, leaving bright and early.

Buck - it looks like they have a 4 day weekend - so this would be 2 full days and 3 nights there, taking a day to get there and a day to get back. I agree, this is not wise, but it's doable. May not be very enjoyable.

[Midwest Michael]

I would tend to agree with GLC. The trip could be done, but it means getting rid of any idea of an overnight drive, accepting the fact that you are going to have two brutally long days on the road so you can spend 2 days in the mountains. The reality is that after driving 700 miles on Saturday, even Sunday is going to be a day where you are mostly recovering from your drive.

I will say that knowing that you've got such a large group does add some significant additional issues. It means you will be spending even more time on the road, because the stops will take much longer, and more importantly, you will need to take many more stops, and rotate drivers more frequently because driving a supersized vehicle, like a 12 passenger van (as has been said, 9 people in an 8 passenger suv won't work!) is much more stressful and requires more concentration than driving a regular sized car. That's even more reason why doing this overnight absolutely can not be done.

The only way you can make this work: Get on the road early Saturday, plan to spend about 16 hours getting there, have Sunday and Monday in the Smokey's before another grueling 16 hours on the road Tuesday.

Personally, that doesn't sound like much fun to me, and I don't mind a good fast paced trip. I think it would be much smarter for you to follow Bucks advice and find a destination a little closer to home.

[abhilash31]

Hmmmm!! Sounds like I have a all messed up trip planned up ahead of me! I have been talking to the group over the past weekend!

We are trying to come onto mutual grounds! However I really appreciate each one of your advice and will be keeping them in mind. Also we are now 8 people travelling from NJ.

We are working on leaving early Saturday Morning, As early as 4am! We are working out on the schedule! I know this would sound a bit crazy, but we kind of had the whole trip planned to the minute! So now working on to accommodate the change!!

[glc]

If you have to plan a trip "to the minute" you are setting yourself up for problems! Nothing ever goes exactly as planned. You have to add a 20% "fudge factor".

You can legally put 8 people in an Expedition EL, but where are you going to stow the luggage? How many adults are going, and how many children? What are the children's ages?