New Orleans to New York - Honeymoon Roadtrip

[Tenille]

Hi there, I'm new to this forum. We will be on honeymoon from Cape Town, South Africa. We'll be attending the New Orleans Burlesque festival and would like to road trip from New Orleans to New York.We'll hire a small car. We have never traveled to the States before so have no idea where to start.We would ideally like to see as much beauty as possible, we love nature. We will be traveling on a budget (the Rand Dollar exchange rate is firmly against us) but would like to experience as much as we can. We would really appreciate some advice and suggestions. We have 7 days to complete the trip.
thanks so much.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

You have plenty of time for a very leisurely and scenic trip. If you just wanted to get from New Orleans to New York in the most direct manner, it would only take about 2½ days using Interstate Highways (Motorways). But there are a couple of very scenic, slower-paced roads that you should use as the backbone of your trip instead. These are the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Blue Ridge Parkway. To get from one to the other (Nashville TN to Asheville NC) you could use I-40 or US-70. Along those routes, there are a number of national, state and local parks including Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, Shiloh National Military Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Shenandoah National Park.

Between northwestern Virginia and New York City you have a couple of options. You can either take the 'urban' route (basically I-95) through the historic cities of the east such as Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, or you can continue with a more scenic and relaxed route up I-81 to northern New Jersey and then I-80 into New York visiting places such as Gettysburg and Delaware Water Gap.

And of course, whichever way you choose to go, there are literally hundreds of smaller historic, scenic, or just plain interesting places to visit. We can help you with those as well once you've decided on a basic route and let us know any special interests you might have.

AZBuck

[AZBuck]

Since this is a honeymoon trip, I'll assume that you don't want campsites or rock-bottom lodgings. But you should be able to find reasonably priced accommodations using the RTA search engine for cities and towns near where you decide to stop each night. Some medium priced chains that I've found to give good value include Clarion, Comfort Inns/Suites, Days Inn, Holiday Inn, and Ramada Inn. Note that this list is not exhaustive and is only in alphabetical order, but it should give you an idea of what you can expect from some larger American chains and what you should be comparing your choices to.

AZBuck

[Tenille]

Thanks very much for the suggestions AZBuck. I really appreciate the help. I am finding great spots on air bnb so accomodation en route is sorted. I have a clearer idea of the route we'd like to take. What do you think so far?
New Orleans to Nashville
Nashville to Ashville
Ashville to Chapel Hill NC
Chapel Hill to Olmey MD
Olmey to New York

How does that sound and are there places we absolutely must see en route?

I've scheduled 2 nights at most stops so that we can enjoy the forests etc.

Thanks again for the help

[AZBuck]

Looks like you're dong a great job of adjusting your trip to both take advantage of advice received and following your own interests. The Natchez Trace should still work for you, but the Blue Ridge Parkway is now a bit off course since you want to include Chapel Hill and the DC area. I will also note that my wife and I use airbnb for short stays and have been generally quite happy with properties listed on their site, but then my wife is incredible at reading between the lines and using decor to judge which places will suit our needs.

So, some suggestions for the later portion of your trip that take into account your new way points. Between Chapel Hill and DC, I'd suggest that you at least consider taking a little extra time and visit the Historic Triangle of Tidewater Virginia, then cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel onto the Delmarva Peninsula, check out some of its sights including Chincoteague, Assateague, and St. Michaels before crossing back to the 'mainland' via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Annapolis, a great, quaint, and romantic town, before heading into Olney.

AZBuck