Chicago round trip (via ATL, MS, Memphis) April 25rd-may 13th 2015

[salty8]

Hi,

I'm a 30y/o Australian travelling mainly solo from Feb-May 2015, looking for help/tips!

My rough plan for this leg of the trip involves picking up a car in Chicago on April 25th with an old friend (who lives in CHI) and driving to ATL to meet another friend for a few days. From there leaving friends and driving solo to Natchez MS, and following highway 61 back to St Louis, then on to Chicago (fly out evening of the 13th May)

I'm hoping to catch plenty of blues music, eat soul food, drink good beer, etc.

Does this seem do-able? Anything I should watch out for? Places to check out/avoid. Car hire advice. Any other tips.

Cheers!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Certainly, you should be able to fit everything into your trip. I will warn that Chicago to Atlanta is a bit much to be trying to do in a single day. It's about 13-14 hours on the road, which really is too much, even with 2 drivers. You would be wise to break that up with an overnight stop.

I'll also recommend that you wait to get the rental car until you are ready to leave Chicago. Chicago is a tough city to drive and and expensive place to park, and they have a very solid mass transit system.

I have never found any big differences between rental car companies, so I'd focus on finding the best price. As an international visitor, Often you can get the best deals by going through an overseas consolidator rather than directly through the rental car companies themselves, so that's an option to consider as well.

[salty8]

Thanks very much Michael.

Sorry, I wasn't very precise. We're planning on spending 2 or 3 days to get from Chicago to Atlanta (stopping at possibly Louisville and Nashville) We'll pick up the rental car the morning we leave Chicago (thanks for the tip!)

[glc]

You can also save by renting the car at a suburban location rather than in the city or at the airport.

[salty8]

Thank you glc! I will certainly look into a suburban location outside of chicago.

Between Louisville and Atlanta, is there much to see if we cut out Nashville and drive to the east?(i.e. route 127) We have both spent time in Nashville before and would like to get off the beaten track as much as possible.