Road trip from San Diego to New York

[dovahkriid]

Hi guys! I was hoping I could get some help with the best route to take for my roadtrip. My friends and I decided to take a trip to New york during the summer time and we are trying to plan everything out. We are having trouble with the route. Basically we are going to be on this trip for 15 days so we want to stop in as many states as possible, hopefully at least 15 or 16. We also don't want to drive more than 300 miles in a day so that we make sure to take a break and enjoy the places around us. Finding a route for this seems rather tricky and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions. Thank you so much!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

You don't say whether this is a one-way or round-trip, but I'm going to assume that it's one-way because you simply don't have time in 15 days to only cover 300 miles/day, wander a bit to visit as many states as possible, and stop to see things. With that understood, it is relatively easy to find a general route that will let you get to 15 or so different states as well as sample some of the amazing variety that this country has to offer.

Start by heading up to Las Vegas, then southeast into Arizona and the Grand Canyon. From there go up through the Four Corners area, visiting Monument Valley and Mesa Verde. Cut up through the Rockies of Colorado to the Denver area and Rocky Mountain National Park and then head out onto the Plains following the old Oregon Trail route along the Platte River in Nebraska. Drop south a bit to visit Kansas City and St. Louis and then go east through southern Illinois (Lincoln Country) and Indiana to Louisville, continuing east through Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia to around Lexington VA. Take a ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway and then visit the nation's capital. From there, a simple run up I-95 will take you through Maryland, Delaware, Philadelphia and New Jersey before finishing up in New York City.

That gets you 18 states (assuming you stop at the Four Corners Monument and 'pick up' Utah and New Mexico) and brings you close enough to three others (Kansas, Iowa, and Ohio) to include them with some very short detours. Total mileage would be just over 3300 miles so well within your 300 miles/day limit with a few days to spare, or take one off from driving on occasion.

AZBuck