Planning road trip from California to North Carolina

[tmac1122]

Hi I am trying to plan a road trip from San Diego, CA to Raleigh, NC for November. I will probably spend 2 weeks traveling and would like to stop in different locations to explore. What are some must see places along the way? I would like to stop in Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Any suggestions on where to go in Las Vegas? Thanks for your help!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

I have one question you'll have to answer before we can even start to give you help. Its simple but critical. Is this a one way or round trip? If the former and you really need to spend any meaningful time in Raleigh, then you don't have time for anything more than the most direct drive with no major stops whatsoever. If it's a one way drive then the world, or at least most of the southern half of the United States is at your disposal. If you do have time, then the next question would be what interests you. Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon are as different as two sites can be, but are still typically considered major tourist attractions. But with nothing more to go on than those two sites, we really don't know much about your tastes. Finally, you say that "I" will be making this trip. Is this a solo drive? That comes with its own set of both constraints and freedoms. If others will be traveling with you, what are their interests and can they help with the driving? The more you can let us know precisely what sorts of suggestions you would find helpful, the better we can tailor our responses to you. And that, after all, is a major point to and benefit of RoadTripping, the ability to do what you want rather than what some guidebook or even those of us here tell you to do.

AZBuck

[tmac1122]

Thanks for your response! I will be making this trip with my brother but we have pretty similar tastes. We would like to see as many popular sites along the way. This will be a one way trip. I am assisting my brother in the drive back from california. We live near raleigh now so we do not need to visit sites in the NC area.

[Midwest Michael]

It's great that you and your brother have similar tastes, but as Buck noted in his response, we need to have some idea of what those tastes are in order to be able to provide much in the way of specific idea. "popular sites" doesn't really give us anything to go on.

In the meantime, if you're just looking for a very broad idea of the things you could see along the way, I'd recommend checking out the RTA Map Center, which will offer you hundreds of ideas of things you could see and do along the way.

[AZBuck]

While we really prefer to help people find things that appeal to them, and may not necessarily be 'popular', I can understand a bit that there are some who have not yet developed their own tastes or interests and simply want to sample what others find interesting in order to develop those tastes.

Given your time frame, I'd suggest you take a little time to just enjoy a few of America's old, and disappearing' back roads. The prime example is the former road US-66. This route has now been decommissioned and replaced by Interstates, but the old roadbed is still there in places and the longest such stretch is between Kingman and Seligman Arizona, through Peach Springs, It's now marked as AZ-66. Then after visiting the Grand Canyon, hook around it to the east up to southern Utah and visit at least a couple of the 'Mighty 5' national parks there: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches. From there you might want to cross the Rockies on US-50 through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison to Colorado Springs and the USAF Academy.

Once out on the plains think about heading southeast through Dodge City to the Ozarks of southwestern Missouri and, in particular, Branson which is similar to Las Vegas in some ways but with a much more CW vibe. You should also think about whether you want to head south from here to the Gulf and either Houston (NASA), New Orleans (Bourbon Street), or both; then head for the Atlantic coast and sample some of that before finally heading up to Raleigh to end your trip.

AZBuck