Mid-west Roadtrip

[royalneo]

Hello,

My friend and I are planning a road trip in July that will take us from Toledo to Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville and back to Toledo.

Two locations in Kentucky we plan on visiting include Mammoth Cave and Elizabethtown.

I have a few questions that I was hoping someone could help me with. One is how long do you think we should be gone for? Also, do you have any fun attractions you think we should check out.

Thanks!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

The amount of time you take depends on the amount of time you have available. You could do a quick tour of these places in a week or so, but the more time you have the more chances you'll have to explore.

Between Chicago and St. Louis, you might want to stop in Springfield IL, which has some great stops related to Lincoln. You could also consider a stop at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. Louisville has a pretty neat downtown for a town of its size. I stopped at the Louisville Slugger museum this fall and enjoyed it, there is also a nice science center and a Malcom X museum. Here are some more ideas throughout Ohio and Kentucky.

[royalneo]

Thanks! We are thinking about just spending the afternoon in Chicago before heading to St. Louis. We aren't really sure where we should think about staying in St. Louis.

[MrsPete]

We aren't really sure where we should think about staying in St. Louis.

Oh, I love St. Louis! The arch, of course, is an icon. It's much cooler up at the top than you think it'll be. The root beer factory is a great dinner -- what's the name of that place? Lots of good Italian food. The City Museum is a really cool art museum. The site of the world's fair from the early 1900s is worth seeing, and then there's the zoo.

No, don't skip St. Louis!

[royalneo]

Good ideas. Oh we will definitely stop in St. Louis! I haven't decided if we should drive the 4 hours to Chicago and spend the night or just stop for the afternoon.

[Midwest Michael]

Well, there are a ton of great things to see in Chicago, but when you factor in traffic and parking, it does take some time to see things in a city of this size. If you continued onto St. Louis on the same day, I really don't think you'd have time to really do anything in the windy city. I think I'd either decide to stop and spend the day in Chicago, or skip it altogether and do the 8-10 hour direct drive to St. Louis (via Indianapolis).

[glc]

I would get a very early start so you can hit Chicago before lunch - and plan on spending the night in a suburban hotel somewhere off of I-55.

[PinoyInUs]

When exploring big cities like Chicago, one of the things I try to do is to get there on a weekend. It allows you to avoid traffic and visit more places. If you're planning to start your road trip on a Saturday, perhaps you can leave on Friday afternoon and get to Chicago that evening. That'll give you a good part of Saturday to explore the city before heading on toward St. Louis.

[royalneo]

I think staying near Chicago sounds like a good idea. Add a few more days to the trip, but allow for more time to visit.

I've been through Memphis before, however I'm really not sure if Nashville is worth it or not.

[royalneo]

What do you guys think about Nashville?