US road trip: New Orleans to....?

[avalanching]

DH and I are planning a 2 week road trip for our 10th wedding anniversary. It'll be spring time, limited to 2 weeks due to leave.

We want to go New Orleans-Natchez-Memphis-Nashville

Then we were going to go St Louis to Chicago. But Chicago doesn't excite me very much, so wondering whether to head East form Nashville rather than north. We quite like moving on quickly so happy to condense and go further. Any suggestions?

I’m definitely biased but Chicago is great! Depends what you mean by springtime though as we often get snow in April. If you are venturing north then I’d skip St Louis and go straight to Chicago, it’s more than do-able in a day from Nashville. If you decide to go East instead then Charleston is a day’s drive and is so lovely.

Why New Orleans? I would look at Virginia and going South to Atlanta on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. As long as it’s April not March. Awesome scenery. Great cities and towns on the way. Or look at New Orleans to Vacherie, White Castle, Natchez, Vicksburg, Memphis and then Nashville.

Oops. Sorry I see you already have that itinerary! I’ve just added in a few more places!

From Nashville we went east to the Great Smokey Mountains, then travelled the Blue Ridge Parkway to Asheville NC then south to Charleston SC, then headed back west along the coast to Savannah GA. We’d started in Atlanta and stopped between Atlanta and Nashville in Lynchburg TN (Jack Daniels!). The whole trip was amazing, some of the resorts in the GSM national park are very touristy but the national park itself is lovely and we included a trip to Dollywood! Charleston was wonderful, probably our favourite place on the trip. I’ve visited New Orleans on previous trips although we didn’t include it on this visit. It’s a great place.

Thank you, Lynchburg is on the list! I think maybe the Great Smokey mountains is a good shout. We'll have about 3 days after Nashville and will have done a few cities. We'll probably be doing a southern one Georgia-Virginia in more detail in future.

We're thinking of doing the Blue Ridge parkway instead of Chicago and then fly home from Washington DC.

We did this the other way round last summer - Washington DC, skyline drive, through Virginia and N Carolina to Asheville, (gorgeous place) Great Smoky Mountains and then onto Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans. Couldn't recommend enough, it was stunning and a brilliant mix of nature and cities.

I my friends stayed here and said it was fab www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g43722-d267750-Reviews-Shack_Up_Inn-Clarksdale_Mississippi.html

@ReggaeTramp how many days did it take you? Would you mind telling me your itinerary?

@ParadigmGiraffe I've actually been to Clarksdale before to Morgan Freeman's music joint, I would love to go back to stay so will check it out.

@avalanching yes of course - we were travelling with a baby and a preschooler though so you could probably do it quicker!

3 nights Washington DC
1 night Waynesboro (between Skyline and blue ridge)
1 night Roanoake
2 nights Asheville
3 nights Pigeon Forge
2 nights Nashville
2 nights Memphis
3 nights New Orleans

So all in all, 17 nights. Could have done with longer in Memphis and Nashville but less to do with the kids there. Pigeon Forge is very tacky but we stayed in a cabin in the mountains - it was amazing. Jealous!

We've just done it in the direction of flying in to Atlanta - Savannah - Charleston - Asheville - Pigeon Forge for Dollywood - Nashville - Memphis (then fly out of Nashville).

(What a culture shock Pigeon Forge is when you drive out of the Smoky Mountains, we nearly just kept going - but Dollywood a lovely theme park and we warmed to its madness.)

Fantastic trip!