Road Trip - Miami to New York

Froggitt

1279 miles according to google maps. Suppose I do around 400 miles a day, what suggestions for route, what to see, where to stay en route?

EssexExile

Take your time, there's loads to see. It all really depends what you like, Everglades before you leave southern Florida, Cape Canaveral, Daytona Beach, Blue Ridge Parkway, Biltmore House, Colonial Williamsburg, Washington DC, Arlington Cemetery. Personally I'd not go to New York having been there once.

zagfles

You're not going to see much if you do 400 miles a day - I suggest more time or a shorter trip! I try to average no more than 200 miles a day on a road trip, preferably less.

Froggitt

My thought was 6 hours at 70mph. Leaving 18 hours a day for seeing, eating and sleeping.


The trip is fixed, I could take longer to get there if needed.

zagfles

Froggitt wrote: »

My thought was 6 hours at 70mph. Leaving 18 hours a day for seeing, eating and sleeping.


The trip is fixed, I could take longer to get there if needed.

Right, but assuming 8 hours sleep, 2 hours for meals, 1 hour for stops/comfort breaks on the way, plus a few detours to see interesting things (they're not all likely to be right next to the interstate) plus time to just relax with a beer after a long day driving...doesn't really leave you that much time so see stuff.

Really the best way, if you have the time and not going at peak periods, is to just play it by ear, don't book anything, motels are everywhere in the US, and walk up prices are cheap and very easy to haggle. If you like a place stay a couple of nights, if you don't head off. Maybe make a provisional list of places you'd like to see on the way which you can change based on experience, weather, what people you meet recommend etc.

[Deleted User]

Froggitt wrote: »

My thought was 6 hours at 70mph. Leaving 18 hours a day for seeing, eating and sleeping.


The trip is fixed, I could take longer to get there if needed.

Having done dozens of US road trips over the years including East-West coast three times it became obvious fairly quickly that large parts of America are really boring but interspersed with some really interesting bits.

So - work out which is going to be the boring bit and cover as many miles as possible in a day.600 is easily achievable with an early start and you'll still have time for a few beers and a meal in the evening.On some REALLY boring,flat parts of the mid-west we found 800 miles on a long day was doable.

This gives you more time to spend at the interesting stuff.

This is much more realistic than trying to average a specific number of miles a day.

And don't forget you're never far away from food,gas and lodgings so planning ahead really isn't necessary.

loskie

Average 70mph.
No hope.
http://www.motorists.org/speed-limits/state-chart

neilbond007

loskie wrote: »

Average 70mph.
No hope.
http://www.motorists.org/speed-limits/state-chart

Every hope

EssexExile

I doubt he'd average 70 on the I95, it's not like driving in the mid-west, there other people about. He won't see any sights either. We took a fortnight to drive from Washington to Miami & could've made it much longer.

John259

I-95 is probably the fastest route, even with all its congestion once you get further north. However, it's probably also the most boring route.

If you can make time - and I mean a week or more - then the combination of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee and North Carolina), the Blue Ridge Parkway (North Carolina and Virginia) and Shenandoah National Park (Virginia) will give you well over 500 miles of wonderful scenery and interesting historical sites along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains. You don't have do it all, you can branch off at numerous intersections to do the rest of the journey on the flatter and faster roads to the east of the mountains.

If you haven't got time for any of that, then do try to escape from the interstates a bit so as to see something more interesting.