Drive through the Deep South

gary the great

We're currently planning our summer holiday, basically its 4 23 yo lads and we love going to random places rather than Spain like every one else. We've been to SE asia, Oz. Eastern Europe and most europena cities over the years, so that means we should go West to the US.

We only have 3 weeks holidays so dont want to do South America till we have more time.

So that means the USA seems the best place, especially with the weak dollar. We were thinking of renting a car and driving through some of the Deep South, maybe Tennessee through to Texas then a few days In mexico. One of the lads wants to go to Arizona, dont know why but he says we have to go there (I think its from the Kings of leon song!!) but its way out of the way of that route. but we want to know wheres th ebest scenery, cities, nightlife etc

Basically we havent a clue at the moment, but we want to drive (a dodge charger is 250 dollars per week!!), go to random hick bars, impress the hill billy ladies with our irish accents and basically have a mad adventure.

Any ideas?

Benedict XVI

There are 3 good towns in Tennessee,
Knoxville, a College Town, so plenty of nice girls there.
Nashville a bit country and western but still loads of night life
and Memphis, you can drink on the street on Beal St so that is good fun.

As for hick towns, well the problem is they tend to be very spread out and have no real centre, like an Irish town, where you can go out.

As for Arizona, it is a beautiful state but off your beaten track as you say. If I was going I would make a point of going to the Grand Canyon for sure.
If I were staying in the Phoenix area I would stay in Tempe rather than downtown Phoenix, downtown Phoenix is dead but Tempe is much better, again it's a college town.

If you are going to the Grand Canyon you could stay in Flagstaff which is about an hour away from it and had a good few pubs, restaurants and places to stay.

granturismo

Some one else was bound to put this in



http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/top%2Bgear%2Balabama/video/x2psyk_top-gear-go-to-alabama_shortfilms

gary the great

granturismo wrote: »

Some one else was bound to put this in



http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/top%2Bgear%2Balabama/video/x2psyk_top-gear-go-to-alabama_shortfilms

ha I think thats were the idea comes from!

Thanks for the info Benedict, thats helped me out a good bit. I think maybe doing Nevada (las vegas) then down into Arizona, the grand canyon and maybe into New Mexico would be the best route.

Is this generally a good idea? Basically no matter what we do we'll have great fun, but this seems really different. Has anyone here done anything like it before, what was your experience? Would love to do Route 66 but its just to far and to much driving for 3 weeks

gary the great

Just did some research and it seems its crazily hot in the summer, like 55clesius is ridiculous.

We were hoping to go in June, that puts a major dount on this trip.

ibh

I've posted this idea on here before for people travelling in America, but in case you didn't see it. You should do some searching on the net and look for a company that lets you drive company cars from one city to another. It only costs you the petrol you use so cheaper than renting a car. Drawbacks are that you need to get to a certain city by a certain date. May not work for you if you plan on freestyling it..

http://www.autodriveawaydc.com/carlist.html

gary the great

Watched some vidoes and on youtube and it looks like it owuld be a great adventure, keep the suggestions and advice coming.

IBH thanks for the link, but we want to get a modern dodge charger for the trip and I doubt one of them will appear on the site

5starpool

A lot of car rental companies don't rent to under 25's as well so beware of that.

Something I am considering for later in the year is a 15/30 day unlimited rail ticket with Amtrak, special rates for non US/CAN citizens. It might be a decent alternative to driving (I have done those before in the US) and some routes I am considering are:

NY - Miami
Chicago - New Orleans
LA - New Orleans
Seattle - Chicago

You can space the travel out over the period of the pass, and if necessary rent cars out for day or two trips in between off the rail line.

Andrewf20

Arizona is savage. We spent 8 days in that state alone 2 years ago (Look at Canyon de Shelly, Monument Valley, Meteor crator, Grand Canyon, Petrified forest, Tombstone, a hidden Gem the Wilcox Playa, and a border city Nogales where you can jump into Mexico for a few hours.

Ive been all over Texas. There isnt much there, although San Antonio is a lovely city, and Big Bend national park adds some sort of undulation in the far west of that state.

We are going the deep south ourselves this year. Some things to watch for in the south east:

-Rocket launches. Schedules on kennedy space centre website(loads per year)
-Rock City Gardens, Tennessee
-Ruby Falls, Tennesee
-Lookout mountain - ride the worlds steepest train, Tennessee
-See where the Wright brothers made the first powered flight in 1903, north carolina
-Russell Cave National Monument, alabama
-Fort Mountain State Park, georgia