Deep South / Washington DC

[Yogi]

Hi,

We are doing a road trip from New Orleans to Washington DC this summer as a change from FL.

Likely route is New Orleans, Natchez, Memphis, Nashville, Charlotte, Charleson and Washington DC.

Would love to hear people's recommendations for hotels, things to see and do on the route and also any good websites/books for further info.

Thanks.

[MichelleS]

Hi we did a Deep South trip last year, below are some details of our trip, if you need any more details about any part let me know.

Started at New Orleans, stayed at Queen Anne Hotel
We did a bike tour with Bullfrog Bike Tours, a Jazz Dinner cruise on Steamboat Natchez
We then went to Oak Alley Plantation, on the way to Memphis.
In Memphis we stayed at Comfort Inn Downtown
Toured Beale Street, did a Bus Tour & Gracelands Ultimate VIP Tour (was worth the extra money for this tour, and go the first tour in the day so the house was not busy)
We then went to Nashville and stayed at Best Western Plus Sunrise Inn. Bit out of the centre but we were only in Nashville for one night.
Got tickets for Grand Ole Opry & visited the Opry Mills shopping centre.
On the way to Gatlinburg we stopped off at
Ruby Falls, Incline Railway & Rock City
Stayed at the Courtyard Gatlinburg, lovely hotel in the centre of town, if you go to gatlinburg you need to do the moonshine $5 for 10 shots and then you get a $5 voucher to spend in the shop.
Complete some walks in the mountains, went on the Alpine Coaster Ride & visited Dollywood
Then off to Washington staying at Residence Inn by Marriott Washington, DC Downtown. Nice central hotel close to white house.
Did a bike tour with Bike and Roll DC, and visited all the main sites.

[WileyCoyote]

Happy planning !
We visited New Orleans in September last year and again in March this year. Stayed at Bourbon Orleans, walked pretty much everywhere and had a fabulous time on both visits.
Also in September we visited Memphis ( stayed in the Hampton just off Beale Street) and Nashville/ Lynchburg ( we stayed out in Holiday Inn Express near the Opry.

We did so much in all these places : Links to my trippys in my signature, the 5 state road trip was September and Keep Calm and have a cocktail was March.

[dee slack]

we got back last Saturday - we had a week in Mexico before flying into New Orleans for 2 nights.

We then got the car and drove to Natchez for 2 nights (stayed at The Burn B&B theburnbnb)

On route to Memphis (stayed at River Inn for 2 nights riverinnmemphis) we stopped at Vicksburg as hubby is a Civil War buff. TBH Memphis wasn't that memorable other than Graceland.

Our next stop was Nashville for 2 nights (en route we visited Corinth Civil War Interpretive Centre for more CW stuff - great centre) and we also went to a show at the Grand Ole Oprey (one of the bands was Riders in the Sky who did Woody's Roundup for Toy Story en.wikipedia/wiki/Riders_in_the_Sky_(band) and a city tour

On the way to Chattanooga, we visited Jack Daniel distillery for a tour. We stayed for just 1 night in Chattanooga, in a converted railway car at the old station (choochoo). Next day we visited Ruby Falls and Rock City.

Next stop was Gatlinburg (2 nights) and we loved driving Cades Cove loop and saw 20 black bears in total - including 3 in our hotel car park

Had 1 night in Asheville, then final night in Stone Mountain, Atlanta.

[theCMG]

Sounds like you'll be following roughly along the Mississippi for a lot of the trip. Check out the itineraries of the river cruises here americanqueensteamboatcompany for ideas on stops (have been considering one of these cruises for DM's 75th). Enjoy, sounds great, we loved New Orleans and Washington

[Olympiad]

Hi - we’re doing a similar route this August. NOLA - Memphis - Nashville - Gatlinburg - DC.

So obviously can’t rate any of these yet (and still looking for ideas) but so far our trip looks like this:

NOLA - Staying in Westin on Canal St. Planning steam boat cruise, swamp cruise, plantation tour, and possibly cemetery or city tour.

Memphis. Hampton Inn near Beale St. Doing Civil Rights Museum, Sun Studio and Graceland as well as just enjoying Beale St at night.

Nashville. Hyatt Place downtown. Doing the honky tonks on Broadway, Grand Ole Opry, Johnny Cash Museum, and a trip to the Jack Daniels distillery.

DC. Staying at The Fairmont. Will mainly be wandering the mall area and museums but also heading to Georgetown and the library of Congress. Have a Capitol tour booked and have applied for a whitehouse tour (which we probably won’t get). On our way into DC deciding whether to stop off at the Iowa Jima memorial (if renovations done) or Arlington Cemetery.

We also have an ever growing list of all the restaurants and food we want to try!

[CrispyA]

We did a Tennessee road trip last year - link is in my signature. Memphis is great - the Civil Rights Museum, Sun Studios and Graceland were real highlights. We stayed in the Comfort Inn Downtown which was great value.

We also enjoyed Nashville but preferred Memphis. Highlights in Nashville were the Grand Ole Opry, Country Music Hall of Fame, Johnny Cash Museum & Roberts Western World on Broadway.

We passed through Lynchburg but didn’t tour Jack Daniels. We did, however, go to the George Dickel distillery in Cascade Hollow which is much less well known but really interesting.

The Smokey Mountains are also worth a visit. Happy planning!

[cornishfrogboy]

I have travelled that exact route, albeit so many years ago that any reccomends would be irrelevant.

I was also in DC a few years back and stayed at the Doubletree by Hilton at R Reagan Airport (Just across the Potomac and very close to Lincoln Memorial). The Hotel is a decent 3 star, but has the rotating Skydome restaurant on the 12 floor. this turns one revolution every 15 minutes and gives great views up the Mall to the Capitol.
DC is very much a place for walking and a taxi from the Hotel to the Lincoln was no more than $5. The Arlington cemetary is about the same.

An absolute highlight for us (besides the obvious well documented stuff on the mall), was the 30 mile trip to the Smithsonian Airspace Hazy Centre at Dulles International (Free admission). I have been to most major Aviation Museums in the western world and this is up with the best. Enola Gay is worth the journey on her own.

We did NY, train to DC and then flight to Orlando. The wife never even wanted to do the DC bit, but afterwards admitted that she preferred it to New York!

Good luck with the planning.

[daytonababe]

Ive just come back from 9 days in Charlotte and we are off back in Sept for 2 weeks

Personally i don’t think Charlotte itself is that great, I have stayed downtown there and wouldn’t again..

We prefer the areas like Huntersville and Mooresville , Lake Normanwhich are just outside it... but what are you looking to do there? I don’t think as far as tourist cities go its all that exciting

We go because of the NASCAR racing and our friends live there and its somewhere we want to buy a property (well Mooresville).. its not somewhere I’d go to spend a few days I don’t think.

[P.Sherman]

Can I ask, what people did about buying tickets for the various museums and attractions, I'm struggling to find much info on multi attraction tickets and wondered if people just general pay as and when rather than buying in advance? We are visiting, Memphis, Nashville and Smokies so doing the main attractions like Graceland, Civil rights museum, sun records, Opry, CM hall of fame, Dollywood etc any tips welcome!

thanks