2015 US Southern Road Trip

[Heather1957]

Originally Posted by Irelandmaryd

Non golfers here also but we do play a mean game of mini golf! Looking forward to your report Heather it should be amazing. Best part of holiday is researching and looking forward to it.

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Agreed!

[Cannavar]

Hey

We are flying into Atlanta next August and driving up to Gatlinburg where we think we will go for a cabin.

Will have my own pre trip up sometime but will follow your planning with interest

[abiknox]

Sounds fabulous. We are hoping to fit in Savannah and Charleston to our NY /FL trip in Oct 15 but also hoping to do a southern road trip early 2016 taking in Nashville, Memphis ect. I dont know where to start with the research!

[orlandosgr8]

We flew to Charlotte and drove to Gatlinburg in August, the drive took around 4.5hrs in total but we did stop half way at a large Walmart in Hendersonville to break up the journey and get some quick supplies. The drive was really quite easy and through some stunning scenery and there are also plenty of places like McD's etc to stop at on the first part of the journey.

Cades Cove is stunning! Allow plenty of time to do it as there are many places to stop off along the route to explore. If you have time and you fancy it I can highly recommend the zipling by a company called Climbworks, it was a real highlight for us.

We did the Dolly Stampede which is an evening show and I was surprised how much we all enjoyed it, it was a really fun evening.

Pigeon Forge just along from Gatlinburg is a bit like International Drive, lots of places to eat, big attractions etc.

There is a walmart at the end of Pigeon Forge but if you are in Gatlinburg I would say look for Food City it seemed cheaper in here and a really good choice.

Hope that helps a bit, please feel free to ask any questions.

[Heather1957]

Originally Posted by abiknox

Sounds fabulous. We are hoping to fit in Savannah and Charleston to our NY /FL trip in Oct 15 but also hoping to do a southern road trip early 2016 taking in Nashville, Memphis ect. I dont know where to start with the research!

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That is so true which is why it is so helpful to read posts like this from the op it helps with ideas.

[Irelandmaryd]

Originally Posted by Cannavar

Hey

We are flying into Atlanta next August and driving up to Gatlinburg where we think we will go for a cabin.

Will have my own pre trip up sometime but will follow your planning with interest

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Hi, I will keep an eye out for your post as it always good to get ideas. I would have loved a cabin but unfortunately watched one too many horror movies in my day. Think I would be terrified to be so isolated.
Enjoy all the planning and research.

[Irelandmaryd]

Originally Posted by orlandosgr8

We flew to Charlotte and drove to Gatlinburg in August, the drive took around 4.5hrs in total but we did stop half way at a large Walmart in Hendersonville to break up the journey and get some quick supplies. The drive was really quite easy and through some stunning scenery and there are also plenty of places like McD's etc to stop at on the first part of the journey.

Cades Cove is stunning! Allow plenty of time to do it as there are many places to stop off along the route to explore. If you have time and you fancy it I can highly recommend the zipling by a company called Climbworks, it was a real highlight for us.

We did the Dolly Stampede which is an evening show and I was surprised how much we all enjoyed it, it was a really fun evening.

Pigeon Forge just along from Gatlinburg is a bit like International Drive, lots of places to eat, big attractions etc.

There is a walmart at the end of Pigeon Forge but if you are in Gatlinburg I would say look for Food City it seemed cheaper in here and a really good choice.

Hope that helps a bit, please feel free to ask any questions.

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Hi Jo, thanks this information is so helpful. Did you drive from Charlotte to Gatlinburg directly from the airport? We are landing at lunchtime so all the driving will be in daylight so we think its doable after flight.

I saw favourable reviews for climbworks my hubby and eldest daughter would love this not sure if I would to be honest.

Did you do a trip report? I will go and look I could have read it I have read so many at this stage! One think that is clear from all the reports that include the Smokies is that it seems to have been one of the highs of the trip for most people so it must be pretty spectular.

Thanks again.

[Irelandmaryd]

Originally Posted by abiknox

Sounds fabulous. We are hoping to fit in Savannah and Charleston to our NY /FL trip in Oct 15 but also hoping to do a southern road trip early 2016 taking in Nashville, Memphis ect. I dont know where to start with the research!

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Thank you I have read and enjoyed several of your trip reports. Happy planning - Yay I have ears

[orlandosgr8]

Hi, yes we did drive directly to Gatlinburg, we landed at 2pm were out of the airport by 3ish and had a short wait for our cars which were off site of the airport, from memory I think it was Budget.

The roads were nice and easy to drive, not too busy and we used a TomTom for most of the journey, but I would recommend printing off instructions too as some of the roads that she tried to take us down in the Smoky Mountains were grass tracks lol.

Some random photos of the journey

[Irelandmaryd]

Originally Posted by orlandosgr8

Hi, yes we did drive directly to Gatlinburg, we landed at 2pm were out of the airport by 3ish and had a short wait for our cars which were off site of the airport, from memory I think it was Budget.

The roads were nice and easy to drive, not too busy and we used a TomTom for most of the journey, but I would recommend printing off instructions too as some of the roads that she tried to take us down in the Smoky Mountains were grass tracks lol.

Some random photos of the journey

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Great I was hoping that it was doable straight from flight. From the photos it looks like an easy enough drive and thank you for the tip re tomtom.

Thanks for getting back to me.