<p>After speaking with a friend who is doing a driving vacation this summer with her kids I was reminded of all the car vacations we took with our kids.
We are in Ca and have done most of Ca, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Coastal Washington, British Columbia, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado. My spouse and I have done New England- flying into Boston and renting a car.
There is so much of the US we haven’t seen. What are some of your favorite areas to visit. Looking for places that you feel are worth the expense of flight and renting a car and traveling around an area.</p>
<p>If you have not seen rural Pennsylvania, it is really beautiful. There are so many historical treasures to visit, and driving is easy. </p>
<p>And Southwest Air flies into Philly for $200 r.t. from So Cal!</p>
<p>Midwest from St Louis to Denver. Wonderful places to see and the best folks!</p>
<p>Auto magazines like Car & Driver have articles on great road trips. Here’s an example:
[America’s</a> Best Roads - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2003/06/09/cx_dl_0609feat.html]America’s”>America's Best Roads)</p>
<p>Rural Pennsylvania and upstate New York are beautiful Spring, Summer and Fall. Personally I’d suggest the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway drive along the western edge of Virginia and North Carolina. The ride out to Key West FL is wonderful also. Traffic can be heavy on each of these – so plan accordingly.</p>
<p>Don’t forget the upper Midwest in the summer. Fly into Chicago then drive around Lake Michigan for example. So much to do in Chicago and many scenic places in Michigan and Wisconsin (you will have your passports and you can visit Canada, also). We have chosen to drive to places east simply because of what we would miss if we just flew to our east coast destination. Last October’s drive through Pennsylvania was gorgeous (made the drive through IN and OH worthwhile)- I prefer the Appalachians (and subsets) to any mts found in California.</p>
<p>Ashville NC area. Second Key West.</p>
<p>Acadia National Park in Maine, beautiful!</p>
<p>Vermont is very picturesque, and not as heavily traveled as other destinations.</p>
<p>Glacier National Park in Montana. Raft the middle fork of the Flathead River.</p>
<p>Maryland!</p>
<p>West Va. is pretty scenic…and Asheville is nice</p>
<p>One of my favorite places is Ocracoke North Carolina. Not sure which airport to use, but you drive all the way down through the Outer Banks, which has been completely ruined with development, down to Hatteras and take a ferry over to Ocracoke.</p>
<p>We enjoyed a driving trip around Florida. </p>
<p>Another nice area if you haven’t been is Jasper/Banff national parks in the Canadian rockies. You can head up through Seattle and Vancouver BC through Kamloops up to Jasper NP then down through the spectacular drive through Lake Louise on down to Banff. You can then continue through Calgary down to Waterton Lakes NP (Canada) then Glacier NP, down through part of Yellowstone then on back or some variant.</p>
<p>It’s also nice to fly to Europe and do some driving trips around there.</p>
<p>South Dakota. Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Wind Cave State Park (watch out for buffalos!), and then head over to Wyoming for Devil’s Tower, and then to Yellowstone and the Tetons. Glorious country!</p>
<p>A friend sent me tapes of a road trip Oprah did when we were think of the same. Wonder if it’s online?</p>
<p>Key West is definitely a good idea. I would go to Williamsburg, VA area too. Stop by Busch Gardens for two days its a blast and there is a ton of historic stuff to see in that area.</p>
<p>lots of great ideas!
UCLA Dad when the kids were younger we flew to Seattle rented a van. Went to Orcas Island, Vancouver Island, Vacouver and then drove to Banff/lake Louise via Kamloops and down back into Washington. It was a great trip.
Husband and I have been to Acadia National Park in Maine. I agree it is beautiful.
We have done Yellowstone and the Tetons.
What would you do in the Keys? Stop at multiple destinations or go to one place and sit on the beach?
The Carolina’s sound interesting as well.</p>
<p>mom60:</p>
<p>When we went to Florida we flew into Orlando, did some of the park stuff and zipped over to Cape Canaveral, then back through Orlando and over to the west coast to see manatees, then meandered down the west side then through the Everglades NP, then down the keys to Key West, then back up the east side as far as St. Augustine (cool old fort and oldest European founded town) then back to Orlando. This was about 2 weeks and we were on the move but still were able to enjoy it. I’m more of an ‘on the go’ type of vacationer rather than a ‘relaxed stationary’ one.</p>
<p>
We did a similar trip once driving from California, up through Colorado, through Nebraska, South Dakota, then back around. I get funny reactions when I tell people I went to Nebraska on vacation but it was fun and very historical following the old Oregon trail. We even stayed the night at Fort Robinson - the fort where Chief Crazy Horse surrendered. It’s now a state park but you can stay in the actual base housing which was fun and inexpensive. We even saw a melodrama at a theater on-base that was put on by excellent actors from the state college at Chadron, went horseback riding, toured some of the old base houses, etc.</p>
<p>I think you could probably do a Washington DC/Virginia/NC driving loop that would offer a lot of scenic and cultural variety. In DC you could pick and choose among great museums, monuments and buildings in DC. Then drive to some of the places in VA that appeal to you, whether Mount Vernon and Williamsburg (east) or the Civil War battlefields and Shenandoah Valley (west), or some combination of those. The Charlottesville area also has lovely countryside, and Monticello is fascinating though often crowded. Then spend some time in the western Vriginia/West Virginia/and or NC mountains–wonderful scenery and interesting cultural stuff too like the Barter Theater in Abingdon (VA) and the various crafts and cutesy stuff in Asheville (not to mention the Biltmore Estate) and the wonderful Museum of the Cherokee Indians in Cherokee NC reached by spectacular mountain roads. </p>
<p>Writing this makes me want to go to these places again. And there’s much more. </p>
<p>You could probably fly in and out of DC and not have to retrace your steps at all, nor drive through dull areas for more than half an hour at a stretch, if that.</p>
<p>What is the best time of the year for the Keys or above Va to NC driving loop?
Also trying to decide if these two trips would be better for just me and my H without any kids. Trying to get 3 kids to agree on anything is getting more difficult as they get older. Also trying to find 1 week out of the year that they all have the same break is proving next to impossible.
We have always loved bareboat sailing trip since it limits all the daily decision making that can cause discussion and disagreeement. Also since your vessel is also your hotel you don’t have to get the kids up and in the car. We often leave while they are still asleep.
UCLA_SD Dad- we did some of the Florida trip last year. We did Orlando with 3 kids and with 1 of the kids did Manatees and St Petersburg on the gulf side and the beaches near Boca Raton. (both of those were combined with a family visit). We did not have time to head down to the Keys.
One of our kids is on the east coast for another year or so and we are thinking we should take advantage of that. A bit of visiting and some exploring.</p>
<p>If you want to go to the Outer Banks of NC, you would fly into the Norfolk,VA airport. The ride from the airport to the Northern Outer Banks is prob. a little more than an hour. In the summer, traffic is very heavy.</p>