Southern Road Trip Ideas?

July 16, 2009 7:58 AM

Four friends and I have 5 days to get from Atlanta to Baltimore. What should we do in between?

A friend is getting married (yay!) in Baltimore on Sunday, so the gang has elected to drive up from Atlanta. The groom will be with us, so it's a Bachelor Party/Road Trip combo.

We will be leaving Atlanta on Sunday afternoon, and we need to be in Baltimore sometime Thursday morning. Obviously, we can stray far off the east coast, as we have plenty of time. What do you recommend visiting along the way? If you could think of the best(=most fun) route, please suggest it.

I am open to any ideas. Right now we have a few thoughts:

1. Going to Biloxi, MS to play some blackjack (We don’t really want to go this far, but we'd like to stop off somewhere that has table games as we don't care for slots. Is there anywhere closer that has table games?)

2. Going to the Bourbon Trail in KY.

3. Various Smoky Mountains related drives in TN, maybe even a hike.

All three of these would be perfect for our trip. I don’t think we'll to fit them all in, but we are looking for advice and suggestions.

Whaddya got?

posted by milestogo to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

If anyone is wondering: Bourbon Trail
posted by milestogo at 8:03 AM on July 16

If you are looking for Casinos head just a few hours North of Baltimore and you'll find yourself in Atlantic City. You can party it up there and hit the shore or from there make your way to Ocean City, MD.
(It will take you about 3 hours for any of these 1way destinations: Baltimore to AC, AC to OC, and OC to Bmore)

You could take a solid day up with either of those things. If you go the beach route make sure the groom gets plenty of sunscreen. (I'm seeing images flash in my head of the movie, Hangover when imagining your trip.)
posted by zephyr_words at 8:14 AM on July 16

Take a day or two along the Blue Ridge Parkway on your way up. The section through North Carolina has some of the most spectacular Appalachian mountain scenery in America, and the section in the central part of Virginia offers amazing overviews of the Shenandoah Valley to your left and the Tidewater plain to your right, if you're headed north.
posted by paulsc at 8:35 AM on July 16 [1 favorite]

What about a microbrewery tour? There are a ton in North Carolina alone - I recently saw parts of a movie a bunch of guys in a band made and it struck me as a totally fun way to do a road trip.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:06 AM on July 16

SC, NC, and VA all have lots of history. You could tour a few Revolutionary of Civil War battlefields, see Monticello, or stay in DC and see some museums.
posted by davextreme at 1:05 PM on July 16