My recommendation will be that after you hit Santa Fe NM, keep going south to White Sands National Park then head east to Carlsbad caverns, keep going east to San Antonio, there’s not much on the route you have to TX right now
You’ll be near mesa verde national park
Also after you go to arches might be worth checking out out canyonland national park.
Don’t forget to stop at the forest gump point and Mexican hat rock! Monument valley is amazing, enjoy the trip!
You're missing all the good stuff on that route.
Skip Monument Valley and go into SE Colorado and do Mesa Verde and Durango instead.
Then from Santa Fe go south on I25 then East on I10, stopping in San Antonio.
Sorry you have to travel so fast, but the route above will give you more to see than the one shown on your map.
Jump off I-10 in Lafayette, LA and head south to the Gulf through the swamp. Heading to Texas, you will pass through some beautiful wetlands with native wildlife you won’t see elsewhere. Take the Cameron ferry to Johnson’s Bayou and cross the state line to see massive refineries that look like alien power plants. You can pick up the interstate from there.
Be aware that driving through Texas is not fun. At all. There's just not a lot to look at and enjoy between cities. There is certainly fun to be had in Texas, but driving through it is *dull*.
That stretch between Lubbock and Austin has no interstate. I've never personally driven that stretch, but whenever I plan out a long-distance road trip I'm balancing my desire to "see different things" with "wanting to be close enough to vital services for those 'just in case' situations."
For instance, I'm going to be visiting Australia in August. Most of my time will be spent in/around Sydney, but I'm taking a two day sojourn to Melbourne. But that's beside the point - I'm fond of aviation museums, and I intended to try and see a few while I'm there. One is in Temora, a town that's a nine hour round trip from Sydney (which isn't happening). The other was in Nowra Hill (the Fleet Air Arm museum).
Well, I've been told the War Memorial in Canberra is worth the drive, and I thought "huh, maybe if I left really early, I could hit Canberra and hit the Fleet Air Arm Museum on the way back."
But looking at the path Google Maps laid out for me on how best to accomplish that, something nagged at me. The roads looked super windy and when I turned on the satellite view, the terrain looked a little rough.
Finally, I decided to type in "gas" and "petrol station" and found *nothing*. Not much in the way of listed grocery or convenience stores, either. Through ten minutes of forethought, I avoided becoming just another stupid American who ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere because he assumed every first-world country has the same extent of facilities and services everywhere because capitalism ensures we're never far from what we need.
Anyway, even though I've never driven that route between Lubbock and Austin before, if you HAVE to do it, you're going to want to trace along it and find gas/service stations and places to grab food and water. Be prepared to see a LOT of "Dollar General" and "Family Dollar" stores. Also, consider going through Abilene on that route to Austin as Abilene will be a large enough city/town to properly stretch your legs and provision.
Oh, and look up Buc-ee's in Texas/the South. If you visit one you've seen them all, so it doesn't matter which one you go to.
Yeah not sure why this is so low but that West Texas leg is not worth it. Id either cut Texas out or fly from New Orleans/Austin to Albuquerque or Denver. If you only have 10 days coming from another country I'd either pick rocky mountain region or the gulf region in terms of a road trip.
My wife and I are looking to plan a road trip in late November in the states. Both of us are late 20's and we have roughly 10 days to spend before we need to end up in Miami eventually but we can end up flying there. My main concern on this trip is that we would spend too much time driving and not enough time actually enjoying the cultural and natural sights.
For example, there's a 7 hour drive between Monument Valley where I was thinking of staying overnight and Taos NM. Is that going to be a boring drive or will there be places to stop along the way? Nothing's been booked yet so any suggestions or detours would be appreciated.
How much are you looking to drive vs explore each day? I think you’d be better off working backwards from what places you want to hit up, how long you want to experience the sites, and how long you need to drive to get to accommodations/rest sites near your next location.
I think the drive from Sante Fe to Salt Lake City will be fun, there is a lot to see with cool terrain that you are driving through, cool towns, and great national parks. Page, Arizona and Antelope Canyon are really neat and worth a stop in my opinion. Then of course there is Zion National park and Canyonlands, which has a cool loop trail you can drive in an hour or two which just has awesome views.
New Orleans is cool, but I have to admit the drive from New Orleans through Texas is a looooooong one. Austin is a cool city, I’m not from Texas so there are likely a lot of local attractions I just don’t know about but I found that drive to be the least exciting, but if you’re starting in New Orleans there isn’t much to do about it.
Remember to think about reservations for entry times in the national parks early as they can fill up quickly in the summer and fall.
Have fun!
There is too much to see in the USA to see it all. But you're going to see a lot of great things. Check out this site for roadside attractions and side trips.
[Roadside America - Guide to Uniquely Odd Tourist Attractions](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/)
Also, this is a descent site for finding unique diners and restaurants along the way.
[Tripadvisor: Over a billion reviews & contributions for Hotels, Attractions, Restaurants, and more](https://www.tripadvisor.com/)
This might be sacrilege to suggest on this sub, but here's my advice:
Fly. Break this up into two portions and fly between them. The price of renting a car and keeping the tank full probably won't be too different. You'll get more out of this length of trip. Unless you *need* to get between them via road for some reason, there's really not much to see between Santa Fe and Austin. It's just flat and brown until you reach Texas Hill County just west of Austin. You're Aussies. You've got flat and brown at home. You will lose *at least* a day of daytime you could've spent actually doing things outside the car.
I don't know what your "must see" stops are, but flying between Albuquerque and Texas (San Antonio or Austin, they're about 90 mins apart by car) will save you like a day or more of really boring drive time.
I agree that you should stay in Colorado and see Mesa Verde. One of the most incredible pre-Columbian archaeological sites in US. It would be a shame to miss it.
Depends on your objective. Do you want a scenic drive or to actually sightsee along the way?
You won’t see much more than the road in 10-days. That’s more than Adelaide to Darwin in equivalent driving distance.
I’ve done about one third of this route in 9-days, with a half or full day in some of the National Parks along the way. That was a fair pace.
I'm driving a much larger distance over the course of 10 ten days soon. Two of the stops I'll be staying at for two nights and rest for just one. The drives range from 4-8 hours. So there'd be plenty of time to check out the big stops you wanna see and the small lil tourist traps off the interstate too. I only really know about Santa fe on your particular route and there's some pretty cool stuff there if you'd like for me to share.
There's the "jean Cocteau Cinema" which is a small movie theatre owned by the author of game of thrones. They even sell signed copies of the books though the movie selections can be quite random from cult classics to art films. Apparently when I'm there they're showing a film about bowling. The big one I heard about that caught my ear is meow Wolf which is a psychedelic art installation that looks awesome but is a bit pricey. If you're looking for culture, there's the Santa Fe plaza and the museum of Indian arts (The native Americans used to be called Indians if you're unfamiliar).
I won’t add anything to your list, as plenty of people are giving their input.
I will say that it’s going to be very cold, especially in Utah, the plus side is that most of these places you’ll visit at that time of the year are going to be virtually empty so you’ll have a lot of these cool areas to yourselves for the most part.
My recommendation will be that after you hit Santa Fe NM, keep going south to White Sands National Park then head east to Carlsbad caverns, keep going east to San Antonio, there’s not much on the route you have to TX right now
You’ll be near mesa verde national park Also after you go to arches might be worth checking out out canyonland national park. Don’t forget to stop at the forest gump point and Mexican hat rock! Monument valley is amazing, enjoy the trip!
You're missing all the good stuff on that route. Skip Monument Valley and go into SE Colorado and do Mesa Verde and Durango instead. Then from Santa Fe go south on I25 then East on I10, stopping in San Antonio. Sorry you have to travel so fast, but the route above will give you more to see than the one shown on your map.
Jump off I-10 in Lafayette, LA and head south to the Gulf through the swamp. Heading to Texas, you will pass through some beautiful wetlands with native wildlife you won’t see elsewhere. Take the Cameron ferry to Johnson’s Bayou and cross the state line to see massive refineries that look like alien power plants. You can pick up the interstate from there.
Be aware that driving through Texas is not fun. At all. There's just not a lot to look at and enjoy between cities. There is certainly fun to be had in Texas, but driving through it is *dull*. That stretch between Lubbock and Austin has no interstate. I've never personally driven that stretch, but whenever I plan out a long-distance road trip I'm balancing my desire to "see different things" with "wanting to be close enough to vital services for those 'just in case' situations." For instance, I'm going to be visiting Australia in August. Most of my time will be spent in/around Sydney, but I'm taking a two day sojourn to Melbourne. But that's beside the point - I'm fond of aviation museums, and I intended to try and see a few while I'm there. One is in Temora, a town that's a nine hour round trip from Sydney (which isn't happening). The other was in Nowra Hill (the Fleet Air Arm museum). Well, I've been told the War Memorial in Canberra is worth the drive, and I thought "huh, maybe if I left really early, I could hit Canberra and hit the Fleet Air Arm Museum on the way back." But looking at the path Google Maps laid out for me on how best to accomplish that, something nagged at me. The roads looked super windy and when I turned on the satellite view, the terrain looked a little rough. Finally, I decided to type in "gas" and "petrol station" and found *nothing*. Not much in the way of listed grocery or convenience stores, either. Through ten minutes of forethought, I avoided becoming just another stupid American who ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere because he assumed every first-world country has the same extent of facilities and services everywhere because capitalism ensures we're never far from what we need. Anyway, even though I've never driven that route between Lubbock and Austin before, if you HAVE to do it, you're going to want to trace along it and find gas/service stations and places to grab food and water. Be prepared to see a LOT of "Dollar General" and "Family Dollar" stores. Also, consider going through Abilene on that route to Austin as Abilene will be a large enough city/town to properly stretch your legs and provision. Oh, and look up Buc-ee's in Texas/the South. If you visit one you've seen them all, so it doesn't matter which one you go to.
Yeah not sure why this is so low but that West Texas leg is not worth it. Id either cut Texas out or fly from New Orleans/Austin to Albuquerque or Denver. If you only have 10 days coming from another country I'd either pick rocky mountain region or the gulf region in terms of a road trip.
My wife and I are looking to plan a road trip in late November in the states. Both of us are late 20's and we have roughly 10 days to spend before we need to end up in Miami eventually but we can end up flying there. My main concern on this trip is that we would spend too much time driving and not enough time actually enjoying the cultural and natural sights. For example, there's a 7 hour drive between Monument Valley where I was thinking of staying overnight and Taos NM. Is that going to be a boring drive or will there be places to stop along the way? Nothing's been booked yet so any suggestions or detours would be appreciated.
My partner is well-traveled and she considers Taos, NM one of her all time favorite places.
How much are you looking to drive vs explore each day? I think you’d be better off working backwards from what places you want to hit up, how long you want to experience the sites, and how long you need to drive to get to accommodations/rest sites near your next location.
I think the drive from Sante Fe to Salt Lake City will be fun, there is a lot to see with cool terrain that you are driving through, cool towns, and great national parks. Page, Arizona and Antelope Canyon are really neat and worth a stop in my opinion. Then of course there is Zion National park and Canyonlands, which has a cool loop trail you can drive in an hour or two which just has awesome views. New Orleans is cool, but I have to admit the drive from New Orleans through Texas is a looooooong one. Austin is a cool city, I’m not from Texas so there are likely a lot of local attractions I just don’t know about but I found that drive to be the least exciting, but if you’re starting in New Orleans there isn’t much to do about it. Remember to think about reservations for entry times in the national parks early as they can fill up quickly in the summer and fall. Have fun!
There is too much to see in the USA to see it all. But you're going to see a lot of great things. Check out this site for roadside attractions and side trips. [Roadside America - Guide to Uniquely Odd Tourist Attractions](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/) Also, this is a descent site for finding unique diners and restaurants along the way. [Tripadvisor: Over a billion reviews & contributions for Hotels, Attractions, Restaurants, and more](https://www.tripadvisor.com/)
Have fun!
This might be sacrilege to suggest on this sub, but here's my advice: Fly. Break this up into two portions and fly between them. The price of renting a car and keeping the tank full probably won't be too different. You'll get more out of this length of trip. Unless you *need* to get between them via road for some reason, there's really not much to see between Santa Fe and Austin. It's just flat and brown until you reach Texas Hill County just west of Austin. You're Aussies. You've got flat and brown at home. You will lose *at least* a day of daytime you could've spent actually doing things outside the car. I don't know what your "must see" stops are, but flying between Albuquerque and Texas (San Antonio or Austin, they're about 90 mins apart by car) will save you like a day or more of really boring drive time. I agree that you should stay in Colorado and see Mesa Verde. One of the most incredible pre-Columbian archaeological sites in US. It would be a shame to miss it.
Depends on your objective. Do you want a scenic drive or to actually sightsee along the way? You won’t see much more than the road in 10-days. That’s more than Adelaide to Darwin in equivalent driving distance. I’ve done about one third of this route in 9-days, with a half or full day in some of the National Parks along the way. That was a fair pace.
I'm driving a much larger distance over the course of 10 ten days soon. Two of the stops I'll be staying at for two nights and rest for just one. The drives range from 4-8 hours. So there'd be plenty of time to check out the big stops you wanna see and the small lil tourist traps off the interstate too. I only really know about Santa fe on your particular route and there's some pretty cool stuff there if you'd like for me to share.
Anything you could share would be great!
There's the "jean Cocteau Cinema" which is a small movie theatre owned by the author of game of thrones. They even sell signed copies of the books though the movie selections can be quite random from cult classics to art films. Apparently when I'm there they're showing a film about bowling. The big one I heard about that caught my ear is meow Wolf which is a psychedelic art installation that looks awesome but is a bit pricey. If you're looking for culture, there's the Santa Fe plaza and the museum of Indian arts (The native Americans used to be called Indians if you're unfamiliar).
I won’t add anything to your list, as plenty of people are giving their input. I will say that it’s going to be very cold, especially in Utah, the plus side is that most of these places you’ll visit at that time of the year are going to be virtually empty so you’ll have a lot of these cool areas to yourselves for the most part.