I would by lying if I said our Deep South road trip was anything but brilliant. Big amazing cities such as New Orleans, Charleston, Miami. Cool low key places such as Chattanooga, Vicksburg, Helen. Random attractions such as the Left Luggage Center, Babyland General Hospital (you haven’t lived until you have seen the “birth” of a cabbage patch kid!), drive thru daiquiris. And the things you might expect such as awesome children’s museums, great historic centers, the fabulous Southern hospitality. Our road trip was everything we thought it would be and a zillion times more… Or was it?
Contents
Where were the red necks?
I’m embarrassed to admit it but a big part of the reason we wanted to do a Deep South road trip was to meet some interesting characters – red necks to be precise. Not just any red necks but the very heavily stereotyped version of a red neck we had grown up hearing about. Gun toting, truck driving, swearing, racist and conservative red necks. We saw no one with a gun. There were plenty of no gun signs on doors in Mississippi but that was as close to a gun as we got. It was very disappointing.
This is the door at the Mississippi Children’s Museum
What did we find instead?
Awesome, hospitable, friendly people. The notation of Southern hospitality that I have often seen on TV is alive and well and not just an illusion like the images of the red necks (although I am told that if you go enough out of the way then you will find them).
The French Quarter in New Orleans is amazing
The people were only a part of how awesome our Deep South road trip was though. The USA is truly a fabulous destination. We saw and experienced so many varied destinations. We loved just about everything. Many Australians seem quick to write off the USA as a destination as they think it will be similar to home, but it really is not. Americans are very different to Australians and the country is so full of history and culture, and a history and culture that is quite different to ours. I find it quite fascinating.
I have been to the USA many times in the past, but I have mostly stuck to the big cities – New York, Miami, LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Scottsdale and some random places in Texas. Travelling round the Deep South was completely different. People would often ask why we were even there. They were shocked an Australian family had made it to their city. I was surprised they found it shocking, the Deep South has so much to offer.
The best parts of our Deep South road trip USA
For us, the best part was the road trip itself rather than the destinations. We have wanted to do a road trip in the USA seemingly forever, and it was everything we hoped. It was great to be driving round the USA with the freedom to go where we wanted.
Louisiana State Capitol building – photo taken by S. I have made it my life’s mission to visit every capitol
I do not know a better place to go for a road trip. It is so easy. There are great roads and everything is well sign posted. Every exit would have a sign of what facilities were available so it was very easy to find “gas”, motels, toilets and food. There are so many places to stop and things to see. We tried not to drive more than 4.5 hours in a day and this was very very easy to do. Unlike Australia, you definitely do not have to drive all day (or 3!) to find somewhere worth stopping.
My favourite places were New Orleans, Charleston and Chattanooga in that order. I also particularly liked Vicksburg MS, Columbia SC, St Augustine FL and the Babyland General Hospital.
The worst parts of our Deep South road trip USA
There really was nothing that bad. My least favourite places were Defuniak Springs FL – it was nice but the ducks there seriously freaked me out, Mobile AL – strangely dead, the Left Luggage Center – it just seemed wrong and Atlanta. It was not Atlanta’s fault that it made this list. The weather was what ruined our stay there.
What we would do differently
Honestly, I wouldn’t do anything different. I wish we could have gone to Memphis but bad weather meant we could not drive there. I also wish the ‘rain hadnt ruined our time in Atlanta as these were two of the places I had looked forward to most. However, I am also glad that these things happened as otherwise we would have missed something else out instead, and there is nothing I would take back.
Overall, we were very lucky with the weather. We only stopped wearing shorts halfway through our trip when we were heading to Tennessee. Not bad for winter time.
Exploring the Historic District in Charleston – I loved this city!
Obviously more time would have been nice. We did travel fast. We barely stayed anywhere more than 2 nights (just New Orleans and Orlando), and there were quite a few one night stops too. At the beginning, the kids struggled with one night stops, but they got over that quickly. I would have loved more time in Charleston and Chattanooga in particular.
What do you need for a USA road trip?
Not much really! A car, kid car seats, an iPhone and travel insurance was all we needed. For our car, we found the best deal by using Expedia. We hired the car seats with the car directly. We thought about buying some as it would have been slightly cheaper, but it didn’t seem worth the mucking around. There was no way we were bringing our seats all the way from Australia since we were travelling both before and after the road trip.
My iPhone was also essential. We had it loaded with the TomTom navigation app for the USA which worked well. We could have used Google maps, but we didn’t want to be dependent on mobile reception. We didn’t always have phone reception and we weren’t sure how much data we might go through if we used it for all our navigation. We also found books such as this handy for planning our route.
Our trustworthy car
The USA is definitely not a destination to be blase about travel insurance. On a previous trip, my travel companion actually had a seizure out of absolutely nowhere. It was scary and involved an ambulance, hospital stay and tests. A LOT of money later, he was given a clean bill of health. They actually did hassle me on arrival at the hospital for our insurance details and it was all quite stressful as I didn’t have them on me. This is not an area to skip. Southern Cross Travel Insurance offers a USA policy. I also recommend ensuring that between your travel insurance and your car rental policy that you are fully insured for any car accidents. Unlike Australia, US car rental generally does not include any basic insurance.
We also found it handy to travel with basic crockery and cutlery, so that we could easily self cater long the way. Many motels come with microwaves and fridges, but they don’t generally come with any crockery and cutlery.
Budget
We spent US$184 a day on average of which US$45 a day went on our car and car seats. You could spend less than this. We spent US$71 a night on average on accommodation, and it is definitely possible to spend less than this. With young kids, we are quite fussy about where we stay though, so this was all for highly recommended budget accommodation. You can read more about our budget and costs in our trip cost post.
The kids?
The kids had a fabulous time on our road trip. S cried when she realised it was over!
There were lots of fun photo opportunities along the way
We had never done an extended road trip before, so we wondered how they would cope. They were fine. We tried to keep travel days to less than 4.5 hours and often split it up at a kid focused attraction. This worked well for us, but they never really had a problem. However, as the trip progressed, Z seemed to struggle with having his nap while we were driving which was annoying at times.
The accommodation was kid friendly since rooms with two double beds were normal and we never had to pay extra for the kids. We took our own travel cot, so we used that for 1 year old Z.
They loved all the kid friendly attractions. The children’s museums were particularly a massive hit. Many months later, S is still asking to go to one. I really wish they had them all over the world.
Our ginger ninja, S, got a lot of attention. It started to get annoying and we ended up quite fed up with all the stories of random red heads that people were related to along the way. There were also a few people who made it clear that they thought I cheated on J to conceive S (as we both have brown hair)! Seriously! I really can’t imagine alluding to something like that to a stranger. Americans are just so different to Australians. Her hair attracted more attention here than anywhere we have been in Asia apart from the Philippines.
Our verdict
We may have not met red necks, but we still had an awesome time! And we highly recommend it to everyone else. It is an easy trip with kids, probably the easiest we have done. Even easier than travelling within our home country of Australia.
Drive thru daiquiris – random, good and just plain wrong!
Our road trip was a good mixture of random places, cities, towns, natural and man made attractions. We would have liked to go to more random places, but they were hard to find and often out of our path – we actually added a couple of hours of driving to go to the Left Luggage Center, and there’s only so many times we could do that. It was also great to have our first Thanksgiving.
We were a bit concerned doing this trip in Winter, but it was fine. It did ruin our plans to go to Memphis thanks to icemaggadon and there was miserable weather when we were in Atlanta, but the majority of our trip was sunny weather with blue skies. In fact the majority of the time we were in shorts and t shirts which we did not expect at all. This is the perfect region to visit if you are in the USA in Winter and do not like cold weather like us.
Christmas in Helen GA
One of the benefits of going at this time of year is all the Christmas festivities. There were lots of Christmas decorations around the place as well as Christmas parades, light shows and other Christmas attractions. It made us very glad that we were there at the time of year we were. It was lots of fun.
I am an explorer by nature, and it is rare that any place or activity stays on my bucket list after I have completed it with all the amazing experiences there are to have in the world. A US road trip is something that is staying on my bucket list. I loved it that much. In fact, it would still be top 5. I can not wait to do another one – next time, it will be an East Coast road trip!
You can also check out our road trip USA full itinerary.
Have you done a US road trip? Is it on your bucket list?
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Tags: USA Travel Blog
62 Comments
Are rednecks a dying breed then, Sharon?
This sounds absolutely brilliant. I have always wanted to go down south, especially to Charleston and Savannah. Shame about the ducks!!
They were evil ducks lol
I am shocked to see a picture from Homosassa and hear you didn’t see any rednecks! We are all a little redneck here 😉 I can recommend quite a few places you are sure to see some when you return.
Glad you had a nice trip in the south. There is nothing like it!
Lol I will have to take you up on it. I am probably no good at picking up redneck signs – I need something blatant like a big, fat gun!
I did meet one in Mexico once that didn’t have the gun but that was very obvious as soon as he opened his mouth. Quite a character.
Most people don’t have their gun out in the open and carry concealed. Here in SC almost everyone is a “redneck” and wear their guns. But you’ll never know it just from looking and having a quick convo 🙂
Lol my thinking doesn’t make sense at all when I think back about it. It’s not like I thought people would be carrying them around in their hands!!
A road trip through the US is very high on my list of things to do, I’m planning one for next summer at this point. It seems like you had such a fun time, even with the interesting weather you encountered and the ducks. I’m from a small town so red-necks are part of my childhood but I can understand the allure. Maybe next time! Since you missed a few places, that means you have to go back…. right?
I am definitely coming back. I am hoping our online businesses go very well next year and we can make it back again then. Either way, we will make it back sooner or later. Enjoy your road trip, I don’t know how you couldn’t really.
GREAT POST SHARON. We loved our USA road trips and did 3 of them. I want to do more. It’s so easy and so fascinating over there.
You were definitely an inspiration for ours – I link to them on a post somewhere. We already knew we wanted to do one but did not realise how cheap it is until reading your posts.
Yeah, you could have driven to Memphis. I remember that week and trying to tell you the weather wasn’t that bad. We did have ice but it wasn’t an issue. Memphis is worth a stay in itself. As a lifelong southerner who grew up in rural Arkansas, owns a gun and has plenty of relatives who are most definitely redneck, I’m not sure what to say to your desire for that experience. Just visit a Walmart. You’ll find plenty of characters there. I think we have as many rednecks in the South as you might have Crocodile Dundee characters in Australia. Just a hunch!
Lol yes I like the comparison you draw with Crocodile Dundee. I still haven’t seen one of those types either. At least missing Memphis gives us a very good reason to go back!
Sounds like you had a great time! I lived in Charlotte, NC for a couple of years so I ventured into the south many times and loved it. My absolute favorite city was Charleston with Savannah, GA as a close second. However I never made it to New Orleans or Memphis so I need to get back south soon.
Yes, definitely worth another visit. There are so many places worth visiting and so many we missed as well.
So glad you enjoyed your US road trip – we’ve done a few throughout the deep south and also really loved it. It is amusing though how media and television portrayals really shape our expectations of what a destination will be like. Not necessarily a bad way to be disappointed ;D!
Yes it definitely is an ok way to be disappointed 🙂 You are lucky that you live over there so can road trip whenever you like!
WE FOUND SOME! We’d been watching the TV show Shiners as we drove down from Canada, about making moonshine. We were sitting in a fried chicken place in the middle of nowhere, picking at a greasy plate of yuk ( sorry, not even the kids would eat it!) when I guy in dungarees wandered in and joined his pal. “What y’all been doing?” “Shining”. Perfect! Loved our time there. We got chatting to these guys, they were lovely. New Orleans was probably my favourite, and the Florida Everglades, that airboat ride was sensational!
Lol lucky you! New Orleans is just awesome. We kept tossing around the idea of doing an air boat ride on the Everglades, but in the end decided against it as we were worried the kids would hate it and couldn’t be bothered finding ear muffs for them. Next time!
What a great Blog. This is one area I would love to do a road trip! I am also disappointed you didn’t get to meet any rednecks and everyone was nice! I would be looking out for the same thing as well!
Thanks for the info about daily costs! It will help with my planning. Keen to hear more!
That is a really well written blog. Loads of detail. I especially love the inclusion of budget average. I agree with the disappointment bits 🙂
Loved the pic of the heads in the cut out !
Thanks, Ruth
So… did you cheat on him? (Just kidding! 🙂 ) Funny how you got so many comments about that in the USA. (The hair, I mean, not the cheating.) I guess there’s even regional small talk!
Sharon, you *did* meet rednecks! The ones who offended you and thought they were being funny in a friendly way. It’s not uncommon for American mums when they introduce a child who looks nothing like them, to say as an aside, “Yeah, the milkman used to visit a lot.” (Even adult kids joke about it themselves.) They’re joking–they know it’s not true. (Unless it is.) So they weren’t insinuating anything at all, not to worry! That said, yes, it’s ill-mannered to say to someone you don’t know, and that’s your first redneck cue.
LOL Jo! Thanks for filling me in. Good to know my goal was fulfilled!!
Those are some enormous ducks!
I’m keen to do a US road trip; it’s one of those things embedded in my psyche after years of American movies. I’d shied away from it since my boy was born but this looks like it might actually be a better option with kids than I thought.
Thanks for the tips on insurance. I probably would have just assumed the car hire came with the basics.
I actually think it is a perfect trip with kids. With your own car, you can go at your own pace and it is not like a road trip in Australia as there are so many places to stop. The standard rooms coming with two double/queen beds and no extra costs for kids also make it quite economical. This would have to be the easiest trip I have done kid wise since they were born. If only there wasn’t a 15 hour flight to suck up to get there!
Being from the states and having rented a few rental cars, I can say that insurance is extra because most of our personal auto insurance policies cover the insurance for rentals. Therefore most folks don’t want to pay twice! Honestly the insurance offered by rental companies is a ripoff.
I absolutely LOVE travelling the US by road. It’s the best country to travel by road because you can go so far and each state is totally different.
Glad you had such a good time (minus the psycho ducks)! The USA is a fabulous place to road trip. Do Australians really think the US is similar to home? I have to think about that for awhile…I always tell people that visiting the States is like visiting 50 different countries.
I can give you some great redneck finding tips if you go back. Or were you looking for hillbilles :D?
lol I didn’t even think about hillbillies. Challenge accepted!
Yes, lots of people here have said to me that they are not interested in the US because it is like here. I try to explain that it is completely different, but they usually don’t get it. So crazy, it is very different in general, and like you say, each part is quite different too. There is also the problem that many people who do go, just go spend a week in Anaheim/LA and don’t really see much of anything and make snap judgements.
On your next journey to the US, you should visit Kentucky. Beautiful rolling hills and horse farms. Spring and Fall in Ky is amazing. (I recommend avoiding Winter or Summer though. Lol)
I would love to go to Kentucky! We looked into it for this trip but it seemed like it would be a bit too cold for us (December). Good to have that backed up 🙂
Send me an e-mail if you come back to Mississippi! I live in the birthplace of Elvis Presley! I’d love to send you some info on what to see in North Mississippi! I’ll be blogging about what I’m calling the “Elvis Tour of Tupelo” soon!
Fabulous! We looked into coming to Tupelo actually, but time was our enemy
thank you so much! My family and me have done a yearly roadtrip in winter in the US since 13 years ago (our country is hot all year and we need some winter in our lives LOL). We have done pretty much eastern US, Western and part of northern central. This year we decided to go to deep south! I was looking everywere to see what it will be like and what to visit and I really love what you wrote here because I need family friendly activities for my 2 year old!!!
Yay we are perfect for you then 🙂 We really loved this route and region. There are plenty of activities your kid will enjoy. My then 3 year old still talks about the childrens’ museums. At least at 2 they can still kind of fit into some more adult activities as well 🙂
Hi there! I’ve just found you via Alysson’s blog! Yep! We’ve done a US road trip, and in the winter too! We live in Germany so we were expecting sunshine and got a mixture of sun and snow. In fact, the mountain pass was closed for the season! We did a road-trip through California, Arizona, Utah, and Neveda. I think we did rather well as our son was 9 years old. He’s 12 now LOL!
I customised and booked the hotels and flights with a local agent in Berlin and we booked the car and everything else ourselves. We went to pretty much every National Park going in the region, along with going to Disneyland, Santa Barbara, San-Francisco, and Vegas. We got around that by booking a non-smoking-non-gambling apartment hotel and going to family-friendly show productions so no vices were observed by him LOL!
We’ll be going to America again in 2016!
Sounds fabulous! what was your favourite part? I often day dream about doing another one. Hopefully it happens in the not too distant future!
Definitely San Fransisco and all the National Parks. They were brilliant! Our son is a member of the Boy Scouts of America (although we’re British!), and he’s going to an international boy scout jamboree in America. In 2016. So we’re going to drop him off and my husband and I will do a two week road-trip alone and then pick him up and do a family week together. It’s gonna be awesome LOL!
That sounds perfect!!
I really enjoyed reading this, and found it very interesting. As someone who has lived in the Deep South (Florida’s Gulf Coast, world’s most beautiful Beaches – which some would call south Alabama) my entire life, I love hearing people talk about what their idea was of this place, what they expected and what they found out once they visited. I went to college with a gal from New Jersey, and she told me that she thought all houses in Florida were one floor only, LOL – something she picked up from TV. My family doesn’t travel a lot, but this gives great insight on where to we should go on a quick trip.
Thanks for your thoughts Steph. You live in a lovely area 🙂 It is funny how much television can influence us even when we should really know better. Thanks to CSI Miami, I actually imagine houses in Florida as big sprawling mansions with jetties lol.
Hi Sharon. I am so pleased to have stumbled across your blog about your road trip in the Deep South. I’m from N Ireland and this trip is on our bucket list but I was debating between doing the package guided tour or independent road trip and you have now helped me make up my mind. The road trip it is. We have travelled (‘semi’) independently to the Far East and S America amongst other places but for some reason I felt to see everywhere I wanted in the Deep south that the tour would be best for us. It’s against the grain as there is nothing my husband and I enjoy more than getting to know the locals and the ‘real’ place. I’ll have to look properly at your itinerary and budget but I’m very excited now about doing a road trip in America at our ages…(planning for my 60th birthday and 40th wedding anniversary in 2 years time and hubby will be 64 🙂 Thanks so much and if it materialises I will write a wee blog about it too through our eyes 🙂
Hi Yvonne. That’s awesome! We really did love our road trip and it was very easy – you definitely should do it 😀 It’s much easier than Asia and South America. Hunting down the whacky parts can take a bit more work, but that is part of the fun 🙂
You made me laugh with the rednecks bit!
Lol It is sad to admit but it was true. I should have known better!! 😀
I am a Mobile, AL native and travel a lot myself. I am sorry to hear that you thought our area was “strangely dead.” I’m really scratching my head at that. One description I would have of Mobile is the family friendly version of New Orleans. I make that comparison since Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the US. Please contact me if you ever travel to the deep south again. You have mentioned some places you did truly miss, but here are some other great places too: Natchez, MS; Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and Gatlinburg, TN; Magnolia Springs (last place in the USA that still delivers mail via boat!), Gulf Shores, and Orange Beach, AL. I can also tell you every where to eat along the way from Charleston to Atlanta to Miami to New Orleans to Memphis.
Hi KB! Thanks for your comment and I will definitely contact you if we go again. It is such an amazing region that we felt like we had to miss out on a lot but thankfully there were plenty of amazing things to ease that pain 🙂
I stumbled upon your travel experience on Pinterest somehow and wanted to thank you for coming to Southern USA and visiting with us! I feel honoured. I am 40 and have been born and raised in rural Tennessee, about 30 miles North of Nashville. I’d been able to treat you to your redneck experience in my local, small towns. 🙂 The redneck and hillbilly population is alive and well, fear not.
Thanks again for your patronage!
Hi Charity! Thanks for your kind comment. It is great to know all the rednecks are ok 🙂 I forgot about hillbillies! I used to love the Beverley Hillbillies as a kid lol. We loved Chattanooga and were sad that we didn’t end up exploring more of Tennessee – damn icemaggadon! Southern USA is such a great region of the world. We loved it!
Hi Sharon,
Just a short note to say how much I enjoyed your ‘USA Roadtrip’ blog.
Actually I found your blog as I was looking for info on an upcoming Cuba trip we are hoping to do later this year. That eventually led me to your USA section via your Cuba one.
Your USA trip reminded me a lot of the roadtrip we did with our kids back in 2004. It definitely brought back some fond memories of a wonderful trip!
We also did kind of a blog or a website at the time – it’s pretty crude and out of date now, but check it out if you like at the link below. Some of the issues you raised or others commented on such as the way rental car insurance works there are covered in my site.
http://dominic.kelly.site.net.au
I will bookmark your Cuba blog and refer to it again as planning for that trip continues!
Regards,
Dom and Narrelle
Hi Dom,
Thanks for your comment. US road trips are definitely very memorable. We very much look forward to doing one again one day! Good luck with your Cuban trip. Another fabulous destination!
Hi Sharon, I was trying to decide between a road trip to california or the south this winter and your post has sold me – thanks! I was wondering if you’d recommend hiring an RV for the trip? Was it any hassle finding accommodation without advance bookings? We’re a family of 5 so its often tricky, which is why we thought of an RV.. thanks very much!
Hi Mihal! I thought about it, briefly, but given I have no experience with an RV it did not seem the right pick for us. It would have also cost us more than budget motels so we were sold with the motel option.
We had no hassle at all finding accommodation. We always booked at least the night before but I am sure we would have no problems anytime. Apart from in Florida, it seemed low season.
Good luck and I am glad I convinced you. We utterly loved this trip!
One of the great things about traveling is its ability to broaden our horizons which, in turn, shatters stereotypes. The media, both news and entertainment, are full of them, but they rarely translate so broadly into reality. For example, I typically carry a gun and largely consider myself a conservative. But I am neither redneck or racist in any sense (and the reason that you didn’t see any guns is because most of us conceal carry). This is one of the many reasons that I love travelling. I like to go beyond what I’ve heard and instead reflect upon my experience. It is, in my opinion, so much more rewarding.
And I’m so glad that you got to visit Helen! I love driving up there (which is easy, since I live in Georgia). Did you get to see Anna Ruby Falls while there?
For sure Chris! I embarrass myself that I still believe in some stereotypes perpetuated by the media. After all, it’s not like I’ve ever come across anyone remotely like Crocodile Dundee here in Australia!! We did absolutely love the Deep South though, definitely one of my favourite trips. Unfortunately, we did not get to Anna Ruby Falls.
Rednecks are not limited to the south. In the USA you will just as easily find one in Alaska as you are in Alabama and anywhere in between.
I also agree with your amusement about the drive through daiquiri shops in Louisiana. One of my major customers was located in Louisiana and we often joked about those places. My understanding, for driving purposes in Louisiana, is that the daiquiri is not considered an open container as long as there is a lid but it can have a straw.
Glad you enjoyed your stay. Just know that a native southerner in Atlanta is an endanger species.
Thanks Jay 😀 It was a fabulous trip we loved it and still talk about it a lot. Can’t wait to get back to the US again.
Sorry I’m a little late to the game, but if you ever make your way back to Chattanooga, I can definitely introduce you to some of this rednecks you were looking for. Glad my hometown made the top of your list!
LOL thanks Sarah, I will keep it in mind 😀
Greetings, just seen a great piece on how to set up your guest manual for you villa rental. Good to see.
So who is the racist now? Expected rednecks all down south and got…disappointed? You poor thing. Most of us are PEOPLE and a lot of us you will never see our guns cuz we hide them to keep the element of surprise, something needed when facing a criminal. We’re just people with families. Sorry to disappoint, your prejudiceship.