We will be driving from Chicagoland to Orlando next spring break. We plan to stop along the way at least one night and are considering two nights. This is to break up the drive but also to extend the vacation and have a little fun along the way. Looking at the map it seems that Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta seem like the obvious choices. We will likely stop in one place on drive to FL and a different place on the way back home.
What towns and attractions can you recommend?
My children are 14, 4 and 2. With the age gap I need to consider fun for all ages.
I highly recommend Chattanooga, TN. Good stopping point and has an awesome aquarium - best I have ever seen! It is so amazing. There is also a children's museum across the street. You can also take the tram to the top of Signal mountain - lots of Civil war battles fought in the area. Chickamauga (sp?) park is in the area - lots of Civil war memorials - huge park.
Chattanooga has http://www.tennis.org/Home.aspx and we loved it SO much the first time we stopped there that we made it a stop on our next trip to the area (and we usually never re-do things since we are trying to get all 50 states in). Also really close is Ruby Falls, an incline railroad and Rock City. All were great to visit and honestly all your ages of kids will like them for different reasons.
Chattanooga is a beautiful town. That is where the Tennessee Aquarium is also. :)
If it were me and my family and we had to choose between Atlanta and Chattanooga, we'd probably go to Chattanooga. We have family in the Atlanta satellite towns and we have spent plenty of time there. There is a lot you can do. I just like the "feel" of Chattanooga much better. Slower pace. More attractive in general. Just my opinion though...kinda depends on what you want to do during your stopover. There are hands on museums for the kids and the duck boats in Chat. Baseball stadium right there, too. Outdoor movies at the park, and of course the previously mentioned Aquarium. Etc.
BUT, Atlanta has the High museum, and the FernBank, Stone Mountain, the aquarium, etc. So it really does depend upon what YOU enjoy.
Going down we left really early in the morning on a Saturday for the 7 hour drive down to Mammouth Cave in Kentucky so that we could do 2 cave tours. We could have gone a bit further south after the tours for maybe another hour drive, but we had camping reservations at that National Park (it was June). I don't know their cave tour schedule over spring break--you would need to look that up. But it was a very interesting and unique attraction that is very close to the Interstate so it is easy to do on the way down or back. Due to the extremely heavy rain the next day, we didn't reach our hotel in Orlando until 10pm so it was a long and slowed down leg from KY to Orlando. On the way back, we drove a bit over 1/2 way and really only had time to go in the pool at the hotel in Tennesee (I think Nashville??), but we got home by dinnertime the next day to unpack and unwind before I went back to work the following day. Basically, we found there was not a whole lot of time between all the driving for attraction stops--although I feel we really made the most of it squeezing in 2 cave tours and camping.
If your little ones are into trains at all, the Choo Choo Hotel in Chattanooga is fun for them. We stayed in one of the train cars and the boys loved it. There was also garden areas for them to run around in and I think there is a trolley ride also. This hotel is owned by the Holiday Inn. Have fun on vacation.
K.
We aim for the Dalton, GA region...cheaper than Atlanta and more scenery.
T. we live in oswego and drive to florida. we stop in jonesboro on the way there that gets us through atlanta before we stop for the night. we stop in marietta on the way home which again gets us through atlanta before stopping for the night. we always just get a cheap hotel. but make sure you make a reservation as once we drove more than a hundred miles looking for one since both those towns are close to atlanta they are major stopping points. if you have time stop in the coca cola museum. its fun and you get samples of all the products coke makes. see the old bottles and stuff and also a demo on how its made. also a little theater with all the old coca cola commercials
Perry, GA is south of Atlanta, I think and there is a great little Pecan store that is out of this world.
Well, if you stop in TN - you can do Pigeon Forge... and see Dollywood.
If you stop in Atlanta - the Atlanta Aquarium is great and the Coca-Cola museum is RIGHT next to it.
We usually stop at the holiday inn express in McDonough, GA. It is south of Atlanta. We usually stop there for a couple of reasons. 1) it's south of Atlanta and my husband refuses to stop before or in Atlanta. 2) their pool stays open till 11 and it gives us a little longer for the kids to blow off some energy from the long day of driving before bed. 3) Holiday Inn Express has a pretty decent breakfast in the morning that is included.
The first couple if years we didn't make reservations and just drive until we had enough and were ready to stop. We seemed to stop in McDonough so we figured it was a good stopping point and we now make reservations.
On the drive home we usually end up stopping outside of Chattanooga somewhere but haven't found a regular point. Your stopping points are very realistic. We usually don't really sightsee between destinations much. My husband doesn't want to stop on the way there and we want to spend as much time as we can in FL before coming home to the cold so we don't stop on the way home either. Have a nice trip.
