New York to Miami —
our Deep South USA road trip
Two weeks, more than 4,000 kilometres and a route that changed character almost every day. This is the hub for our full journey, with separate first-hand guides for the stops where we have enough to tell the story properly.
Watch our trip highlights 🎬
What a trip. What a country.
We did the journey as an organised 13-night tour from New York to Miami, covering more than 4,000 kilometres and 14 states. The transport, hotels and overall route were taken care of, leaving us to enjoy each stop.
Some places became much bigger highlights than we expected: we loved quaint Williamsburg, Dolly Parton's Stampede was brilliant, Graceland was a standout, and New Orleans gave us both our Steamboat NATCHEZ dinner cruise and Oak Alley Plantation. Florida then brought Kennedy Space Center, the Everglades and the finish line in Miami.
The route at a glance
Our 13-night journey from New York to Miami, travelling through the East Coast, Virginia, the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee, the Deep South and Florida.
Our New York to Miami route — 13 nights through the eastern USA and Deep South.
Our Deep South & Florida guides
Open the places where we've built a full first-hand guide. Smaller overnight stops stay in the route below unless we have enough material to make a worthwhile page.
Also on the route: Roanoke, Jackson, Pensacola and Orlando.
13 nights — New York to Miami
We started in New York, stopped in Philadelphia and continued to Washington DC.
Williamsburg was one of the loveliest surprises of the trip before the route continued west through Virginia and Roanoke.
The Blue Ridge and Smokies led us into Tennessee, Dolly Parton's Stampede, Nashville's country music and then Memphis and Graceland.
We travelled through Jackson before reaching New Orleans, where our stay included the Steamboat NATCHEZ dinner cruise and Oak Alley Plantation.
The final leg crossed the Gulf Coast into Florida, with Orlando and Kennedy Space Center before the journey finished in Miami. Our Everglades visit belongs to the South Florida part of the trip rather than being a separate overnight stop on the route.
What we'd tell a friend planning the same route
- Watch out for one-way rental fees. If you're driving independently and picking up in New York / dropping off in Miami, one-way car rental drop-off charges can be steep — sometimes hundreds of dollars. Compare quotes carefully or consider a round-trip loop instead.
- Fly into New York (JFK / LGA / EWR), fly out of Miami (MIA). Open-jaw flights from Dublin are perfectly doable and save you a lot of backtracking at the end of the trip.
- Book Nashville and New Orleans hotels early. These are two of the busiest tourist towns on the route — accommodation gets scarce and expensive in peak periods.
- The weather changes dramatically from top to bottom of the trip. Northern legs can be cool, Florida is hot and humid year-round. Pack in layers.
- Hurricane season runs roughly June to November along the Gulf Coast and Florida. Not a reason to avoid, but worth being aware of if you're travelling in that window.
- Nashville and New Orleans nightlife runs LATE. Don't plan an early start the next day if you're going out on Broadway or in the French Quarter.
- Distances between stops vary a lot. Some legs are 2–3 hours, others are 6+ hours. Build in enough driving time and don't try to add more stops than the itinerary can absorb.
- The southern leg is diner-and-BBQ territory. Embrace it — Memphis BBQ, New Orleans Cajun and Creole, Nashville hot chicken. Some of the best food we ate on the trip.
Want to follow a similar route?
We did this as an organised tour, which meant the transport, accommodation and route were taken care of while we concentrated on enjoying each stop. Here's a comparable Deep South tour you can book directly through TourRadar.
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Skip-the-line tickets & local tours by city
Tap any city below to see available GetYourGuide activities for that stop — tickets, tours and experiences you can book in advance.
🗽 New York activities & tickets
🎸 Nashville activities & tickets
🎶 Memphis activities & tickets
🎺 New Orleans activities & tickets
🌴 Florida activities & tickets
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