Houston - New Orleans - Miami - Tampa

Houston - New Orleans - Miami - Tampa

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Freddie328

Original Poster:

685 posts

202 months

Saturday 7th December 2013
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Very rough plans at the moment.....

Fly to Houston, get connecting flight to New Orleans, stay in New Orleans for ??? nights, connecting flight to Miami, stay in Miami for ??? nights, fly to Tampa or hire car and drive to Tampa, stay in/around Tampa for ??? nights & fly back to London from Tampa. Have 12 nights in total. Is it worth staying in Houston for a night or do we go straight to New Orleans? Any suggestions for any of these places gratefully received!

Ynox

1,705 posts

180 months

Saturday 7th December 2013
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Not much to see / do in Houston to be honest. Drive isn't so bad if you can't get a flight though - 300 miles or so.

I'd probably aim for 3 nights in New Orleans. I did 2 last year and felt it wasn't quite enough (especially as the first day I'd driven 500+ miles from Dallas down).


K50 DEL

9,237 posts

229 months

Sunday 8th December 2013
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Agreed with the above, New Orleans is a 3 day trip really, try and stay at The Inn on Bourbon if you can, lovely hotel in a really lively part of town.

My first question looking at your itinerary though is "why so much flying?" the US is the king of countries for road trips... hire yourself a car at your first destination and get out there and discover the real America, not just stopovers in major cities!

Freddie328

Original Poster:

685 posts

202 months

Sunday 8th December 2013
quotequote all
K50 DEL said:
My first question looking at your itinerary though is "why so much flying?" the US is the king of countries for road trips... hire yourself a car at your first destination and get out there and discover the real America, not just stopovers in major cities!
Agree totally on the road trip bit! My exact reason for this post - to get ideas! smile Sorry, I realise I only mentioned the hire car bit for the end part from Miami to Tampa, another option though is to drive the whole trip and I have looked into that but I know nothing about that part of the US so would love to know if there are places in that area/on that route that we really should see. Plus we are limited to 12 days.

Our last 4 main holidays have been road trips (Sottish Highlands, California with PN and 2 Alpine trips) and I loved every minute of them but a tiny part of me does quite fancy only having to pack/unpack a couple of times rather than every day!!!
wink

K50 DEL

9,237 posts

229 months

Sunday 8th December 2013
quotequote all
Are Houston, New Orleans, Miami and Tampa definate destinations or have you just randomly picked them?
Also, have you already booked your flights, I notice you're planning on flying into one city and out of another, that's normally much more expensive than a standard return though there are ways around it....

Freddie328

Original Poster:

685 posts

202 months

Sunday 8th December 2013
quotequote all
K50 DEL said:
Are Houston, New Orleans, Miami and Tampa definate destinations or have you just randomly picked them?
Also, have you already booked your flights, I notice you're planning on flying into one city and out of another, that's normally much more expensive than a standard return though there are ways around it....
We want to use up some of our BA miles and of course as usual reward flights in Club are limited. New Orleans is most definitely on the 'must do' list and we thought rather than do it for a long weekend we would incorporate it into a longer holiday. BA don't fly direct there so the nearest option is Houston. Miami is also somewhere we would like to see but no return reward flights available from there hence Tampa. The dates also fit in with when and how long we can go for. Any where else along the way would be a bonus! Nothing is booked yet, it is just something I came up with yesterday when looking at the reward flight availablity.

K50 DEL

9,237 posts

229 months

Sunday 8th December 2013
quotequote all
Freddie328 said:
K50 DEL said:
Are Houston, New Orleans, Miami and Tampa definate destinations or have you just randomly picked them?
Also, have you already booked your flights, I notice you're planning on flying into one city and out of another, that's normally much more expensive than a standard return though there are ways around it....
We want to use up some of our BA miles and of course as usual reward flights in Club are limited. New Orleans is most definitely on the 'must do' list and we thought rather than do it for a long weekend we would incorporate it into a longer holiday. BA don't fly direct there so the nearest option is Houston. Miami is also somewhere we would like to see but no return reward flights available from there hence Tampa. The dates also fit in with when and how long we can go for. Any where else along the way would be a bonus! Nothing is booked yet, it is just something I came up with yesterday when looking at the reward flight availablity.
Understood.... when I did my last road trip around that area I flew to Atlanta and rented a car from there, drove down into FL via Jacksonville and then back up the Gulf of Mexico and along the coast to New Orleans before heading back to Atlanta via Jackson and Birmingham.

Flight wise, your other option is to do a return from the UK to say Miami and then do an internal flight back to Miami once you reach the end of your road trip (obviously watch out for one way rental fees from the car hire if you do this)

Freddie328

Original Poster:

685 posts

202 months

Monday 9th December 2013
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Thanks, am now thinking that given our time constraints and the availability of reward flights we have 2 options; We could either get a connecting flight from Houston to New Orleans and then pick up a car when we leave New Orleans and drive the rest of it, I would presume given these time constraints we would have to do some motorway but is there a particularly nice bit of coastal route from there and is there anywhere you would recommend staying along the way?.
Or, we could fly from New Orleans to Tampa and just have the car whilst we're in Florida, at least that way we would be returning the car to where it came from!

Edited by Freddie328 on Monday 9th December 13:01

Workshy Fop

756 posts

268 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
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On that trip you must do a night at Pensacola about 3 hours from New Orleans on the Gulf Coast. Go to the navy air museum it's amazing and free. Eat at Peg Leg Pete's if the last hurricane didn't get it!

surveyor

17,844 posts

185 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
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One way rental charges for out of state are fierce. Flying makes more sense.

We priced it up driving from NY to Florida and it worked out £600 cheaper for a family of 3, and that was before considering overnight stops and fuel.

Freddie328

Original Poster:

685 posts

202 months

Tuesday 10th December 2013
quotequote all
surveyor said:
One way rental charges for out of state are fierce. Flying makes more sense.

We priced it up driving from NY to Florida and it worked out £600 cheaper for a family of 3, and that was before considering overnight stops and fuel.
I think that because of that, coupled with our time restraints,flying is what we are now going to do. Hope we won't be missing anything along the way!! :-(

I have since started a new thread titled 'Florida Road Trip' for ideas.

Thanks.

David Beer

3,982 posts

268 months

Wednesday 11th December 2013
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I had a camaro ss convertable in new York and dropped it off inLA, 350 drop off fee!!!