Road Trip Itinerary: Midwest to Nashville, Great Smoky Mountains and Fun Things to See Along the Way

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Planning a summer road trip with the family?  Need some ideas on where to go? Want to plan a road trip but the thought of planning makes you want to not even go?

Road trips can take a lot of research and planning.  First you need to choose a destination, then figure out the best route, and finally find things to do along the way.  If the destination is a new one and you are unfamiliar with the area, it can take a lot of time and work starting from scratch.  I love to share my itineraries because I know just how much work it takes to plan them and some people just don’t enjoy that part.  For me, planning the trip is nearly as much fun as actually going on it.  Crazy I know!  For those that hate planning and maybe even decide to skip the vacation because the planning stresses them out so much, I hope this can help.

Planning the Road Trip

To plan a route, I have been using Roadtrippers.com.  More recently there have been many ads on this site and they have released a more enhanced version for a fee. I have also started to use AAA.com. Although this is a paid service ($60 a year), you also get great discounts on hotels and car rentals and even campsites. You can request a trip tik from their website or a travel specialist by phone.  You tell them the destination cities and they will send you a bound book with  step by step directons to each city including information on road closures and construction.  MapQuest is free and has also been a great help and there is a part where you can add your cities to a route. The biggest determination I make when I plan a route is to look at driving time.  I try not to pick a destination that is over 7 hours drive time.  When looking for campgrounds along a route I cosult KOA, TripAdvisor, as well as AAA.

Sample Itinerary

Last summer we planned a road trip from the Midwest with the final destinations being Nashville and the Great Smoky Mountains.  If you are thinking of traveling out this way, check it out.

1. Mount Pleasant, Iowa  2.  Hannibal, MO  3.  Kentucky Lakes, KY  4.  Nashville  5. Gatlinburg, TN  6. Cherokee, NC  7. Mile High Campground, NC

8.-9. Ashville, NC   10. Cincinnati, OH  11. Crawfordsville, IN  12. Peoria, IL

Day 1.  (Drive 6 hours)

First day we drove leaving after work  from Minneapolis through Rochester and into Iowa.  We did not make reservations for this night and thought we would find something along the way depending on how long we wanted to drive.  We have had pretty good luck with this and being able find a place last minute.  It helps to keep a KOA book of campgrounds handy.   Our plans got altered however when we blew a tire on the 5th wheel.  We ended up finding a Walmart in Mount Pleasant, Iowa and asked if we could spend the night in the parking lot.  They were good about it and said we could but had to leave by 7 am or so.  It was ironic to us that we ended up here because it really was such a great experience and they were so nice and helpful with our tire situation. The town sure is living up to its name.

Day 2-3 (Drive 7 hours)

Our route then took us through Hannibal, Missouri where we were able to stop for lunch and explore the town a bit.  This is Mark Twain’s boyhood home and if we would have had more time could have taken a boat ride down the river.  They also have a Mark Twain Cave tour and a haunted ghost tour. There are historic buildings and museums to check out and see the city through the eyes of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.  We continued on to Prizer Point KOA/ Kentucky Lakes ( 5 1/2 hours) where we had pre made reservations at the KOA.  This is a great camping area to experience life on the water in Kentucky.  There is a marina to rent all kinds of  boats,  campsites right on the water and even fishing from shore.  They have 2 pool and a playground, biking trails and a ropes course.
Beautiful Campsite at Prizer Point KOA

Day 4-6 Drive for Nashville. (1 hour 35 minutes)

Driving to Nashville was under 2 hours the next morning. There are 3 campgrounds just north of downtown Nashville which are all on the same service road.  The last one is the KOA, then Two Rivers Campground, and finally Jellystone is the closest to the exit.  The Nashville KOA we stayed at offered a shuttle to downtown, but you do have to pay a fee, so we drove and paid for parking on the street or in one of the lots when we went downtown. We stayed 3 nights so that we had 2 full days to enjoy the sites. Nashville has so many fun things for kids to explore including the Grand Ole Opry, Opry Mills, The Country Music Hall of Fame, and the many Honky Tonks.  To read more about things to do in Nashville, check out my other posts.

Day 7 -8 (4+ hours)

After an exciting time in the city, we headed to Elkmont Campground near Gaitlenberg, TN in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.   If I have one piece of advice- Do not use MapQuest to get into the park.  It took us on a road we never should have been on with  a camper!   Go to the main entrance near Gaitlenberg.  Cell service is not good in the park so have paper maps.   We stayed 2 nights at the campground which can be booked HERE.  We then had one full day in the park.   There are many great things to do in this area, (check out my other blog posts to learn more) including fishing, hiking, and visiting Clingman’s Dome.

Day 9

The next day we headed to the south side of the Smoky Mountains to  Cherokees/ Great Smokies KOA.  We chose this campground because it was right next to stocked trout fishing ponds and there was river tubing at the campground.  We were close enough to town that we could go to the Oconaluftee Indian Village for their evening drama performance.  It is an amazing show depicting the history of the area.

Day 10 (Drive 2 hours)

We then drove the Blue Ridge Parkway to a Camground found with an online search at the top of a mountain called Mile High Campground.   Another piece of advice- don’t go on the Blue Ridge Parkway with a camper until you research which parts have height restrictions.  We avoided a major problem.  We spent one night here to experience the views and had some unexpected visitors.

Day 11 (Drive 1 hour+ due to windy roads)

The next day we took the freeway to Ashworth, NC and found another campground on the top of a mountain for 2 nights called Campfire Lodgings.  From here there are many places to explore including Biltmore Mansion, horseback riding and access to a cave where we could look for jewels.  A list of other great things to do can be found on their Visitor Website.

Day 13 (Drive 9 hours)

Driving back home, we try not to make reservations but find places along the way so that we can drive as long as we are able.  KOA is a good resource and we found an campground in Crawfordsville, Illinois.

Day 14 (Drive 9 hours)

Home.  We usually try to hit he road hard the last few days of a road trip.  By this time we are ready to get home so we rarely stop and be tourists the last few days.

I think this would be a great route even with out a camper.  Many of the KOAs have sleeping cabins and there also hotels near all of these areas, except for Mile High Campground.  Without a camper, there would have more flexibility driving the Blue Ridge Parkway from Cherokee to Ashworth, North Carolina.  There are tunnels and bridges along the Blue Ridge Parkway that do not accommodate larger campers.  Overall this was a great route and itinerary for exploring this part of the country.  We are so thankful for all the people we met along the way.  We even learned our lesson the hard way a few times on this trip but keeping a positive attitude during these times helps make the adventure more memorable and exciting.

Planning a road trip?  Pin this for later!

Happy Travels!
Jennifer