New Orleans to Miami

Fourteen nights from New Orleans along the Gulf coast to Miami, and the only trip in their range that takes in the Florida Panhandle and the Big Bend. Flights, car and hotels are arranged together from the UK with a road book for the route.

Two nights in New Orleans start it, with the French Quarter, St Louis Cathedral and the beignets at Café du Monde, and the car is not collected until the third day, which is sensible in a city best walked. Then the Panhandle, where the sand is quartz rather than shell and genuinely squeaks underfoot, with St George Island State Park and the Gulf Islands National Seashore along the way.

Crystal River is the stop that makes this trip different. It is one of the few places in the world where you can get into the water with manatees, which gather in the warm springs in winter. Worth raising when you enquire, because the season matters. Three nights in Orlando follow for the parks, then two on the Gulf coast around Naples and Sanibel, and three in Miami to finish with the Art Deco strip and the Everglades.

Around 1,030 miles over a fortnight. One practical point: three of the overnights are given as regions rather than towns, the Panhandle, the Big Bend and the Gulf Coast, so ask which towns you will actually be staying in. The itinerary is bespoke, with nights addable and stops removable, and departures arranged around your dates. There are no Florida Keys on this one, which is the clean distinction from their other southern trips.