New Orleans to LA

Eighteen nights from New Orleans to Los Angeles across the southern states, which is the most driving they ask of you outside the full transcontinental routes. Flights, car and hotels are arranged together from the UK with a road book.

Two nights in New Orleans start it, then Cajun country, then Houston. Austin gets two nights, with the bats pouring out from under the Congress Avenue bridge at dusk, and there is barbecue to be had at Luling or Lockhart on the way. Two nights across Dallas and Fort Worth follow, where the Stockyards still run a longhorn cattle drive twice a day and Billy Bob’s claims to be the biggest honky-tonk anywhere. A night on a working ranch near Graham is offered as an option.

The second half changes country. Amarillo brings Cadillac Ranch, ten cars buried nose-down in a field beside Route 66. Santa Fe follows with its adobe streets, then Monument Valley and the Mittens, the Grand Canyon, two nights in Las Vegas and three in Los Angeles to finish.

The operator calls it a 2,300-mile trip, and their own daily figures come out nearer 2,450. Twelve stops over eighteen nights. Two things worth asking about: the Cajun country night is given as a region rather than a town, and the ranch night is described as optional while still sitting inside the eighteen. The itinerary is bespoke, with nights addable and stops removable, and departures arranged around your dates. It suits anyone who wants Texas properly as well as the desert.