Road trips by city

Road trips from Nashville

19 back-roads routes start within a 4.5-hour drive of Nashville, including 0 day trips and 17 weekend drives; 5 ready-made itineraries begin nearby.

Drive times are estimates to the nearer end of each route (straight-line miles plus a quarter, at 50 mph); the atlas itself never routes you onto an interstate once the drive begins.

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Weekend road trips from Nashville

• US 41: Dixie Highway, Nashville to Chattanooga
  Starts in Nashville
  Nashville → Chattanooga · ~220 mi · 2 days · skips I-24
• The Middle Tennessee Pike
  Starts in Nashville
  Nashville → Muscle Shoals · ~140 mi · 2 days · skips I-65
• US 70: Broadway of America
  Starts in Nashville
  Memphis → Nashville · ~210 mi · 2 days · skips I-40
• The Trail of Tears: Georgia to Kentucky
  About 1 h 35 min to Hopkinsville
  New Echota → Hopkinsville · ~350 mi · 3 days · skips I-75 / I-24
• Bourbon, Bluegrass & Shakers
  About 2 h to Mammoth Cave
  Lexington → Mammoth Cave · ~180 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-64 / I-65
• US 127: The Plateau & the Sale
  About 2 h 30 min to Albany, KY
  Chattanooga → Albany, KY · ~160 mi · 2 days · skips I-40
• The Shoals
  About 2 h 30 min to Huntsville
  Corinth → Huntsville · ~150 mi · 2 days · skips I-22 / I-65
• Highway 64: Shiloh to Lookout Mountain
  About 2 h 50 min to Chattanooga
  Memphis → Chattanooga · ~340 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-40 / I-24
• The Overhill Country
  About 2 h 50 min to Chattanooga
  Chattanooga → Gatlinburg · ~175 mi · 2 days · skips I-75
• US 41: Dixie Highway & the Atlanta Campaign
  About 2 h 50 min to Chattanooga
  Chattanooga → Atlanta · ~120 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-75
• US 60: The Mutton Line
  About 3 h to Paducah
  Louisville → Paducah · ~220 mi · 2 days · skips I-64 / the parkways
• Moonbows & the Gorge
  About 3 h 35 min to Cumberland Falls
  Slade → Cumberland Falls · ~150 mi · 2 days · skips I-75 (mostly)
• US 11E: The Great Valley Road
  About 4 h to Knoxville
  Knoxville → Bristol · ~110 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-81 / I-26
• The Wilderness Road
  About 4 h 15 min to Berea
  Bristol → Berea · ~220 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-75 / I-81
• The Hill Country Ramble
  About 4 h 15 min to Tupelo
  Memphis → Tupelo · ~130 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-22
• US 64: The Waterfall Byway
  About 4 h 15 min to Murphy
  Brevard → Murphy · ~120 mi · 2 days · skips I-40 (by 50 miles)
• The Bootheel: US 61 North
  About 4 h 20 min to Cape Girardeau
  Memphis → Cape Girardeau · ~175 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-55

Named parkways and scenic byways within reach

• Natchez Trace Parkway
  Starts in Nashville
  Natchez → Nashville · ~444 mi · 3–4 days · skips I-55 / I-65 corridor
• US 64: The Waterfall Byway
  About 4 h 15 min to Murphy
  Brevard → Murphy · ~120 mi · 2 days · skips I-40 (by 50 miles)

Longer itineraries starting near Nashville

• The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run
  6 days · ~900 mi · from Nashville
  Six nights, zero pretense: the South's living roadhouse circuit — honky-tonks, jukes and sand-floor bars, run north to gulf. (Red Dirt's mother…
• The Trace & the Delta Loop
  7 days · ~1000 mi · from Nashville
  The atlas's flagship week: the full 444-mile Parkway south, then the Blues Highway north — two centuries of American sound and trouble in one ellipse.
• The Long Way to the Opry
  21 days · ~3000 mi · from Nashville (loop)
  The musical genome of America in three weeks: honky-tonks, Delta jukes, zydeco Saturdays, Muscle Shoals, Hank's highway, Elvis's two houses, bourbon…
• Nashville to Atlanta on the Dixie Highway
  3 days · ~340 mi · from Nashville
  The old Dixie Highway's whole Tennessee-to-Georgia act: whiskey country and the plateau to Chattanooga, then the General's road down the Atlanta…
• Nashville Day Trips: the Dixie Highway Sampler
  3 days · ~300 mi · from Nashville
  Three separate days out of Nashville and back, each on the old Dixie Highway: the battlefield and the whiskey, the plateau and its waterfalls, the…

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