Road trips by city

Road trips from New Orleans

18 back-roads routes start within a 4.5-hour drive of New Orleans, including 3 day trips and 12 weekend drives; 3 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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Day trips from New Orleans

• River Road & the Felicianas
  Starts in New Orleans
  New Orleans → Natchez · ~200 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-10
• LA 1: End of the Road
  About 1 h 15 min to Grand Isle
  Donaldsonville → Grand Isle · ~110 mi · 1–2 days · skips US 90 four-lane
• US 49: Jackson to the Sound
  About 1 h 40 min to Gulfport
  Jackson → Gulfport · ~160 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-55 / I-10

Weekend road trips from New Orleans

• Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie
  Starts in New Orleans
  New Orleans → Eunice · ~230 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-10 & the Basin bridge
• US 90: The Creole Coast
  Starts in New Orleans
  New Orleans → Pensacola · ~270 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-10
• US 90: Rice & Rails
  About 2 h 55 min to Lafayette
  Lafayette → Orange, TX · ~130 mi · 1 days · skips I-10
• Alabama's Coastal Connection
  About 3 h to Dauphin Island
  Dauphin Island → Pensacola · ~95 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-10
• Hank's Lost Highway
  About 3 h 15 min to Mobile
  Montgomery → Mobile · ~170 mi · 1 days · skips I-65
• Cane River & El Camino Real
  About 3 h 25 min to Natchez
  Natchez → Toledo Bend · ~180 mi · 2 days · skips I-49
• The Free State of Jones
  About 3 h 25 min to Natchez
  Meridian → Natchez · ~200 mi · 2 days · skips I-59 / US 84 four-lane hurry
• Poverty Point & the Delta Parishes
  About 3 h 25 min to Vidalia
  Vidalia → Lake Providence · ~130 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-20
• The Old Federal Road
  About 3 h 55 min to Fort Mims
  Columbus, GA → Fort Mims · ~230 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-85 / I-65
• Grant's Vicksburg Campaign
  About 4 h 20 min to Loop from Vicksburg
  Loop from Vicksburg · ~165 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-20
• The Forgotten Coast
  About 4 h 20 min to Pensacola
  Pensacola → St. Marks · ~280 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-10
• US 90: The Florida Backbone
  About 4 h 20 min to Pensacola
  St. Augustine → Pensacola · ~400 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-10

Named parkways and scenic byways within reach

• US 90: The Creole Coast
  Starts in New Orleans
  New Orleans → Pensacola · ~270 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-10
• Natchez Trace Parkway
  About 3 h 25 min to Natchez
  Natchez → Nashville · ~444 mi · 3–4 days · skips I-55 / I-65 corridor

Longer itineraries starting near New Orleans

• The Natchez Trace, End to End
  5 days · ~720 mi · from New Orleans
  Up the Mississippi's levee roads to Natchez, then all 444 billboard-free miles of the old Trace to Nashville — ten thousand years of footpath at a…
• The Gulf Crawl
  6 days · ~480 mi · from New Orleans
  New Orleans to the Big Bend at porch speed — the whole northern Gulf without one mile of I-10.
• Boudin, Cracklins & Plate Lunches
  2 days · ~140 mi · from Lafayette, LA
  Acadiana's gas-station gastronomy, done as a discipline: boudin links eaten off the casing in parking lots, cracklins by the wax-paper bag, and the…

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