Best of the Deep South? Where to go?

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Hi all,

I'm from Australia and planning a trip shortly throughout the US, heading to the big cities, LA, NYC, as well as making sure I find time to spend in Nashville, Charleston, New Orleans, Huston and Austin.

I'm weighting up adding in Louisville, Memphis or Savannah.. please help with which one would be the best to spend a bit of extra time in :) .. or if their is another amazing city to visit i haven't listed?

I'm traveling throughout the Deep South to get to know the best food (BBQ specifically), music, history and Americans ofcourse.

Any advice would be very much appreciated, thank all.

How long is this trip?
When is this trip?
Are you willing/able to rent a car?

Btw, "Houston."

I dont see any good reasons to visit Memphis TN , Houston TX or Louisville KY...

NashvilleTN is more for entertainment, like Austin TX, not fur culture.

If you want to explore culture/history, and cuisine, as well as the beauty of the South, I would suggest a not only to focus on the Charleston/Savannah areas, but also, New Orleans, The Natchez Trail area, and parts of Bluegrass Country like Asheville NC, the Smokey Mountains, and also Colonial Williamsburg Virginia, since is played a huge part in the civil war...

Obviously you need to rent a car for all of this, though you can from Wash DC to Charleston/Savannah via train. You could take a river cruise on the Mississippi from New Orleans to Natchez to Memphis...and maybe even St Louis. St Louis played an important role in both the westward expansion with the Louisiana Purchase from the French, it serves as a major conduit for the under ground railroad in the slavery era, and also the industrialization of the west, as wall as the starting point for Lewis & Clark expedition to the headwaters of the Missouri River/Mississippi River and the west to California.

Historic towns/small cities to also consider while on the road would be too many to list...

It depends how many weeks you have for all this.

But Texas is a huge state and very out of the way, and not the Old South. There is no reason to go there IMO.

Everyone has different tastes but IMO the best BBQ is in Texas. I do agree with visiting New Orleans for the food and the music which are fantastic. Virginia is not Deep South but has a lot of history, both Civil War and Revolutionary.

If you want to explore culture/history, and cuisine, as well as the beauty of the South, I would suggest a not only to focus on the Charleston/Savannah areas, but also, New Orleans, The Natchez Trail area, and parts of Bluegrass Country like Asheville NC, the Smokey Mountains, and also Colonial Williamsburg Virginia, since is played a huge part in the civil war...>

That is an excellent idea.

also Colonial Williamsburg Virginia, since is played a huge part in the civil war...

Umm, no. It's about pre-Revolutionary history.
The city did have a minor part in the Peninsula Campaign, but that's about it.

The National Park Services says this about the Colonial National Historical Park in Williamsburg: "On May 13, 1607, Jamestown was established as the first permanent English settlement in North America. Three cultures came together – European, Virginia Indian and African–to create a new society that would eventually seek independence from Great Britain. On October 19, 1781, American and French troops defeated the British at Yorktown in the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War."

Thanks all!

The travel plan so far is flying into LA, then to Vegas, driving through San Antonio, Austin, Houston, fly to New Orleans, then the only other cities which are locked in is Nashville and Charleston, then after onto NYC for a week to finish.

I have 2 weeks pretty much unplanned after New Orleans where the only place I have locked in is Nashville, so any other great cities in the Deep South which would be worth taking time to see would be great to know about..

I'm not so much into museums, more about hospitality, food, nightlife, meeting people.
I'm planning on being in the Deep South in just over a month.
Driving, flying, busing is all a possibility

Thanks all! I appreciate your help

Shaun

A few takes:

Houston and Austin are Texas, not the South. Our Texas corespondent hasn't chimed-in, so I will. Texas was briefly its own country and despite cotton and other Southern things like slavery, the culture is more tied to the Southwest than the Southeast.

Louisville is not the deep South and some Louisvillians claim to be in the Midwest. You may as well visit Cincinnati or St Louis which, thankfully, make no claim to being in the South and you'll probably see more in either place, anyway.

Williamsburg is basically a pricey heritage theme park--I thought it was a bit much. You'll probably get more out of Monticello in Charlottesville, which is one of the few heritage home type places that's really interesting rather than about the lifestyles of plutocrats.

You will need a car as this region is very carbound and only New Orleans is reasonable without one--Charleston is much smaller, but the outlying areas (e.g., kayaking on the river, going to a beach) require one. If you're not up for museums then you probably won't get much from Savannah or even Charleston, although Charleston does have some outdoor stuff today and great restaurants.

Austin is well past its heyday and Houston and San Antonio are not terribly interesting in terms of what you've laid out. I'm going to San Antonio in June and already dreading it. Nashville is not in the Deep South--Tennessee seceded from the Union but is often considered more of a border state. Nashville fell quickly early in the Civil War and prospered as a garrison town. East Tennessee was heavily pro-Union and disliked the economic and political domination by the plantation owners in the Middle and Western part of the State. Nashville has less nightlife than you would probably guess. memphis is rather depressed city and Beale Street is a bit of a theme park. You'll find more blues in Chicago. You will really have to look hard for bluegrass.

The Deep South is unambiguously Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia. The Carolinas and Virginia are really something else (Piedmont and Tidewater) that's too tedious to explain. Florida used to be much more Southern, now its a place that the rest of the country jokes about, although a lot of people move there. "Southern hospitality" is mostly about politely bs-ing you to get a measure of who you are. Parts of the South are very closed and you will mostly feel that you're an outsider. We've had endless debates about most friendly, but having lived in the South I wouldn't rank it above anywhere else. You will find Texans a bit like people in Australia.

BBQ is a regionally varying thing. Brisket is big in Texas. Pulled pork in North Carolina. The sauces tend to be yellow, mustardy in North Carolina. They have some tang and/or a smoky taste in Texas. Generally, they're more of tomato-base with a little sweetness that variously has been identified with all kinds of places. Everyone is convinced their style is best and you really should just agree with them. Nonetheless there are tons of lousy and mediocre BBQ places all over the region and you should avoid any that are chains.

The best Foodie scene for both Southern and Low Country, is New Orleans, Charleston, Nashville.

The most culture/heritage, is Charleston, New Orleans.

The most historical is Charleston, New Orleans and Savannah, as well as area of Virginia.

The best places for landscapes with a true Southern feel and influences, would be Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans.

New York has a lot to discover, 1 week is about right...

Texas- no thanks, been there done that, cant stand the place. Dreadful. Las Vegas is the runner up, but takes the cake for a Tourist Ghetto on every level. Would rather go to Chicago or San Fransisco/Wine country...

Agreed, Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans are the most atmospheric southern cities. And I see little reason to include Nashville or Houston either, unless you happen to be driving through, or you absolutely must visit the Grand Old Opry.

Memphis is good if you're interested in African-American history, and it makes a good launching point if you want to travel into the Mississippi Delta on a Blues exploration, to Clarksdale.

The travel plan so far is flying into LA, then to Vegas, driving through San Antonio, Austin, Houston, fly to New Orleans

So you drive the longest and most boring section, but you fly a relatively easy section? That's silly. Fly from Vegas to San Antonio, and drive on from there.

I have 2 weeks pretty much unplanned after New Orleans

Two weeks to get to NYC is a lot shorter than you think. Especially if you already planned Nashville in your route.
With that said, try this rough route.

Texas- no thanks, been there done that, cant stand the place. Dreadful.

Well, it's not completely devoid of interest. I'm thinking the Hill Country, the area north of Corpus Christi (i.e. Goose Island State Park), and Big Bend National Park. And it's possible that Austin may still have some redeeming features despite having 2.1 million people.

So informative. Thanks you guys a lot.

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