Ultimate Road Trip: Georgia

To have a week off for a road trip would be magical. As a full-time student with two part-time jobs and a long list of volunteer obligations, I would love nothing more than to take a road trip and forget the world. This would be my fantasy road trip.

Being that I live in Georgia, I knew starting instate would save me money since I wouldn't have to go too far to get started! Plus, I find it very important to know where you come from and even though I've lived in Georgia all my life, I've rarely visited any of the towns. With these factors, I decided that a round road trip visiting various cities through Georgia would be interesting.

Going to Google Maps, I listed out a few cities that I knew to make a circle around the state. I would start in Athens before going to Madison, Macon, Savannah, St. Simons Islands, Valdosta, Albany, Columbus, Rome, Atlanta, and then finally back to Athens. Google Maps estimates that the entire trip would be 929 miles and would take eighteen hours and five minutes to complete if I went non-stop. Using the fuel cost calculator on Road Trip America, I estimated that gas for my car would be $108.95 cents. I decided to add an additional fifty dollars for gas for when I traveled off course to other locations.

Speaking of money, I want to keep this trip as frugal as possible so I decided to limit myself to only twenty dollars a day for all my food and pack camping gear to stay at a camp ground nearby, which is cheaper than staying at hotels. I would only take four hundred dollars on my trip, which would be plenty considering my limitations. In fact, it may be a little too much!

The first day of the trip, I would travel from Athens through Madison and stop for the night in Macon. Madison was on my list because it is said that it's beauty stopped Sherman from burning the city down in the Civil War. There are many things to do in Macon, such as going to Georgia's Music Hall of Fame.

The second day would be driving to Savannah to spend the day downtown and then going to St. Simons for the night. The morning of the third day would be spent exploring St. Simons and the beach before heading off to Valdosta and then to Albany for the night. In between, I would like to explore some of the small towns that are placed along the way.

On the fourth day, I would leave Albany to go to Columbus, which is one of the top five largest cities in Georgia. Columbus has a variety of museums and parks that I would love to visit while I was there before heading off to Rome to stay the night. For the fifth day, I would spend my time exploring Rome and all of it's history, especially it's Cherokee Indian Museum since I am part Cherokee and would love to learn more about my culture.

For my sixth day, I would go to Atlanta and go to as many things as possible. I would like to go to the High Museum the most, which offers discounts to students, a plus for me. Atlanta is such a huge city that I'm not sure I would be able to see everything in one day!

Since there is no camping in Atlanta, the last leg of my trip would involve visiting family in Gainesville and Jefferson before heading back to Athens, hopefully bumming a place to stay and food from my nice family members, which would help me save money.