Atlanta to Baton Rouge Road Trip Guide
Introduction
Sometimes a person just needs to just get away from it all, and a road trip provides an ideal way to clear one's head and do a little solo travel. The route from Atlanta to Baton Rouge is one journey where you can experience art, culture, and the great outdoors in little more than a weekend.
Atlanta is a wonderful city with a wealth of history and a vibrant art and culture scene but breaking away, just for a few days, can revive sagging spirits and open one’s eyes to different things. The journey to Baton Rouge offers a selection of different routes and things to see along the way. If you drove straight there, the distance would be a little over 526 miles. But by following the itinerary suggested below, you will travel a little further than that.
The beauty of having your own van is that you are totally and luxuriously self-contained. You are not constrained by having to reach hotels or motels and this is such an RV friendly route that you will have plenty of choices as to where to stay if you feel you need one. Alternatively, you may decide not to even bother with a park and opt for a little wild camping instead.
Point of Interest
Central Restaurant
If you are a foodie, then you are going to want to get to grips with some real southern cooking and the Central Restaurant in the downtown district is renowned for this. Winners of the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence and a Diners Choice award, the food here is proudly southern but with hints of Caribbean and South East Asian influences.
The restaurant was once a grocery warehouse and brings with it a wonderful atmosphere as well as its fine food. You could drop in for either lunch or dinner, so see how this fits with your schedule. Dishes range from Cajun oysters through to roasted marrow bone or port wine roasted pear and speck ham.
New Orleans
In theory, you could drive to Baton Rouge from the forest in just three hours. The problem is you are going to want to explore New Orleans on the way, even if only briefly. To add to that, you are going to be driving through the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge as you approach the city, so there are bound to be things that are going to attract your attention and slow your pace a bit.
Once in New Orleans, and with a limited time budget, you might want to concentrate on wandering through the famous French Quarter where the balconies are surrounded by ornate wrought iron balustrades. This is what New Orleans is most famous for. Here you will see people playing jazz, find plenty of restaurants and coffee houses and even be able to squeeze in a little shopping.
While in the area, pop into the St. Louis Cathedral, situated on Jackson Square. This is the tallest building in the French Quarter and don’t worry if it seems a little familiar. It has featured in hundreds of movies. It is the oldest serving Roman Catholic Church in America and the stained glass windows and rococo style altar are worth seeing even if you are not religious.
The Moonwalk pedestrian walkway follows the Mississippi River with the river on one side and Woldenberg Park on the other. This pleasant stroll will allow you to see the riverboats that have plied their trade on the waters for centuries, as well as the quirky statues that dot the park.
De Soto National Forest
From Montgomery, you can cruise down to the most important protected area of biodiversity of the Gulf Coast of North America. It will take three and a half hours to reach De Soto National Forest which covers 518,587 acres and makes an ideal place to destress.
Head for the Cyprus Creek Landing Recreation Area There you will have picturesque views of Black Creek and plenty of peace and quiet. This is an ideal place to just chill out for the night and try out a completely different pace of life.
From this site, you can engage in hiking, horseback riding, or just swimming in the local swimming hole. Some of the forest is made up of unique wet pine savannah where you might be lucky enough to see some of the many carnivorous plants or its gopher frogs and turtles.
Montgomery
Montgomery is just 160 miles from Atlanta but there is plenty to see and do there, so why not pick up the van early and hit the road to get the most out of your journey? Although it is the capital of Alabama, this city is more famous for being the birthplace of the civil rights movement. It is also surrounded by an abundance of RV sites for you to choose from.
There are many memorials that might draw your attention but to really get a feel for how important the civil rights movement was you should start off at the Civil Rights Memorial Center. Here you will see displays and visual media that will break down that historic period that changed so many people’s lives in America and really helped define the country.
After that, why not spend a few hours cruising one of the city’s wonderful museums. The Museum of Fine Arts features several permanent exhibits showing off paintings and sculptures that are truly representative of the Deep South. For a bit more of a jolt to the system, the Legacy Museum is all about the slave trade and the atrocities associated with it.
Summary
From New Orleans, the final leg to your destination of Baton Rouge is going to take just over an hour. Locals often refer to this city as the Red Stick and there is plenty to see and do here so hopefully, you still have a little time left in your schedule.
As it is the capital of Louisiana it will come as no surprise that one of the attractions is the State Capitol Building. If capitol buildings are your thing, you are spoiled for choice. There is a second one here that is also worth a visit and that is the old State Capital Building.
The Rural Life Museum is a good place to start if you want to better understand some of the three hundred years of history behind this city. There is also a wealth of restaurants to choose from if you want to delve deeper into that famous southern cuisine.
