The #FabFam loves a good road trip. Since I had never been to Washington, DC, we decided to take the kids on a road trip there from our home in Central Texas over the New Year’s break. This awesome road trip took us through 16 states plus the District of Columbia over a nine-day round-trip from Austin, TX to Washington, DC. Today I’m sharing all the details, including our detailed road trip itinerary, activities and roadside attractions, and our recommendations for where to stay and what to eat during a road trip from Texas to Washington, DC with kids. Our kids are road trip pros at this point, but if this is your family’s first road trip, or if you are looking for tips on a successful road trip with kids, check out my post on how to survive (and actually enjoy) a road trip with young children. It’s full of advice and activity ideas, including links to free road trip game printables!
Many of the stops and fun roadside attractions in our itinerary were found through my go-to website for things like this: Roadside America. We love finding quirky and cool roadside attractions on our road trips, and this website has everything from historically significant sites to oddities like the world’s largest chili pepper (which we have seen, in case you’re wondering). You’ll also notice we drove through several college campuses since my husband and I love seeing different universities.
For hotels, with the exception of our time in Washington, DC where we stayed at The St. Gregory Hotel, all the hotels we stayed in during the road trip from Texas to Washington, DC were Hampton Inn by Hilton. Hampton Inns have long been our favorite road trip hotel. The free breakfast is always exceptional, and they have a standard of comfort, cleanliness, and customer service that we can always count on (plus they often have a pool, which is great for the kids to blow off some steam after a long day in the car). I’ve included information on all the hotels we stayed in during this trip in the itinerary below, along with our recommendations for where to eat and what to do during a road trip from Texas to Washington, DC. You’ll want to pin this post to your travel planning boards should you find yourself going through any of these places!
Washington DC Road Trip Itinerary – DAY 1
Start: Austin, TX
End: Jackson, MS
Total Drive Time: 8 hours
States Visited: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi
- Roadside Attraction: Shreveport, Louisiana: 14-Story Mural, Largest in the USA
- From Roadside America: Titled “Once in a Millennium Moon,” the visually busy mural covers 30,000 square feet and took two years to paint.
- Address: Cotton St., Shreveport, LA
- Roadside Attractions: Gibsland, Louisiana: Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum & Death Site
- Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum
- Address: 2419 Main St., Gibsland, LA
- Admission: Adults $7
- Bonnie and Clyde Death Site
- From Roadside America: Where America’s favorite outlaw lovebirds were riddled with dozens of bullets by hidden lawmen. A new, more vandal-proof marker was added in 2014 that shifts emphasis to the posse over the lawbreakers.
- Address: Hwy 154, Gibsland, LA
- Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum
- Check-into hotel: Hampton Inn & Suites Jackson Downtown-Coliseum
- Address: 320 Greymont Avenue, Jackson, MS 39202
Washington DC Road Trip Itinerary – DAY 2
Start: Jackson, MS
End: Atlanta, GA
Total Drive Time: 5.5 hours
States Visited: Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia
- Roadside Attraction: Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Drive through University of Alabama campus
- Address: Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
- Lunch: Rama Jama’s
- Address: 1000 Paul W Bryant Dr, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401
- Explore Atlanta (see several of our recommendations for what to do with kids during one day in Atlanta in this road trip blog post)
- Check-into hotel: Hampton Inn Alpharetta/Roswell
- Address: 10740 Westside Way, Alpharetta, GA 30009
Washington DC Road Trip Itinerary – DAY 3
Start: Atlanta, GA
End: Raleigh, NC
Total Drive Time: 6 hours
States Visited: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina
- Lunch: Nellie’s Southern Kitchen (in Belmont, NC; not far from Charlotte)
- Address: 36 N Main St, Belmont, NC 28012
- Explore Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill:
- Visit University of North Carolina, Duke University, and North Carolina State University.
- Fans of the movie “Bull Durham” can also see the Durham Bulls stadium (409 Blackwell St, Durham, NC 27701) or catch a game.
- Here’s a great list of things to do in Raleigh, NC (including museums).
- Explore Cary: We learned that the Epic Games headquarters is in Cary (620 Crossroads Blvd, Cary, NC 27518), and since my boys are currently obsessed with Fortnite, we did a drive-by. Unfortunately, no visitor tours are offered, but they do have large statues of the Cuddle Team Leader and the Battle Bus that you can somewhat see from the outside.
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- Address: 201 Ashville Avenue, Cary, NC 27518Check-into hotel: Hampton Inn Raleigh/Cary
Washington DC Road Trip Itinerary – DAY 4
Start: Raleigh, NC
End: Washington, DC
Total Drive Time: 4 hours
States Visited: North Carolina, Virginia
- Visit George Washington’s Mount Vernon
- Address: 3200 Mount Vernon Hwy, Mt Vernon, VA 22121
- Check-into hotel: The St. Gregory Hotel
- Address: 2033 M ST NW, Washington DC, DC 20036
- Begin sight-seeing in Washington, DC (see complete details, tips, reviews, and recommendations from our time in Washington, DC in this post) – list to be split up among several days:
- Smithsonian Museums
- Ford’s Theatre
- Washington Monument
- Lincoln Memorial
- WWII Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial
- White House
- United States Capitol Tour
- Library of Congress
- National Archives
Washington DC Road Trip Itinerary – DAY 5
Start: Washington, DC
End: Washington, DC
- Continue sight-seeing in Washington, DC (see complete details, tips, reviews, and recommendations from our time in Washington, DC in this post) – list to be split up among several days:
- Smithsonian Museums
- Ford’s Theatre
- Washington Monument
- Lincoln Memorial
- WWII Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial
- White House
- United States Capitol Tour
- Library of Congress
- National Archives
Washington DC Road Trip Itinerary – DAY 6
Start: Washington, DC
End: Bridgeport, WV
Total Drive Time: 4 hours
States Visited: Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
- Continue sight-seeing in Washington, DC (see complete details, tips, reviews, and recommendations from our time in Washington, DC in this post) – list to be split up among several days:
- Smithsonian Museums
- Ford’s Theatre
- Washington Monument
- Lincoln Memorial
- WWII Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial
- White House
- United States Capitol Tour
- Library of Congress
- National Archives
- Depart for West Virginia
- Side-trip to Warfordsburg, PA (to add another state to our list for this trip)
- Roadside attraction: Frostburg, Maryland: America’s Oldest Road Sign
- From Roadside America: Known as Braddock’s Rock, the one-ton stone was engraved with distances and directions in the mid-1700s by the British.
- Address: 50 E. Main St., Frostburg, MD
- Check-into hotel: Hampton Inn Bridgeport/Clarksburg
- Address: 1515 Johnson Ave., Bridgeport, WV 26330
Washington DC Road Trip Itinerary – DAY 7
Start: Bridgeport, WV
End: Elizabethtown, KY
Total Drive Time: 6.5 hours
States Visited: West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky
- Roadside attractions: Flatwoods, West Virginia: Flatwoods Monster
- From Roadside America: At dusk on September 12, 1952, a 32-year-old beautician, a 17-year-old National Guardsman, and five younger boys climbed a hill to see a “flying saucer” that had landed. Instead they saw something horrifying. Standing roughly 10 feet tall, surrounded by a strange mist and stench, was a “monster” with a round, red face; eyes like searchlights; and a green body or suit with a cowl-like shape over its head. The Monster was seen for only a few seconds, by seven people, and has never been seen again.
- Flatwoods Monster Sign
- Address: Gauley Tpke, Flatwoods, WV
- Flatwoods Monster Chairs (five 10 foot-tall wooden Monster Chairs, each uniquely painted and placed at key points in Flatwoods and neighboring communities; see a map and information on the chairs here):
- Modern Monster Chair
- Address: Flatwoods Municipal Bldg, 5 Doctors Lane, Flatwoods, WV
- Scary Monster Chair
- Address: Days Inn, 350 Days Drive, Sutton, WV
- Sporty Monster Chair
- Address: Holly Gray Park, 401 Co Rte 15/9, Sutton, WV
- Classic Monster Chair
- Address: Cafe Cimino County Inn, 616 Main St., Sutton, WV
- Lamp-Inspired Monster Chair – currently missing from its spot!
- Address: Dairy Queen, 99 N. Elk St., Gassaway, WV
- Modern Monster Chair
- Roadside attraction: Drive through Marshall University campus
- Address: 1 John Marshall Dr, Huntington, WV 25755
- Side-trip into Ohio near Huntington, WV (to add another state to our list for this trip)
- Visit a distillery on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail (click here for a Kentucky Bourbon Trail distillery map)
- We visited Wild Turkey Distillery (1417 Versailles Rd, Lawrenceburg, KY 40342)
- Fans of the movie “Elizabethtown” can see some of the landmarks from the film (see details on the city’s website in this article).
- Check-into hotel: Hampton Inn Elizabethtown
- Address: 1035 Executive Drive, Elizabethtown, KY 42701
Washington DC Road Trip Itinerary – DAY 8
Start: Elizabethtown, KY
End: Little Rock, AR
Total Drive Time: 7.5 hours
States Visited: Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas
- Visit Maker’s Mark Distillery
- Address: 3350 Burks Spring Rd, Loretto, KY 40037
- Maker’s Mark Ambassadors (like my husband) receive complimentary tours at the distillery and have the chance to take home a bottle from their barrel (and dip the wax seal themselves) if their barrel has matured.
- Check-into hotel: Hampton Inn & Suites Little Rock-Downtown
- Address: 320 River Market Avenue, Little Rock, AR 72201
Washington DC Road Trip Itinerary – DAY 9
Start: Little Rock, AR
End: Austin, TX
Total Drive Time: 8 hours
States Visited: Arkansas, Texas
- Visit Crater of Diamonds State Park
- Address: 209 State Park Rd, Murfreesboro, AR 71958
- About: The park features a plowed field, the world’s only diamond-bearing site accessible to the public. The park’s policy is “finder’s keepers” for any stones discovered.
- Admission: $10 (adults) and $6 (children)
- Nearby historical point of interest: The Trail of Tears Heritage Trail passes through the same part of Arkansas as Crater of Diamonds State Park.
Good luck planning your own road trip from Texas to Washington DC! Interested in more family road trip itineraries? Check-out these posts:
- Big Sur Coastal Drive Stops
- Family Route 66 Road Trip
- Road Trip from Austin to New Orleans
- Family Road Trip from Texas to California
- Southern US Road Trip Driving Playlist
- Southern USA Family Road Trip Route and Recommendations
- Route and Recommendations for a Road Trip Through the U.S. Southwest
- Itinerary and Recommendations for a Family Road Trip from Texas to Washington, DC
- Route and recommendations for planning the ultimate Midwest baseball road trip
- Connecting with my family and personal history in the U.K. with Kia
- One-Day Road Trip Through Wales – Seeking Ancient Ruins, Dragons, and Castles
- The Ultimate UK Road Trip Itinerary – Driving Around England, Scotland, and Wales with the Family
- Family Road Trip Packing List
- Tips for having the best, low-stress family road trip (including lots of car activities for toddlers and young kids)
- DIY road trip activities folder for toddlers and young kids
- Super Easy DIY Hanging Organizer for Your Next Family Road Trip
vlanka says
thank you for all the great details .Was there any roads where you had to be very cautious like narrow roads or mountains . I am driving by myself and I want to make sure that I don’t encounter surprises 🙂
Ramona Cruz-Peters says
Hello! No, on this trip the route was all pretty easy. Depending on the time of year, you may encounter snow or ice in some parts, but that would just be usual seasonal things.