The Ultimate Guide to a Cross Country Road Trip (Route 40: VA to AZ)
Welcome to my ultimate guide to a cross country road trip! Depending on where you start, driving across the country can take anywhere from 30-40+ plus hours of driving time. This guide walks through the best stops along route 40. The drive starts where I grew up in Smith Mountain Lake, VA (closest city is Roanoke, VA). The drive ends in Scottsdale, Arizona. I have done this drive in both directions (my mom and I drove it for my move to AZ and we also did it in reverse when I moved to DC (and brought my grandma along!). I recommend bringing at least one person along to alternate driving. If you would like to do this drive and have additional questions, please feel free to reach out!
Drive time: 32 hours
Total trip length: 4 days, 3 nights
Day 1: Roanoke, VA to Nashville, TN
Drive time: 7 hours
I recommend starting each day early to give yourself some time to explore your arrival city and get settled. If you start this day early, you can arrive with the entire afternoon to explore. This drive starts on I-81 South and through the rolling Blue Ridge Mountains. Once in TN, it takes you to I-40 West right before Knoxville, TN. Knoxville is an awesome growing city and a great half way point! I recommend checking out Market Square to stretch your legs and grab lunch.
The drive continues through mountains all the way to Nashville. Once there, I recommend staying downtown. I stayed on Broadway at the Holiday Inn and had a great nights sleep. This way you can also walk to go explore the awesome stores and bars with live music, like Tootsies! The day we were here, it just so happened to be the CMA Music Festival with lots of live music all over, even in the streets!
Day 2: Nashville, TN to Oklahoma City, OK
Drive time: 10 hours
This is the longest driving day and definitely worth getting an early start. About 3 hours in, you’ll arrive in Memphis. This is a great pit stop to explore Beale Street, listen to some Blues, and grab lunch.
As you exit Memphis into Arkansas, you’ll cross over the Mississippi River. The drive will start getting flatter as you get closer to Oklahoma. Once we arrived in Oklahoma city, we were tired from the long drive so we didn’t explore too much. I have heard great things about downtown Oklahoma City though!
Day 3: Oklahoma City, OK to Santa Fe, NM
Drive time: 8 hours
Feeling rested after a good nights sleep, we headed out to Santa Fe. One of the key stops today is Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX, which is a big piece of art where a line of Cadillac cars are standing up out of the ground and have been spray painted over the years. After that, we continued on to New Mexico. It was so cool to see the landscape turning into the southwest desert – almost Mars-like.
I highly recommend staying in Santa Fe. It only adds about an hour to detour from Albuquerque and is so worth it. Santa Fe’s Pueblo style buildings. We stayed at Hotel Loretto, which is walking distance to the heart of town and one block from the Santa Fe Plaza.
Day 4: Santa Fe, NM to Scottsdale, AZ
Drive time: 7 hours
Early in the drive you’ll go through Albuquerque, NM before going into Arizona. Once in Arizona, I recommend making a few different stops (click here for a google maps link of each).
- The petrified forest to at least see the welcome center (if you have more time, you could do the entire drive through the park.)
- Winslow, Arizona which is a small town, but SO worth the stop to see the iconic corner that The Eagles song features “…standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona such a fine sight to see…”. My mom and I of course had to play this song and make a few drive bys.
- Meteor Crater National Landmark is another great stop. It costs a little to visit, but really something worth seeing!
- Sedona…if you are moving to the Phoenix area, you will soon discover that Sedona is a beautiful place you’ll want to visit frequently. The red rock town has many great lunch spots and was so great that we ended up spontaneously spending the night here before driving down to Scottsdale the next morning.
I hope this itinerary brings you joy and a sense of adventure for your next roadtrip! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out on my Contact page!
What a wonderful job Amanda