The southern route to Los Angeles goes from cowboys to desert and one very large canyon.
In the new film Due Date, Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifianakis, as an expectant father and aspiring actor, race west from Atlanta across the south to LA. It is a great route, and even better if you take it slow. Here are some of our favourite things to do at their main stops along the way.
Related article: Music pilgrimage through the South
Atlanta
Rise early, grab some bagels at Highland Bakery in Atlanta’s Old Fourth, and head out of town for the best breakfast spot in the South. Take Ponce De Leon Ave (Hwy 78) 15 miles east to the world’s biggest chunk of expose granite, aka Stone Mountain Park. The centrepiece of a 3,200-acre park is the Confederate Memorial, a relief of Robert E Lee and the gang that dwarfs Mt Rushmore. The park starts filling up after 10 am, so it pays to get there by 9 am. Take the (free) trail 1 and 1/2 miles up the mountain and have a breakfast looking out over the Atlanta skyline.
Dallas
Dallas? Hmm. Let’s skip Dallas. Fort Worth, its drawling neighbour to the west, is far more fun. Particularly if you spring for the corner “Bonnie & Clyde” suite at the super Stockyards Hotel in the fun Historic Stockyards district. There are bullet holes in the wood shutters (not as cheesy as it sounds) and one of the duo’s guns encased on the wall. Outside you can get boots and barbecue, then see longhorns parade down Exchange Avenue, and finish a night aside 6,000 two-steppers at the legendary honky-tonk Billy Bob’s Texas. Drink what you want – they are all walking distance from each other.
New Mexico
The boys head south from Santa Fe and Albuquerque to Las Cruces – good idea, particularly if you stop for the world’s greatest green-chili burger at the Owl Bar & Café, 90 miles south of Albuquerque in San Antonio. Beef comes pancake flat, piled with cheese, pickles, tomato and that green chili. It is very, very good.
Grand Canyon
It is a detour, but if you make the five-hour sweeping loop from the canyon’s famed south rim – where Chevy Chase makes that famous gaze-nod-and-go stop in Vacation – to the north rim, you will have much more room to yourself and the just-as-gorgeous flipside view from what you see in all the photos. You can climb down a steep, 4.7 miles to the Colorado River at Roaring Springs, or opt for shorter day hikes. Some cabins at the Grand Canyon Lodge have unreal views, but you will need to book way ahead.
Los Angeles
If you have made it this far by road, it is hard to take anything seriously. And why should you? Los Angeles’ loony side is what makes it so great. Eat stir-fried Taiwanese crickets at Typhoon at the Santa Monica airport, scope out body-bag fashions at the macabre Skeletons in the Closet above a morgue in East LA, cheer on roller derby at the LA Derby Dolls, and save a few hours for the hilarious, deadpan spoof of museums at the compact Museum of Jurassic Technology, one of the most baffling attractions in the country.
The article ‘Atlanta to LA road trip: Following the Due Date movie route’ was published in partnership with Lonely Planet.
One Reply to “Atlanta to LA road trip: Following the Due Date movie route”