Moving from D.C. to Denver-trip advice (hotels, construction)

[ayag5768]

Hello, I am moving out west to Denver, CO early September from the Washington D.C. metro area. I wanted to get some feedback on which routes to take that will make for some good stops on the way. We are thinking of making it ~4-5 day trip.

St. Louis seems to stand out as a good place to stay, I am looking for advice on any other cool cities to visit on the journey. Any opinions are welcome. I'll be moving with my girlfriend, both of us are 25, but not necessarily only looking for late night fun scenes. Detours are an option as well, but we wouldn't want to stray too far off-route (we are considering going to Nashville).

Thanks for all the feedback and help, we are beginners in traveling about the country.

[davebarnes]

This will help with St Louis

National Lampoons Vacation - The Hood - YouTube

[Katarina Witt]

Not a lot between DC and St. Louis on I-70, which I presume you are taking. You could try Columbus the first night. I dunno, anywhere in KS you could get a room would work the night after St. Louis and then you'd be in Denver the next night.

[unbeliever]

I just moved from the DC area to Colorado. I drove it twice, once alone and once with my family. Depending on the route, there's a bit of pretty scenery in WV and KY, followed by lots of hot monotony in IN, IL, MO and KS. St. Louis has a really nice downtown, and if you're a foodie, you have to stop in St. Louis and KC for BBQ. Kansas is an endless wasteland full of construction slow downs, but you can make a detour to see the world's largest prairie dog and pet the baby pig!

[cory81]

I moved from Gaithersburg almost 7 years ago, but took I-70 the whole way. Let's just say the first half of the trip was prettier than the second (I'm looking at you, Kansas).

[spacadet]

We stayed in McPherson, KS when we were moving to CO and liked it. Cute little town, good mexican food (can't remember the name of the place, but it was better than some big city chain mexican restaurants). The motel was the Wheat State motel, but there are regular chain motel/hotels there too. We wanted to park right next to our door since we had valuables in the car, which is why we chose a local independent motel. The bed wasn't great, but it met our security requirements.
We were driving from the south through Wichita, but it's not terribly far off of I-70.
We purposely avoided St. Louis because it was flooding at that time. I recommend checking road conditions for your entire route, but there haven't been any big Midwest floods this summer that I know of...

[Mike from back east]

We drove from the DC area via I-70; staying in Indianapolis on day one, Topeka on day two and arriving in COLO SPRS on day three.

It's about 1700 miles, we did @550 miles each of the first two days and 600 miles on day 3, as driving across Kansas is fast, easy and uncrowded. Salina, KS is good place to tank up, eat and hit starbucks.

[davidv]

I guess it depends on the type of trip you want to take. If you want to get out here quickly, then Mike's three-day itinerary works great.

If you want to linger, and see some of the sights, then there are some options.

Take I-80 and see Canton/Pro Football HOF and Cleveland Rock and Roll HOF (stop for night). Stop in Chicago (great city) or head to Milwaukee. Head out to Spirit Lake/Okoboji, Iowa (nice lake resort area), then either make a long drive to Denver on last day or stay in small town Nebraska for a night.