What park and how much will it be?

[kyl33]

Let me just say that I am not a theme park fanatic at all. I love them, but I am still quite unfamiliar with them since I used to be deathly afraid of roller coasters. I joined this site to ask a question.

I am 15 (quite young, I know). My friends and I are all sophomores in high school. We will probably be legally able to drive by ourselves by March of next year AKA spring break. We talked about taking a road trip in a pickup truck to the southern US. I was wondering what amusement park would be a good one to go to. The only one that I know of are the Texas Six Flags parks, but I'm not sure if I want to go to those parks. What would be a good park to go to (and possibly places that you could park a car overnight at so we don't have to buy a hotel)?

These plans are very rough and not finalized; I was mainly asking for a good park in the Southern USA. Thanks.

(bring on the witty responses)

[cmullin]

SFOG, Dollywood, and Carowinds are all in the south and could be good options for you.

[SharkTums]

You'll need to be a bit more specific with where you are as 'southern USA' is quite a large area.

[gisco]

Have you cleared this with your parents yet? I'm sure that they may have a say in a couple of kids that just got there licenses taking a truck and spending at least one night on the side of the road just to visit an amusement park.

 

Why would you want to head to Southern US when you have plenty of nice parks around Chicago and would be much easier to get to?

[kyl33]

Have you cleared this with your parents yet? I'm sure that they may have a say in a couple of kids that just got there licenses taking a truck and spending at least one night on the side of the road just to visit an amusement park.

 

Why would you want to head to Southern US when you have plenty of nice parks around Chicago and would be much easier to get to?

I haven't asked my parents yet. Once this has more of a polished plan I will bring it up to them. I don't know if I can do it this year either. This will be a lot of money that I don't have.

--

The Chicago climate is unfamiliar to many, and I understand that. During spring break, it only gets up to 50 degrees F usually. It's not freezing, but it's not that warm either.

Going to somewhere like Atlanta, where the average high is around 70 degrees F for March, is much more ideal.

[ernierocker]

I don't know of any theme park that is going to let you sleep overnight in their parking lot. This really doesn't sound like a realistic plan to tell you the truth. You are talking about driving several hours to the nearest park that will be open during Spring Break. What is the closest, Silver Dollar City? You can't exactly drive all night, go to the park all-day and then drive all night back to Chicago. Most hotels will require you to be 18 years old or older, so where would you sleep? At your age and without your parents going along with you, stick to parks that you can get to within 3-4 hours. That way you can do everything in one long day.

[cfc]

Yes, I think you should restrict your first trip to something you can do in a day--and spending the night in a parking lot is a seriously bad idea (probably both illegal and dangerous).

[rdngmikey]

Don't wait to talk to your parents, if they are open to the idea of you traveling on your own then you can tap into their experience for the trip. I know it may be something you want to do on your own, but without the experience of traveling, you have no idea of all the things that can go wrong. Take advantage of others experience when making travel plans.