This itinerary is ambitious. It is a point-to-point trip that covers 1,200 miles in the Midwest from St Louis, MO to Hot Springs, AK. Be prepared to pay a substantial fee for returning your rental car to a different airport from the one you picked it up from. If you want to avoid that, you’d have to drive back to St Louis from Hot Springs, AK, at the end of the trip (a 6-hr drive). But in return, you get to hit 4 national parks in a week. I completed almost exactly this itinerary, but on two separate occasions. I had work trips to Champaign, IL about 6 months apart. I visited the first two parks during the first trip and the other 2 during the second.
Itinerary
I’ve linked up the individual blog posts for each day in the itinerary below. I’ve also added links to the hotels we used. We were happy with all, just a word of caution about the Hampton Inn in downtown Louisville. I chose downtown because I knew we had a lot of driving to do, and I figured a walkable location would give us a chance to walk to dinner rather than take the car again. However, the location is busy and road noise can be an issue. There are also several hospitals in walking distance and we heard at least one ambulance in the middle of the night.
I don’t have specific recommendations hotel recommendations for Indiana Dunes, since I day-tripped there on my way to Champaign, IL from Chicago.
| Day | Activity | Overnight |
| 1 | arrive in St Louis | Clayton, MO – Hampton Inn |
| 2 | Gateway Arch National Park | Clayton, MO – Hampton Inn |
| 3 | drive to Indiana Dunes National Park (4.5 hrs) | Portage, Chesterton or Michigan City |
| 4 | Indiana Dunes National Park | Portage, Chesterton or Michigan City |
| 5 | drive to Louisville, KY (4 hrs) | Louisville – Hampton Inn downtown |
| 6 | drive to Mammoth Cave National Park (1.5 hrs but you gain 1 hr due to going from Eastern to Central time zone), drive to Memphis (4.5 hrs) | Memphis, TN – Best Western Plus Gen X Inn |
| 7 | drive to Hot Springs National Park (3 hrs) | Hot Springs, AK – Arlington Hotel Resort & Spa |
| 8 | Hot Springs National Park | Hot Springs, AK – Arlington Hotel Resort & Spa |
| 9 | fly home from Little Rock, AK (1 hr drive) could fly out of St Louis, MO (6 hr drive) |
Itinerary Notes
Gateway Arch, Indiana Dunes and Mammoth Cave can all be done in a day. Advance reservations are essential for the tram at Gateway Arch and the Mammoth Cave tour.
While in St Louis for the Gateway Arch, don’t miss getting a root beer float at Fitz’s and waking around the Delmar Loop neighborhood.
Day 6 (Mammoth Cave) will be a long day of driving – 1.5 hours from Louisville to Mammoth Cave, then another 4.5 hours to Memphis. We stopped for dinner in Nashville and enjoyed our meal at the Hampton Social. Also note that Louisville and Mammoth Cave are in different time zones. Louisville is on Central time while Mammoth Cave is on Eastern Time. Therefore, when driving from Louisville to Mammoth, you gain an hour. This allowed us to book a fairly early tour at Mammoth (before 10 am) without having to leave Louisville too early.
Hot Springs National Park can really be done in an afternoon, especially if you skip the Clinton Presidential Library as you drive in from Memphis. You can either cut the trip short (1 night in Hot Springs instead of 2) or spend the extra time driving back to St Louis to avoid that rental car charge.
