Wife and I want to do a little 3-4 day road trip from houston. Any recommendations? <8hr drive one way. I was thinking of staying at a lodge in arkansas or something.
If you wanna drive a bit more than 8 hours, try Tree House Cottages in the Ozarks. I loved it. Very quite, loved the small town and nothing beats floating down river fishing for Trout in the White River. If my wife wasn't such a city girl I'd retire in the Ozarks.
Enchanted Rock is pretty fun. Nice drive to get there through the Hill Country too. SE Oklahoma has some cool mountain ranges also.
I have driven from Houston/Austin on road trips many a time. If you are trying to stay under 8 hours, or even under 10 hours, the only thing you'll find going anywhere North to West is probably Big Bend. 10 hours north is Oklahoma. 10 hours Northwest is Abilene-ish. 10 hours pure West is close to Big Bend. That being said, and expanding your driving to 10 hours (because if it is just 2 adults, that's more than doable...), your options are: Big Bend Somewhere in the Ozarks, Hot Springs type area As far as Tallahassee, FL along the gulf If you were willing to really put in a long single day of driving, you could make Santa Fe, NM.
Or willing to break up one of the drives in two days. We made this trip in July and it was amazing. We stopped at Lubbock the first night after 8 hours on the road and then it was just another easy 5-ish hours to Santa Fe. Plus you gain an hour on the way there!
Best time to travel around Arkansas is during the Fall, probably. Eureka Springs is a pretty "un-Arkansas" place for Arkansas. Those of you recommending Santa Fe, what did you guys do when you got there? I've thought about driving out there since it seems when I take road trips, I end up driving north/east (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky). Part of the reason is that I keep thinking driving west to New Mexico from Dallas has probably got to be the most boring drive ever (although I've never done it).
YUP, YUP, YUP. The foleeyage is beeyutiful in the fall. So many clean campgrounds and with cabins, if you prefer, in Arkansas. http://www.garvangardens.org is a magical place for a date and probably even better this time of year with xmas around the corner.