Driving from Ontario, Canada... Where to stay overnight

[Emteach]

Hi there,
We are headed to Orlando in July and are seriously considering driving and are looking on where is a good (and inexpensive) place to stay overnight. We are located just west of Toronto and would probably leave early morning and drive until 9pm (with of course gas, washroom and brief food breaks). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lisa Anne Colling]

Which route are you taking?
We have left at 5 in the am and have made it to Georgia around 9, which left little driving the next day. That also puts us at Moorsville, NC (above CHarlotte) for an early dinner where we get to meet up with friends living in the area! We travel with 3 kids and have it down to a science. My DH and I take turns driving, we eat breakfast and lunch on the road and only stop for pee breaks and gas. We haven't driven 75 in years so I can't help you with that route. Just across the Georgia border there is an area with lots of hotels of the usual chains. Prices are reasonable. I can't remember the name of the area, but it was well marked along the highway, showing hotels, food and gas. Maybe someone on here is familiar with the area. We live just north of Burlington. Good Luck!

 

[Emteach]

Which route are you taking?
We have left at 5 in the am and have made it to Georgia around 9, which left little driving the next day. That also puts us at Moorsville, NC (above CHarlotte) for an early dinner where we get to meet up with friends living in the area! We travel with 3 kids and have it down to a science. My DH and I take turns driving, we eat breakfast and lunch on the road and only stop for pee breaks and gas. We haven't driven 75 in years so I can't help you with that route. Just across the Georgia border there is an area with lots of hotels of the usual chains. Prices are reasonable. I can't remember the name of the area, but it was well marked along the highway, showing hotels, food and gas. Maybe someone on here is familiar with the area. We live just north of Burlington. Good Luck!

Thank you for the tips. We will most likely be taking I95 (crossing the border in Niagara). That is a good idea leaving a bit earlier in the morning that way your day 2 isnt as long. Our hope is to drive as much as we can also (just taking small pit stops). It will be my mum and I sharing driving.

 

[myasmum]

We drove down few years ago we didn't want to book incase we were
Behind or ahead of schedule. We found motel 6 decent prices and this way we stopped when we felt like it as driving with 3 kids back then was hard to plan

 

[Emteach]

We drove down few years ago we didn't want to book incase we were
Behind or ahead of schedule. We found motel 6 decent prices and this way we stopped when we felt like it as driving with 3 kids back then was hard to plan

That is a good point, hadnt really thought of that.

 

[stayhomemom77]

We've driven down from Windsor twice (so I-75) so I can't really help with hotels since the routes are different but I wanted to comment that we always prebooked our hotels despite the chance that weather, traffic, border crossing or other unexpected delays could affect our arrival time. We book through expedia which guarantees late arrival and we've never been so early that we've thought..."hey! Let's push on a bit further."

I can tell you that we like the chain Jameson Inn. They have them in both North and South Carolina and Georgia too. We've always enjoyed our stays there. On our first trip we stayed in the one in Dalton, GA and got it for pretty cheap through priceline.

HTH! Good luck!

 

[Emteach]

We've driven down from Windsor twice (so I-75) so I can't really help with hotels since the routes are different but I wanted to comment that we always prebooked our hotels despite the chance that weather, traffic, border crossing or other unexpected delays could affect our arrival time. We book through expedia which guarantees late arrival and we've never been so early that we've thought..."hey! Let's push on a bit further."

I can tell you that we like the chain Jameson Inn. They have them in both North and South Carolina and Georgia too. We've always enjoyed our stays there. On our first trip we stayed in the one in Dalton, GA and got it for pretty cheap through priceline.

HTH! Good luck!

Thank you for the response. I can imagine that booking beforehand could get you a better deal.

 

[stayhomemom77]

Yes, it can. And we like to ensure that the place we stay has a free breakfast. Motel 6 generally doesn't but they ARE relatively inexpensive if an included breakfast isn't really important to you.

I've read your dining report and I was wondering...what does the Queen of Chicken Nuggets eat for breakfast??

 

[Emteach]

Yes, it can. And we like to ensure that the place we stay has a free breakfast. Motel 6 generally doesn't but they ARE relatively inexpensive if an included breakfast isn't really important to you.

I've read your dining report and I was wondering...what does the Queen of Chicken Nuggets eat for breakfast??

Thanks for taking a peek at the Dining Review. For breakfast she will have dry cereal, on a good day pancakes, toast... I think Chef Mickeys is where she actually ate the most lol.

 

[KarmaLady]

We're about an hour west of Hamilton. On the way we drove through buffalo and stopped at rockhill, NC (left at 2am and stopped at 6pm). On the way back, we drove through Detroit and stopped at Lodon (can't remember the state). Both times we stopped at country suites and the Lodon one was amazing!! Free hot breakfasts at both.

 

[Oakville]

We had the same question. So what we decided to do is to book the hotels but we made sure it would be easy\free to cancel our bookings. Now we can cancel them before 6 PM on the day of arrival for free.

So if we would get stuck in traffic or bad weather, we it would not cost us anything to cancel and then we can still take advantage of early discounts. We also like the fact that we now have a goal to reach every day and we don't have to worry about getting a hotel room after a long drive (especially since we are a family of 5)

 

[Emteach]

Thanks for the tips to both of you... this is all appreciated!

 

[MickeyCanada715]

I live in Windsor, Ontario and when we drive down I like to get somewhere on the other side of Atlanta on the first day, preferably to Valdosta, if we're choosing not to drive all the way. That way the second day isn't nearly as bad.

 

[myzel]

Hi there,
We are headed to Orlando in July and are seriously considering driving and are looking on where is a good (and inexpensive) place to stay overnight. We are located just west of Toronto and would probably leave early morning and drive until 9pm (with of course gas, washroom and brief food breaks). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

It is about 1300 miles from Mississauga, if you are leaving early in the AM and willing to drive 'till 9pm you should be able to make it almost to Savannah Ga. My preferred route, been driving it for years, is I90 west from Buffalo to I79 South to hwy 19 in West Virginia, to I77 down to Columbia SC to I26 east to I95 south.

 

[rjan67]

We are deciding if we want to leave after work on the Thurs or just leave really early on Friday. I'm partial to that since I'm an early morning driver. We don't book anywhere til dinner time that day. I expect we will be in southern Georgia somewhere!

 

[DisneyDaddy-O]

We're about an hour west of Hamilton. On the way we drove through buffalo and stopped at rockhill, NC (left at 2am and stopped at 6pm). On the way back, we drove through Detroit and stopped at Lodon (can't remember the state). Both times we stopped at country suites and the Lodon one was amazing!! Free hot breakfasts at both.

We basically did the same thing. We stayed in Rock Hill as well but stayed in the Hampton Inn, comfy beds and a free hot breakfast in the morning. if you stop at the welcome centres grab all the coupon books, we found some great deals that way and you don't have to book ahead.

 

[iluveeyore]

We basically did the same thing. We stayed in Rock Hill as well but stayed in the Hampton Inn, comfy beds and a free hot breakfast in the morning. if you stop at the welcome centres grab all the coupon books, we found some great deals that way and you don't have to book ahead.

I was just going to suggest the same thing - stop at the Welcome Center/rest stop of whatever state you cross into and plan to spend the night in, and grab a coupon book - all the hotels are easy on/off the interstate - we take the I90/77/79/19/26/95 route (hope that's the right order), gets us there from Buffalo border in about 19-20 hours - we usually stop on the other side of Charlotte, NC or as far as we can get in the first day, make second day shorter and more bearable.

 

[Ken_Breadbox]

I'm going to put a second rec in for Jameson Inn.
Maybe we're easy to please, but this chain really impressed us. Delicious breakfast, EXTREMELY comfortable Dreamium beds that were almost the equal of the Sleep Number we have at home, and a no-questions-asked money back guarantee if anything is wrong.
Another chain I heartily recommend is Drury Inns. Here it's all about the perks. Free light suppers, free breakfast (extensive), free pop, free alcohol (yes, you read that right: three free drinks), free long distance (15 mins) to Canada--our only issue with Drury has been the beds, which are not the most comfortable, but we freely admit we're picky sleepers...

 

[dancin Disney style]

Here's what we do...
DH goes to sleep by 9pm so that when we get up around 2am he's had a solid 5hrs of sleep.
I stay up while he sleeps and finish getting ready.
We are on the road by 2:30am(I sleep after we cross the border) and drive until approx 9pm.
We pack all our meals in a cooler and will only stop for gas and washroom breaks.
When we stop around 9pm we are in the Savannah, GA area which then leaves only about 3.5 hrs driving the next morning.
This allows us to sleep in as late as we want, usually about 8:30-9am and then have breakfast and finish the drive. We generally arrive at our WDW resort around lunch time.

I really hate car trips so this is the only way I can deal with it.....DH loves doing road trips and does the bulk of the driving.

ETA: We live in Oakville so it's approx 21 driving hours.

 

[cey]

We left today at 1200 pm today (a day earlier due to ice storm Luna) and arrived in Wilkes-Barre at a nice Econo lodge off of I 81 exit 165 around 6 pm. Tomorrow we will leave around 8 am and over-night in Smithfield NC. There are several nice hotels near the Carolina outlet mall, and it is a great place to stop. That leaves us a nice doable 6hr plus drive to Saint Augustine. We will probably stay an extra night here before we check into our villa on Wednesday. Right now the weather forcast for Monday in the northeast is not looking too good! If you can't leave early, safe driving everybody!