Advice on Driving from central Texas to Disney

[Hans Olo]

We will be driving from Kyle,TX (10 minutes South of Austin). This is our first trip ever and will definitely be the longest drive we've ever made with 4 kids ages 9,7,5 and 4.
We plan on taking our time and leaving on Saturday 6/6 late afternoon and stopping in Lafayette for the night then stopping again in Gainesville so we can head out to Disney Monday morning 6/8.
Does anybody have any hotel recommendations in either of these cities? We'll have to get 2 rooms since there's 7 of us traveling.
Also any other advice or suggestions for places to stop would be great!

Thanks!

 

[supersnoop]

Driving from Pflugerville, we stopped in Lafayette one night, but I really just picked out whichever Hilton-brand hotel had the lowest price. We just drove as far as we could and booked something when we got tired. We drove the rest of the way the next day, stopping in Mobile for lunch and Gainesville for dinner. The other time we drove, we stopped in Pensacola for the night. I'd much rather make it a two-day drive, especially if you have to pay for two hotel rooms each night. Three days of travel each way would really take a bite out of my vacation.

And, I should add, we drove the whole way back in one day. It was a long drive, but it's doable.

 

[Hans Olo]

We were originally planning on leaving around 4am on Sunday since DH works Saturday and stopping in Pensacola but decided to just leave as soon as he gets off work around 2pm. We really want to take our time and relax on the way down.
Plus we will only be driving 2 hours on arrival day so we won't be tired and will be able to hit the parks early

 

[dennis99ss]

we have done wdw to Houston in a day. like the above post, long, but doable.

Lafayette is only 6-6.75 hours from Austin. unless traffic hits you, which it shouldn't because of the day you are driving unless there is a problem. Baton rouge will only be about 8 hours from Austin. 5 hours from Houston. Baton Rouge has a wider selection of hotels, directly on I-10, than does Lafayette. Baton Rouge to Orlando is an easy drive "considering". Its maybe 10 hours or so, maybe less depending on the speed you can make.

And, gainsville will take you more than 2 hours to get to the parks, especially with Monday morning traffic. I would guess 3 or more.

if you come into Houston on 290, consider the beltwat (sam Houston tollway) to go east, to 10 east. (need toll tag) or, if you can take the 85mph tollway down to 10 from Austin, that may in fact be quicker.

in case you haven't driven it, Houston to Beaumont is one of the worst stretches, because of monotony. Louisiana is fine, but watch the speed on the bridges, and when coming through lake Charles.

take 12 out of baton rouge and skip nola.

wave at the USS ALABAMA as you come through mobile.

The longest stretch is Florida line to past Tallahassee where you pick up 75. The good thing is that that part of 10 is a speedway, as is 75. Bring a high quality radar detector.

if you stay in Lafayette, go to pizza village on moss street.

 

[Hans Olo]

we have done wdw to Houston in a day. like the above post, long, but doable.

Lafayette is only 6-6.75 hours from Austin. unless traffic hits you, which it shouldn't because of the day you are driving unless there is a problem. Baton rouge will only be about 8 hours from Austin. 5 hours from Houston. Baton Rouge has a wider selection of hotels, directly on I-10, than does Lafayette. Baton Rouge to Orlando is an easy drive "considering". Its maybe 10 hours or so, maybe less depending on the speed you can make.

And, gainsville will take you more than 2 hours to get to the parks, especially with Monday morning traffic. I would guess 3 or more.

if you come into Houston on 290, consider the beltwat (sam Houston tollway) to go east, to 10 east. (need toll tag) or, if you can take the 85mph tollway down to 10 from Austin, that may in fact be quicker.

in case you haven't driven it, Houston to Beaumont is one of the worst stretches, because of monotony. Louisiana is fine, but watch the speed on the bridges, and when coming through lake Charles.

take 12 out of baton rouge and skip nola.

wave at the USS ALABAMA as you come through mobile.

The longest stretch is Florida line to past Tallahassee where you pick up 75. The good thing is that that part of 10 is a speedway, as is 75. Bring a high quality radar detector.

if you stay in Lafayette, go to pizza village on moss street.

Wow! Thanks for all this! I honestly didn't even think about the Monday morning traffic to Disney World...even if we leave late at 9 or 10am we could get there at 1pm which leaves us plenty of time to hit up the parks. We have to wait for our camper rental anyway The furthes we have driven with the kids is down to Port Aransas and the whole time they're asking of we're there yet They will for sure drive us crazy going to Florida! I'm making them busy bags, bringing snacks and will have plenty of movies to watch in the car.
Only 33 days to go!! I'm so excited!!

 

[madelyn]

We live in Round Rock and have driven to Disney World twice. But both times we have spent the night in Sugar Land (Houston area) with my in-laws the first night so shortened the drive time by about 3 hours. The first trip over 12 years ago, we planned to spend the night in Pensacola. On the way back, hubby decided that he felt up to driving a bit further, so we called and canceled or room reservation and ended up overnight in I think the Gulfport area of MS. Second drive was in June of 2012. This time we spent a couple of nights at Fort Walton Beach on the way. Love that beach area. On the way back we spent the night at South Beach Biloxi Hotel and Suites in Biloxi, MS. Awesome hotel, not so nice beach. We took it easy and drove no more than 8 hours a day. Ran into a bunch of traffic going through the tunnel in Mobile, Alabama so if you are driving on a weekday, try to time things to avoid rush hour when you hit the tunnel. It's a treat to stop for beignets at Coffee Call in Baton Rouge. Our kids are great car nappers but that first trip we took when we only had 2 kids and they were 4 and 1, they slept too much and we hit the hotel for the night, the adults were exhausted but the kids could not sleep since they slept so much in the car. In 2012 the kids were 14, 11 and 5 so we didn't feel like we had to stay up if they weren't asleep yet.