Anyone drive from Maryland to WDW???

[edk35]

We are "probably" going to ADD A TRIP TO WDW with a couple of day thrown in at Universal to go with our Hilton Head Island days in July.

We always FLY. The last time we drove to WDW was back in Nov. 2002.


If you drive from this area of the world...DO YOU stop overnight?? We did back in 2002 and had like 4 or 5 hours the next day.


We are wanting to drive to save money since airfare is just not as cheap as it used to be. Plus it is easier to make changes if you have to if YOU ARE NOT FLYING.

Where do you stop usually if you do stop??? I am thinking we drive to WDW first and do our week there and then go to HHI on the way home.

Thanks for any advice/tips!!!

Thanks

 

[tiggertabi]

We did! We did an impromptu trip over President's DAy/Valentine's day after the big snowstorm in Feb. My school was cancelled for the week, so we packed our bags, got in the car and drove down. It took about 16 hours really (with 2 kids and stops). We drove most of the way to Georgia, the first day, then drove through Georgia and Florida the second day. It's an extremely easy drive, seriouly like get on 95 and head south.

If you don't mind driving, it's not hard at all!

 

[edk35]

We did! We did an impromptu trip over President's DAy/Valentine's day after the big snowstorm in Feb. My school was cancelled for the week, so we packed our bags, got in the car and drove down. It took about 16 hours really (with 2 kids and stops). We drove most of the way to Georgia, the first day, then drove through Georgia and Florida the second day. It's an extremely easy drive, seriouly like get on 95 and head south.

If you don't mind driving, it's not hard at all!

My friend kept saying that her family and mine should have done EXACTLY what you did. I bet you had so much fun doing a last minute trip like that. What time did you get to Disney the 2nd day?

 

[mommy2princesses0309]

We did 2 or 3 years in a row. I don't remember where we stopped but it was somewhere in Georgia, near Savannah, on the way out and around the same place on the way back. I don't mind driving out, it's nice to have our car and car seats but it does take 4 days away from our trip so I don't like that part.

 

[minnie1928]

We drove from York PA several times and drove straight through. Now we drive from Northern NJ and drive straight through (about 18 hrs). It's really not a bad drive, especially if you can share the driving at all. We always timed it to miss the Baltimore/DC/Richmond rush hour traffic. If you can time it right, driving through Richmond is faster than driving around. So we usually hit Richmond later at night maybe 10pm - 1am.

 

[sherreis]

We drove down 3 yrs ago and stopped overnight in the Savannah, GA area. The next morning we were arriving at CSR around Noon. It was great the second day and not having to be in a car for too long. I can't drive straight through anymore.

 

[disney1990]

We have driven from Maryland quite a bit. We do it one of two ways:

we leave on Friday late afternoon and drive until about eleven o'clock, stop for the night, and finish the drive on Saturday -- arriving in time for dinner at Earl of Sandwich, or

we leave very early on Saturday morning 4 or 5 am and drive straight through.

It's not really a bad drive, after you get to the other side of Richmond.

Sometimes we drive through Jacksonville, FL, but it is much easier to take the bypass.

 

[maedelken]

We drive straight through on the way down but on the way back we always stop. It's not too bad. Just make sure one of you gets some sleep before the trip.

 

[VirataMama4]

We did! We did an impromptu trip over President's DAy/Valentine's day after the big snowstorm in Feb. My school was cancelled for the week, so we packed our bags, got in the car and drove down. It took about 16 hours really (with 2 kids and stops). We drove most of the way to Georgia, the first day, then drove through Georgia and Florida the second day. It's an extremely easy drive, seriouly like get on 95 and head south.

If you don't mind driving, it's not hard at all!

We did this exact same thing! We were totally sick of snow and being stuck indoors, so where else would we go but to WDW!

OP, we've driven 3 times in the last year. We always drive nonstop at night, so it only takes us about 13 hours to get there. The best thing to do is figure out the best time for you to leave and traffic... We didn't think once and got stuck in traffic for a couple of hours. Totally our fault for not planning ahead.

 

[punkin]

We're going this weekend. We plan to leave at 5 am or so and drive straight through. We have 2 drivers this time but I have done it alone with two kids. On the way back we will leave around 5 pm and drive until we get too tired. We will stop for the night probably around Savannah or southern SC.

I can't wait!

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

We've got four kids, so we can't afford to fly. We did our first drive down in 2006, and have done it several times since then. It's really not bad, at all! We usually leave mid afternoon on a Friday and drive at least halfway. I think Santee, SC is about 8 hours, and then we finish the other 6 on Saturday. With kids, I don't think we could do it without stopping. Our kids are not good car sleepers.

A great website for lodging, etc. along 95 is:
http://www.i95exitguide.com/index.php

We fiddle around with that to find a place that is far enough away to suit our needs for each trip.

We are heading down in June, but aren't able to leave until a bit later on a Friday, so I think we're going to stay in Wilson, NC, which is about 5 1/2 hours from us. That leaves more than half of the drive for day 2, but that will have to do this time.

 

[redlawyer]

There is a nice Embassy Suites in Jacksonville. We leave Richmond around 8 am, drive to Jacksonville for the night. We stop at each state's welcome center to picnic, stretch our legs or in GA roll down the hill. From Jacksonville its a two hour drive to WDW, on a Sunday morning. I think during the week the rush hour can be problematic.

 

[edk35]

There is a nice Embassy Suites in Jacksonville. We leave Richmond around 8 am, drive to Jacksonville for the night. We stop at each state's welcome center to picnic, stretch our legs or in GA roll down the hill. From Jacksonville its a two hour drive to WDW, on a Sunday morning. I think during the week the rush hour can be problematic.

Getting to Jacksonville and staying would be nice too. I think we are about 3 to 4 hours from Richmond VA.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

We're in Harford County and always fly out of BWI pretty cheaply on Southwest (usually $49 to $59 each way). For us it is worth it to be able to fly there in 2 hours each way rather than spend 4 days of vacation time driving. With Southwest there is also no change fee or cancellation fee if you need to change your travel dates. Just a thought.

DS2 is not a good car rider at all. It takes us 14+ hours to drive from our home to my Dad's house in Charleston, SC - and that is with missing DC traffic!

If you do drive then there are some nice hotels pretty reasonably priced in Santee, SC, Brunswick, GA and just outside of Jacksonville, FL.

 

[Sadie22]

We're doing the AutoTrain down this trip and driving back will stop in Georgia to visit the oldest DS.

 

[JLitfin]

We have driven several times from Maryland but not in a few years, we haven't driven since my youngest was around 4 years old, he's now 18. The one time we drove we had two cars, we traveled with my sister and her family and had radios to talk between the cars (before cell phones was big). We left around dinner time and drove through the night, arriving around 11am/12 noon the next day, we won't do that again, the guys were so tried that they slept most of the first day. My DH wouldn't let me help drive until we arrived in Florida. He says no more, he would rather jump on the plane and fly and be there in a couple of hours. We can usually find good airfare between BWI and the DC airports.

 

[edk35]

We're in Harford County and always fly out of BWI pretty cheaply on Southwest (usually $49 to $59 each way). For us it is worth it to be able to fly there in 2 hours each way rather than spend 4 days of vacation time driving. With Southwest there is also no change fee or cancellation fee if you need to change your travel dates. Just a thought.

DS2 is not a good car rider at all. It takes us 14+ hours to drive from our home to my Dad's house in Charleston, SC - and that is with missing DC traffic!

If you do drive then there are some nice hotels pretty reasonably priced in Santee, SC, Brunswick, GA and just outside of Jacksonville, FL.

Our kids are 19,16 and 11 and they are really excited about NOT flying and doing a ROAD TRIP for some reason. LOL The last time we did this was in Nov. 2002 over Thanksgiving week. We have always flown to Disney too. However gone are the 49 to 59 fares for the times of year we have to choose from now. We used to get great fares like that too.

 

[frostymom]

Last year we left MD about 8pm after dinner and with dvd's loaded in the car. Our boys 2 and 4 then, slept through the night and dh and I split driving. We go to Jacksonville, had breakfast and were in Orlando in our room by 11am.

This time we are flying, it will be a first for our little boys so we are looking forward to that.

We drove back during the day last time and it took a full two days, ugg!
Next time we drive it will be done in the night and return at nighttime as well.

Have a great road trip!

 

[lvanleer]

We live in Montgomery County, MD and when we drive down we usually stop for the night in southern SC/northern GA.

 

[kmvand1]

We're in Harford County and always fly out of BWI pretty cheaply on Southwest (usually $49 to $59 each way). For us it is worth it to be able to fly there in 2 hours each way rather than spend 4 days of vacation time driving. With Southwest there is also no change fee or cancellation fee if you need to change your travel dates. Just a thought.

DS2 is not a good car rider at all. It takes us 14+ hours to drive from our home to my Dad's house in Charleston, SC - and that is with missing DC traffic!

If you do drive then there are some nice hotels pretty reasonably priced in Santee, SC, Brunswick, GA and just outside of Jacksonville, FL.

We use Southwest as well, and in all of our recent trips have not paid more than $89.00 each way. We are miserable when we drive from N. Virginia!