Best Route: Driving to Orlando and Bypassing Atlanta

[HopperFan]

OP, I live in N Atlanta and yes, our traffic is awful. I will say last week I breezed through both ways so sometimes you never know. I would seriously consider 285 if for nothing else it has more lanes so if there is an accident or issue you can usually move faster than going through downtown. I have found that sometimes even with all the wiggling on backroads we still end up spending the same amount of time because there aren't the extra lanes to work with.

We drive from PA. We book our overnight at the Embassy Suites Gwinnet/ Sugarloaf. There are plenty of hotels/food off the Sugarloaf Parkway exit

This is a suburb on the north side of Atlanta on the bypass (I-485 outer loop). We try to time it to arrive around 7, which seems to put us between all of the major cities during rush hour on the way there.

We leave there around 8am taking I-85 to 285 (285/407) toward Augusta/Macon to 675 toward Macon, which turns into 75. I find that we miss driving through the most congested areas by using this route.
As others have said, Saturdays aren't bad for driving, especially early in the day.

We don't have a 485 here, and Sugarloaf would be way out of the way for OP because he is coming down 75. But using the 675 bypass works well for the direction you are coming from.

Think of the Peach Pass as the ‘Lightning Lane’ of ATL traffic! It’s a fee based lane; fees change depending on time of day but I don’t think we‘ve paid over $10ish the whole way. The fees are posted above the lane as you enter so you know. Well worth it IMHO. It’s also good for those pesky FL tolls, just breeze right on thru. I think you can purchase thru the Peach Pass site (just Google) & probably other locales as you get into GA, if you don’t want to buy online. You can also “pre-load“ incremental amounts (ours is $10) so you don’t have to prepay a bunch of dollars. In other words, once the initial payment runs out, it reloads at $10. Please verify info on the website. Hope this gives you an idea of how it works. Safe travels!

OP, if you find a way to purchase the GA Peach Pass or FL Sun Pass they are interchangeable. In FL you will take the Turnpike to Orlando. There is no longer many toll booths, either they will use a pass or they will bill you an invoice with admin fees. They are reasonable. GA admin fees are high.

There is probably a thread on this already, but can you provide more info on the Peach Pass and its benefits? I'm sure we'll be at least going on some toll roads in Florida, so I'm curious how it impacts that side of it. We typically have to bring coins and hope we have enough.

Many toll booths are gone. If you don't have a pass on your car you will get a bill plus admin fees later as the cameras take your license plate photo.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

There is probably a thread on this already, but can you provide more info on the Peach Pass and its benefits? I'm sure we'll be at least going on some toll roads in Florida, so I'm curious how it impacts that side of it. We typically have to bring coins and hope we have enough.

In addition to the benefits mentioned above
Peachpass (GA) vs SunPass (FL), I researched both and went with SunPass. For one major reason. Peachpass is issued to a specific vehicle. You can't move it around. SunPass has a transponder which makes it easy for those with more than 1 vehicle or who have rentals.

As far as I could tell, the are otherwise interchangeable in where they worked.

 

[Turksmom]

We don't have a 485 here, and Sugarloaf would be way out of the way for OP because he is coming down 75. But using the 675 bypass works well for the direction you are coming from.

Thanks for catching that and apologies to OP! I was reading my saved directions and somehow backed up a step. 485 would be about 200 miles north of Atlanta.

 

[HopperFan]

Thanks for catching that and apologies to OP! I was reading my saved directions and somehow backed up a step. 485 would be about 200 miles north of Atlanta.

Ironically there was a plan to build a second outer ring on the north side which might have been called 485, so you had me pause a moment. But it would have destroyed so many neighborhoods who rallied it was called off.

 

[dwheaton]

Thanks to everyone for the info on the Peach Pass and the tips on the toll booths. We did the drive a bunch of times for a while, but it's been five years so I'm out of practice. I definitely don't want to be paying extra admin fees.

 

[Rolem]

We are driving out from California in June via St Louis, Nashville and Atlanta. I ordered the SunPass (online) but I was under the impression is was not good in Georgia. Is this not correct?

 

[Mrs.AMC]

We are driving out from California in June via St Louis, Nashville and Atlanta. I ordered the SunPass (online) but I was under the impression is was not good in Georgia. Is this not correct?

That is incorrect. SunPass Pro is good in many states. That's the transponder you can order
https://www.sunpass.com/en/about/pro.shtml

 

[HopperFan]

We are driving out from California in June via St Louis, Nashville and Atlanta. I ordered the SunPass (online) but I was under the impression is was not good in Georgia. Is this not correct?

I live in GA but have house in FL. I have a Sunpass and it works in both.

The GA Peach Pass will even work on the new I-4 lanes when they open.

 

[Rolem]

Perfect - Thank you.

 

[dwheaton]

Just giving a quick update on how everything went with the drive from St. Louis. It went well overall, and we didn't have any big problems in Atlanta. It slowed down a bit on the drive down on a Saturday night, but it was pretty minor. The worst traffic was actually around Ocala and on the Turnpike on Sunday; Waze sent me on some crazy detours around the slowdowns. I'm unsure how much time we really saved. On the way back, we took it easy to avoid Atlanta at rush hour, so we did okay going through at about 9 p.m. on a Friday. The HOV lane really made the difference and allowed us to skip most of the traffic again. It wasn't perfect and was still a long drive, but the tips and some Express lanes (with the SunPass) also helped. Some were closed, so we ended up with some money on there left over, but that's not the worst thing. We also had slowdowns in Nashville on the way down and Chattanooga on the way back, but nothing too major.

Thanks to everyone for the help!