Best route to VB, Place to Stop

[KMarie]

Hello all!
We are planning a trip to VB and will be driving. What's the best route off of I-75 heading south? Should we take the Beeline Expressway in Orlando to I-95, or should we take the Fla. Turnpike south of Orlando and exit at Hwy. 60?
Also, we probably won't be able to drive straight through. Can you recommend any decent hotels, motels on the way to stop for the night? Unfortunately, stopping at WDW for a night is not an option this trip.
Thanks in advance for your advice!

KMarie

 

[PamOKW]

I'm not sure which way would be best since I'm not familiar with I-75. I can tell you that either way is kind of desolate. If you take the Beeline, shortly outside of Orlando you travel through pretty much a no man's land of ranches until you hit the coast. The Florida Turnpike route is okay but once again, State Road 60 is a desolate stretch through ranchland. However, where the Beeline is a highway, State Road 60 is a two-lane road with a ditch on either side. It also has truck traffic. I'm not so sure I'd take that route in either bad weather or at night.

If you are not going to go straight through, I think I'd stop further up in Florida. Once you commit to either the Beeline or Turnpike after Orlando your options are pretty limited until you get to Vero itself. You could stop in the Melbourne or Space Center area if you really couldn't make it the additional hour-45 minutes.

 

[KMarie]

Thanks for the info PamOKW!
We were thinking of stopping before we got to Orlando. Any thoughts on a decent place?

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Depending on how much of a hurry you are in, there is the option of heading over to Cocoa Beach and then taking A1A down the coast. It add's some time, but we like the drive.

 

[PamOKW]

I can't help with stopping ideas but I'm sure we must have others who can!

CaptainMidnight is right about traveling down A1A being very scenic. After you are at the resort, traveling south down A1A is a nice drive as well if people are looking for things to do and enjoy "touring". I know little kids/teenagers usually aren't into that.

 

[Snowgod]

A1A is great for kids and teenagers. Ron Jons Surf Shop and NASA's Kennedy Space Center are both There. RJSS is open 24 hours and has all kinds of stuff that everyone will enjoy.

 

[nickglover]

Unless you need to go to Orlando, here is a possibility: when you reach the I-10 and I-75 junction in north Florida, take I-10 East and stay at Jacksonville Beach, or branch off south on I-95 and stay at St Augustine Beach. The next day, you can meander your way down the coast on A-1-A and/or US 1 and I-95. A-1-A is not the quickest route, but it is the most scenic.

One word of caution: The last I heard, the military shut down A-1-A south of Melbourne because of the large military base along the highway. Check to make sure that route is open. AAA (or someone on this board) should know.

 

[Caskbill]

I played around with the trip numbers on the computer a little.

1. From downtown Atlanta it's <b> 540</b> miles to Disney's Vero beach via I-74, Turnpike, Beeline, I-95.

2. Going I-75, Turnpike, Hwy 60 is <b> 545</b> miles

3. Going I-75, I-10, I-95 is <b>555</b> miles

4. Going I-26 to Savannah, then I-95 is <b>584</b> miles. This is another possibility if you want to stop in Savannah for the night.

You probably can do it in one day if you really want to. #1 above calculates at just under 10 hours, if you keep your stops short enough.

We drive I-75 all the time (it's now getting pretty boring), but we always do a WDW stop as part of a VB trip. (From WDW we always take the beeline)

If you want to stop, then I'd recommend the I-10 route to I-95. For only adding 15 miles to your trip, there's a lot of nice places to stop. We enjoy St. Augustine ourselves.

From downtown St. Augustine, it's 174 miles to Disney's VB resort at 9520 Island Grove Terrace, (3:27) via I-95. Taking A1A is a nice drive. Going that route (but jumping back onto I-95 to go around Daytona Beach, then back to A1A, will take you 5:38, or a little over 2 hours longer.

 

[KimOhio]

A1A is closed by the air force base since the 9/11 attacks when we were there in Oct.

 

[Denine]

We are going on a cruise in April leaving out of FLL. We are thinking about driving straight through to Vero, spending the night and continuing on to FLL in the morning.
It takes us 14 hours to get to Jacksonville. Has anyone done this? We are driving from Cleveland, Ohio.