Cost of Driving from LI, NY to Orlando, FL

[LeeAnn]

We have never driven to Orlando. Due to our finances, we want to see our options.

• How much would cost in gas driving a minivan from Long Island, NY to Orlando, FL?
• How much would it cost in tolls?
• How long of a drive?
• Is this possible w/ 3 small kids (3,5,6)?
• Do you make stops?
• Stay the night? How much does for a night? Where do you stop?

After all is said and done, would you do it again?

Thanks

 

[Darcy03231]

Here's a fuel cost calculator: www.fuelcostcalculator.com

From my house in Southern NH to WDW according to mapquest is 21 hours. My brother and SIL drove it and it took them 26 hours on the way down and about 25 on the way back. I would mapquest it and then add a few hours for stops, traffic, etc. They hit a lot of traffic on the way down due to an accident which delayed them. They drove straight through (just the two of them) and switched drivers every four hours.

I can honestly say there is no way I would ever contemplate this drive unless I had had at least 2-3 weeks of vacation and could take my time going down and back, seeing various sites along the way.

 

[Kies99]

We have never driven to Orlando. Due to our finances, we want to see our options.

• How much would cost in gas driving a minivan from Long Island, NY to Orlando, FL?
• How much would it cost in tolls?
• How long of a drive?
• Is this possible w/ 3 small kids (3,5,6)?
• Do you make stops?
• Stay the night? How much does for a night? Where do you stop?

After all is said and done, would you do it again?

Thanks

Go to www.mapquest.com. Type in the addresses and get directions. There is a button that will calculate your gas cost each way (you'll need to estimate your vehicles MPG).

As for "Is this possible w/3 small kids (3,5,6)?", only you can know that. You know your kids and what they can and can't handle. I can say I drive every year from Pittsburgh to Destin Florida (16 hours) with a now 5 and 7 yo's and we don't have a problem. We leave in the afternoon/evening (around 4-5pm) and go as far as we can that night and then stop.

 

[adventure_woman]

Just a different thought - I have never done it before though. There is a car train that goes from DC to FL. Not sure how much it costs, but you may want to look into it too.

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/Conte...te_Page&c=am2Route&cid=1081256321200&ssid=136

 

[MichaelColey]

Google Maps says it's 2200 miles round trip and over 17 hours each way.

If you just look at the fuel costs, you're going to drastically underestimate your actual costs. If you add up all your car-related costs (buying the car, maintenance, gas, etc.) over the time you own a car, you'll probably find that gas is only about 10-20% of the total cost. That means that if you calculate your gas expense for the trip to be $150, it's really costing you more like $1000 (not counting hotels, meals, tolls, etc.) in wear and tear on your car. That still may be cheaper than flying, but perhaps not. You can get flights from ISP to MCO for about $200 (5/5 - 5/12 on US Airways is $200.40/each for instance).

 

[lisa-upnorth]

Not sure if you are up for flying but I have been watching prices for my mom and they are LOW! From RI to Orlando $78 each way.

 

[melc0305]

I would also figure in the cost of your time and sanity! Do you want to "waste" (imo) 3-4 days vacation time in the car? Think how often little kids will need to go to the bathroom, stop for food, etc. I personally would not go to FL unless I could afford to fly. I'd save money elsewhere, like a value resort, using Disney transportation etc.

 

[patsal]

FWIW we have driven form Buffalo to Disney several times. It takes 2 days on either end, requires a hotel stay and potty/gas/food stops. If I can fly for $1000 or less we do that. My time, exhaustion level when I get there--the kids are fine, DH and I are beat! and a bunch of other stuff makes that my breakeven point. Look at airfare you may be surprised, mine for the four of us was a bit over $700, rental car is $300 so breakeven for me, plus not tired and four extra days of real vacation.
However as the number of people grows the price per person drops so that is a factor.

 

[Cindy B]

All we do is drive from Southern NJ. In fact we flew once and HATED IT! It has taken as little as 16 hours and as much as 20 to drive straight through. Most of the time we do spend one night at one place.


We have no car payment and no mileage leasing type committments. DH drives his car minimally (1x a week for work) so the mileage "evens" out in a per month basis.

DH also work a 3 day work week (12+ hour shifts) so every Thur-Sun he is off so there are no additional vacation days needed. I teach, so am off for the most part during the summer.

We do get a hotel on the way down-- pricelined in either Savannah GA or Port Republic for less than $65-70 per night. We then drive the rest of the way (leaving by the latest 8am) to get to Orlando by noon. We bring our own food in a cooler and take lots of snacks.

We do stop for food and bathroom but not that often. We do either drive through the early am or weekends so we miss the rush hour traffic in Philly, DC or Fredricksburg VA.

We usually do at least 7 if not 10 day trips. We are not usually exhausted on the way there because we have gotten good at sleeping while the other is driving. DH is used to staying up for long shifts at one time due to his work, so he does the bulk of the driving and I fill in times when he rests for up to 3 hours.

I do drive his car (a bigger SUV) but I don't like to park it or back it out of a spot. The joke is that I will drive to Florida but I won't back up or park.

 

[kmvand1]

The train another poster mentioned is the Auto Train. We live about 45 minutes from it in Lorton and took it for our trip in 2005. My husband said he would never be caught dead on it again. It is very expensive by the time you add your car (which you have to bring) and if you add a sleeper car. The lounge seats are very uncomfortable and you have people walking up and down the aisles all hours of the night. Not for us. And it is faster to drive, it took us around 17-18 hours each way.

 

[Frankiesmom]

Check out the transportation board, the 2000+ driving section has a lot of great info!
We are driving next month from Rochester;our route is different then your's will be though. I have 700 budgeted. That includes overnight hotel stops each way.
We have EZ-pass which works everywhere but Fla.; so that will help a bit time and $$ wise.
Good Luck! We are new at this also!

 

[katman2540]

We drove down last summer and it took us 23 hours total. with 1 overnight. Used about $425 in gas and $130 in hotel total for the round trip. Doing the same again this year. We like the Drive and love having our own car when we get there.

 

[LlamaMamaof2]

I live in the St. Louis metro and drive and fly. Obviously, flying is the fastest, so if time is an issue, that's the way to go. I am gearing up to drive in May. Yes, it will take a lot longer, but will be much cheaper for the 5 of us. To fly would cost right about $200 a piece, then figure in the cost of parking for a week, the costs of $15 a checked bag each way.. It adds up. With the kids I have to check bags or ship, and it doesn't seem worth the hassle to ship. So, gas will be around $200, hotels $150 total, and some money for food. My kids are 3 and 7 and are looking forward to the drive. We flew to Miami last month and it took 10 hours from leaving our house to getting to the hotel. By that time, I will be very close to the Florida border. Have a great trip!

 

[kellydizfan]

We are driving from Saugerties NY in July with our 3 kids 9, 12, 15. They have never gone this far so it should be interesting. I am splitting them up - 2 in the middle seat and one in the back. We will have a dvd player - will purchase several video's before we go that they have not seen and also some DS games. I have purchased, travel bingo, some brain books, and they will be bringing their Ipod's, etc for entertainment. We are breaking up our driving by stopping to see family in DE the first night on the road, then driving as far as we can get - hope to get into Savannah or even northern Florida - say Jacksonville, stay over night and drive the rest that next morning and be at Port Orleans no later than noon. On the way back will be a different story. We are hoping to make it to MD to stay with family again then leave the next morning for the 6 hour drive home. If you plan, you can do it. This will be our first time driving to Florida and we are looking forward to having the car to go investigate some other restaurants other than what is on Disney Property but we are also going to the Nick Hotel for 2 nights. Good luck with planning!

 

[chigirl]

We've flown every trip to WDW but we are driving in June because my kids have never been on a long car trip, and my husband and I have fond memories from our childhood days driving to Florida. I like the cost calculator the one poster put up...I know my car very well and I was only off by $12 from what the calculator said; of course who knows what gas will be in June. I may lose my mind on the drive, but who cares???

 

[saratogadreamin09]

We have never driven to Orlando. Due to our finances, we want to see our options.

• How much would cost in gas driving a minivan from Long Island, NY to Orlando, FL?
• How much would it cost in tolls?
• How long of a drive?
• Is this possible w/ 3 small kids (3,5,6)?
• Do you make stops?
• Stay the night? How much does for a night? Where do you stop?

After all is said and done, would you do it again?

Thanks

When we drove from LI to WDW in Feb in a 2005 diesel chevy pickup we speant about $250 on gas each way

I would guess tolls would be around 10 -20 dollars. I would get an easy pass because it makes things so much easier

19 hours of actually driving

thats up to you and how your kids behave

we stop for food and gas but not for the night. We try to keep our food stops under 30 min, most of the time we just buy snacks at gas stations for food

We used to stop for the night but we dont anymore. Where you stop depends on how far your willing to travel and what time you leave. If we left early in the moring my family always made it to GA, pretty much any other time of day would be NC or VA



My family has done the drive from LI 9 times and we would never fly again. Driving is cheaper and a lot less stressful then flying.

 

[snowgooseltd]

We drove a van down two weeks ago from Massachusetts. We map-quested it and pretty much followed 95 the whole way. We did 650 miles the first day, about twelve hours with four stops for bathrooms. We stayed in NC and drove ten and a half more hours the next day, arriving around 2:30pm. The total, with motel room, gas, tolls and food was about $350.00. We left the van at a home we purchased when we were there in December and flew home. It wasn't a difficult drive but we had the anticipation of the house and Disney. We also knew we didn't have to drive back.

 

[Cindy B]

As for the kids, well as long as you have potty trained kids you should be ok.

My daughters first drive to Florida was when she was not quite 3. That was an interesting TRIP to say the least.

 

[saratogadreamin09]

We've flown every trip to WDW but we are driving in June because my kids have never been on a long car trip, and my husband and I have fond memories from our childhood days driving to Florida. I like the cost calculator the one poster put up...I know my car very well and I was only off by $12 from what the calculator said; of course who knows what gas will be in June. I may lose my mind on the drive, but who cares???

This is how I feel. for me the drive down has become part of the trip and I have tons of great memories from stopping different places and seeing different things

When you drive to WDW you get to see the WHOLE east coast compared to just WDW

 

[Mouse House Mama]

You can fly out of Islip for $99 or less a ticket. It is worth it. Unless you are going to spend a week going down and actually touring areas the only thing you are going to see is the road. Driving to Florida would be a last resort after my last resort. If you are staying on site you don't need a car. I would not drive. The money savings would not be worth it because it would be minimal. Also, going down might sound like an adventure but at the end of the vacation do you really want to spend 20 hours in a car?

ETA- I have done it once. I was a kid. The trip itself was fun because I was with family. I did not enjoy the drive at all, and back then I didn't even need to be in a carseat.