Drive from MA

[Jaylie]

Has anyone driven to Disneyland from Massachusetts? We are planning a big trip and looking for the best route!

 

[Captain Redbeard]

I am originally from Nebraska and moved from Boston to L.A. a couple years ago. If you want an easy, quick route just take the one that google maps plots out for you! I will warn you though...if you have never been to the midwest before Iowa and Nebraska will feel like no-man's land. Good places to stop for fuel and food in Nebraska are Lincoln, York, Kearney, and North Platte. There is a nice Holiday Inn Express in Holiday City, Ohio we like to stay at when driving that route. If your trying to do it in 2 days Omaha is almost exactly half of the way!

Hope that helps!!!!!

 

[samkj]

You must LOVE road trips! That is approx, 6,000 round trip! I think my family may kill each other before the trip was over I would look at the things you want to see on the way and plan your route accordingly. I would probably do a different route home so I could see more of the US.

 

[Capt Silly]

It will depend on what your plans are for the big trip. Do you plan on driving straight through as quickly as possible or taking a few days along the way to stop and see America?

If you are planning an nonstop trip, you might look at how much all the food and hotels will cost and compare that to flying. Then you can spend the extra time seeing Southern California and recovering when you get back home.

If you are planning to take your time and see America, then I have got to recommend taking a day to see the Grand Canyon, truly one of the great wonders of nature. I'm sure others can recommend other not to be missed stop overs in their areas.

 

[Mugglemama]

Lol, I want to do the opposite road trip....from CA to New England!

We've done Michigan to Vegas before (which is just a few hours short of Disneyland). We caught the 55 in Chicago, down to St. Louis where we hopped on the 44, then stayed on that until Oklahoma City where we caught the 40. The 40 runs all the way through to Barstow, CA, where you can change to the 15, which will take you to the 91.

There might be a better way from Barstow (I think mapquest says to do the 15 to the 57 to the 60...or something like that). But getting from Chicago to California only has to include 3 Interstates, so it's pretty straightforward. We did not have any trouble on that route.

We were trying to get to our destination quickly, though....and if I had it to do over again I'd probably take a more leisurely route down the Eastern seaboard, and then West through New Orleans, etc.

I guess the best route depends on whether you're trying to make good time, or trying to relax and see a lot along the way (the route we took was pretty dull....lots of flatland, cornfields, and desert.)

P.S. The entrance to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is about an hour off the 40, so if you wanted to see it, you could do so on the route I described.

 

[HydroGuy]

No, but I have driven from Colorado to Boston in 2008 and from Colorado to DLR numerous times.

For the western part of your trip I woudl recommend Interstate 70 through Denver to Utah and then Interstate 15. The drive from Denver to Las Vegas is breathtaking. From LV to DLR is pretty ho-hum IMO. For the other direction I would recommend Interstate 40 through Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.

 

[jlmarr]

Has anyone driven to Disneyland from Massachusetts? We are planning a big trip and looking for the best route!

Yikes! That's one long trip. My contribution is that you can plan your trip via Google Maps *and* tweak your route by dragging the "blue line" to make sure you hit various points of interest along the way. We did that with my son's recent trip from NJ back here to Anaheim towing a race car (that's a different story) and it came out pretty handy as he adjusted the daily route to avoid bad weather along the otherwise optimal I-80 route. Without further ado, here is a map you can play with. Assuming this works, drag the blue line from Chicago to St Louis to see how Google Maps recalculates the route for you, and even rejiggers the text route instructions.

 

[blackjackdelta]

I use AAA triptiks, put my destination in, add the waypoints and print out a strip chart with all the info listed. Places to eat,gas, view, etc. It gives me mileage, drive times, based on the speed you would normally drive. I also use a gps, they are very cheap these days.

Jack

 

[Mugglemama]

Yikes! That's one long trip. My contribution is that you can plan your trip via Google Maps *and* tweak your route by dragging the "blue line" to make sure you hit various points of interest along the way. We did that with my son's recent trip from NJ back here to Anaheim towing a race car (that's a different story) and it came out pretty handy as he adjusted the daily route to avoid bad weather along the otherwise optimal I-80 route.

I live about 1000 feet off I-80 at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas and we're STILL getting bad weather over the pass (I don't think it's typical, this is my first spring in Northern California. But so far we've had a lot of storms, the most recent one being just several days ago.). Not sure when your trip is planned for, but if you plan to drive straight across the country on I-80 (which might be a much nicer drive than the one we took), just be sure to check the weather forecast for various places along your route. I say that because every year I route out a road trip to New England (just wishful thinking on my part...the hubby won't go that far in a car, he says ) and Summer seems to be a time when there's flooding in those northern states (all the snow melt, or something?) and considering this year has had heavy, heavy rain/snowfall, that might be a real concern if you want to do I-80.

However, if you can hit good weather all the way across, once you get over the Sierra Nevadas you likely won't have to worry about any weather issues for the rest of the trip (that is, as long as you take 101 down from san jose - personally, I don't recommend the 5, but others feel differently. Last time we drove the 5 back from Disneyland I really felt like we cheated death several times - that's how bad the people were driving on that road. Plus, during certain times of year there is really bad/crazy weather over the grapevine, which is a portion of the 5, and it's the route that most commercial trucks take.).

 

[Jaylie]

These are great suggestions. We did a cross country trip 25 years ago with the four kids, and now it'll just be me and DH. We want this to be a leisurely trip, but probably not more than four weeks. We have a son in northern CA, so that'll definitely be a stop. The trip is planned for later in July, and I am concerned about weather. Would Route 70 have less weather issues than Route 80? We thought we'd come back on more of a southern route.

 

[sasywtch]

It use to take us 2-1/2 days to drive from OKC to Sacramento (2 days if we pushed it). You could start out up the northern route (80), come down into Tahoe and check that out and then to wherever your son is in Northern CA. (I think you said your son?). Head over to San Francisco,down 101 to DL and head back the southern route (40) to the Grand Canyon. The memorial in OKC is only a few blocks off the freeway.

 

[Mugglemama]

These are great suggestions. We did a cross country trip 25 years ago with the four kids, and now it'll just be me and DH. We want this to be a leisurely trip, but probably not more than four weeks. We have a son in northern CA, so that'll definitely be a stop. The trip is planned for later in July, and I am concerned about weather. Would Route 70 have less weather issues than Route 80? We thought we'd come back on more of a southern route.

It feels like Summer has FINALLY hit our area of I-80 (I'm in Northern California, 10 miles East of Auburn...). I don't know about the 80 across the rest of the country (but I would DEFINITELY check weather forecasts the closer you get to your travel dates...), but the pass over Donner Summit should be perfect in late July - (we're actually traveling the opposite direction over the pass in late July ourselves, for a Shakespeare Festival in Tahoe).

But the last couple of years when I've done my "fantasy" planning for a road trip I'll likely never get to take, I know there were flooding issues in communities along the route I wanted to take, which involved the 80 East of Salt Lake City. Maybe by that late in the Summer you won't have any issues...I would think the snowmelt/flooding issues would be during the first few weeks after the weather turned from cold to hot.

Are you planning to travel in a big circle when you visit your son? or are you planning to drive straight across to visit, then south to DLR, then back up to I-80 and straight back across to the East Coast?

Keep in mind that hurricane season and the Monsoon hit the southern and desert regions of the country beginning right around the beginning of August, so if any of your trip will occur during that time, just be aware that weather might affect desert portions of I-40 or any part of a route that takes you through areas typically affected by hurricanes.

Perhaps the best thing to do is map out the routes you'd be willing to take, and then as your travel dates get closer, follow weather forecasts for those routes closely. If weather isn't an issue during your traveling dates, you'll be able to pick which route you wanted most to take. If weather will be severe along any route, you'll have a backup plan. It's good to know all the major routes because you might find yourself able to take a different route home that you weren't able to take on the way out, or vice versa. Or you might find you need to, due to severe weather.

In any case, carry a road Atlas in the car! That's a long road trip to not know exactly where you are at any given time, or to not be able to find your way around if you need to alter your route, etc.

 

[Jaylie]

Yes, we are planning on a "circle" route - out the mid to northern route and back on more of the southern route. The other thing we are hoping is to NOT be all on major highways. It would be nice to know of small towns not too far off the path that would be worth visiting and driving through. Maybe try some different restaurants other than the usual. So if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions to offer, I'd love to hear about it. And, we will definitely be aware of weather during the trip. I hadn't really thought too much about that, but after reading these posts, we'll make sure to check each day.

 

[Mugglemama]

Yes, we are planning on a "circle" route - out the mid to northern route and back on more of the southern route. The other thing we are hoping is to NOT be all on major highways. It would be nice to know of small towns not too far off the path that would be worth visiting and driving through. Maybe try some different restaurants other than the usual. So if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions to offer, I'd love to hear about it. And, we will definitely be aware of weather during the trip. I hadn't really thought too much about that, but after reading these posts, we'll make sure to check each day.

Sorry, I don't know any of the less major roads. We always stick to major highways because I don't want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere with car trouble or a sick kid, etc.

If you take the Northern route, you could see Mt. Rushmore (South Dakota), and Yellowstone (Wyoming).

If you want to veer off of I-80 at all once you get into CA, there are some very cool, historical towns to visit about 30-40 minutes off of the Interstate. (You would get onto the 49 in Auburn). Grass Valley and Nevada City still have their gold rush era downtown areas intact and are very cool places to visit (in my opinion, anyway). I'm sure there are some good places to eat in those areas. Also, Coloma is about the same distance off I-80, going the other direction on the 49....that's where gold was first discovered, at Sutter's Mill. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's worth the drive, though, unless you are really interested in gold rush history. There's nowhere to eat there, although you could eat in Cool before getting there (about 20 minutes before Coloma). We stopped at a little place there once to get the kids an ice cream and the same shop sold sandwiches and tons of other foods as well.

Also, historical downtown Sacramento is worth visiting, and they probably have some good places to eat (but avoid Annabelle's Italian at all costs!!!! I speak from personal experience, lol).

On your way back, if you are on the 40 at all, the town of Williams, AZ is a neat little historical town. It's kind of touristy, but looks fun (live bands playing outdoors at night in the Summer, that sort of thing), and there are several restaurants. It's an easy town to find (in fact, it's where you'd turn off if you were going to head North to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon).

There are 2 ghost towns if you are taking the 40 or the 15....one is called Oatman (it's where Clark Gable spent his honeymoon, lol), and is just past Kingman, AZ on old route 66. I've eaten there and I would not say the drive is worth any of the food they have there (best to stop somewhere in Kingman first if you want decent food), but if you've never been to a ghost town, it's a cool place to visit. The other ghost town is in Southern California, in the desert, and it's my favorite. It's called Calico, and was restored by the Knott's Berry Farm people. Better food, really cute shops, and a little train that will take you on a tour. Oatman is free to enter, Calico is not.

That's all I've got! I hope your trip turns out great!