Driving down mid nov?

[cottontail]

Hello: Anybody from Ontario/New York area drive down to wdw mid november before the us thanksgiving holiday, thru 77/79 highways? How are the roads and weather that time of year?

Bye,

Deb.

 

[SherryG]

I would be interested in knowing this too! We are heading down earlier in November but returning just before the US Thanskgiving. Is one way better then the other? Thanks for any info.

Sherry

 

[cottontail]

Hi Sherry:

I know that CAA always tells people in the winter to go down I75. My hubby loves getting over the border (new York) and going thru the virginias instead of the I75 route. (Mostly because he hates the straight drive from hamilton to windsor)

But I am trying to figure out when in the month they consider it too risky to go the I77/79 route, as there are alot of mountains, but it is beautiful.

I75 is nice in that it has alot more hotels/motels and is pretty straightforward.

Deb.

 

[digskat]

Three years ago when we drove down the weather was fine. We only do the i-75 route though. Last Year during the Thanksgiving Weekend the drive was fine also.

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

We always drive the 90-79-19-77-26-95 to Florida and have done this drive in October, November, December, January and March....we have never had a problem.

 

[CanadianGuy]

I can't imagine too many places that would have significant snow-fall by mid November is most of those states.

In fact, given the temperatures during that time of year, I'd be more fearful of fog in the mountains.

J

 

[A&CsMom]

We take the route through the Virginias and we love it. Our first time driving (we have now driven twice, third time coming up soon), there was a storm coming in (we knew about it), but we left anyway at around 4 or 4:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning in late January 2005. In retrospect we should have left the night before so we could have missed it. The snow started at the NY/PA border and we made it to Pittsburgh before deciding to pull off - and it was only 10:30 a.m. We stayed in a hotel there until the next morning when and we drove straight through to Florida. After Beckley, the roads were totally clear the day after the storm. Every other time we have driven, we have had no trouble, including on the way back during that same trip in February.

My parents drive this route every year in early January and late February/early March, and they have never encountered a problem.

I think the key is to check the weather diligently before you are leaving and if there is going to be bad weather on that route, choose I75. The other option is to do what we did and just be prepared to pull off for bad weather, such as snow, ice or fog.

I75 can have really bad fog areas as well, so it is not guaranteed to be better, plus it has a mountainous area through Tennessee as well.

We bought a new Rand McNally road map this year which shows every state separately so if there is a bad accident or bad weather, we can see our options to go around.