Driving from NJ to WDW - NEED TIPS :)

[plove53]

We will be driving from (north) Jersey to WDW Pop Century resort. I was wondering if anyone else had done this drive and can offer us some tips .

I think it would be a ~20-hour trip and we may want to rest for one night.


So:

1.Where is a good (inexpensive) place to rest on the way down, and on the way up?
2.Are there any good restaurants on the way?
3.Any tourist stops along the way?
·We may want to tour Myrtle Beach, Savannah, or the Outer Banks. On the way back.

Please let us know how it would be and what to expect …we are planning now but we will be going down the end of September.


Thanks,
-phil

 

[hobogary]

www.usastar.com/i95 lists all the restaurants, motels, rest areas with links to tourist stops and city guides. One thing to see is South of the Border, a "tourist trap" with junk shops a large motel, 5 eating places, large fireworks shop etc. Many people love it, many hate it, but you sure cant drive by it without knowing it, www.pedroland.com. Good touring ideas, I might add Brunswick Ga, and St Augustine Fl to the list of possibles. Have a great trip.

 

[eagles]

my favorite place to stop is at south of the border. i stay at the hotel there. it is 1/2 way down and back up for us. you can get out and walk around, stretch your legs, enjoy a few small type rides, mini golf, and depending on time of nite, you could have a really nice dinner, or some dinner food, (still all in all good). the rooms are average, and not that expensive, also the indoor pool is great.

i have also received coupons in the mail to come back and stay, which i have done.

 

[mommiepoppins]

The traffic on 95 is crazy by md,va,del Try to take an alt rt. PLEASE PLEASE. We drove from wdw (pop) to nj in 1 night to go to aunt 75 b day on a Sat. The traffic was BAD at all hours bumper to bumper no traffic accidents. STOP and GO stop and GO.. I would try 81. It is worth the extra miles.

 

[NYDisGuy]

I drove from NY to WDW so I guess I can offer some insight. I drove straight through, only stopped for gas, and lucked out by hitting two Mcdonalds at each rest area. I have no kids though so that definitley alters things. I stopped at Daytona Beach the drive there, will never do that again for many reasons. I had an xm radio which I suggest anyone get if you dont have a huge collection of cd's. My adrenillne was going the whole time on the way there since you know you will about to be in warm Florida and obviousley the best place on Earth. The downside is the way back. We went to the Animal Kingdom on our last day because I wanted to take advantage of not having to worry about catching a plane, which is the only reason I drove besides carrying extra luggage thanks to my girlfriend. We stopped at South of the Border on the way back, because I really didnt want to go home just yet, and yea its basically what everyone says it is, a "tourist trap".

Also forgot to add we left at 5 p.m. to go to Florida. I preciscley calculated this for over a month. I live in Long Island, so at 5 p.m. all the traffic would be coming into Long Island, not out of it so we got to New Jersey in no time. I hit absolutley no traffic the way there. We were in Florida about 10 a.m. the next day so It definitley worked out, hit Daytona in about 18 hours. I cant remember how many gas stops we did, but the amount we spent was $250 total.

 

[luvthatduke]

Lots of good advice on this sticky thread
from top of the page ~
(Yippee! I finally got a chance to use the driving smilie!!)

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=394351

 

[isyt]

I have driven many times and as much as we like to plan things out they just don't work out when driving to Disney. You may want to stop for lunch but if you have 2 sleeping kids you don't. You may hit traffic , or have some unexpected rest room breaks. We usually have good luck driving but I don't plan it. The last couple of trips I leave North Jersey around 3a and I am checking into Disney by 10p. I wouldn't recommend that for everyone but I just want to get there and it works well for us.

 

[plove53]

Thanks for all the tips… We have no kids and it would just be my DG and me (so we have one less hassle). Our trip would not be until the end of September… so I want and plan a smooth trip. I do not want to fly (I have and hate it – I’m a big sissy! ). I took the train and coming home we were on it for 30 hours; so my DG will not do it again.

I know it would be a long hull but I do like driving I do it all the time going to ME, NH, VT, VA, MD, WV, IL, TN [coming from jersey] and I have no problem… I do know FL is a tad longer. So if I do it in two days I guess I can stop around 10-12 hours into the trip.

We do not have a start time but would like to pull into Pop around 3pm. I was thinking leaving early in the am around 5am, or would it be better leaving at around midnight? We would hit traffic in DC (5 hours from me) so I may want avoid that. I never thought about taking 81 down. Never thought about leaving after rush hour.

So this is my first driving draft.

Plan A-
Leave at 5a or 12a - Start NJTP (95) and head south to Orlando, hop on Rt 4 to WDW.

Plan B-
Unknown leave time – Start NJTP to Rt 78, to 81, to 64, back to 95, to 4 to WDW.

Plan C-
Nothing yet

Thank again
-p

 

[hobogary]

If you go 95 going thru all the big cities at night makes sense, if you try 81 see how far out of your way it is.I know some people do it that way to avoid all the traffic.We start on 81 so no problem for us. We usually take us 17 in Winchester Va to Fredricksburg, but you can also take 81 to 77 to 26 to 95 also, just about the same milage.

 

[CanadianGuy]

There is a plan C..

Which is get on 81 take it to I-77 and then take that to I-26 which re-joins 95 in Georgia.

We did that route on the way home last year... seemed to be about 140 miles longer. But we had NO traffic problems.

On the way down we lost 3 hours in DC bumper to bumper traffic at 12 midnight on a Saturday for pete's sake.

We also had a minor slowdown in Richmond, VA on the way down.

J

 

[plove53]

Thanks again

I HATE sitting in traffic and would drive around it.