Driving from Orlando to Anaheim

[pls3399]

I am going to pick up my cousin that has been doing the Disney College Program in CA. I am going to fly out and then drive back. I can't wait to see Disneyland after practically living at WDW all my life.

I digress, has anyone here completed this drive and have any advice or placs to stop and see on the way home?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Leofoenget]

I am going to pick up my cousin that has been doing the Disney College Program in CA. I am going to fly out and then drive back. I can't wait to see Disneyland after practically living at WDW all my life.

I digress, has anyone here completed this drive and have any advice or placs to stop and see on the way home?

Thank you in advance.

Do you mean fly to Anaheim, pick up your cousin and drive back to Orlando? Did I miss read that or did you say it backwards?

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, I've done part of the drive. Went from VA down the east coast, took a right at Florida, across the country, turned right (LOL) at Palm Springs and up to WA.

It's a long drive. But it's nice, if you like your traveling companion (I was alone with my thoughts, and since I always agree with myself it was quite nice). I stopped in New Orleans, San Antonio, a random hotel near the border of New Mexico and Arizona, and Palm Springs, on the way across.

If you are going the direction stated in the subject line (orlando to Anaheim), watch out for sunsets. Start your day early and end before the sun starts to come down. My drive across Lake Pontchartrain was very very difficult thanks to the big orange ball in the sky blinding me. If you're going the way described in the body of your post, avoid sunrises. Well, there's generally a difficult spot at sunset when the sun can hit your rear-view mirror and make things weird, but that's a lot less disruptive than having the sun setting straight in your face. And you can always adjust the rear view mirror for the nighttime setting if that works for you.

Have FUN!

 

[ConnieB]

Disneyland to DisneyWorld is 2506 miles. Assuming an average of 65 miles an hour (yes, there are places you can hit 70-75 and still not be pulled over, but getting out of Anaheim you'll be lucky to go 50, lol...so it's an average)...so it's about 38 hours of driving.

Figure out how many hours a day you want to drive and plot your course. My route would be something like:

It's about a 6 hour drive from Disneyland to Phoenix, which would be a major city to stop in....or since you'll then turn south to continue on, you could add another 1 1/2 hours or so and be in Tucson. From there I'd plan to get to Las Cruces or El Paso on day 2. The drive across Texas is a long one....it's about 600 miles or a solid 8 hours of driving to get from El Paso to San Antonio. No major towns really in between, but lots of Texas BBQ to eat and tumbleweeds to count. If you want to push harder Houston is another 2 hours or so past San Antonio. Next head for either Baton Rouge or forge on another hour to New Orleans. That leaves about 600 miles, 9 hours, to get to Orlando.

I've driven from Phoenix to Orlando and back.....with kids so I was the sole driver. I can tell you that 8 hours behind the wheel is nothing....until the second or third day of that long schedule. We had music and audio books to listen to, took a lot of stops to see whatever suited our fancy along the way (which added to the length of the day since we did the stops I suggested above so some days were 10-12 hours between hotel beds to collapse on).

If both of you will be driving it will be much easier because you can take turns....personally I'd suggest 2-3 hour shifts just so you have an excuse to stop and stetch your legs for a minute and so you don't really feel like it's never going to end, lol.

If you've got the time (and we did this a second trip and enjoyed it MUCH more), then I'd plan about half that many miles each day and stop and really enjoy the sites. Our second trip I had the girls do some research about what we could stop and see in the way of sites so we have it planned out better. Was nice to also be able to plan ahead and book hotels to get cheaper than walk in rates....but now with smartphones I wonder if you could book it a few hours away and get internet rates?

Have a fun trip!

 

[pls3399]

Sorry that I wasn't clear. I am flying from Orlando to LA and then driving from Anaheim back to Orlando.

Thanks for the advice so far. Any suggestions for sightseeing on the trip back?

 

[HydroGuy]

Sorry that I wasn't clear. I am flying from Orlando to LA and then driving from Anaheim back to Orlando.

Thanks for the advice so far. Any suggestions for sightseeing on the trip back?

The Grand Canyon. Carlsbad Caverns. New Orleans.

 

[SurfinTX]

I have driven all but the California portion of that. (Las Vegas to Orlando)

My preferred stops would be Tucson, Az since it's about 8 hours. If you can drive 12 hours then shoot for El Paso.
Next up would be San Antonio at 8-10 hours depending. A great place to visit and see the sights. The Alamo, Riverwalk, Sea World and plenty more.
After that I'd go 9 hours to New Orleans. Plenty to see and do there.
From there it's around 11 hours to Orlando. you can break that up by stopping by some of the Florida beaches along the way. The most convenient is Pensacola.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

 

[lapdwife]

We did a road trip from here to Orlando last year. It was a BLAST! We're talking about doing it again in 2012. We took the 10 and drove from here to our first stop in San Antonio, spent the night there. (AZ, NM, and most of TX are boring as heck!) Next was Gulfport, MS..a cute little place. Then drove to Mariana, FL...night there...next morning off to Orlando. On the way home, we stopped in New Orleans (wish we'd scheduled more time there than one day/night). I'm picky about my showers, so that's why we stopped so many times. San Antonio I'd do again, as well as NO. I think those will be our only stops next time. Enjoy!

 

[WannaseePooh]

Since you are out here I would plan to stop in Las Vegas for a night and sightsee before moving on. I love Vegas

 

[darph nader]

If you have some 'major' time in Tucson,there's always the Ariz Sonoran Desert Museum,Old Tucson or the Pima Air Museum.

 

[bumbershoot]

Definitely New Orleans....

 

[AmyPond]

Any idea what route you'll be taking?

I've never done that drive. Only Nebraska to California (and back) a few times. And Nebraska to Orlando once. So much farther North than your trip.

 

[jtown]

Oh, um...ugh. Yeah, I drove most of that trip once. The 10/20 combo to Atlanta. I do not advise that route, and I can't imagine taking the 10 all the way across would be any better. I think it was the third day that I demanded we stop at the first real restaurant we saw, no matter when we saw it. I couldn't take another gas station Subway sandwich. It got to be a running joke. We'd wait and wait and wait and wait for some sign of civilization. Then settle for Subway at a gas station.

If this is your first (and possibly only) cross-country road trip, I honestly suggest you add a couple-three days and do the 15/70 route and start heading south east around St. Louis or Kentucky. You'll still have to make it thru Kansas but at least most of the rest of the drive will be more scenic than driving through AZ/NM/TX. That stretch just keeps going on forever. "My God, are we still in Texas???" And then wishing you were back in TX when you hit Louisiana roads. Utah and Colorado are absolutely beautiful. As is much of Missouri (tho I have to admit I've only been to southern Missouri).

If you don't want to go that far astray, a friend who's made that drive a number of times says the 40 is better than the 10. Both in scenery and food choices.

If you want the most direct route, that'd be the 10. The Phoenix/El Paso/New Orleans/Ornaldo schedule is manageable. Just be ready for hundreds and hundreds of miles of "I spy with my little eye...a whole lot of nothing."

 

[jen22984]

We just made a cross country trip last month for our move. We were in WDW for 2 weeks, then drove to GA for 5 nights (thats where we used to live) to get last minute things done for the move. Then from GA we started the cross country trip to our new home, close to Santa Barbara. The places we stopped were: The Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, and the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve. They are are really close to each other so we split our days up so we would get most of the driving done in the 1st half of the trip and could take our time sight-seeing the 2nd half.

 

[bumbershoot]

That stretch just keeps going on forever. "My God, are we still in Texas???"

Just be ready for hundreds and hundreds of miles of "I spy with my little eye...a whole lot of nothing."

So true, so true....

 

[Brancaneve]

We are actually doing the opposite.....flying from Sac to Orlanda, staying there for about 10 days and then renting a van and driving back. The comments from others have been extremely helpful, but I can't help but feel a little nervous about such a long trip. We are flying there because it is a "compromise" between my wishes and those of my road hungry DH. Keep the tips coming!

Bump, bump....bump!

 

[ConnieB]

We are actually doing the opposite.....flying from Sac to Orlanda, staying there for about 10 days and then renting a van and driving back. The comments from others have been extremely helpful, but I can't help but feel a little nervous about such a long trip. We are flying there because it is a "compromise" between my wishes and those of my road hungry DH. Keep the tips coming!

Bump, bump....bump!

My family has always enjoyed the drive home more.....we're always so excited to get to Disney that no one wants to stop any more than necessary....great for speed in getting there, not so great for the "I'm sick of sitting in this seat", lol. So on the way home we take time to stop and check things out a bit more because, well, we don't really want to go home, lol.

 

[Brancaneve]

My family has always enjoyed the drive home more.....we're always so excited to get to Disney that no one wants to stop any more than necessary....great for speed in getting there, not so great for the "I'm sick of sitting in this seat", lol. So on the way home we take time to stop and check things out a bit more because, well, we don't really want to go home, lol.

I'm glad you all enjoyed it ConnieB. Can you tell me what stops you make? What do you think about Orlando to New Orleans, then to San Antonio, then Tuscon, then Sacramento? I think we need one more stop to break things up a bit. What do you think?

 

[ConnieB]

I'm glad you all enjoyed it ConnieB. Can you tell me what stops you make? What do you think about Orlando to New Orleans, then to San Antonio, then Tuscon, then Sacramento? I think we need one more stop to break things up a bit. What do you think?

If you go back to post #4 of this thread I detailed the stops, you'll just want to go backward because I described it from CA to FL.

Tucson to Sacramento is a long haul.....How about a stop in Anaheim, lol. It's about 7 hours from Tucson to Disneyland....then probably 7-8 hours to Sacramento (I've only gone as far as SF, but I believe Sacramento is 1-2 hours beyond that right?).

We're a homeschooling family so our stops tend to be historical sites, museums, etc. Or shopping, lol. But it's hard on the drive out to enjoy a good museum when you keep thinking "x more days and I'll be able to go to Walt's Museum".

Edited to add: The other thing to keep in mind is that my kids aren't of driving age....so it's just me driving, so we can't drive as many hours as we might if there were two drivers who could take turns. I'm definitely looking forward to when the girls turn 16 (they're twins, so we'll go from 1 driver to 3 instantly, lol). But...even with two drivers, don't underestimate the strain of long distance driving....it's one thing to drive from San Francisco to Disneyland and still have the energy to get a couple hours in at the park.....it's another thing when it's been 3 days of all day driving......it's starts getting old. Or maybe I'm just old, lol.

 

[sasywtch]

I'm glad you all enjoyed it ConnieB. Can you tell me what stops you make? What do you think about Orlando to New Orleans, then to San Antonio, then Tuscon, then Sacramento? I think we need one more stop to break things up a bit. What do you think?

After New Orleans, I'd think about coming up north more to I-40. The bottom down by 10 was BORING. I lived in OKC for 7 years and drove back to Sac every year twice. We did I-10 once and that was it. You can stop in OKC for a few minutes to see the memorial, Amarillo has the eat the 72 oz steak thing The first time was so interesting, the 10th time, not so much. The mesa's were so neat the first time, we stopped at the rest stops in New Mexico to check out the bee hive type rocks. Winslow AZ has the Eagles song thing which was interesting. Lots of Indian stores to buy from along the way. A casino off the freeway in New Mexico somewhere by a rest stop. Close to Flagstaff is Sedona and Grand Canyon. If I was kidless, I'd head up to Vegas.