Driving from Ottawa

[Bea]

We just found our we are moving to Ottawa in 3 months . Quite a surprise, but nothing we can't recover from. I can plan a trip to WDW just as easily (if not easier) from Ottawa as I can from Halifax .

Just wondering if someone can tell me how long the drive is from Ottawa to Orlando? What route was taken? Where did you stay for the night? Any tips would be great as I think we will drive this summer!!

 

[DisFan2]

Hi Bea,

I dug this old post out of the past.

Others here (like Nepean, FayeW and nagle (he's in Brockville, IIRC)), may have other suggestions on the best route.

As far as stops along the way, I found this old post about one of my favorite spots, Savannah, Georgia.

 

[kenneyjo]

We live in Ottawa and have driven down about 5 times.
We usually do the drive in 2 days. We try and leave early (around 6 am) on the first day and drive for about 12-14 hours. The second day is usually a little shorter, maybe 10-12 hours depending on traffic, etc.

The route we take:
Hwy 417 to the 416 and then on to the 401.
We crossover at the Thousand Islands Bridge onto the I-81 South.
From I-81 we avoid Washington D.C by taking the 66 west to the 17 South which will take you to I-95.
We usually stop for the night once we are on the I-95 (near Richmond, VA).
Then on Day 2 it's smooth sailing, just follow the I-95 all the way down to the 4 and into Orlando!

Hope this helps and welcome to Ottawa!

 

[ottawamom]

Hi Bea

We haven't driven to Orlando since I was a teenager but I just wanted to say welcome to Ottawa. I think you'll find its a great city to live in. We're not near the ocean but...

Anne-Marie

 

[Bea]

Thanks for the welcome to Ottawa, I went to high school there (Merivale), but has been awhile (a LONG while) since I lived there . Am alittle apprehensive about the move but I am sure once we are there and the kids are happy in school, I will be okay.

Kennyjo, we usually get up early and drive also so your plan looks similar to what we would do. Do you have any recommendations for hotels in Richmond? Do you stay right in Richmond or further South?

On the way back do you stay in Richmond as well? We like to get the long day out of the way the first day but after Richmond is Fredericksburg and then DC, which I don't necessarily want to stay in.

Thanks everyone.

 

[RunDanceSkate]

We have driven down. Usually straight through, leaving as soon as the kids are out of school and arriving 24hrs later. Now we just drive to Rochester and fly down non stop. Leave here at 6am and arrive in Flordia at 3pm.

We (DH, DS 12, DD 9 and I) moved here to Orleans last summer and love it. I am sure you will too.

Cindy

 

[Bea]

Thanks for the tip ..I just check airfare from Rochester to Orlando and both Northwest and United had return fares for less than $200.00 canadian. Good to know.

It would be great to fly and we probably will on occasion but driving is sometimes just as exciting as WDW itself

 

[MaeB]

I've been to DW twice and drove both times (I live an hour south of Ottawa). THe first time I went I was 9 and my brother was 11 and we stopped twice on the way I believe. We stopped in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and Kenly, North Carolina on the way. All together, yeah, it takea about 24 hours.

When I was 17 I went with friends and we drove straight for the 24 hours. It wasn't that bad at all. I believe, even though I live on a US border, we drove to Gananoque and crossed over there.

I hope you have a wonderful time!! And welcome back to Ontario!

 

[disney funseeker]

From Ottawa, you can cross the border and fly out of Syracuse.

 

[FayeW]

Hi Bea! I am a native Nova Scotian, transplanted to Ottawa courtesy of the military in 1997. We love it here an plan on this being our final more. We have been to Orlando twice, and have another trip planned for Dec. We always drive to Syracuse, NY (about 3.25 hours from our house in Ottawa East) and fly on JetBlue. They are an excellent airline, you should check them out for your dates, you may be pleasantly surprised. We usually fly for less than $1000. CDN for the 4 our us; flying out of Ottawa is more than double that. Hope you have a great move!

 

[nepean]

We have driven 10 times and have always done the 81-66-117-95 route. We usually leave about 6am and stop the first night around 11 p.m. We are usually in South Carolina by then. It is great getting up to spring time weather the first morning. We have driven straight through and straight home. It is a long 26 hours.

Friends flew out of Syracuse last month for $750.CDN for three people on Delta. They went down after work and stayed overnight at the Quality Inn which included free parking for the whole time.

Welcome to Ottawa. I live very close to Merivale High School. Happy house hunting.


Nepean

 

[kenneyjo]

Thanks for the welcome to Ottawa, I went to high school there (Merivale), but has been awhile (a LONG while) since I lived there . Am alittle apprehensive about the move but I am sure once we are there and the kids are happy in school, I will be okay.

Kennyjo, we usually get up early and drive also so your plan looks similar to what we would do. Do you have any recommendations for hotels in Richmond? Do you stay right in Richmond or further South?

On the way back do you stay in Richmond as well? We like to get the long day out of the way the first day but after Richmond is Fredericksburg and then DC, which I don't necessarily want to stay in.

Thanks everyone.

Unfortunately no recommendations for hotels in the Richmond area. Chances are we stop south of Richmond near the NC border. When we make the decision to stop, we usually just look at our CAA tourbook and figure out which hotel is on the next exit.

On the way back, our stop usually is in the Warrenton, VA area. It's right near the HWY17/95 junction. Good main strip with decent hotels and food choices.

We also like making our first driving day our long day.

We avoid DC like the plague. Beautiful city but we just don't feel safe

I am not sure if you mentioned it but when are you going. We are leaving Fri May 5! Hope the The OC and CSI are repeats so we can hit the hay early on the Thurs. (Who are we kidding, we'll be too excited)

 

[DisFan2]

We took the I81, 17/66, I95 route last October and it worked really well - this was the first time we bypassed Baltimore and Washington entirely. We stopped the first night in Chester, which was just about 10-15 minutes south of Richmond. We booked through Priceline and got a Courtyard for about $40 US.

 

[Nagle]

We have driven to WDW 5 or 6 times. The last 2 times we used the 81, 77, 26, 95 route. We much preferred it to 81, 66, 17, 95 which has way too much truck traffic now. We also shaved over an hour off our trip. Heading down we drive straight through. Last month we left around 1PM and pulled in to Daytona for a coffee at Starbucks around 9AM. Coming home we usually leave by 6AM and get to Chambersburg PA. Stay at the Hampton Inn for the night and drive the last few hours on day 2.

John

 

[DisFan2]

Hi John,

Where did you wind up stopping for dinner on the way down?

 

[ottawa-newbie]

No advice, but just wanted to say welcome back to Ottawa

 

[Nagle]

We stopped around 8:00 Pm at a mall in Pennsylvania somewhere. Can't even remember the name of the town. Chris had a couple of slices of pizza and Jen & I ate at Chik Fil A. Wasn't worth the stop. The other food was a couple of Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee (Thermos full of Tim's) during the night.

John

 

[ottawamom]

Another option to driving or flying out of Syracuse (we've done that before) would be to drive the extra 2.5 hrs to Albany and fly Southwest. They have the same deals you can get from Buffalo (family of 5 under $600). You just have to be prepared to play the game. We plan on flying Southwest the next time we go to Disney.

 

[Nagle]

Another option to driving or flying out of Syracuse (we've done that before) would be to drive the extra 2.5 hrs to Albany and fly Southwest. They have the same deals you can get from Buffalo (family of 5 under $600). You just have to be prepared to play the game. We plan on flying Southwest the next time we go to Disney.

What game is that? For $120 per person I'd be interested in playing the game. (I think)

 

[ottawamom]

The waiting game, the travelling the middle of the week game(possibly). Southwest airlines flies out of Buffalo and Albany NY, so you have to get to one of those airports. There are direct flights daily (2hrs) to Orlando. Southwest has something called DING, you can sign up for it on their website. You will have to look up a zipcode for Albany because they won't accept Canadian postal codes. DING will notify you by email of their time-limited seat sales (I've seen seats as low as $49each way). Sometimes they have other non-DING sales and the prices on those can be great as well. The other thing about Southwest is that they don't have reserved seating. They assign a letter (A,B,C) to your boarding pass and that is your priority for getting seated. It's a little more complicated than this but have a look through the Transportation forum there are lots of posts about the system on it. The prices can't be beat and the airline has a great reputation (one of the few discount American Airlines my husband will fly on). I started looking into them after we returned from Disney the last time because we have now used up all our airline miles and will have to pay to get to Disney the next time.