Driving from Ottawa

[Bea]

If any one out there has driven from Ottawa to WDW, I have some questions for you. How long did it take? Where did you stay along the way? What route did you take? Thanks!!

 

[DisFan2]

Hi Bea,

We've driven down 6 times in the last 10 years and always follow the same route. We take 416 south to the 401 and head west. We cross over at the Thousand Islands bridge and pick up Interstate 81. From there we head south all the way to Harrisburg, PA. At Harrisburg we take I83 to Baltimore and skirt around Baltimore on the beltway, I think it's I395 and then south to Washington, D.C. We take the beltway around Washington (495?) and then run south on 95 all the way to Titusville, Florida (there's a great restaurant not far from Cape Kennedy). From there it's only an hour from Orlando via the Beeline or I4. We usually stop the first night in or around Richmond, Virginia. In total (with agreeable weather) it usually takes us about 25 hours of driving. I love the drive with the scenery and factory outlet malls!!! Most people would encourage you to avoid the Baltimore/Washington area - we've never tried it, but I think it probably is faster to stay on 81 at Harrisburg and continue south into W. Virginia and then cut over to 95 (there's a Pfaltzgraff outlet store that we always visit at York, PA, which is east of Harrisburg). Hope you have a great drive!

 

[DisFan2]

Bump.

 

[North7]

Hi Bea,

We have driven down over 10 times and usually take the same route. We cross at the Thousand Islands Bridge and go south on 81. Then east on 66 for a short distance and then south east on 17 until I95. Then its 95 until I4. We take the bypass around Richmond (295? maybe) and depending on the time of day, we sometimes take the bypass around Jacksonville. Every couple of years, I will get another TripTik from CAA, and this is the route they map out for us. My parents are currently in Florida and their TripTik, that was prepared in January, also has this route. Recently, we have been driving straight through. Our last trip was 27 hours going down and 25 coming back. This time included stops for gas and meals. We have young kids, so we would stop for at least an hour each meal to let them play and use up some energy. I think it is approximately 2350 kms each way for us. We usually drive about 120 km/h which is about 4 mph over the normal speed limit of 65. We've never had a problem at this speed. Occasionally, the flow of traffic is faster and I normally just try and stick with the flow. From Kingston, Ricmond VA is approximately half way. If you take the same route we do, there is a group of motels on 17, approximately 30 minutes from Richmond that are nice and fairly priced.

If you are travelling in the winter, we have found that usually the worst weather (snow ) is between Watertown and Syracuse. I believe one trip it was snow/freezing rain as far south as South Carolina, but normally, it isn't bad once you hit PA.

The drive isn't nearly as bad as a lot of people think Let me know if you have any other questions I might be able to answer.

Jeff

 

[Nagle]

Pretty much identical info as Jeff. We just drove down and back in December. We tend to drive a little faster than they do but the general info is the same. We also take 66 east so we hook up with I95 below Baltimore and D.C. We meet I95 at Fredericksburg.

Jeff, we have bypassed Jacksonville the last few times. How was it for you?

John

 

[North7]

Hi John,

Most of the time we don't bypass Jacksonville. It is a lot quicker to go straight through. I just checked the TripTik and it is 25 miles if you drive through Jacksonville and 36 miles if you take the bypass. The only time we take the bypass is if we hit Jacksonville at rush hour. On one trip, we were undecided right up to the swing off for the bypass and I decided to not to take it. We were stopped downtown because of a car accident for at least 1 hour... that was about 4:30-5:00 on a weekday afternoon. Other than that, we have had no problems driving through Jacksonville.

Jeff