Driving from Western NY?

[Serling126]

Looking for advice from anybody who has driven from Western NY to Orlando! According to mapquest, it takes 20 hours, 19 minutes from Rochester. When you figure in an overnight stay somewhere and rest stops, how long did it actually take?

Also, are there any rest stop areas that you recommend? Any other tips or suggestions? We are driving in August with my 2 girls, the longest they have been in a car has been about 2 hours, so I am a bit nervous, but with plenty of activities to occupy them I think they will be fine

Thanks!

 

[vicki_c]

We have done it quite a few times. Sometimes we drove straight through, sometimes we stopped overnight. I'd say on average driving straight through it took about 22 hours from Buffalo. Sometimes a bit more.

When we stopped, we have done various things. Sometimes we stopped in Beckley, WV and then drove the rest of the way the next day. Sometimes we stopped in North or South Carolina. It really depends on when you're leaving, what your tolerance for straight driving is, etc.

Without knowing that info, I would suggest driving for more than 1/2 way, then stopping for the night, then driving the rest of the way the next day. It's always nice to be at least a little closer than 1/2 way when you start on Day 2, in my opinion.

When we drove straight through, we would leave in the evening (after work) so the kids slept for much of the drive. But that is quite hard - driving through the mountains of WV at midnight is really not that fun!

 

[shafke]

For the actual driving time you should probably add about 2-3 hours to account for rest stops, eating, etc... Then figure on when you plan to stop for overnight and then leave the next day.
For us the drive down from LI which is about 19 hours took about 38 hours when all is said and done.

 

[Serling126]

Thank you for the tips

 

[BuzzLiteyear]

We drive from just south of Buffalo. In the summer, we can do the trip in about 18 hours. We (I) drive straight through. We usually leave late afternoon or early evening and the kids sleep for a good deal of the trip. By the time they wake up, we are usually in South Carolina. Our route is probably different from yours as we head towards Pittsburgh.

 

[Serling126]

We drive from just south of Buffalo. In the summer, we can do the trip in about 18 hours. We (I) drive straight through. We usually leave late afternoon or early evening and the kids sleep for a good deal of the trip. By the time they wake up, we are usually in South Carolina. Our route is probably different from yours as we head towards Pittsburgh.

According to Mapquest, the quickest way to go from Rochester is to start out west on the thruway towards Buffalo, then cut south, so it sounds like it's pretty much the same route as you take... any good places to stop along the way?

Thanks

 

[Alexander]

We drive from the Syracuse area...We've done it quite a few different ways. Many times we'll drive as far as Jacksonville (18 hours door to door) before stopping. This really isn't bad if we leave at 6 AM and stop at Midnight. However...DH prefers to drive from Midnight to 6 AM rather than any other times. There is much less traffic and he just gets in line with the tractor-trailers and goes. The kids sleep this entire time and we really make great progress. It is always my recommendation to drive at night if you've got little ones.

 

[BuzzLiteyear]

According to Mapquest, the quickest way to go from Rochester is to start out west on the thruway towards Buffalo, then cut south, so it sounds like it's pretty much the same route as you take... any good places to stop along the way?

Thanks

I just noticed you are going in August, maybe we'll see you there . There are plenty of places to stop along the way. If you are going to stop for the night, we have stopped just north of Charlotte. I think we also made a stop in Beckley, WV one year. If you want to do most of the driving the first day, drive to Savannah, GA. It's a short (compared to 1st day) drive to the world. The only part of that route that I hate is Rt. 19 in West Virginia. It's the worst 60 miles of the trip.

 

[vicki_c]

The only part of that route that I hate is Rt. 19 in West Virginia. It's the worst 60 miles of the trip.

Speed trap central.

 

[disneydee6]

If you are traveling I-95 we always stayed in Santee, SC. It's right off the route. There are plenty of decent hotels (not fancy or anything lol) to overnight in, and there's a cracker barrel and a pizza hut.

 

[jadedbeauty14304]

Hiya! I am making the drive in 2 weeks. I have gone the way you are going many times and the mountains are rough driving. This time I am going a different route. I am going east first and hopping on 15 in Corning. Then making my way down to Gettysburg. After that we are heading towards DC to hop on 95 and take that the rest of the way south. If you have AAA, check out their website. I mapped my route using their triptik online part of their website. It has traffic advisories, AAA approved food and lodging locations, and off you know where you want to stop you can check the aaa diamond ratings, etc... Also check out the For 2000 miles round-trip driving thread for tips.
Happy planning!

 

[Tinkerbell3014]

We are driving it again this August! Maybe we'll see you on the road. We usually leave around 4am and make it to Rock Hill,SC on the first day. We get up and on the road by 7am the next day and arrive at Disney by late afternoon. Then we relax and swim at our resort, get a good night's sleep and wake up ready to head straight to MK. I can't wait for August!

There are tons of activities for kids to keep them occupied on the drive. One of my kids' favorites is a scanvenger hunt. We also play different types of Disney trivia.

 

[Serling126]

Awesome info, thanks everybody! We will have to look into which route we want to take.. Right now the plan is to leave about 5am on wednesday, take our time getting down there and not arrive til mid-day on friday. My sister (who drives everywhere because she doesn't like to fly) says we are nuts and 2 or 3 days is too short. But, from everybody's experiences here, it sounds like 2 days will be ok!

 

[banks37]

Last year we left Buffalo at 4:00 am and arrived in Jacksonville, FL around 10 pm. The trip back we left WDW after breakfast at 11:00 and drove straight through arriving home at 5:00 am. That was a bit much but we wanted to send the kids to school the next day, and we did.

This summer we plan on leaving Buffalo at 5:00 am and staying over night in GA. Hopefully we'll get there arounf 9:00 or so. We like to have a nice short trip the next day so we can do something. We hope to roll up to WDW around noon and, not even unpack, head over to Trails End for lunch then to MK for part of the evening.

My wife and I both thought it was an easy drive, even with 3 young kinds. Loved the mountains of WV.

 

[ParrotBill]

We're driving from Rochester in 2 weeks. We'll be going west as everyone has said, but wondering if it's better to go via I-79 through PA or to go a little further and go south through OH. We're leaving at 4pm after school so we're doing that crazy West Virgina in the middle of the night thing. If we are successful napping and taking turns driving, we'll arrive around 3pm.

Driving a long way with kids is a challenge. Here's some things we do:

Portable DVD Player with LONG kid's movies
When you stop for bathrooms take a 5 minute walk
Bag of snacks and fruit where we can reach it
Small soft cooler of drinks where we can reach it
GPS for unexpected detours or to figure out how long until somewhere
List of all Starbucks along route (maybe that's just me?)
Buy a copy of "The Next Exit" or "Exit Now" which lists gas, food, etc at all Interstate interchanges

If you get tired, change drivers or stop and nap!

 

[Serling126]

We're driving from Rochester in 2 weeks. We'll be going west as everyone has said, but wondering if it's better to go via I-79 through PA or to go a little further and go south through OH. We're leaving at 4pm after school so we're doing that crazy West Virgina in the middle of the night thing. If we are successful napping and taking turns driving, we'll arrive around 3pm.

Driving a long way with kids is a challenge. Here's some things we do:

Portable DVD Player with LONG kid's movies
When you stop for bathrooms take a 5 minute walk
Bag of snacks and fruit where we can reach it
Small soft cooler of drinks where we can reach it
GPS for unexpected detours or to figure out how long until somewhere
List of all Starbucks along route (maybe that's just me?)
Buy a copy of "The Next Exit" or "Exit Now" which lists gas, food, etc at all Interstate interchanges

If you get tired, change drivers or stop and nap!

We are going to be doing mostly daytime driving, I would be too nervous to go thru the mountains at night!! Thanks for the great suggestions I will be the one doing most of the driving though, the other adult that will be my grandma and to be honest she isn't the best driver, I think that is part of the reason why she asked me to go

 

[BuzzLiteyear]

We're driving from Rochester in 2 weeks. We'll be going west as everyone has said, but wondering if it's better to go via I-79 through PA or to go a little further and go south through OH. We're leaving at 4pm after school so we're doing that crazy West Virgina in the middle of the night thing. If we are successful napping and taking turns driving, we'll arrive around 3pm.

Driving a long way with kids is a challenge. Here's some things we do:

Portable DVD Player with LONG kid's movies
When you stop for bathrooms take a 5 minute walk
Bag of snacks and fruit where we can reach it
Small soft cooler of drinks where we can reach it
GPS for unexpected detours or to figure out how long until somewhere
List of all Starbucks along route (maybe that's just me?)
Buy a copy of "The Next Exit" or "Exit Now" which lists gas, food, etc at all Interstate interchanges

If you get tired, change drivers or stop and nap!

This last trip we skipped I-79 and went I-77 through Ohio. I liked that route much better. Still had the mountains, but the highway was better. It didn't take us any longer to go I-77. Enjoy your trip!

 

[katieam1]

We drove twice in 2009 from Central NY (around the Syracuse area) we really liked driving. What we did the first time (January) is leave at 2 am and drove until about 9 that night. We got as far as Savannah, then we continued on in the morning about 8am. The second trip (in August) we left at midnight and drove until 10 and still ended up in Savannah. We got stuck in 2 traffic jams. We got up and got going again this time at 9. We drove with two kids (3 and 1) It was a long drive but a fun drive for the most part. I brought a lot of snacks and a lot of disney movies to play in our van. We are driving again in September. We found the night driving was the best because there was hardly any traffic in our way. The way home is always a little more of a pain but I found it is a MUST to stop! We tried the second trip to drive straight home with out a hotel stay and it was not a fun time. There are some great hotels on the way there and back but you will find the better ones in the areas where there are more places to choose from. Have fun and go with the flow!

 

[VW camper Dan]

Dan from Syracuse here,

while Syracuse has easy access to I-81 and it's a fairly straight shot south to Frederick then I-95, I have family in Richmond, VA so we usually stop there on the way south. then to Savannah, GA then to WDW wasn't putting too many miles in one day ~8hr driving days
but we drive down in a classic 1980 VW camper.

in 2 weeks we're headed south with a group of VW campers, but we're taking the Atlantic coastal route and staying at great coastal campgrounds.

our driving experiance may vary from yours but the roadtrip has always been part of the destination.

Dan in Syracuse.
VW Club of Central NY