Driving to Florida from Toronto in August 2007

[Cooper & Zoie's Mom]

Hi Everyone,

Let me start by saying that this is the most amazing site ever and I have read so many great tips and ideas for my upcoming trip and trips in the past that I personally have to thank everyone that is part of this wonderful site!!

Now, to my question.

We (my son, b/f and nephew) are driving from Toronto to Orlando at the beginning of August 2007.

How long is the drive (approximately) if we drive speed limit and if we leave early in the morning, say 6 a.m. how far should we go before we stop overnight. I am wanting to book a hotel for the night beforehand and was wondering around abouts where I might think of booking it.

Also, does anyone have an opinion as to the best route down???

Thanks so much!!!!!

Can't Wait Til August!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[nosnobunny2006]

It's a 24 hour non-stop drive no matter which way you chose to go. But the closest border crossing for you is either Niagara Falls or Buffalo. Which one you chose is up to you, we've found they both work just fine. Keep in mind the border crossing can take a while so be prepared, especially if it's a long weekend. Your only real choice for route would be Buffalo to Erie to Orlando. Once you're in Buffalo/Niagara Falls NY, take I90 west to Erie, then south on I79 to Bluefield VA. Then south on I77 to Columbia SC, east on I20 to I95 south to I4 west to Orlando.

The half-way point for an overnight stay would be someplace near Blueflield VA. Try to avoid the peak rush hour in Charlotte as it has horrid weekday traffic. Once you're south of that, it's smooth sailing.

If you haven't driven this route before, you're in for a treat. It's a beautiful drive.

Beth

 

[Lisa Anne Colling]

Hi! We go the same way as the above poster. It takes us 21 hours from our home in Carlisle, near Hamilton to DW. We drive straight through though. We leave at about 10 am. Grab luch at the border and dinner in Pittsburgh. That is usually the only place we see any traffic. We put the kids in thier PJ's and keep rolling. When we stop for gas, we do potty breaks at the same time. Traveling through thenight is great, kids & DH are quiet (only peace I ever get!) and there is no traffic. When we travel with my folks it takes us 23 hours. My Dad loves stopping at every rest area! He's worse then a kid! I would also suggest the Virgina area as a stop, although things are pretty spread out there. If you have the energy and leave early enough try to make it to Charlotte N.C there is alot around there, plus you are that much closer the next day. I think it is around 10 hours give or take abit.
Make it an adventure and make it fun!
hAPPY TRAVELS!
Lisa

 

[A&CsMom]

We go the same way, except after I79, we use US19, to I77, to I26, to I95, to I4. Just ordered our TripTix from CAA last week - they'll be ready on Monday! If you MapQuest your trip, this is the route it will give you.

 

[nosnobunny2006]

I forgot about US 19. We also go that way but you have to remember that although it's shorter, there are stop lights and you can get traffic.

Beth

 

[baillie]

i drive from kitchener and pick up my mom in sarnia. we cross at the sarnia border obviously lol. I bought the book "Along I75" and it was wonderful. each page is a half hour of travel time and it tells you what exits have what restaurants and hotels/motels and gives interesting facts of the area you're traveling thru and is just basically a wonderful travel guide

 

[momto1disneyfan]

I am from Waterloo. We are driving down in August as well, but not until the 18th. This will be our 3rd trip driving down. We always cross at the Windsor border and take the I75 route. We also have a copy of the I75 book and find it very informative. We drive straight through and it usally takes us about 27hrs. This includes stops for gas, meals and a 2hr sleep at a rest stop. We have done it in 24hrs but with kids, you just dont know how many stops you are going to have to make.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

We take the along 1-75 route as well.

We generally make it at least to Dalton GA but have also made it past Atlanta on the first day.

 

[Questforthemouse]

Hi Everyone,

Let me start by saying that this is the most amazing site ever and I have read so many great tips and ideas for my upcoming trip and trips in the past that I personally have to thank everyone that is part of this wonderful site!!

Now, to my question.

We (my son, b/f and nephew) are driving from Toronto to Orlando at the beginning of August 2007.

How long is the drive (approximately) if we drive speed limit and if we leave early in the morning, say 6 a.m. how far should we go before we stop overnight. I am wanting to book a hotel for the night beforehand and was wondering around abouts where I might think of booking it.

Also, does anyone have an opinion as to the best route down???

Thanks so much!!!!!

Can't Wait Til August!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First of all...Welcome to the DISBoards

If you could answer the following questions we can be of greater help to you in regards to timing, places to stop for the night and traffic issues...

1) What area of Toronto are you departing from (North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke). The GTA is a big area...

2) Are you departing Toronto on a weekday or weekend (does it happen to be the Friday or Saturday of the Civic Holiday weekend in August)

3) How long (in hours) are you willing to travel the first day? Some people like to put in a long first day to have a short second day (get to WDW at a decent hour) and some like to split evenly

4) How late are you willing to stop the first night on the road

 

[nokidz]

When we go in July, we are planning on leaving on friday night about 10pm and drive straight through. We will be going the same route as the second or third poster stated. We are planning on a 22 hour road trip.......

 

[branmack]

We drove down last Sept from the Niagara Region. We travelled via I79 / I77 and I95. We left at 5am and stopped at 6:00pm in Richburg SC for the night. This is about 1/2 hr south of Charlotte NC. We stopped 5 times along the way as we were travelling with a 9yr old and 5yr old.

The next day we left at 7am and arrived at Disney around 2:30pm. We only made 2 stops this day as the kids couldn't wait for Disney!!
CAA advised us to take this way and we loved it. Although I would not travel this way in the heart of winter.

My only advise is don't stop in Richburg SC. the hotel we stayed at was clean and provided a breakfast but the pool was nasty. My children were very upset.

 

[myasmum]

We are planning on driving in July and I have been trying to find a good route as well are are bascially by the Lakeshore/QEW route.
We are travelling with 3 kids (4, 5 and 8yrs old) THEY dont even know we are going they think we are going to see my husbands family in the US (which we are actually meeting up with them in FL)

We are picking up the rental at 7am so figure leave the house at 8am we plan a stop over at night so my husband can rest, we dont want to prebook a place as we want to see how far we can drive til he wants to stop. ANY HELP would greatly be appreciated this is my 1st time going to there and driving as well with 3 kids.

ANYONE know where to get cheap DVD players so the kids could watch movies I see roughly how much they are at Bet Buy/Future Shop and comapred them to the US stores and they seem cheaper in the US with exchange rates anyone have advice??

Thanks Robyn

 

[branmack]

We live near Fort Erie and we use the I77/I79/I95 route. This was provided to us by CAA. Map quest they also gave us this route. There is lots of scenery, rest stops and hotels along the way. If you leave around 8am you should definately get to Beckley WV. There are lots of hotels and a very nice rest stop there. Beckley will be about 12 hrs from Disney depending on how many stops you have to make. Depending on the weather you may not want to travel through the mountains in the dark. We alway try and make it though the mountains before dark. One time we left at at 5pm and stayed in Morgantown WV over night as this is the start of the mountains. We left the next day around 5am and arrived in Disney around 8:30pm. This was a very long day.

As we live right across the border, we shop over there on a regualar basis. Most things cost the same but they have twice as much selection on everything. When they have sales, they are alot better than ours. The DVD players are about the same price, unless you get a sale. You can check the US Best Buy, Walmart and Target websites

Check out momsminivan.com they have bingo cards that you can print off. My kids love doing them. As my 5yr old would cheat, we ended up giving each of them a prize once the card was complete. Portable DVD's are a WONDERFUL thing. We also used books on CD. Walmart has a whole bunch of Disney books with CD just before we left and my 5yr old loved them.

 

[nosnobunny2006]

Since you're travelling with small kids, I'd be very wary of going without firm hotel reservations. I've seen many a family with tired children get turned away because the hotel was fully booked up.

One thing you can do is book a couple of rooms at various towns near where you think you'll wind up at night. With most hotel chains, you can cancel them with no charge up til 4 or 6 PM the night of arrival. Then you judge how far you'll make it and cancel the ones you think you won't be needing. You have to monitor your progress very carefully and make sure you get cancellation numbers otherwise you run the risk of paying for a room you didn't use.

Beth

 

[jtconn]

we have done the 90/79/19/77/26/95/4 rte 5 times b4 between march and may have found the drive very quick and intersesting my kids espeically like the 2 tunnels u drive thru in west virgina taking u thru the mountains living north of TO we leave 4-430am to avoid rushhour and feel it is well worth it to use 407 to hamilton to save some time and also the bridge to buffalo not that busy when arriving around the 6-630 mark
we have done both straight thru about 22hrs and stops on route have found our depart time allows tohit charlotte b4 their rush hoour hits if traffic is good rock hill sc just south of charlotte is great for hotel options but try to be off the road by 5pm if you want to ensure a room depending where u are at in your travels
as a side note if taking hwy 19 between 79 and 77 be especially vigilant in somerville wv they heavily enforce the speed of 50mph over the 5 miles it takes to get thru somerville i am in the trucking industry and have had a few of my drivers experience this first hand one only doing 5mph over posted limit i think it is the towns main source of revenue and the speed drops quickly and signage is llimited so u have to beaware
we leave in may again this year but hope to make north end of columbia sc lots of hotels in this area as well where 77 meets i20 and make a shorter run the 2nd day

 

[myasmum]

We just did the drive July 26th down and back Aug 7th LoL My husband, myself and 3 kids drove from Toronto. We left after kids camp LoL on the Thursday we went the route most people said: 90/79/19/77/26/95
we drove about 5hrs and looked for a hotel we ended up in Cranberry, PA and went with Motel 6 there is cost us $63 USD with taxes for all of us it was a nice little place to sleep and great rates (we didnt book we just stopped) and then continued in the morning with all the rest breaks LoL it took us about 31hrs to get to Gainesville but we have 3 kids ages 4, 5 and 8yrs old so alot of pee breaks LoL also we stopped for about 1hr for breakfest next morning, lunch, plus stopped in Wal*Mart 2 times (on the 2nd day) etc... so it all depends on everyone (my husband was going to drive straight but ended up realizing he couldnt)

P.S. this is a good route got it from the helpful people here and then we had a GPS and it was the exact same route except the 19

Have fun!!!

 

[rjan67]

We like to stay at Holiday Inn Express because they have a pool and it let's the kids burn off some energy. If we are stopping for the night (we take I75) we stop for dinner (5 or 6) and make sure there is one at the dinner stop. Then we book one however many miles down the road we think we will drive further. We just took the I77 route back from DW cause we were pulling our trailer. Normally we take I75. I think the highway is faster but the drive is more scenic on 77. When we drive at March break, we have to drive straight down, definitely not as many radar traps!

 

[JL2002]

would anyone mind sharing the cost in total for gas?....

 

[Ham Ham]

would anyone mind sharing the cost in total for gas?....

Try using this. However you must start at and end at a US city.

http://www.fuelcostcalculator.com/

We drove down in March of 2006. QEW/90/79/19/77/26/95/4 We left Mississauga at 5:00 PM and 25 hours later arrived at Pop Century. Numerous stops for gas and snacks. 1 hour for breakfast. 2 hours lost to traffic congestion in Charlotte, NC & Orlando. Great route. I prefer it to 75.

 

[myasmum]

You can also try this http://aaafuelcostcalculator.com/TripGasprice.aspx
We drove a few weeks ago but went from Toronto to Florida, Florida to Connecticut and then back to Toronto

BUT we also did ALOT of driving in Florida as we stayed off site as well it rained so we didnt spend the whole day at the parks 1/2 day IF we were lucky and we spent a total of $500 USD in Gas for everything
It cost us (leaving with a full tank already as we rented a minivan)
just going to Florida ~ $147.10
Driving around FL ~ $95
Leaving to go to CT ~ $181.25
Going from CT to TO ~ $85
Total whole trip ~ $508.35

We estimated $375 but didnt take into consideration driving around Florida or anything like that so add a bit more

ALSO Tolls going from Toronto to Florida roughly $5-$10 and if when in Florida there are also some toll areas so watch out for that but not alot more few then LoL
Good Luck