Driving to HH from NJ, do you drvie straight through or stopover somewhere?

[lat]

We are driving down to HH in late August. We have 2 kids (3 and 6). I am debating if we should stop by one of those hotels off Rt. 95 somewhere in Florence SC (made a reservation at Springhill suites in Florence), or drive straight through.

I am also debating if we can make it to Charleston and get a nice hotel for a night and then drive over to HH.

Is it better to drive at night, thinking about driving out maybe 4 am or something so maybe we can make it to Charleston by 4pm. Is this realistic?

We have never done a long car trip with the kids, and have never been past Washington DC by driving. So there are too many unknown factors to me.

Need any advice you can provide. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Judique]

Originally posted by lat
We are driving down to HH in late August. We have 2 kids (3 and 6). I am debating if we should stop by one of those hotels off Rt. 95 somewhere in Florence SC (made a reservation at Springhill suites in Florence), or drive straight through.

I am also debating if we can make it to Charleston and get a nice hotel for a night and then drive over to HH.

Is it better to drive at night, thinking about driving out maybe 4 am or something so maybe we can make it to Charleston by 4pm. Is this realistic?

We have never done a long car trip with the kids, and have never been past Washington DC by driving. So there are too many unknown factors to me.

Need any advice you can provide. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

Funny, I have a HH reservation that starts on Sunday and I am still trying to decide whether I will leave Saturday morning and stop over in Charleston, Saturday evening and stop over in Florence, or early Sunday morning and drive straight through!

I drive down from Southern Maryland and mostly we drive straight through. For us it is about 8 and 1/2 hours. Other times, we will leave after work and drive part way to somewhere such as Florence. This gets us to the resort early the next day, or allows for sightseeing in Charleston or Myrtle Beach. For your distance from NJ, I think Florence would be perfect, as then you could get to HH fairly early the next day, check in, shop for food, visit the beach, sign up for activities and get acclimated to the area. Have a great trip!

 

[rriley25]

We live in Maryland and drive straight through to WDW every time now (about 13-14 hrs.). But our first time was filled with anxiety. Would our 1yo DD be able to handle this? Heck, could we adults handle this? I'm happy to say that everything went fine! In fact, the drive has become part of the vacation time for us. It's exciting. We stop at one rest-stop per state. That gives us a chance to stretch our legs, change driver's (if needed), and of course, use the restrooms. 15 minutes or so and we're back on the road. We don't stop to eat at the restaurants along the way. Instead, we bring our food along with us. Just be careful about what you choose to bring. We stop at a local Subway and keep those items in a cooler till eaten. When you drive you can bring along anything you want to such as pillows, special foods, etc. This is a big perk over flying. So, although flying is quicker, I doubt we will ever fly to WDW again. I'd be glad to answer any questions about the drive. I even have a simple time/mileage log that I keep. I can email that to you if you want. I hope this helps.

 

[lat]

Thanks for the info.

Bob, I would love to see your log. Could you e-mail me by using the e-mail button on my post. Thanks!!

 

[CathyC]

We live in Mass, and are driving down in January. I am still trying to convince my DH that driving from our house to SC/Georgia border and stopping for the night in Hardeeville SC is way too ambitious for the 1st night. Even if we leave at 3AM. (We have a 2 and 4 year old) I am glad I still have 5 plus months to talk some sense into him. Nevermind the kids, I can't stand being in the car that long.

I really think that it depends on your kids, and how rushed you want to be. My dh wants to put the drive behind us and have a day to recoup before checking into our resort and doing disney, but I would prefer to take it slower and not need to recoup. Whatever you decide you will have a great vaca.

One tip for the DC part of the drive depending on when you will be hitting the beltway. We have enjoyed a drive down the penninsula as an alternative to the I95 monotony. The Chesapeak Bay Bridge Tunnel is spectacular!

 

[DownNeckBoy]

I have always driven straight through to HH from NJ. I have done it in the summer, over the New Year's holidays as well as in mid-February. It has generally taken me around 12 hours to make the trip, except for the past trip where I was forced to leave after 8:00 am due to a health issue with my younger son. That was not a fun trip.

I like to leave at night. I have young children as well and I find that this GUARANTEES at least 8 hours of sleep on their part. By the time that they are awake, I am past Virginia and better able to deal with their "issues."

I think you will find that stopping overnight in SC will, in retrospect, be a mistake. You can always visit Charleston or Savannah once you are in HH, although you might resist the urge to do so once you are on the island.

Good luck with your planning!!!

 

[JVL1018]

It's not bad to drive straight through-13 hours or so for us right outside NYC.
However we figure why bother driving it all in one shot when we'd just arrive at night?
So we stop in Lumberton, NC, stay the night and drive the 3 and a half hours to the HH resort the next morning to start our stay.
We drive straight through on the way home.

 

[Paula H]

We drove straight through from central Connecticut. We left here at 9 p.m. and arrived at HHI at 2 the next afternoon. DH works 3rd shift, so he did most of the driving. This works well for us - we drove straight through home from WDW last year, too. Our kids were 3 and 9 mos. when we went to HHI and driving while they're sleeping and "just getting there" really works for us.

 

[jwcrsf]

We live an hour north of NYC and have family in Hilton Head. I drive down at least 3 times a year and we have left at all different times. I find leaving here around 5am is best. We need to be early enough for NYC traffic and then late enough for Baltimore and DC. After that all you have to do is worry about Richmond afternoon rush hour. We have a minivan with dvd player so we always drive straight through and bring lots of food and drinks. We have two young children so you need to stop and let them run for awhile every few hours. The times we have stopped halfway overnight we find the kinds are so excited about the trip that none of us come close to getting a good nights sleep. Good luck and have a great trip, Hilton Head has some of the best beaches.

 

[vernon]

We've drive from Pittsburgh ( similar distance) a few times. My preference would be to leave late afternoon/early evening the day before, get 5 hours or so under my belt before stopping at a motel for the night. Starting fairly early the next morning gets you to HH by early afternoon, ready for check in, a quick swim and a wander round the resort. I find the "non stop" option leaves you arriving at HH late in the day with only time for a quick bite and bed. It also tends to leave the driver VERY tired and in my case I find it takes a day or so to get over the drive. Making an overnight stop means I arrive feeling much fresher. Up to 8 hours drive time I can see a decent argument for going in one hop, but that extra 3-4 hours makes a huge difference and driving tired ( particularly in the dark) is a very poor idea, JMHO.

 

[jbwolffiv]

We drive straight through to get to Charlestown when we visit freinds and it is a good idea to be past DC by 6 am if you dont want to deal with insane traffic! Good luck!

 

[Pluto4Pres]

Originally posted by JVL1018
It's not bad to drive straight through-13 hours or so for us right outside NYC.
However we figure why bother driving it all in one shot when we'd just arrive at night?
So we stop in Lumberton, NC, stay the night and drive the 3 and a half hours to the HH resort the next morning to start our stay.
We drive straight through on the way home.

We haven't driven to HH, but we have made several trips from CT to Myrtle Beach - 13 hrs. We found that our best plan was to do the same thing as JVL1018. We'd leave at either 5am or 11am to travel off peak through NYC. Drive through to Lumberton, grab a cheap room right off the highway, then have a short ride the next morning to finish the trip and not be too burned out on our day of arrival. We also drive straight through on the way home. Murder if you do it on a Sunday like everyone else. DC and the Jersey Tpke are the biggest problems. DVD or VHS for the car will really help out too. Good luck!

 

[tigger2esq]

We will be driving from Central PA in late September. I am lucky in that my sister lives in Raleigh NC so we will be leaving early Saturday morning and heading to Raleigh (about 7 hrs.) spending the night with my sister and then heading out early the next morning for a late morning arrrival in HHI. (We are actually contemplating leaving Friday night and stopping after about 4 hrs on the road to be able to get to my sister's earlier to spend more time with them on Saturday). We will be stopping in Raleigh on the return trip as well. I am not sure I can personally handle a 12 -13 hr car trip f, never mind my 1 year old DD--and since my DH never lets me drive--he does al the driving and will surly get TIRED!!! thankfully we bought a mini-van last week--complete w./ DVD player! I plan on packing a LOT of Disney movies!! LOL!

 

[AEN]

I hope I don't repeat what others have said. I am tired. We just got in from our vacation this afternoon.

I said to my wife on the ride back today, that HH is my cut off. We drove straight from Parsippany to Daytona on the 18th. Coming home however we stopped in Va. I think with stopping you lose the most of two days. We drove straight through to HH last year. I have declared that my official cut off point for driving now. Further, after driving nearly 18 hours to Daytona, I will take 78 to 81 (in Pa) and loop back in at Richmond next time. We left at 10:00 am and hit terrible traffic AFTER Washhington DC. It took us two hours to go twenty miles. No accidents just volume at 2:30pm. Thank god for the DVD. We were even able to hook up the Nintendo. That and the summer reading assigments, the kids never piped up.

With all of that said, I would drive straight through, but have some sort of entertainment (i.e. DVD, VCR, etc).

 

[Cobra B.]

Driving straight through's a piece of cake. There is so much anticipation it makes the drive all part of the vacation. The drive home, well that's never fun. Just avoid DC and/or Richmond at rush hour.

 

[Uno]

I haven't done the drive but depending on where you live in NJ might have an influence on when you leave. 4 A.M. sounds kind of dangerous to me as that just may put in in the D.C. metro area right around rush hour.

 

[lat]

judique, how was your trip? How did you get down to HH?

 

[disvaclub92]

We live right outside of Philadelphia and we left our house at 3 am. It brought us into HH around 4 pm - with potty breaks and lunch. It really was not too bad - with the exception of that North and South Carolina are huge states.

Our girls 6 and 8 survived pretty well on the DVD player - Thank God.

Good luck in making your decision.

 

[Judique]

Originally posted by lat
judique, how was your trip? How did you get down to HH?

I just arrived home, and the trip was wonderful! We left on Sunday morning (July4th) about 6am and arrived at the resort by 3pm - no traffic at all! We enjoyed the barbecue that evening for our dinner and then later watched the fireworks display. That made for a great start to our vacation. Hilton Head just gets better and better.

 

[Ksp]

We've been driving straight thru to WDW and/or HH for years and found it worked for us. Key for our drive (from central NJ) was to leave during the night and get past DC as fast as we could. Usually leaving around 10 pm worked the best. Driving thru the night made traveling w/kids soooo much easier!
Our past trip, we did stop overnight in Florence. Since we couldn't leave at night this past time, we knew we'd have a longer, more stressful drive....a bed and a shower the next morning became really important.
Now that our kids are older, I'm hoping our 18 year old will be able to take a turn at the wheel, too. (we'll have to see how his driving skills are first!)

I do like driving down. We've also taken the auto train - will be taking it for two of our trips this year - buying tickets 6-12 months ahead made the cost reasonable. When I compared the cost of gas and our hotel room both ways, the auto train was only 50.00 more....and we don't have to stay awake to drive. I'll let you know how it goes this time.