Driving to the World

[Dancemom03]

To anyone contemplating driving, just do it, at least once. Anyone can just get on a plane or train but until you've driven thru NY,NJ, Baltimore and DC especially, you haven't lived!!!

We're in northern MD and I really enjoy the drive. We'll fly if we're only going for a few days but, for a week or more, I'd much rather drive. Lately, DH has been flying down to meet us in wdw b/c he has limited vacation time and I've been driving solo with the kids. In my Chrysler T&C it takes 3 tanks each way but I almost always have 1/2 tank of more left when we pull into wdw.

Anyway, if DH is along, we switch drivers at each state's welcome center. With or without DH, I always stop at each welcome center to stretch while the girls go in to look around, learn about the state we're passing thru and pick up brochures for places of interest which can sometimes keep them busy almost until the next welcome center.

We have to stop at south of the border, even if just to drive thru. The one time I passed by, we broke down about 30 miles south of it so now Pedro gets a mandatory hello to avoid jinxing ourselves again. In Dillon SC I suspect Pedro is nearly as powerful as Mickey. The kids really enjoy a quick stop though and get $5 each on the way down for Pedro's souvies/toys. The prices are cheap so they usually get a couple of things with $5.

After having done the drive countless times - both as a kid and an adult - my driving strategy differs from many here who like to leave after school/work and drive overnight. I prefer to get a good night's sleep and leave between 3-5 am then drive thru. We're usually there in time for a late dinner/bedtime. I'd pretty much be up most of those hours anyway so I'm less likely to get tired and there's more for the kids to see, though mine can sleep in the van night or day without issues.
Even though the roads are a little less busy at night, there are more big trucks and those hours between 1am & 6 am are much more difficult after being up since the morning before. Also, speaking from my Pedro-no-stop-jinx trip's experience here... it's takes much longer to get road service when you break down after midnight on those deserted strips of I-95 with big rigs zooming by in the dark compared to a quick tow call in the middle of the day...

 

[kmvand1]

It's funny, but I keep hearing people say how much cheaper it is, etc. and yes that is a very valid point. But if we can afford to fly, we do! You can not put a price on your sanity! After being in a car for 16 hours, my husband is ready to poke his eyeballs out. It just isn't worth it to him or for us to have to put up with him being so miserable.

 

[java]

It's funny, but I keep hearing people say how much cheaper it is, etc. and yes that is a very valid point. But if we can afford to fly, we do! You can not put a price on your sanity! After being in a car for 16 hours, my husband is ready to poke his eyeballs out. It just isn't worth it to him or for us to have to put up with him being so miserable.

Good point but for me that's why we drive. I freak out flying. It is so stressful. Last time I thought I was doing good and DH said "why are you crying?" _ I didn't even realize I was crying.
So we drive- unless we get a super cheapo flight out of lehigh valley.

 

[Dancemom03]

It's funny, but I keep hearing people say how much cheaper it is, etc. and yes that is a very valid point. But if we can afford to fly, we do! You can not put a price on your sanity! After being in a car for 16 hours, my husband is ready to poke his eyeballs out. It just isn't worth it to him or for us to have to put up with him being so miserable.

That's another reason DH often flies to meet us while the girls and I, even our friends, usually drive. If we all had to race to get to the airport over an hour away every trip - then deal with satellite parking, airport shuttles, checking what always seems like an enormous amount of luggage only when I see it on the belt, clear the security line, plus wait 2+ hours before getting on the plane for a 2 hr flight that seats us wayyyy too close together after the inevitable disagreements and hastily spoken words - by the time we were over GA, I suspect everyone onboard would want to poke our eyes out.

 

[DreadpiratK]

I personally love the drive down. We've done it from CT, and will be doing it from Syracuse NY this year, Lord willing with 4 or our 5 kids, and my parents. Some of my fondest memories as a kid are of driving down to FL with my parents. Of course back then we could stretch out in the back of the ole station wagon without getting a ticket!

One big money saver we found, quite by accident, is to grab the hotel saver magazines from the rest areas. There are some fantastic deals in them, we just call ahead while driving and find the cheapest rate we can with a free breakfast. Often times the hotel with breakfast is almost as cheap as just buying the family breakfast, plus you don't have to stick to any set schedule, stop when you're tired, keep going if you're not. It's hit of miss with the hotels as far as quality sometimes, but some of our best vacation adventures came out of doing this. On our first trip in 2001 we stayed at this really cool old resort hotel, very Scooby Doo looking that was being remodeled into a Holiday Inn, and ended up being one of only two white families in the midst of this HUGE black family reunion. It was awkward at first, but they were so gracious about it and made us feel like part of the family. We sat and sang Gospel songs with them at breakfast the next morning. Really a fond memory.

One other thing I found out recently is that if you stop at a states welcome center, they can get you even better rates at hotels in that state then the magazines, you just have to ask.

 

[DreadpiratK]

Oh yea, the other thing we do is bring the camp stove and cook our meals at rest areas. Saves big on the money (and time) , and the kids think it's kind of fun.

 

[J3nn78]

We drive from NJ
How many days are you looking at? We take 3 days to get there and 2 to get home.
We enjoy the drive and sometimes go out of our way to make the trip more fun. For example, we like to take the Cape May Ferry and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. We then stop for a meal in the middle of the bridge. Fun!
We budget about $400 for gas- I prefer to over budget
We find nice hotels with pools for less than $85 a night
We plan pit stops that cost little or nothing-state parks, botanical gardens, etc...
We pack a cooler with deli meat, yogurt, mayo, milk, water, soda, juice and take along bread, cereal, and tons of snacks-We ate one fast food meal on our trip last year.
We refreshed the ice in our cooler with free ice from the hotel.

 

[J3nn78]

It's funny, but I keep hearing people say how much cheaper it is, etc. and yes that is a very valid point. But if we can afford to fly, we do! You can not put a price on your sanity! After being in a car for 16 hours, my husband is ready to poke his eyeballs out. It just isn't worth it to him or for us to have to put up with him being so miserable.

That is why we Drive instead of fly. I HATE the stress of luggage, security lines, delays, crowds, and all associated with flying. We ENJOY our car ride and the scenery. We can pack whatever we want, stop when we want, eat when we want, etc...

For us Driving 20 hours is FAR LESS stressful than a 2 hour flight

 

[DreadpiratK]

One other thing that we do that makes driving easy with kids is audio books. MP3 downloads from sites like audible.com are a must for us for long car rides. When we drove in 2001 we listened to the BBC version of The Lord of the Rings all the way down and most of the way back. Instead of asking 'are we there yet?' the kids were asking "do we have to stop? This is the good part!"

 

[Familyof4lovesDW]

We drove from Ohio last year and are planning on driving again this year. We leave about 7pm and DH drives straight through. It is about a 12 hour drive for us (map quest says 14), so when we stop for gas we have the kids use the bathroom, and we ate dinner before we left. We bring our cooler filled with frozen juice boxes and waterbottles to last us our whole trip. We arrive around breakfast. On the way home they use dvd, ds, color, play with new toys from wdw and I can go back and play with them if they get bored. Except for asking if we were still in Georgia (we take 75 all the way), they were good travelers. We had snacks to eat. We stopped for lunch and dinner on the way back and it was time for bed when we got home. They were 4 and 5 our the last trip. Have fun!

 

[gillenkl]

We drive from Delaware but we also camp at Fort Wilderness. The whole reason we got our rv was because we could no longer afford the hotels and airfare. DH does all the driving.