Flying into Tampa and driving to Orlando

[YYC_Mommy]

The airfares into Tampa are a lot cheaper for the dates we are looking at. I am wondering if anyone has done the same and flown into Tampa and drove to Orlando?

I believe that the drive is about an hour and a half? I would love to hear about your experience.

Thanks.

 

[webworm]

Yes we have done this before because airfares were lower to Tampa. No issues and Tampa is a very nice airport as well.

 

[Darcy03231]

I've done it and its not a bad drive, especially if you planned on renting a car anyway (we were staying off-site so we had to get a car). It's pretty much straight across the state on I-4.

 

[ohlas]

The drive is only like 1.5- 2 hours depending on how bad the are tearing up I4 lol

 

[Detailor]

It's about 75 miles from the Tampa airport to the heart of Disney property (all interstate highway driving until you get to a Disney-area exit). If you're not going through Tampa at rush hour then it's a fairly easy hour and fifteen to hour and a half drive (depending on where you're staying, traffic slow-downs due to accidents, weather conditions or road work, or how fast you drive - the "normal" driving speed along there seems to be 75 to 80 mph).

As webworm suggests, the Tampa airport is a nice airport, easy to navigate and a lot less busy than Orlando which all makes it quicker to get in and out.

Dick Taylor

 

[JoeCathyAngelina]

We'll be flying into Tampa non-stop on Delta and renting a Cadillac from National for our April 2010 Disney trip.
It will take us about an hour and a half to get to Orange Lake Country Club from TPA. It would take us about an Hour to drive from MCO, so it's no big deal for us to use TPA.
On The way back to TPA for our flight home we stop off at the Mall, grab a bite to eat at P F Chang's and a Nintendo DS game at Gamestop for my daughter. That's one of her favorite parts of our trip.
Good luck all,
Joe

 

[YYC_Mommy]

Thanks for the information. We are staying off site and had planned to have a rental already. There is no additional drop charge to leave the vehicle in Orlando as we have a good fare to fly out of Orlando.

Flying into Tampa is sounding better and better!

 

[SilverMickey]

We almost always fly into Tampa. We ALWAYS fly out of Tampa. The airport is great and seems to get us on our way with out hassle. The Airport is clean and easy to get in and out of. it is 1.5 hours to the Kissemee area and we bounce back and forth from Tampa St Pete/ Orlando a lot unless we are having a Disney only vacation. When are are doing just Disney we still fly Tampa when we can. Our Car rental and flights are saving us about $900.00 this year over flying in elsewhere.

Have a great trip!

 

[KelnRon]

We are flying to Tampa for the 1st time ever in a few weeks. We couldn't pass up the $9 fares on Spirit! We usually fly into Sanford so an extra 30 min. is no biggy. We do land at 8am in the morning so we are planning on getting breakfast and then going to the Tampa zoo for a couple hours. We are members of our zoo and can get in free. (Otherwise, we wouldn't go! Ha Ha.)After the zoo, we are stopping at walmart to get everything we need and should hit Orlando w/ our 4pm check in time.

 

[digitalCajun]

We've done this several times, always with our 3 kids. TPA to Disney is a pretty easy drive. A couple of times we've scheduled an early morning flight out of TPA and spent the night in a TPA hotel; we prefer this because it gives us a night to chill out before making the trek home. There are good deals available on Priceline. Beware, though; it can be hard to find a gas station to refuel your rental when you return it to TPA. Don't wait until the last exit

 

[YYC_Mommy]

Thanks for all the information, I really appreciate it.

 

[labdogs42]

We have done it and it was great. I have flown into TPA, SFB, and MCO and I prefer Tampa and Sanford to MCO!