Could use some help planning this out! We're looking at driving to Orlando from Minneapolis because of the high airfare and because we're a family of five (me, DH, DD10, DS7, DS5). We leave after school on Nov 20th (two days before thanksgiving) and have two hotel nights along the way, getting to Orlando on Thanksgiving Day.
Two questions - first, how can I plan around holiday trafffic on the day before Thanksgiving? We'll be driving ten or eleven hours that day not counting stops or traffic. If we had to, we could drive overnight the night before which would mean we'd be done with that day's worth of driving by noon and could spend the afternoon/evening at a hotel until starting out the next day at 6 am. But if the traffic won't be too bad, I'd rather drive seven hours the first half-day, and then the eleven hours during the daytime on the second day.
Second, I had wanted to stop by Panama City Beach along the way even though it adds some time onto the trip. Haven't seen the ocean in way too long. But google maps sends me south through Iowa, then St Louis, then Memphis, then Birmingham AL, then Panama City Beach, and some of it is on roads that aren't interstates. Much of it would be on the day before Thanksgiving too (from Hannibal MO to Birmingham AL that day). Our other option is to go east through WI to stay in Chicago the first night, then down through Indianapolis and Nashville to Birmingham.
A third possibility that could be shorter would be to go the usual route through Chicago down to Atlanta and then veer east somewhere in GA to St Augustine to see the beach there, and then down to Orlando. This adds less time onto the trip but the beach isn't as nice.
We won't have time to get away to the beach during our actual vacation so it would only be on the drive that we can make it happen.
We've driven to FL before but not since we had kids and not around the holidays. I can get the hotels on points which saves us money but I'll need to have the stops planned out. And what if there is a snowstorm!
so my questions are
1 - should I stick to the interstates and go through chicago down through nashville route, or should I try the more southern route that includes roads that aren't interstates?
2 - should I drive overnight the first night so I won't be caught in traffic on the day before thanksgiving, or will the traffic be ok and I can keep us all to a more normal schedule?
3 - should I give up on PCB or is it feasible and worth doing? The panhandle is the only part of FL I haven't yet seen.
Two questions - first, how can I plan around holiday trafffic on the day before Thanksgiving? We'll be driving ten or eleven hours that day not counting stops or traffic. If we had to, we could drive overnight the night before which would mean we'd be done with that day's worth of driving by noon and could spend the afternoon/evening at a hotel until starting out the next day at 6 am. But if the traffic won't be too bad, I'd rather drive seven hours the first half-day, and then the eleven hours during the daytime on the second day.
Second, I had wanted to stop by Panama City Beach along the way even though it adds some time onto the trip. Haven't seen the ocean in way too long. But google maps sends me south through Iowa, then St Louis, then Memphis, then Birmingham AL, then Panama City Beach, and some of it is on roads that aren't interstates. Much of it would be on the day before Thanksgiving too (from Hannibal MO to Birmingham AL that day). Our other option is to go east through WI to stay in Chicago the first night, then down through Indianapolis and Nashville to Birmingham.
A third possibility that could be shorter would be to go the usual route through Chicago down to Atlanta and then veer east somewhere in GA to St Augustine to see the beach there, and then down to Orlando. This adds less time onto the trip but the beach isn't as nice.
We won't have time to get away to the beach during our actual vacation so it would only be on the drive that we can make it happen.
We've driven to FL before but not since we had kids and not around the holidays. I can get the hotels on points which saves us money but I'll need to have the stops planned out. And what if there is a snowstorm!
so my questions are
1 - should I stick to the interstates and go through chicago down through nashville route, or should I try the more southern route that includes roads that aren't interstates?
2 - should I drive overnight the first night so I won't be caught in traffic on the day before thanksgiving, or will the traffic be ok and I can keep us all to a more normal schedule?
3 - should I give up on PCB or is it feasible and worth doing? The panhandle is the only part of FL I haven't yet seen.
