"For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" (Part V)

[pwdebbie]

It's been about 3 years since our last drive to Disney World. We've been grabbing $29 each way flights out of Trenton so we've just be doing long weekends. But now we have a 2+ week WDW, DCL, Vero trip next month. We are in eastern PA but we are going to try the 81 to 77 to 26 to 95 route. We'll leave on a Thursday night after work and get almost through VA. Trying to find a good place to stay over on the drive back. We'll be spending a good part of the day in the parks before driving back so something in SC would be ideal. Typically, we go for Hilton hotels for the points! Any tips or suggestions on this route would be appreciated.

There are a good many hotels in Orangeburg, about a six-hour drive from Orlando. Stick with a chain hotel. We tried one that was "highly recommended" on Trip Advisor (it has "Southern" in its name) that was a local hotel and it was a nightmare. I still can't figure out why it continues to get good reviews. I just checked and there is a "Tru by Hilton" at the exit (145?) for Rt. 601.

 

[dvczerfs]

It's been about 3 years since our last drive to Disney World. We've been grabbing $29 each way flights out of Trenton so we've just be doing long weekends. But now we have a 2+ week WDW, DCL, Vero trip next month. We are in eastern PA but we are going to try the 81 to 77 to 26 to 95 route. We'll leave on a Thursday night after work and get almost through VA. Trying to find a good place to stay over on the drive back. We'll be spending a good part of the day in the parks before driving back so something in SC would be ideal. Typically, we go for Hilton hotels for the points! Any tips or suggestions on this route would be appreciated.

Be careful on I77 in the Charlotte area, there is a huge construction project going on. Moves right along for the most part but don't hit it at rush.
If we stop, we hit Hampton Inn. Haven't had a bad one yet.

 

[dvczerfs]

My thoughts exactly.

I haven't posted in here forever, looking forward to another road trip this summer and catching up on this thread.

Anyone have a good - often updated - app for exits? We had downloaded one last trip and the info was out of date, which was super fun when getting off the highway for nothing lol. Thanks for any tips!

Can't help ya, im old, I still use the big blue signs. LOL Then again, I don't stop to often. Lol

 

[bluezy]

There are a good many hotels in Orangeburg, about a six-hour drive from Orlando. Stick with a chain hotel. We tried one that was "highly recommended" on Trip Advisor (it has "Southern" in its name) that was a local hotel and it was a nightmare. I still can't figure out why it continues to get good reviews. I just checked and there is a "Tru by Hilton" at the exit (145?) for Rt. 601.

Slightly off topic but we just stayed at a Tru by Hilton for the first time last week. Really enjoyed the hotel and will definitely stay there again.

 

[MamaJessie]

Can't help ya, im old, I still use the big blue signs. LOL Then again, I don't stop to often. Lol

I prefer apps because I like knowing how quickly I can get off and on the highway again when possible.
But with unreliable apps and service, I am still happy those blue signs are there when I need them!

 

[mjmyers10]

Slightly off topic but we just stayed at a Tru by Hilton for the first time last week. Really enjoyed the hotel and will definitely stay there again.

How do you find the Tru by Hilton breakfast compares to Hampton Inn?

 

[bluezy]

How do you find the Tru by Hilton breakfast compares to Hampton Inn?

It's been awhile since I stayed at a Hampton Inn...I think it was last June. I remember thinking their breakfast was a notch above the Choice hotels (but I don't remember what specifically made me think that). I felt the same way about the breakfast at Tru but I know it was because of the extra "details". They had the standard scrambled eggs and sausage, but offered the ingredients to make huevos rancheros out of those scrambled eggs. I think there was at least one or two other "stir ins" for the scrambled eggs. Their waffle irons produced waffle sticks/boats rather than the usual round waffles. They had at least 6 different kinds of syrup for the waffles (including several fruit flavors and chocolate syrup) as well as whipped cream! They had 4 or 5 kinds of bagels, a few donuts, 2 or 3 kinds of danish, and english muffins. They had a large bowl of vanilla greek yogurt and a large crockpot of oatmeal along with probably 6 or 8 different "stir ins" (chocolate chips, granola, raisins, nuts, etc.) that you could add to those. There were several different fresh fruits along with a few kinds of cereal. They also offered hard boiled eggs (still in the shell) as well as some muffins. At least one of the muffin flavors (carrot) was labeled as "breakfast in muffin" and was indicated as a "grab and go" breakfast. There might have been a few other things, but those are the ones I can remember. They didn't seem to have any type of hash brown/home fries option but there were plenty of other items.

 

[mjmyers10]

There are a good many hotels in Orangeburg, about a six-hour drive from Orlando. Stick with a chain hotel. We tried one that was "highly recommended" on Trip Advisor (it has "Southern" in its name) that was a local hotel and it was a nightmare. I still can't figure out why it continues to get good reviews. I just checked and there is a "Tru by Hilton" at the exit (145?) for Rt. 601.

Thank you! I think we'll end up here or potentially the Hampton Inn in Fort Mill, SC.

 

[dvczerfs]

Got this message from a friend last night. A little late but if you are heading that way.

 

[rg35]

My thoughts exactly.

I haven't posted in here forever, looking forward to another road trip this summer and catching up on this thread.

Anyone have a good - often updated - app for exits? We had downloaded one last trip and the info was out of date, which was super fun when getting off the highway for nothing lol. Thanks for any tips!

Try iExit (android at least, not sure if it's for iOS as well). We have found it to be very helpful.

 

[LadyBeBop]

Try iExit (android at least, not sure if it's for iOS as well). We have found it to be very helpful.

Love it. There's an iOS version. Have it on my iPhone.

 

[BC1836]

My thoughts exactly.

I haven't posted in here forever, looking forward to another road trip this summer and catching up on this thread.

Anyone have a good - often updated - app for exits? We had downloaded one last trip and the info was out of date, which was super fun when getting off the highway for nothing lol. Thanks for any tips!

We don't use them; however, here's a link to a bunch of 'em: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/road-trip-apps/index.html

All the best!

 

[KCMA]

Heading out Thursday noonish from Bowmanville Ontario for trip two.. last one was this past September

About 2166 miles round trip

Driving straight through on the way there.. stopping in Summersville WV on the way home

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Heading out Thursday noonish from Bowmanville Ontario for trip two.. last one was this past September

About 2166 miles round trip

Driving straight through on the way there.. stopping in Summersville WV on the way home

Wow that is a long straight through drive!
I thought driving straight from MA was long drive. Be safe have fun

 

[KCMA]

Wow that is a long straight through drive!
I thought driving straight from MA was long drive. Be safe have fun

Thanks!! Yes it’s quite the drive but our kids our kids are awesome travellers and they get a kick out of being in the car over night.. first trip as AP and DVC so very excited to get there and take full advantage!

 

[ninafeliz]

I just found this thread. We will be driving from NW PA (Meadville, 90 min north of Pittsburgh) on June 13th. Planning to do most of the trip the first day, we would like to arrive on Orlando around 1:00-2:00 the next day. We are planning to get a hotel room on the way down, does anyone with experience have a good general location to plan our stop? has anyone done roughly this drive and remember what cities would be a good goal for the long first day? My DH would like to reserve somewhere ahead of time. I think that's a bit risky, but he really wants to avoid the crappy roadside motels that we mostly seem to find if you wait until you need to stop. We have only driven once, maybe 5 yrs ago, and the lower end chain motel that was the best of the lot at the exit we were near when we needed to stop was borderline scary! (maybe not quite that bad, but the crack under the door was probably 1-2 inches high and the rooms were... not nice.) I know I need to do a little more research with distance and see where we'll be, but I thought maybe someone who had done it might have some thoughts or suggestions.

I hope this is an appropriate question, I guess I do't know what to expect from this thread and read the first page, then jumped to a question!

 

[bluezy]

I just found this thread. We will be driving from NW PA (Meadville, 90 min north of Pittsburgh) on June 13th. Planning to do most of the trip the first day, we would like to arrive on Orlando around 1:00-2:00 the next day. We are planning to get a hotel room on the way down, does anyone with experience have a good general location to plan our stop? has anyone done roughly this drive and remember what cities would be a good goal for the long first day? My DH would like to reserve somewhere ahead of time. I think that's a bit risky, but he really wants to avoid the crappy roadside motels that we mostly seem to find if you wait until you need to stop. We have only driven once, maybe 5 yrs ago, and the lower end chain motel that was the best of the lot at the exit we were near when we needed to stop was borderline scary! (maybe not quite that bad, but the crack under the door was probably 1-2 inches high and the rooms were... not nice.) I know I need to do a little more research with distance and see where we'll be, but I thought maybe someone who had done it might have some thoughts or suggestions.

I hope this is an appropriate question, I guess I do't know what to expect from this thread and read the first page, then jumped to a question!

We've made the drive from the Philadelphia area 8 times now. I know that's the opposite corner of the state from you, but I'll share our experience. When doing the drive over 2 days, we usually stop in Port Wentworth/Savannah (on I-95) the first night. That gives us about a 4 hour drive the next morning. We used to make reservations at the Comfort Suites there (we usually have 3 or 5 kids with us so we need a suite) but there are many options.

Honestly the last several trips we haven't made reservations anywhere and we haven't really had any trouble finding decent hotels (usually staying at a Choice Hotels or Hilton property. We have never stayed at a crappy roadside motel -- I'm much too high maintenance for that. lol.). When we're ready to stop for the night (usually around 6:00 p.m.), we just get off at an exit with several hotels. We'll park somewhere and use Expedia, Hotels.com, or similar website to find and book a room. There have been a few rare occasions (maybe twice in 20+ hotel nights) when we've had to drive to the next exit to find a hotel with vacancy, but it's never been a big problem. This plan might not work as well if we chose to drive until 8 or 9:00 at night as more rooms would be occupied by then. The one time we did want to drive a little later, we still pulled over at 6:00 and booked a room based on where we planned to drive to that night. It's a lot easier to estimate where you'll be in 2 hours rather than where you're going to be in 2 weeks before you've even left your driveway. If you do decide to book a room before you leave, I strongly suggest booking something that can be canceled by 6:00 p.m. with no penalty as you just never know how the weather and traffic will affect your drive. On one trip (that we thankfully hadn't made advanced reservations on) there was a huge accident on I-95 in VA. The road was closed in both directions for most of the day and traffic on the alternate routes was horrendous. We had planned to drive to the southern end of NC that day but only made it to southern VA. Fortunately we were doing the drive over 3 days that trip so it really wasn't a big deal, but we wouldn't have wanted to keep driving to the town we had planned to stop in just because we had made a hotel reservation there.

We just got home from a road trip to Texas and used this same strategy for hotels for that drive. Worked great.

 

[ninafeliz]

We've made the drive from the Philadelphia area 8 times now. I know that's the opposite corner of the state from you, but I'll share our experience. When doing the drive over 2 days, we usually stop in Port Wentworth/Savannah (on I-95) the first night. That gives us about a 4 hour drive the next morning. We used to make reservations at the Comfort Suites there (we usually have 3 or 5 kids with us so we need a suite) but there are many options.

Honestly the last several trips we haven't made reservations anywhere and we haven't really had any trouble finding decent hotels (usually staying at a Choice Hotels or Hilton property. We have never stayed at a crappy roadside motel -- I'm much too high maintenance for that. lol.). When we're ready to stop for the night (usually around 6:00 p.m.), we just get off at an exit with several hotels. We'll park somewhere and use Expedia, Hotels.com, or similar website to find and book a room. There have been a few rare occasions (maybe twice in 20+ hotel nights) when we've had to drive to the next exit to find a hotel with vacancy, but it's never been a big problem. This plan might not work as well if we chose to drive until 8 or 9:00 at night as more rooms would be occupied by then. The one time we did want to drive a little later, we still pulled over at 6:00 and booked a room based on where we planned to drive to that night. It's a lot easier to estimate where you'll be in 2 hours rather than where you're going to be in 2 weeks before you've even left your driveway. If you do decide to book a room before you leave, I strongly suggest booking something that can be canceled by 6:00 p.m. with no penalty as you just never know how the weather and traffic will affect your drive. On one trip (that we thankfully hadn't made advanced reservations on) there was a huge accident on I-95 in VA. The road was closed in both directions for most of the day and traffic on the alternate routes was horrendous. We had planned to drive to the southern end of NC that day but only made it to southern VA. Fortunately we were doing the drive over 3 days that trip so it really wasn't a big deal, but we wouldn't have wanted to keep driving to the town we had planned to stop in just because we had made a hotel reservation there.

We just got home from a road trip to Texas and used this same strategy for hotels for that drive. Worked great.

Thanks for the advice, all good thoughts!

The crappy motel we stayed at was a choice hotel loI! I guess we were hoping for another step up this time!

 

[bluezy]

Thanks for the advice, all good thoughts!

The crappy motel we stayed at was a choice hotel loI! I guess we were hoping for another step up this time!

Yeah, we've had some Choice Hotels in the past that were definitely in need of an update/refurb. We make sure to pay closer attention to the reviews on the websites before booking now and haven't had any more problems. If the property gets lower than a 4 out of 5 rating, we won't even consider it. Even a 4.5 out of 5 makes us look at what the lower ratings were fore. I really like seeing comments along the lines of "recently renovated" or "brand new hotel".

 

[pwdebbie]

I just found this thread. We will be driving from NW PA (Meadville, 90 min north of Pittsburgh) on June 13th. Planning to do most of the trip the first day, we would like to arrive on Orlando around 1:00-2:00 the next day. We are planning to get a hotel room on the way down, does anyone with experience have a good general location to plan our stop? has anyone done roughly this drive and remember what cities would be a good goal for the long first day? My DH would like to reserve somewhere ahead of time. I think that's a bit risky, but he really wants to avoid the crappy roadside motels that we mostly seem to find if you wait until you need to stop. We have only driven once, maybe 5 yrs ago, and the lower end chain motel that was the best of the lot at the exit we were near when we needed to stop was borderline scary! (maybe not quite that bad, but the crack under the door was probably 1-2 inches high and the rooms were... not nice.) I know I need to do a little more research with distance and see where we'll be, but I thought maybe someone who had done it might have some thoughts or suggestions.

I hope this is an appropriate question, I guess I do't know what to expect from this thread and read the first page, then jumped to a question!

I'm near Gettysburg and take the 81-77-26-95 route. We stop at Orangeburg, SC along 26. This gets us past Charlotte and Columbia. We arrive in Disney early afternoon from there. There are a lot of hotels to choose from, just avoid the one with "Southern" in the name. We believed the reviews and have never stayed in such a dump in our life. The chains are all good choices.