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

[erin1715]

Now I’m rethinking my route and wanted to see what you all think is best/fastest. I don’t know whether to take the inland route of 81-77-95 or 95 most of the way.
We live close to the NY/PA border so we are thinking of two options for our trip down:
- leave on Sunday afternoon (around 1ish) and knock out a few hours to get through PA until dinner time then stop for the night.
OR
- leave around 3am Monday morning and do a majority of travel Monday before stopping for the evening.
I guess my biggest concern is traffic on 95 around DC. We’ve driven years ago and I remember that being a nightmare. But I know it all depends on timing. We are also traveling with a 2.5 year old so the faster the better.
ETA: It looks like it’s about 5 hours from our home to DC so leaving on a Monday at 3am would put us right in the middle of the commuter traffic so that’s not a good idea if we took 95.

 

[CindyTeg]

I live in Northern VA west of DC. I drive from my house in VA to Orlando in about 13 to 14 hours going 95 pretty much all the way. I pick up 95 south of the city. My suggestion to you is get up Sunday early and drive through DC stopping south of the city as far as you can. Or even if you leave Sunday afternoon - get south of DC. Spend the extra time in the car on Sunday. (you might still have some traffic as weekend but not nearly as stressful as a Monday morning. Make sure you something like Waze when you are driving as it will tell you the best way to Navigate the beltway. Also your EZ pass will work in Maryland. I have tried the inland way 66-81-95 as only about an hour west to get to 81, but always wind up with issues on 81 and getting back to 95, so stick to 95 from now on. I just drove down 3 weeks ago (Friday) and back last week (Monday) and there was not a lot of construction so not to bad. This is just my opinion and others may have better ideas.

 

[erin1715]

I live in Northern VA west of DC. I drive from my house in VA to Orlando in about 13 to 14 hours going 95 pretty much all the way. I pick up 95 south of the city. My suggestion to you is get up Sunday early and drive through DC stopping south of the city as far as you can. Or even if you leave Sunday afternoon - get south of DC. Spend the extra time in the car on Sunday. (you might still have some traffic as weekend but not nearly as stressful as a Monday morning. Make sure you something like Waze when you are driving as it will tell you the best way to Navigate the beltway. Also your EZ pass will work in Maryland. I have tried the inland way 66-81-95 as only about an hour west to get to 81, but always wind up with issues on 81 and getting back to 95, so stick to 95 from now on. I just drove down 3 weeks ago (Friday) and back last week (Monday) and there was not a lot of construction so not to bad. This is just my opinion and others may have better ideas.

Thank you so much for that info. We unfortunately can’t leave early on Sunday because we have church (and my husband is the pastor) so we will shoot to leave that afternoon around my daughters nap time. I do think it’s a good idea if we leave and try to get past DC that first day. I like that idea. Also, I don’t have us checking in to our resort in Disney until Tuesday so if we left Sunday we would still likely stop on Monday night anyway.

 

[dvczerfs]

Erin1715 said she had an EZ Pass, so she doesn't have to worry about paying by plate. Around Central Florida, I set my navigation to yes for tolls as I have sat for over 2 hours on I-4 at times. I work in East Orlando, so 408, 417 and 528 (airport or cruise ships) are my roads of choice and all are tolls, but worth it.

Well there ya go..

 

[dvczerfs]

Left this morning around 3am. I love driving a car I never drove before. Lol
High beams were going on and off automatically, I shut that off in my cars it drives me nuts. Made it to Walterboro. Very little traffic , just on the south side of Columbia but nothing to slow me down. Leaving tomorrow at 2:30am, just want to get home before all the fun starts.
That’s it, six round trips in 12 weeks. Everything and everyone is here.
It’s been a blast!!!
See ya in the parks!!!

 

[bluezy]

Now I’m rethinking my route and wanted to see what you all think is best/fastest. I don’t know whether to take the inland route of 81-77-95 or 95 most of the way.
We live close to the NY/PA border so we are thinking of two options for our trip down:
- leave on Sunday afternoon (around 1ish) and knock out a few hours to get through PA until dinner time then stop for the night.
OR
- leave around 3am Monday morning and do a majority of travel Monday before stopping for the evening.
I guess my biggest concern is traffic on 95 around DC. We’ve driven years ago and I remember that being a nightmare. But I know it all depends on timing. We are also traveling with a 2.5 year old so the faster the better.
ETA: It looks like it’s about 5 hours from our home to DC so leaving on a Monday at 3am would put us right in the middle of the commuter traffic so that’s not a good idea if we took 95.

We do the I-95 route (DH's choice...he does all the driving) and I agree with the PP who said to get past DC on Sunday. We live in southeastern PA and we've driven to Disney 8 times. We usually leave here on a Friday or Saturday morning but we always time it so that we don't hit DC/Baltimore during rush hour. One time we were planning to leave home around 10:00-11:00 a.m. on a Friday but there was a computer emergency at our church that morning (my DH is the volunteer IT guy for the church) and that needed to be taken care of before we headed out of town. We ended up hitting the DC area around 4:00. What a nightmare. It took us about 2 hours to get through the area. We prefer to travel through that area early (before 9:00 a.m.) on a Saturday or Sunday as traffic is much lighter those days than during the week (unless it's a federal holiday. One year the drive home had us in DC at 8:30 a.m. on Memorial Day....there was almost no traffic anywhere.). One trip we left home on a Sunday afternoon and got to the DC area around 4:00 and it was clear sailing. So I would recommend doing as much driving as possible on the Sunday you leave. Definitely get south of DC if you can. It will make your drive the next morning much easier. We always say that once we're south of Richmond, VA, it's clear sailing all the way to Orlando. There could be issues in Jacksonville, but we've never had a problem there as we're usually driving through there early on a Sunday morning. Same with Orlando -- we've never had issues there either -- there's a lot of cars on the road but they're all moving at the speed limit (other than the time an accident happened about 1/4 of a mile ahead of us and we sat for over an hour until they cleared the road). We used to split the drive over 2 days and do the bulk of the driving on day 1. We'd stay in Savannah, GA that night. That gave us about a 4 hour drive the next morning (without stops...but we always stop at the FL Welcome Center and then a quick stop at a Walmart or grocery store for water, snacks, and breakfast stuff for the room). The last 3 trips we split the drive over 3 days...leaving mid-morning (usually around 9:00) after we drop the dog off at the kennel. We do about 8 hours of driving that day (depending on weather, traffic, and how long we spend at a restaurant for lunch) and then the 2nd day we drive until we're about 1-2 hours away from DW. The last morning we try to leave the hotel by about 8:00 so that we're at Disney by about 10:00-11:00.

 

[pwdebbie]

Thank you so much for that info. We unfortunately can’t leave early on Sunday because we have church (and my husband is the pastor) so we will shoot to leave that afternoon around my daughters nap time. I do think it’s a good idea if we leave and try to get past DC that first day. I like that idea. Also, I don’t have us checking in to our resort in Disney until Tuesday so if we left Sunday we would still likely stop on Monday night anyway.

All our trips had us leaving on Sunday after church as well because my husband was a pastor. We are in south-central PA. We tried inland route 81-77-26-95 and 15/17 to 95 (too many years ago, I think that was the route numbers). Much prefer the inland route. If you are set on 95, you want to be south of Baltimore, DC, AND Richmond before you make your first stop. Our goal with the inland route was to get past Charolotte and Columbia before stopping. Orangeburg turned out to be a good place to stop, but that took us until 11:00 p.m., you probably want to stop sooner.

I may have missed it but when is your trip? If it is summer, you will encounter summer beach traffic on 95. Something to take into consideration.

 

[erin1715]

All our trips had us leaving on Sunday after church as well because my husband was a pastor. We are in south-central PA. We tried inland route 81-77-26-95 and 15/17 to 95 (too many years ago, I think that was the route numbers). Much prefer the inland route. If you are set on 95, you want to be south of Baltimore, DC, AND Richmond before you make your first stop. Our goal with the inland route was to get past Charolotte and Columbia before stopping. Orangeburg turned out to be a good place to stop, but that took us until 11:00 p.m., you probably want to stop sooner.

I may have missed it but when is your trip? If it is summer, you will encounter summer beach traffic on 95. Something to take into consideration.

That’s good information too. Our trip is early august so maybe taking the inland route is best to avoid beach traffic on 95. If we left Sunday we can try to get as far as possible that day since anything we get that day is just gravy since we don’t plan to check in until Tuesday anyway. But I don’t think we’d drive into the evening too late.

 

[justreading]

That’s good information too. Our trip is early august so maybe taking the inland route is best to avoid beach traffic on 95. If we left Sunday we can try to get as far as possible that day since anything we get that day is just gravy since we don’t plan to check in until Tuesday anyway. But I don’t think we’d drive into the evening too late.

I've stayed at these hotels and can recommend. Not sure how they'll fit in with your plans.
- Hampton Inn in Harrsonburg Va South (43 Covenant Drive)
- Hampton Inn Walterboro, SC
- Hampton Inn Palm Coast FL. (150 Flagger Plaza Drive) only about 1.5 hours to WDW from here!

 

[AlexCalWil]

It’s been a busy few months, but we’re finally getting ready to make the big drive down. We’re leaving from central NJ Thursday afternoon and driving through the night with hopes of missing some of the summer traffic on I95 and have the baby and toddler sleep through a big chunk of the trip. Hoping to arrive around Lunch on Friday.
Our anticipated route is NJTP Exit 8 to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and then down to Dover to pick up a friend. From there we’ll pick up 301 and head towards the eastern beltway and then I95 straight on to FL. Then we’ll take 295 East around JAX and then 95 to I4. Depending on traffic we jump onto 417 or stay on I4.
The hot and humid weather here has been like WDW boot camp. If we’re going sweat, we might as well be in Florida.

 

[AnnaS]

It’s been a busy few months, but we’re finally getting ready to make the big drive down. We’re leaving from central NJ Thursday afternoon and driving through the night with hopes of missing some of the summer traffic on I95 and have the baby and toddler sleep through a big chunk of the trip. Hoping to arrive around Lunch on Friday.
Our anticipated route is NJTP Exit 8 to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and then down to Dover to pick up a friend. From there we’ll pick up 301 and head towards the eastern beltway and then I95 straight on to FL. Then we’ll take 295 East around JAX and then 95 to I4. Depending on traffic we jump onto 417 or stay on I4.
The hot and humid weather here has been like WDW boot camp. If we’re going sweat, we might as well be in Florida.

Safe travels and have fun!

 

[mjmyers10]

We have done both 95 and the inland route from PA. The inland route is a bit longer mileage wise but generally better with traffic. The exception is if there is an incident on I-81. Our last trip saw a 20 mile backup going North (luckily we were going South at the time).

We make our next trip this Wednesday but it is our first time brining our travel trailer with us. 95 is the route that was decided and going to break up into 3 nights. Our goal is to get to Alexandria, VA on Wednesday (leaving after school) then to Lumberton by Thursday. Friday we get to Jacksonville and the final leg on Saturday.

 

[BethanyMouse]

For those of you driving from the New Jersey area- on your way home- where is a good stopping point? We would like to drive the majority of the way home on the first day. We were hoping to stop in Virginia or North Carolina. Any advice?

 

[dato63]

We are driving sunday from Dallas to South Florida... its asking me to pick a route..
Toll route through central Florida ( my favorite because I get to be in orlando) or add 10 mins no tolls down i95 from Jacksonville... sadly this is most likely the route to choose because no tolls for two cars and a uhaul trailer.

Did you end up going through Jacksonville? I've been looking at a similar situation - from Houston. It looks like the toll roads are no longer cash (been a while since we have been to Disney). Going to be in a rental car, so don't want to have them invoice the registered owner of the car.

We aren't going until Christmas, and Jacksonville has a few neat displays - so thinking of just stopping there for the night.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Did you end up going through Jacksonville? I've been looking at a similar situation - from Houston. It looks like the toll roads are no longer cash (been a while since we have been to Disney). Going to be in a rental car, so don't want to have them invoice the registered owner of the car.

We aren't going until Christmas, and Jacksonville has a few neat displays - so thinking of just stopping there for the night.

We decided not to, advice given said that it would be longer than stated from here on dis and people in florida... we ended up using my moms Texas toll tag and just paid her back.
We were in a rental car and a uhaul trailer.
( I mailed her toll tag back)

 

[mjmyers10]

For those of you driving from the New Jersey area- on your way home- where is a good stopping point? We would like to drive the majority of the way home on the first day. We were hoping to stop in Virginia or North Carolina. Any advice?

We have stayed many times at the Hampton Inn in Emporia, VA. My BIL stayed at some tiny homes in Rocky Mount, NC last year and loved it.

 

[BC1836]

Indeed, Emporia is a good stop. We used the Holiday Inn Express there for many years. On the road home by 9 am and we'd be back at the Jersey Shore by 4 pm.

 

[erin1715]

What is everyone’s strategy or recommendation for reserving a hotel? Do you wait to see how far you can drive and then check the apps for a reservation? Or do you reserve something just in case and then cancel at the last minute if necessary?
We will be traveling from upstate NY to Disney beginning of august with our toddler and I don’t want to be stuck without a hotel room! We’ll likely be traveling the inland route.

 

[yaya74]

What time should I leave North New Jersey in order to avoid the traffic in DC and Richmond VA area?

 

[OKW Lover]

What is everyone’s strategy or recommendation for reserving a hotel? Do you wait to see how far you can drive and then check the apps for a reservation? Or do you reserve something just in case and then cancel at the last minute if necessary?

We look at the whole trip and break it down into manageable pieces. We typically don't care to drive longer than 8 hours in a day. So, before we leave we book hotels that will take approximately that long to get to.

Be aware that many hotels no longer allow you to cancel the same day. That means that booking a reservation ahead of time with the intent of canceling if you want to go further could be costly.