For 2,000+ mile round-trip drivers only!

[marius97]

75 will be your best bet most likely...though as a fellow Michigander, more specifics might be needed. If you are actually in the UP, definately 75 since you'd have to come across the bridge. If you are just more NW lower, than you could look at coming down by me in SW lower MI. Though from there, you'd have to go on 31 in IN which isn't the best. Overall, 75 is probably the way to go. We just got back a few days ago from driving. Mapquest said 18.5 hours for us. Coming home we did it it 21 hours over night. One sit down breakfast, kids going potty during driver switches, and a one hour anp at a rest stop. All in all, it wasn't that bad. Sure beat $1000 for airfare for the family of five. Safe driving.

We are way up in the Upper Michigan, what is the fastest/safest way to get to orlando, I 75 or a different route, Just trying to plan my trip, we would like to stop half way and stay over night and continue on the next day. Map quest says 21 hours but i heard it was more like 24 hrs anyone know. thankyou

 

[BC1836]

Good morning, all!
It's about 2:15 a.m. on the East Coast.
Hmm. What shall we do today?
It's time...in about an hour...for another 2,000+ mile round trip!
All the best.

 

[KPH500]

Good morning, all!
It's about 2:15 a.m. on the East Coast.
Hmm. What shall we do today?
It's time...in about an hour...for another 2,000+ mile round trip!
All the best.

Drive safely and have a great trip!

We're heading down on Thursday.

 

[jondvl]

Has any one living in Berks county PA driven down PA Turnpike to I-81 to I-77 to I-26 to I-95?

I checked it on Google maps and it is only about an hour more than going down 95 all the way.

I also here alot of people talking about getting directions and maps and reservations from AAA, do you need to be a member?

We are not sure if we are going to drive straight through or stop somewhere for the night. We will probably leave around 4 or 5 in the a.m. and hope the kids sleep most of the morning.

 

[rotlex]

Has any one living in Berks county PA driven down PA Turnpike to I-81 to I-77 to I-26 to I-95?

I checked it on Google maps and it is only about an hour more than going down 95 all the way.

I also here alot of people talking about getting directions and maps and reservations from AAA, do you need to be a member?

We are not sure if we are going to drive straight through or stop somewhere for the night. We will probably leave around 4 or 5 in the a.m. and hope the kids sleep most of the morning.

We are down here now and took the I-81 route you list above for the first time this trip. (we are from Whitehall/Allentown area). I will never take 95 all the way again. It was a great drive. Took maybe 16 hours total, although we did stop the first day in Savannah overnight for the kids.

Either way; the drive was easy, stress free and scenic. HIGHLY recommended!

 

[Tomh]

We drove down last August from NY (about 1100 miles one way) for the first time. It wasn't a terrible trip, but there were things that I think could have gone better.

Last year, our first day we spent some time sight seeing in DC, then drove into VA to spend the night. Getting into the Northern part of VA, the traffic sucked, and it took for ever.

The second day we drove from VA to the Southern end of GA, a smooth, uneventful ride (well, except for the turndown part at the back of our exhaust falling off somewhere in GA, and the heat from the exhaust melting the pooh out of the back bumper cover). The third day, we drove from GA into Disney World, arriving a bit before 11:00 in the morning.

On the way back, we stopped at the Econolodge in Florence, SC (never, no REALLY NEVER stay at that hotel, it was honestly that bad). The next day we drove on into NY. We had been expecting to arrive in NY right around 8:00, however the traffic through Northern VA, and DC sucked once again, and it was midnight by the time we got home.

We're planning on making the trip again this August, but want to do things a bit differently. We're not going to be sight seeing in DC this time, so I figure we'll make the drive down in two days. I'd also like to avoid that mess in DC, and the Northern part of VA. I think the kids (DD14, and DS5) would like driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. If I take DE 1 to US 13, and then do 64 / 684 back over to 95, I should miss the whole DC / Northern VA mess. I know it's a bit longer drive, but how is it traffic / time wise?

I want to stay in the Florence SC area again, but NOT at the Econolodge. Someone suggested the Hampton in & Suites, what do you all think?

 

[Muhlenberg]

Has any one living in Berks county PA driven down PA Turnpike to I-81 to I-77 to I-26 to I-95?

I checked it on Google maps and it is only about an hour more than going down 95 all the way.

I also here alot of people talking about getting directions and maps and reservations from AAA, do you need to be a member?

We are not sure if we are going to drive straight through or stop somewhere for the night. We will probably leave around 4 or 5 in the a.m. and hope the kids sleep most of the morning.

We've gone this way and like it! Keep in mind that although Google and Mapquest say it's about an hour farther, you could easily spend an hour sitting in traffic in the Baltimore/DC area.

 

[dvczerfs]

Has any one living in Berks county PA driven down PA Turnpike to I-81 to I-77 to I-26 to I-95?

I checked it on Google maps and it is only about an hour more than going down 95 all the way.

I also here alot of people talking about getting directions and maps and reservations from AAA, do you need to be a member?

We are not sure if we are going to drive straight through or stop somewhere for the night. We will probably leave around 4 or 5 in the a.m. and hope the kids sleep most of the morning.

we take 81 to int66 to 17 to int95. it take me about 11/2 hours less than going out 77 to 26. we have gone both ways 77 /26 is a nice ride into the mountains if you need scenery. going 81/66/17/95 you will miss the dc and balt areas. we drive thru richmond on 95 and so far we have gotten lucky. they have signs aproaching richond to tell you if the traffic is backed up or not and if it is, just take the spur around it.

 

[toledo13]

Has anyone ever driven from Columbus, OH?? What's the fastest route? (HA! Fastest... that's all relative!)

 

[jondvl]

What type of highway is I-77? Are there rest stops?

 

[kingcrab]

just got back from a week trip down to Orlando from west of Chicago.

18 hours on the way down with a hour hour stop for dinner near Nashville. Took I-39 to I-55 to I-74 to I-57 to I-24 to I-75 to the toll road into Orlando. Not many cops, nut much constrcution during the night hours

17 hours on the trip home(we went to St. Pete Beach for the day before we left I-75 to I-24 to I-65 to I-80.

all in all an easy trip.

 

[glo]

Hi all!
Getting ready for our trip in 6 days! We are going to try the 84 to 81 to 77 to 26 to 95 rte. Should we go around Charolette, NC on 495 or go right through on 77? We are coming from Northern MA leaving at 6pm and driving straight through...not sure where that should put us when we get to NC. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[BC1836]

Good morning, all!
It's about 2:15 a.m. on the East Coast.
Hmm. What shall we do today?
It's time...in about an hour...for another 2,000+ mile round trip!
All the best.

Howdy!
With an early 3:23 a.m. start on Saturday (and with misssing the approaching NE rain) we made it to the FL border at 5:49 p.m. Of course, on the eve of the longest day of the year we continued on with the sun still shining brightly. We decided to pass our last trip's overnnight stop in Deltona and drive straight thorough (only the second time we've done it in our 15 drives). On the road, we booked a sleep-over WDW reservation at a value resort for the night. We arrived at Exit #67 at 8:48 p.m., a little over 17 hours (and 1,074 miles) for the total drive. We ended up at All Star Sports...a first and last time visit. The next morning we drove to our planned reservation location.

Despite a heat index of 100+ degrees, we're here!

BTW: No traffic delays of any kind during our Saturday drive.

All the best.

 

[glo]

Did you do 95S all the way? I am nervous about our upcoming trip. Three teenagers and 3 middle age women...Kids are mine, my friend is just a glutton for punishment since DH has no vacation this year.

Howdy!
With an early 3:23 a.m. start on Saturday (and with misssing the approaching NE rain) we made it to the FL border at 5:49 p.m. Of course, on the eve of the longest day of the year we continued on with the sun still shining brightly. We decided to pass our last trip's overnnight stop in Deltona and drive straight thorough (only the second time we've done it in our 15 drives). On the road, we booked a sleep-over WDW reservation at a value resort for the night. We arrived at Exit #67 at 8:48 p.m., a little over 17 hours (and 1,074 miles) for the total drive. We ended up at All Star Sports...a first and last time visit. The next morning we drove to our planned reservation location.

Despite a heat index of 100+ degrees, we're here!

BTW: No traffic delays of any kind during our Saturday drive.

All the best.

 

[jazum]

We have taken I95 all the way down from central NJ, multipy times in the last 20 years and have never had a problem it takes us 18-22 hours depending on how many stops we make. Its a pretty simple and straight drive. I have a different problem this year, I'll be driving down myself with two 17 years, but will be taking new roads along the way. We are planning on making a college tour on the way down and my husband will be meeting us at Disney. The colleges we plan on visiting are Georgetown, University of Virginia, Duke and Clemson. If anyone has any suggestions or tips on what routes to take or places to see I'd appreciate the help, since i"ve only ever taken I95.

 

[dvczerfs]

What type of highway is I-77? Are there rest stops?

17 is a 4 lane road that goes thru some towns and hit a few lights. there are fast food rest, walmart. you move along 55-60. we get gas in warrenton, you go thru opal. nice ride.

 

[BC1836]

Did you do 95S all the way? I am nervous about our upcoming trip. Three teenagers and 3 middle age women...Kids are mine, my friend is just a glutton for punishment since DH has no vacation this year.

Indeed. We pick up I-95 at the DE Memorial Bridge (we drive from Barnegat Bay across NJ). But as we've said many times: leave very, very early on a Saturday morning.

All the best.

 

[KPH500]

We're leaving Thursday morning around 10am from MA. Not sure what the traffic will be like but we don't have the option of leaving any earlier and we need to be there by mid-afternoon on Friday. So, it'll be a straight through drive for us but there are three of us driving so it should be okay. Right?

 

[dantedisney]

We're going in July but will be leaving Friday night and planning on stopping somewhere in Georgia Saturday night to relax before making the final drive to Kissimmee Sunday morning.

Good luck with your trip.

 

[gk90]

We drove down last August from NY (about 1100 miles one way) for the first time. It wasn't a terrible trip, but there were things that I think could have gone better.

Last year, our first day we spent some time sight seeing in DC, then drove into VA to spend the night. Getting into the Northern part of VA, the traffic sucked, and it took for ever.

/snip/

On the way back, we stopped at the Econolodge in Florence, SC (never, no REALLY NEVER stay at that hotel, it was honestly that bad). The next day we drove on into NY. We had been expecting to arrive in NY right around 8:00, however the traffic through Northern VA, and DC sucked once again, and it was midnight by the time we got home.

We're planning on making the trip again this August, but want to do things a bit differently. We're not going to be sight seeing in DC this time, so I figure we'll make the drive down in two days. I'd also like to avoid that mess in DC, and the Northern part of VA. I think the kids (DD14, and DS5) would like driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. If I take DE 1 to US 13, and then do 64 / 684 back over to 95, I should miss the whole DC / Northern VA mess. I know it's a bit longer drive, but how is it traffic / time wise?

I want to stay in the Florence SC area again, but NOT at the Econolodge. Someone suggested the Hampton in & Suites, what do you all think?

Coming from NY here too. When does traffic out of DC start getting heavy? We want to get to DC by late morning and spend a few hours sightseeing (since we'll have people with us who have never been there) and then get on the road before traffic gets too bad. What we did a couple of years ago was to spend the afternoon in DC and wait until around 7 to let traffic die down but even then it was still not great in Northern VA.

One DO NOT STAY hotel is Days Inn North in Fredricksburg--carpet was filthy ...it was the only hotel in the area with a vacancy when we got there at 8:45 pm

I have relatives who often drive from NY to Southern VA and will have to ask them about the Chesapeake bay route around DC for our way back.

A hotel we would recommend was 100 miles south of Florence, just north of Savannah, the Days Inn in Port Wentworth GA--it's a cut above other Days Inns where we've stayed.