For those folks driving!

[C.Ann]

My husband & I will be driving from TN to Fl and plan to drive most of the way the first day, stopping in Lake City Fl overnight and continuing onto POR the next day.
I was wondering if anyone here has stayed in or near Lake City Fl and has a hotel near I75 that they would recommend.

We are leaning toward Best Western since we've had good experience with them and the price is not too high, around $82 (senior rate). We would not want to pay anymore than that-- just need a clean, safe, comfortable place, hopefully with a decent complimentary breakfast.

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Go to tripadvisor.com and type Lake City, FL in the search box. When the page comes up, click on one of the hotels and read the reviews. Then look to the left column and there will be a list of all of the motels/hotels in Lake City, FL. Click on each one and see if there have been any recent reviews written (pay close attention to the date of the review because a review from 2004 may be entirely different now)..

If a motel/hotel has 5 good reviews and 1 bad review, I wouldn't eliminate it from my list.. However, if it had 5 bad reviews and only 1 good review, then I would more than likely pass it up..

You can also put in your dates with these various motels/hotels and find out what the nightly charge would be..

 

[fesslerl]

thanks for taking the time to reply with that helpful information. After reviewing at trip advisor, I decided to go ahead with Best Western. There were a lot more positive comments then negative.

 

[C.Ann]

thanks for taking the time to reply with that helpful information. After reviewing at trip advisor, I decided to go ahead with Best Western. There were a lot more positive comments then negative.

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Glad I could be of help.. Have a great trip!!

 

[jima53]

Unifan is right on the money about gas being cheaper in Georgia than in Florida.

Gas is also much cheaper in South Carolina than it is in North Carolina.

Gas is cheaper in Georgia mainly that they pay taxes on basically everything including food. Their auto registration and other services are much higher, including a state income tax. That said its still a nice place to visit. The rest stops on the turnpike/I95 in Maryland are really nice especially Maryland House. We stop there every visit heading north. ONe other thing, if you can go off a couple blocks from the exits on I95 in Northeast FLorida you will gas much cheaper than the freeway stations. They still price gouge the travellers. Especially in the Palm Coast and St. Augustine area. I travel that route every friday and see the prices, as much as 10-15 cents per gallon more than the average station.


Jim

 

[quietgirll]

we are driving down from the upstate sc area on the 22nd or the 23rd of this month. we will be taking 95 down, but i am still trying to decide if it is best just to go ahead and take i4 into orlando?? we will be staying in the dtd resort area our first night in the area, but if we leave the 22nd, we may possibly stay somewhere about an hour, hour and a half away. i would actually like to stay somewhere a little north of st augustine so we could stop and sightsee there for a bit, but i dont know if that is a feasible option or not. i have found tons of great links in this thread- thanks so much!! one thing tho- UPDATED construction info--where is the best place to find that?? i have seen where there has been construction taking place in jacksonville, but the most recent info i can find is a few month old...where would be the best place to find that info? any other sites/info you think i must have before the trip??? tia!!

 

[Mickey's Sister]

we are driving down from the upstate sc area on the 22nd or the 23rd of this month. we will be taking 95 down, but i am still trying to decide if it is best just to go ahead and take i4 into orlando?? we will be staying in the dtd resort area our first night in the area, but if we leave the 22nd, we may possibly stay somewhere about an hour, hour and a half away. i would actually like to stay somewhere a little north of st augustine so we could stop and sightsee there for a bit, but i dont know if that is a feasible option or not. i have found tons of great links in this thread- thanks so much!! one thing tho- UPDATED construction info--where is the best place to find that?? i have seen where there has been construction taking place in jacksonville, but the most recent info i can find is a few month old...where would be the best place to find that info? any other sites/info you think i must have before the trip??? tia!!

Hi!

Go to www.usastar.com and from there you can click on pages for both I95 & I4 that will give you construction info. They also have a wealth of info on exits - restaurants, hotels, gas stations... We've driven from PA to Disney 4 times & I have always used this site. Plus they have guides you can buy to bring with you. I'd love to hear how you do in St. Augustine - I've always wanted to stop & sightsee there myself. Hope this helps.

Jessica

 

[mom2my3kids]

We will be leaving on October 13th early in the morning, driving until evening getting almost through georgia, spending the night in a hotel then getting up very early on the 14th and driving the rest to daytona spending two nights at the beach then leaving monday morning for disney 6 full days.. We can't wait.

 

[Frankiesmom]

Hi to all! We are thinking of a feb break trip and driving down. We would need to stop in Trumbull,CT to pick up DS. We are coming from Rochester NY-so I know anout 6.5 hours into CT-but then is when it gets tricky-how long from CT to WDW, we will be traveling with a 5 and 2 yr. old. Any advice would be appreciated. I'd like to be at the POLY by 10 am. We would be leaving Rochester at about 8am Sunday 2/18. Is this possible to be @ WDW Mon. 2/19 by 10? Thanks in advance! Angel

 

[Hug the Mouse]

From some posts above it seems that Rock Hill SC may be a good overnight on the way down from southern Ontario. What is the approximate drive time to Orlando from Rock Hill?

Thanks for all the great info on this thread.

www.travmatix.com is a GREAT resource!!!!

 

[baileybelle]

It's about 7 1/2 hours from Rock Hill, SC to WDW.

 

[Hug the Mouse]

Thanks baileybelle.

That sounds like a perfect 2nd day drive. I'm guilty of winging it on the way down, then finding no vacancy when I'm tired of driving so the plan is to find the day 1 destination and book it.

46 sleeps to go...

 

[C.Ann]

Looks like there's going to be a change in my travel plans.. If everything works out okay (business I need to take care of) I'll be starting my drive to Florida the first week in November (rather than after Christmas) - so that means I'll go the 88 to 81 to 64 to I-95 route if the weather is good..

 

[scottb8888]

We drove down on 9/29 (77 to 95) from Columbus Ohio. We made it to the Florida/ Georgia border (or close) stayed in a Embassy Suites and 3.5 hours the next day to WDW. First driving trip with DS 9 and DS 5. It went very well. Planning to drive from now on. Next trip would be Novemebr 2007 (around thanksgiving).

 

[carissanboys]

We're going to be driving down I-95 from Maryland in March. I think we're going to make Savannah, Georgia our high goal mark (we'll reserve a hotel there), but I'm trying to find a place to stop about 100 miles before that in case we can't make the whole way. I've seen people mention Dillon, SC and Florence, SC, but those aren't far enough. Anyone know of any places in souther SC that would be good to stop?

*updated*

I just did a little looking in my Drive I-95 book (duh! forgot about it!). It looks like Santee, SC might be a good place to stop about 100 miles shy of Savannah. And I saw someone mention earlier in the thread that it has a lot of hotels and outlet stores so I think we're good to go.

Now just have to figure out where to stop on the way home!

 

[CPT Tripss]

Santee SC has a lot of motels, it is about 100 miles from the SC/GA border. It's well worth considering.

 

[Mickey's Sister]

We're going to be driving down I-95 from Maryland in March. I think we're going to make Savannah, Georgia our high goal mark (we'll reserve a hotel there), but I'm trying to find a place to stop about 100 miles before that in case we can't make the whole way. I've seen people mention Dillon, SC and Florence, SC, but those aren't far enough. Anyone know of any places in souther SC that would be good to stop?

*updated*

I just did a little looking in my Drive I-95 book (duh! forgot about it!). It looks like Santee, SC might be a good place to stop about 100 miles shy of Savannah. And I saw someone mention earlier in the thread that it has a lot of hotels and outlet stores so I think we're good to go.

Now just have to figure out where to stop on the way home!

Let us know how you make out in Santee. We usually stay in Florence, but we'd actually like to get a bit further next trip & were thinking of Santee. We talked about it last trip, but thank heaven we settled on Florence since the drive was horrendous (Saturday after Thanksgiving - never again). We didn't make it to Florence until after 10:00 P.M. - we usually get there about 6 - 6:30. I like to reserve something in advance so I know where I'm going, can get travel points & good deals, etc. But the earlier we can get to Disney the better! Have fun planning!!!

Jessica

 

[carissanboys]

I've reserved a room at the Best Western in Santee after reading good reviews on tripadvisor. I also reserved a room in Savannah. Sounds like there's quite a bit to do in both towns so that'll be good. We'll probably be arriving close to 2 p.m. (IF all goes as planned) so we'll have time to do some sightseeing. I'll be sure to post after our trip

 

[wdwfanatic80]

Hi there,

We are driving to Disney for the first time since I was a little kid. I now am taking my 14 month old daughter, she will be 15 months when we go. We havea portable DVD and she is a great car sleeper so that part should go well, but I know I am going to be the one thinking - ARE WE THERE YET??? I am so excited to get there! So just wondering how long it takes from the Philly area and where is a good place to stop that will leave us with about 6 hours to go. We aren't going to book a room for stopping because if we are feeling good a dd is doing good then we are going to just keep going until we feel that we need to stop - hopefully not until we get to WDW, but I know that is a bit unrealistic. Thanks!

 

[JoeCathyAngelina]

We drove straight through from Boston for DD's 3rd Birthday. No DVD, No Books; just talking, singing, switching drivers when we stopped for gas, No Problem. You shouldn't have any problem driving straight through from Philly.
It shouldn't take you more than 16 hours on a bad day.
Good luck all,
Joe

 

[carissanboys]

I think Santee, SC is about 6 hours from Disney. That's one of the two cities we've booked a hotel room at for our trip down. It has quite a few hotels (the Best Western there has gotten good reviews and is cheap) and from what I've read seems like a good place to stop. Might be worth checking out. Good luck!