Hotel half way between ny and orlando

[MandM-Mom]

What town and where do you stay when you drive 95 to get to Orlando .....with rising airlines our family of 5 is considering driving for the first time, we always find great airline deals but they look pretty slim for us this August.

 

[MandM-Mom]

Any ideas???

 

[mskayjay]

I'm sorry but we don't get on 95 till we hit Georgia and that would be too far for you in one day I'm guessing. Don't know for sure where you are in upstate, but I'm near Syracuse and rates are really low still on JetBlue depending on your date of travel. I can't imagine spending four days in the car traveling with 3 children as a fun part of vacationing. I hope you can find a good deal! Best of luck!

 

[prncess674]

I would do a mapquest map and see what towns are a comfortable driving distance between your home and Orlando. I prefer to do more driving on the first day so that you can arrive into your destination when it is still light out.

Use tripadvisor for hotel reviews. Personally I would stick with major budget hotel chains:

Fairfield Inn
Hampton Inn
Comfort Inn

 

[OKW Lover]

I'd suggest you go to www.I95exitguide.com for some research. It shouldn't be too difficult to figure what exits are around your half-way mark and then see what hotels are available.

 

[Lewisc]

Ducklite doesn't post on DIS anymore, she had some specific suggestions. Do a search, maybe a google site search.

 

[MandM-Mom]

I'm sorry but we don't get on 95 till we hit Georgia and that would be too far for you in one day I'm guessing. Don't know for sure where you are in upstate, but I'm near Syracuse and rates are really low still on JetBlue depending on your date of travel. I can't imagine spending four days in the car traveling with 3 children as a fun part of vacationing. I hope you can find a good deal! Best of luck!

We plan on driving overnight and when girls are sleeping and stopping during the day, then doing the same the same that night. We drive from our house to Virginia Beach straight thu while they sleep and our girls do just fine they actually like it. We have ressies for August 24-Sept 1.....1900.00 for 5 of us on Jetblue out of Syracuse, YIKES!! We are actually closer to Albany but for the 5 of us we are going to be 1500. or so, we don't spend that much on our package with room tix. DH actually decided today while he was at work that we will stop in Florence SC at the country inn and Suites while he sleeps. Then the girls can swim and stuff and we will leave around 1am or so for our final trek into Orlando. It does take time from our vacation but we can't check in until the 24th on our Free dining package anyways so we actually get a few extra days to be with our girls without interuptions of our daily busy house, no chores for me and DH, no chores for DD's, no appointments just family fun!

Thanks everyone for all your help and ideas

 

[TSMAMI]

We travel from NY and we always stay at the 1-95 Holiday Inn in Fayetteville NC. The hotel is very nice, clean and they have great room service! Its the one off exit 49.....

 

[MandM-Mom]

We travel from NY and we always stay at the 1-95 Holiday Inn in Fayetteville NC. The hotel is very nice, clean and they have great room service! Its the one off exit 49.....

Great tip thank-you! If you don't mind sharing how long does it take you? What do you usually spend on gas? I am figuring 300.00 down and 300.00 back for gas. We are just outside of Saratoga, so we are a bit farther up.

 

[prncess674]

Great tip thank-you! If you don't mind sharing how long does it take you? What do you usually spend on gas? I am figuring 300.00 down and 300.00 back for gas. We are just outside of Saratoga, so we are a bit farther up.

Well assuming your car gets 24MPG and it is 1225 miles to WDW with gas averaging $4.15 a gallon your gas bill one way would be $211. Don't forget to budget for your hotel and all the snacks that the kids will want along the way, even if you pack your own. Don't forget to budget for meals on the road. I haven't done a reall long road trip in years, but I remember as a kid Mom would pack a variety of snacks and some options wouldn't come out till the second day. Having too many choices is a bad thing.

 

[MandM-Mom]

Well assuming your car gets 24MPG and it is 1225 miles to WDW with gas averaging $4.15 a gallon your gas bill one way would be $211. Don't forget to budget for your hotel and all the snacks that the kids will want along the way, even if you pack your own. Don't forget to budget for meals on the road. I haven't done a reall long road trip in years, but I remember as a kid Mom would pack a variety of snacks and some options wouldn't come out till the second day. Having too many choices is a bad thing.

I am watching gas prices we figure if it shoots up to high then we will just bite the bullet and fly, I don't want to spend more to drive than fly.....Hoping for a great air sale and not having to worry about it but at this point driving is the plan.

 

[prncess674]

I am watching gas prices we figure if it shoots up to high then we will just bite the bullet and fly, I don't want to spend more to drive than fly.....Hoping for a great air sale and not having to worry about it but at this point driving is the plan.

I wouldn't count on a sale fares to MCO. Airlines are cutting service to MCO since it isn't a profitable route with the price of fuel so high.

 

[crzy4dsny]

We have done the drive 3 times from Long Island. We like to get as much driving done the first day as possible. We stop in Kingsland Georgia which is right on the Florida border. This way the second day is only about a two and a half hour drive. It doesn't feel like you spent two days in the car.

We are actually going back around the same time you are in August. We are going on the 23rd and coming back on the 2nd. We got air fare out of Islip for around $1100 for 5 people. For us to drive with everything factored in it would be about $700. To me it's just not worth it to drive anymore. Drive out to Long Island and fly Southwest out of Islip, it may save you some money.

 

[tjmw2727]

We are in Northern DE and when we drive we leave as early as possible to avoid some of the DC traffic - usually about 4am and then we stop in Savannah, GA. We can usually get to Savannah in time for dinner and to let the kids swim/play and burn off steam. We try and make the drive and the stop in Savannah part of the vacation so that's why we don't go further.

If you do want to push as far as you can on day one there are lots of "clusters" on 95 with many hotels from $ to $$$ but we found a Holiday Inn in Savannah that we like alot.

If you happen to have AAA this is what I used for my triptik. It shows the hotels at each exit and then you can figure out how long your drive should take you to each point. On the first trip I had a list of hotels we were interested in at the 8, 9, 10, 11 an 12 hour points. Once we had an idea that we were about "done" then I called on the cellphone and booked the hotel we settled on.

TJ

 

[MandM-Mom]

We have done the drive 3 times from Long Island. We like to get as much driving done the first day as possible. We stop in Kingsland Georgia which is right on the Florida border. This way the second day is only about a two and a half hour drive. It doesn't feel like you spent two days in the car.

We are actually going back around the same time you are in August. We are going on the 23rd and coming back on the 2nd. We got air fare out of Islip for around $1100 for 5 people. For us to drive with everything factored in it would be about $700. To me it's just not worth it to drive anymore. Drive out to Long Island and fly Southwest out of Islip, it may save you some money.

You are very lucky, the cheapest for our stay is around 1700 flying out on the 23rd getting back the 1st....or going out the 24th coming home the 1st. Thanks for the tip on Islip I hadn't tried that one yet, it was worth the try, I had hope for a little bit there.

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

You are very lucky, the cheapest for our stay is around 1700 flying out on the 23rd getting back the 1st....or going out the 24th coming home the 1st. Thanks for the tip on Islip I hadn't tried that one yet, it was worth the try, I had hope for a little bit there.

If you don't mind a lay-over in Atlanta and allowing your youngest as a lap-child, try AirTran out of LGA. You should be able to book for $119 each way. $1,120 total. Figure another $100 or so for long-term parking.

 

[TSMAMI]

Great tip thank-you! If you don't mind sharing how long does it take you? What do you usually spend on gas? I am figuring 300.00 down and 300.00 back for gas. We are just outside of Saratoga, so we are a bit farther up.

I am figuring the same 600 roundtrip. When I look it up on www.fuelcostcalculator.com it says about 450.00, so its always nice to go higher. It usualy takes about 12 hours to get to the hotel. That is with stopping for a little while in Maryland, so the kids can stretch. I ususally take i-95 down but this time I am going to try i-81...Whcih way are you going?

 

[luckytobeme88]

We have driven down so many times to WDW from Rochester, NY that we don't need any map. lol
We normally overnite @ Florence, SC. It is about 800 miles drive from home. We usually leave the house around 3-4 am and avoid most(but not all traffic) It takes about 13/14 hours the most(including lunch, gas, and bathroom breaks) The next morning, we check out our room around 4am and continue the last leg to WDW. Believe it or not, we typically arrive our Disney resort by 11 am.
Next month, we are staying overnight at the Springhill Suite in Florence, SC exit 160A. It's a first time stay there, but it looks kind of nice and roomy.
Good luck and drive safe, but most of all, have a wonderful time in Disney.

 

[TSMAMI]

We have driven down so many times to WDW from Rochester, NY that we don't need any map. lol
We normally overnite @ Florence, SC. It is about 800 miles drive from home. We usually leave the house around 3-4 am and avoid most(but not all traffic) It takes about 13/14 hours the most(including lunch, gas, and bathroom breaks) The next morning, we check out our room around 4am and continue the last leg to WDW. Believe it or not, we typically arrive our Disney resort by 11 am.
Next month, we are staying overnight at the Springhill Suite in Florence, SC exit 160A. It's a first time stay there, but it looks kind of nice and roomy.
Good luck and drive safe, but most of all, have a wonderful time in Disney.

You have a great time too!

 

[sharadoc]

It looks like a good active area, so there should be plenty of choices for dinner, possible recreation, etc.

We looked at Springhill Suites - check the I95 exit guides for customer reviews. Some people felt it was a little dirty and the staff not very friendly. we think we're going to do one of the Holiday Inn express suites (there are 2 in Florence).

We're west of Philadelphia, so we're going to do 2 equal days of travel. We expect to hit Florence around 6 pm the first day. Leaving Florence on day 2 around 9 AM, we expect to be at WDW by dinner time. We don't want to arrive exhausted, and we're hoping that portable DVD players, books and Leapster games will keep them busy.

Let us know about the Springhill Suites - their price was better than Holiday Inn Suites.

Good luck.