How far from Tampa airport to WDW?

[Tigger&Belle]

My husband suggested looking into flying to Tampa instead of Orlando to save $ on the flight and rental car. I'll do that, but wondered how long the drive from the Tampa airport to WDW took. We won't be there long and I don't want to lose a lot of touring time to save a little $ (maybe to save a lot of $, though ).

Thanks, T&B

 

[JohnnyOldBoy]

I would figure an extra 45 mins to 1 hour from TPA compared to MCO. TPA is about 70 miles to WDW, MCO is about 20.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Thanks, that's not as far as I thought it would be. At least worth keeping as an option.

T&B

 

[llp479]

The trip between Tampa and Orlando can be deceiving. My uncle lives in Tampa and we've driven over to see him. The trip there took just over an hour. The trip back, well over 2 hours!

 

[zurgswife]

During our trip last December...I drove back and forth between Tampa/St. Pete and WDW 6 times.....and it never took over 90mins to drive either direction....the least it took was 70...on average it was about 80....It wasn't a bad trip....except for the construction...but it always was moving and then picked right back up...

 

[manning]

Is there a big difference in fares.

Maybe looking at Sanford airport may be better.

 

[ibouncetoo]

We've often flown into Tampa instead of Orlando. A couple of times due to business in Clearwater Beach, others because of cheaper airfares or better times on direct flights. Last trip my friend landed in Tampa at 3:40P and was having dinner at Boma at 5:30P and that was with picking up the car and a slight traffic delay. But it's always a risk timewise when you have a lot a freeway driving, traffic can cause delays.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I'm not sure if the fares are much better. Figured I'd find out the distance and driving time before even considering it. Sounds like it'a a good option and it could be that rental cars are less expensive from the Tampa airport, too.

Thanks for all the info! Now to get the grandparents to get their plane tickets so they can come out and watch our children so we can get away!

T&B

 

[BarbOKW]

I just booked flights to Tampa because of the airfare. I think American just added a additional Chicago/Tampa flight because I was able to get fares at under $300 for right after the holidays. I've been searching for about 2 months now and have not even come close to those fares. Back to the point, we ususally go directly into MCO, but we have gone to Tampa one other time and found it to be a reasonable alternative. MCO is of course the best options but I'm saving at a minimum $1200 (there are six of us) to go to Tampa.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I did some checking and for me it actually cost more to go to Tampa. I think that there are just some good sales right now going on from the DC airports to Orlando. I will keep this in mind for future trips, though. Seems like a good alternative.

T&B

 

[tiggercrazy]

We just booked our flight with spirit air from Chicago to Tampa for $126 roundtrip. We couldn't even get close to that going into Orlando. I was also wondering how long it would take us-thank you for the info.!

 

[BarbOKW]

TiggerCrazy, that's a great fare you got! For the time I want to go Spirit is charging $515! I've never flown them, but people do seem to like them. We're expecting the drive from Tampa to be about 90 minutes, we flew to Tampa one other time but it was years ago. I do remember that we thought it was a very do able alternative to MCO.

 

[tiggercrazy]

We usually drive with 4 kids, but I couldn't pass up the good rate. This will be the first time that we are flying as a family. I have also heard good things about spirit, so we will see. We are used to very long car rides, so 90 minutes is a cake walk!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

We ended up with $136/pp on Southwest for R/T Baltimore to Orlando. We could have gotten $116 if we had of been ready to buy a couple week earlier. Very good rate. I paid $166/pp in Feb when my son and I went to Orlando.


Now the rental car search...

T&B

 

[BarbOKW]

I got a great deal on a mini-van rental from Thrifty, $217 with taxes and all those other charges, this is for a week. The best I'd been able to do before I got the Thrifty rate was just under $500! I used a code from Mousesavers.com, the only catch is that I think I need to get a WalMart credit card, no big deal.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I can get a good deal on a Thrifty car with the SAMS code that I got from mousesavers. A compact car is all we need (just for transportation for 2 people) and I can get a $97 rate for the 4-5 days that we'll be there. I might pay the $10 more for Dollar, though, since it will shave a few minutes off our time--we are trying to get to the parks as quickly as possible.

That seems like a good rate for a rental van. They can be so expensive.

T&B

 

[BarbOKW]

Why would going with Dollar save you time? I thought Thrifty was in the airport as well.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

In my notes I have Thrify down as offsite. I'll recheck, though.

T&B