I-75 vs. I-77/79/90 - my experience

[PanamaMike]

I know there has been lots of discussion on this board about which route to take so for my recent trip I chose to try both of them.

My house in Toronto to DTD (my first stop upon arriving and my last stop before returning home)

Trip down via 1-75:
Distance:2, 247 km
Time on road 24:20
Time spent driving: 22:35 (deducting rest stops, gas stops, border crossing wait)
Avg. speed 99.8 km/h

Trip back via I-77/79/90
Distance: 2,164 km
Time on road 24:00
Time spent driving: 22:00 (same deductions)
Avg. speed: 98.3 km/h

I-75 is a flater, straighter drive. I-77 is certainly more picturesque although this time of year, bare trees are bare trees no matter where they are. By the time I got into Pennsylvania, I was getting a little tired of all the hills and curves

More services along I-75 but that's not to say I-77/79 is lacking in hotels, gas stations or restaurants.

One thing I did notice is most of the hotel signs along I-75 have the room price right up there for you to see making it easier to choose where you want to stay. The Holiday Inn on the left for $56 or the Motel 6 on the right for $35.
I saw very few prices posted along I-77/79 which meant having to go in to learn the room rate.

In the end, very little difference in time and distance travelled.

 

[MamaLema]

thanks for the review. we have always done the 77/79 route and will be doing the 75 route next for the first time

 

[cslittle999]

Interesting. We found I75 to be about three hours longer than the I77/79 route. The difference I think is that the speed limit goes up and down so much on I75 so it is easier to have a sustained speed on the other route. Now we didn't drive straight through on either route and all of our driving was during the day. We found the traffic on I75 to be much heavier. We would not take the I75 route unless forced by weather. Actually I think we've given up on driving and are going to be flying out of Buffalo for our next trip.

 

[Rapidfyre]

We have actually done all 3 routes, I75, 77/79 and down through Kingston and 95 and much prefer the 77/79. Personally I find the drive more relaxing, not as heavy traffic wise and more scenic. We take 2 days driving 15 hours the first day stopping in Columbia South Carolina. The second day drive is pretty short.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

If you punch both ways in on google maps. Windsor to Disney and Hamilton to Disney. They both work out to the same 20 hours roughly. If you drive from Hamilton to windsor thats the extra 4 hours. This is purly milage. It does not take into account stops traffic and construction. When we went down in May 2007 Peace bridge crossing driving down Just driving time was 20 hours. Not including any stops. Driving back was 24 hours as the tunnels were under construction through the mountains. I have also drove I75 with both good time and poor time. We prefer the senic route. I agree with the OP's the signage on I75 is much better. Either way it still has the same outcome DISNEY. Thanks for the post it is eye opening to us.

 

[iluveeyore]

We prefer the I/77/79 route as well. And just a note for those of you who stop half way or along the way for a night - if you stop at the Welcome Center of whatever state you'll be staying in, you can pick up a coupon book that has some good specials in it for one night stays without reservations, also has exact directions to the hotels that have the specials.

 

[Ham Ham]

QEW, I-190, I-90, I-79, US-19, I-77, I-26, I-95, I-4 fan here. Although we may take I-75 in the future with a stop at the Georgia Aquarium.

Google Map of route.