Now is the Best Time! Our 2024 Florida Road Trip (complete)

[mickey916]

Intro and explanation:​

My DH and I retired early in 2022 and took our first Florida road trip in April of 2023. This was an exploratory trip to see which areas we liked best for future trips. We covered both coasts and the Keys during our one month excursion. Since that trip only included a few days in Orlando, I posted my trip report on the Community Board, which can be found here: Around the State (and what we ate)

As soon as we returned last year we set our itinerary for our 2024 Florida road trip with plans to spend more time in each of our favorite areas. Surprising to no one on the DisBoards, we reconfirmed last year that our favorite area is Orlando, particularly Disney World. So, since this road trip involves much more time spent in Disney, I figure it’s a safe bet to post this report in the Disney Trip Report thread.

Here is our original itinerary for our 2024 trip (it did end up changing mid-trip, but more on that when we get to it.):

4/1-4/2 Stafford, VA
4/2-4/3 Santee, SC
4/3-4/6 Ormond Beach:
4/3 St. Augustine,
4/4 Deleon Springs,
4/5 Flagler Beach
4/6-4/15 Orlando:
4/6 Gatorland, Disney Springs, POFQ
4/7 Universal IoA, Studios & City Walk
4/8 Magic Kingdom & 'Ohana
4/9 Hollywood Studios & Mama Melrose
4/10 Boma Breakfast, Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs
4/11 Epcot F&G, San Angel Inn, Cannoli, Funnel Cake
4/12 Magic Kingdom: Sleepy Hollow, Gasparilla, Liberty Tree Tavern
4/13 Kona Cafe, Sassagoula Floatworks, Scat Cat Cafe
4/14 1900 Park Fare, Goods-to-Go, Magic Kingdom & Tony's Town Square
4/15 Epcot Bauernmrkt, Karamel Kuche, Trowell & Trellis, Joffrey's, Via Napoli, L'Artisan des Glaces
4/15-4/20 Cocoa Beach:
4/16 Rest Day at Cocoa Beach, Cocoa Beach Fish Camp Grill
4/17 Kennedy Space Center, Space Bowl Bistro, Milky Way Ice Cream, Tiny Turtle, Fat Donkey
4/18 Rest Day & Rocket Launch from Playalinda Beach
4/19 Tiny Turtle, Dolphin Tour, Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Papa Vitos, Tropic Ice Cream
4/20 Epcot, Sunshine Seasons, Captain Cooks, The Boathouse, Arriving in Bradenton
4/20-4/25 Bradenton:
4/21 Robinson Preserve & DeSoto National Memorial
4/22 Sarasota: Myakka River State Park, Unconditional Surrender, Yoder's Restaurant
4/23 Siesta Key Beach, Owen's Fish Camp, Olaf's Ice Cream
4/24 St. Pete, Clearwater Beach, Columbia Restaurant, Ybor City
4/25-4/30 Fanning Springs
4/25-4/30 Orlando:
4/25 Gideon's, Scat Cat Cafe, Pizza Ponte, The Boathouse
4/26 Animal Kingdom: Pongu Pongu, Mr. Kamal's, Nomad Lounge, Polite Pig
4/27 Hollywood Studios: ABC Commissary, Trolley Car Cafe, Il Mulino
4/28 Magic Kingdom: Cheshire Cafe, Gasparilla Island Grill, Friar's Nook, Tambu Lounge, Plaza Ice Cream
4/29 Epcot: Les Halles, San Angel Inn, Sommerfest, Regal Eagle, Funnel Cake Stand
4/30-5/1 Augusta, GA
5/1-5/4 Charlotte, NC
5/1 Kannapolis, NC: El Amigo Restaurant
5/2 NASCAR Hall of Fame, Speedway Club, & Race Shops
5/3 JR Motorsports, Memory Lane Museum, Havana 33
5/4 -5/5 Travel Harrisonburg, VA
5/5-5/7 Lancaster, PA
5/5 Hershey Chocolate World, Station House Tavern
5/6 Amish Farm & House, Strasburg RR, Shady Maple Smorgasbord
5/7 Touring Lititz, PA then arriving home
Some Trip Statistics
Lessons Learned
Breakfast Rankings
Lunch Rankings
Dinner Rankings
Beverage Rankings
Savory Snack Rankings
Sweet Snacks Rankings

Here’s an overview of our planned route:

I hope you will join me as I recount our many adventures. We experienced many interesting things and ate a lot of delicious food! We had a phenomenal trip!

 

[summerlvr]

Sounds interesting, looking forward to reading more!

 

[mickey916]

Sounds interesting, looking forward to reading more!

Welcome!

 

[footballmouse]

Yea, another road trip. I read your last one and loved the reviews, looking forward to this one.

 

[mickey916]

Yea, another road trip. I read your last one and loved the reviews, looking forward to this one.

Thank you and welcome again!

 

[mickey916]

4/1 Departing from home and stopping in Stafford, VA​

Last year we took a leisurely drive down, avoiding 95 by driving the coast. This year we were eager to get to Florida so we knew we needed to take the dreaded 95 route. Hoping to avoid the inevitable backups in Connecticut, New York and D.C., we decided to leave at 3:30 am., so we were up and out early!

We had an uneventful drive down and arrived in Stafford, VA just before noon. Since 2018, we both make sure we get at least 10,000 steps a day so once we arrived it was time to do some walking. We went to the Stafford Civil War park, a former winter camp site for Union soldiers. There are five different spots with short walking trails at each one. Several plaques describe what life was like for Civil War soldiers. It is a very informative park that also has restrooms and a small picnic area. We made ourselves a picnic lunch with leftover Easter ham and then walked around the five areas stopping to read the historic information. It was a very interesting stop.

Next, we checked into our hotel, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Quantico/Stafford. The hotel was no frills but quiet, clean and comfy.

It was too early for dinner and we needed more steps so we headed over to Government Island. This was another area with nice easy trails, this time along Aquia Harbor. We didn’t see much wildlife but we did see the area where limestone was cut for the U.S. Capitol building.

Having achieved our step goals we decided to head for an early dinner and discovered that the #2 restaurant listed in TripAdvisor, El Gran Charro, was right next door to our hotel. Weary from travel we decided to just head there.

We were seated promptly and our server brought over the complimentary chips & salsa. There was also a garlic ranch sauce served with it as well.

This was delicious. The chips were fresh, the salsa flavorful and the garlic dipping sauce gave a nice contrast to simply chips & salsa.

Our main entrees arrived quickly. My DH ordered Tacos Al Pastor.

He absolutely loved this. The pork was tender with sweet chunks of pineapple.

I ordered the Tacos de Camaron (grilled shrimp tacos).

While these don’t look like much in the picture, they were very fresh, nicely seasoned and perfectly grilled.

Both of our meals came with a deconstructed plate of pico de gallo to add to our tacos, which is nice for people who perhaps don’t care for red onion or cilantro to be able to mix up their own topping.

Our tacos also each came with sides of Spanish rice and refried beans.

These were also excellent. The Spanish rice had a nice flavor and was perfectly cooked, not at all dried out. The refried beans were creamy and well seasoned.

Overall we gave this meal a 10/10. It was a lot of very fresh tasting food at a reasonable price (total bill with tip $32.02). We will definitely put this on our list whenever we’re driving down 95 through Virginia.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early night since we had been awake since 3:00 am.

Edit to add: total step count: 13636

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Great start to your trip. Can’t beat yummy Mexican food!

 

[mickey916]

Great start to your trip. Can’t beat yummy Mexican food!

We had some great Mexican on this trip (and some not so great) but mostly great!

 

[mommyk8]

Great start. Can’t wait to read all about your trip.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love road trips, Disney, and Mexican food so I am joining in!
Your dinner looked very good

 

[mickey916]

Great start. Can’t wait to read all about your trip.

Thank you and welcome!

I love road trips, Disney, and Mexican food so I am joining in!
Your dinner looked very good

Thanks for joining in! It was very good, one of many great meals.

 

[mickey916]

4/2 Heading to Santee, South Carolina​

After a good night's sleep, we ate a complimentary breakfast at the hotel and headed south at 7:30 am. By late morning we decided to stop for a picnic lunch and found Arnette Park in Fayetteville, NC. There were a number of open picnic tables but there was a lot of trash around. It looked like there had been an Easter Egg hunt recently and people just left their empty eggs on the ground. It felt as if we weren’t in the safest of areas so we ate a quick lunch and headed on instead of exploring the park.

Eventually we reached Santee, SC and decided to go to the Santee State Park to get our steps. We started at the Sinkhole Pond Nature Trail. This was a nice walk through the woods. There really wasn’t much of a view of the pond and we only saw squirrels in terms of wildlife. We did see the Sinkhole but that was right alongside the road. It was very quiet and a nice walk but nothing too interesting.

We needed more steps so we ventured further into Santee State Park and walked quite a distance along the bike trail. We were hoping for a water view but couldn’t see much through the trees. It started getting buggy so we turned around. While this seemed like a nice, safe place to get our steps, it wasn’t anything interesting. I think we probably didn’t pick the right trail.

We then checked into the Fairfield Inn & Suites, Santee. I had seen on TripAdvisor that it had 5 stars so I was optimistic. This hotel did not disappoint! The staff was friendly and it was very obvious that cleanliness was a top priority. The items at breakfast were all individually wrapped and there were a lot of good options. The room was huge, quiet, and spotless.

We will definitely stay here again any time we travel I-95.

We decided to head for dinner and checked again for recommendations on TripAdvisor. My DH isn’t a huge seafood fan so we decided to skip the #1 rated restaurant, Captains Quarters, and headed to #2, Clark’s Inn & Restaurant.

The portions looked huge so we decided to each get a salad to start and then share an entree. First, we ordered the bleu cheese cranberry salad, mixed greens with tomatoes, pecans, cranberries and bleu cheese.

We both enjoyed our salads very much. The vegetables were fresh and the pecan, bleu cheese and cranberries added nice flavor and texture.

For our entree, we decided to share the fried chicken dinner, their “most famous item” on their menu. It was described as “hormone free chicken breaded in lightly seasoned flour and fried until golden brown, served with mixed green beans and red skinned mashed potatoes.”

Here is the one entree divided between our two plates.

This was a decent meal but the “lightly seasoned” chicken could have used more seasoning. The mashed potatoes were very good but the green bean mixture was weird and it also had some random corn thrown in. It was as if they mixed fresh green beans with canned or frozen. It was odd to see the bright green beans contrasting with the brownish green ones.

Overall it was a decent meal and certainly a huge portion for us to share. The interior of the restaurant was very pretty and our service was good.

However, next time we’ll probably try the Captains Quarters. We headed back to our hotel for another early night, looking forward to reaching Florida the next day.

Edit to add: Total step count: 14,132

 

[SoloStitchGirl]

Your pictures are gorgeous!

 

[mickey916]

Your pictures are gorgeous!

Thank you! It's only an iPhone 12 but they do seem to come out much better than my previous phone.

 

[DLo]

Good start. Following along . Looking forward to reading more

 

[mickey916]

Good start. Following along . Looking forward to reading more

Thank you for following along!

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Following!

 

[PAsFab5]

What a fun trip!! Following along!!

 

[mickey916]

Following!

Welcome!

 

[mickey916]

What a fun trip!! Following along!!

Thank you for following along! It was even more fun than originally planned!