Road trip advice

[maiapapaya]

We are in the very early stages of planning a road trip to FL late this summer. We are driving from mid-western ON. At this point we think we will take I-75 down and then come back up I-95/77 through Virginia. Since we can't leave ON until around 1:00 pm on our start day (our daughter will have a swim meet) we think we would likely be stopping around Knoxville, TN on the drive down. On the way back we think we will stop around Luray, VA to see the caverns.

We are looking for all and any tips, advice and suggestions ... great places to stop to eat, quick & interesting pit-stops, places that may be unsafe and we should avoid ... TIA!

 

[starvenger]

Skyline Chili (Cincinnati, Dayton, Lima) is great... but I don't recommend it when you're doing a long drive, if you know what I mean.

I believe your last Timmy's fix (if you need it) will be just north of Cinci.

I think there's construction on I-75 near detroit, so if you're going through Windsor you may want to consider going I-94/I-275/I-75 as a detour. If you're near London consider using the Blue Water Bridge via 402/I-94/I-275/I-75

 

[maiapapaya]

Thanks for the tips skarvenger! Warning about the chili duly noted!

 

[DavidL]

Knoxville TN seems quite ambitious considering you are leaving at 1PM.

We've driven to Florida via the I75 for the past 5 years in a row, and will be heading out 2 weeks from now to make the trek. There are ALWAYS traffic/construction delays in Detroit and also in Ohio that always set us back on our schedule. Google Maps says that it is roughly 9 hours from Sarnia to Knoxville. That doesn't take into consideration any delays at US customs - there are times that the bridge/tunnel backs up. I think that Tennessee is too far considering the time you are leaving.

We are in London Ontario, and our goal normally is to get into Kentucky on our first travel day, headed south.

We stop twice on our way down. First stop is normally somewhere in Kentucky around Dry Ridge or Lexington. Our our second stop is somewhere south of Atlanta - so that we can travel through Atlanta during the evening. Our whole trip actually revolves around our timing for Atlanta. Atlanta by far has the worst traffic I've ever encountered. (Toronto can be nice in comparison... - just my opinion ) We take some breaks to stretch our legs, and to get a bite to eat. It is fun to eat at restaurants that we don't have in Canada, like Waffle House.

If you are going to Orlando and are arriving on a Friday or Saturday night, I highly recommend having hotel reservations before you leave. We've gone through the experience of driving from fully-booked hotel to fully-booked hotel on a Saturday night. Do not expect to drive up to a hotel/motel and find any sort of vacancy. We always make a hotel reservation for the day we arrive in Orlando to avoid that pain.

 

[maiapapaya]

We did plan on Knoxville being about 10 hours. We were thinking we'd be getting there around 10:00 pm or so. Our travel days are Saturday & Sunday (arriving in Orlando after dinner on the Sunday) so we think we'll be ok with missing heavier traffic on the Bluewater Bridge and around Atlanta & Orlando? We already have a hotel booked for our arrival night. Thanks for your heads up on that stuff though! I'm hoping our plan will help us avoid most of that?

 

[isabellea]

We traveled thru Atlanta a Thursday and Friday last summer after the I-85 re-opened and found traffic very reasonable compared to Mtl or TO. If you travel during the weekend I would be surprised if you get any traffic, unless there’s an accident or construction.

 

[Newcastle]

My apologies as I don't have any great tips to share but I am following along as we will be heading down this summer as well from the GTA.

On another note, I didn't realize maiapapaya that you were from Ontario. I am a regular viewer of the Poly resort thread that you started so I just wanted to thank you for your efforts in putting that together .

 

[maiapapaya]

We traveled thru Atlanta a Thursday and Friday last summer after the I-85 re-opened and found traffic very reasonable compared to Mtl or TO. If you travel during the weekend I would be surprised if you get any traffic, unless there’s an accident or construction.

Perfect, thanks!

My apologies as I don't have any great tips to share but I am following along as we will be heading down this summer as well from the GTA.

On another note, I didn't realize maiapapaya that you were from Ontario. I am a regular viewer of the Poly resort thread that you started so I just wanted to thank you for your efforts in putting that together .

Aw, thanks! The Poly is my no-snow, sunny happy place (especially since we're in the Lake Huron snow belt!) LOL Unfortunately the thread is a little neglected these days. I really should take some time to update it a bit!

 

[DavidL]

We've realized year after year to leave room for delays. We *always* run into delays somewhere along the route. Slow Traffic due to construction or accident always happens to us. Add 2 hours to your estimate. I do not personally believe that it would be realistic to make it to Knoxville by 10PM if you are leaving at 1PM. (Not trying to be a party-pooper here, just trying to set realistic expectations )

2 weeks from now we will be making our trek to Disney. I will pay close attention to what times we cross into each state to give you an estimate of what to expect..

 

[Newcastle]

Aw, thanks! The Poly is my no-snow, sunny happy place (especially since we're in the Lake Huron snow belt!) LOL Unfortunately the thread is a little neglected these days. I really should take some time to update it a bit!

You deserve the kudos! We have travelled to WDW numerous times over the years and we only just stayed at the Poly for the first time last summer. I am a creature of habit and was afraid to try a new resort but I am so glad that we did as we absolutely loved it and your thread/info was a HUGE help in terms of planning and becoming familiar with the resort. We are heading back there this June/July and can't wait.

I will stop hijacking your thread now

 

[bankr63]

We've realized year after year to leave room for delays. We *always* run into delays somewhere along the route. Slow Traffic due to construction or accident always happens to us. Add 2 hours to your estimate. I do not personally believe that it would be realistic to make it to Knoxville by 10PM if you are leaving at 1PM. (Not trying to be a party-pooper here, just trying to set realistic expectations )

2 weeks from now we will be making our trek to Disney. I will pay close attention to what times we cross into each state to give you an estimate of what to expect..

We *always* run into delays on the 23 hour trip, but find it always takes... 23 hours, exactly like Google says. (actually takes about 33 hours with one 10 hour overnight stop). Seems the fast low traffic stretches, with a little bit of extra speed (I set the cruise at up to 5 over if prevailing traffic allows) always balance out the traffic delays and pit stops along the way. I'm at the point where I no longer stress when I hit a bit of traffic (Charlotte NC is the only regularly bad spot on our route), because I know it all evens out in the end.

 

[cottontail]

Can someone tell me how many hours of driving through mountains on I75 to get from ontario to wdw.

 

[CanadianMouseDad]

Can someone tell me how many hours of driving through mountains on I75 to get from ontario to wdw.

If I read your question right, you’d hit about 3 hours of driving time through the mountains on I75. The begin midway / end of Kentucky and end outside of Tennessee, before Atlanta.

 

[cottontail]

We are trying to figure out if going through the mountains will be too hard on our 11 year old Odyssey van.

Deb.

 

[CanadianMouseDad]

We are trying to figure out if going through the mountains will be too hard on our 11 year old Odyssey van.

Deb.

You know your car better than anyone else, but I will say that if memory serves most of i75 is cut through the mountains, and not actually up and down, although the very end of Kentucky and half of Tennessee are pretty hilly, it’s exactly that, large large hills, no tremendously steep inclines.

 

[cottontail]

Okay thanks, we usually go west virginia and virginia I79 and i77 where going through the mountains is about six hours and pretty steep some of them, so I was thinking the I75 might be a better choice.

Deb.