The Drive

[Bobbi_Can]

We are planning to head down to Orlando again coming from north of Toronto in February.

This will be our 4th or 5th drive down. We always price out flights but it is just more cost effective for us to drive most of the time. We also usually take our time and do it over 2 nights/3 days and actually don't mind the drive. We normally take I-75 but last year my in-laws ended up taking the I-79 route and loved it so we are thinking that if the weather is decent, we may try to take that route as well this year. My in-laws have a rented a house there and will already be there when we get there so we aren't locked into a strict timeline but if it saves a few hours, I'm all for it! It'll be nice to get a change of scenery on the drive as well.

The plan is to leave from my husband's work (Hwy.400/Finch area of Toronto) at the end of rush hour on Thursday night, get over the border and then stop for the night and head out back on the road in the morning. If we leave Toronto around 7 pm and drive for 3 or so hours, where will we end up? Do you think this is a reasonable plan? Or do you think we may be better off just leaving home (Barrie area) at 4:30 Friday morning like we usually do? I could ask my in-laws these questions but they have no idea how they got on that route as they crossed at Detroit, missed an exit, put the GPS on and that's where they ended up. On the way home, they wanted to go that route again but got lost and we ended up passing them on I-75 N near the Florida/Georgia State line. LOL

We like I-75 because we are familiar with that route and know where to expect traffic, where we like to stop, etc. and if the weather is not in our favour, we'll just end up taking that route anyway. I'm wondering how other routes compare. TIA!

 

[starvenger]

I'm not sure how your in laws ended up on I-79 from Detroit either, but that's not really relevant here. I'm going to assume that you take the more conventional route (QEW - I-90)to get to I-79 from Toronto.

3 or so hours would put you at Niagara Falls at worst (due to QEW traffic) and probably Erie, PA in optimal conditions. Erie is right before the I-90/I-79 junction, so that might be a good place to stop.

If you split the difference you're looking at... Buffalo.

(Aside: I just figured out what TIA meant. I'm so slow sometimes)

 

[cslittle999]

The big difference with the 79/77 route is that there are long stretches in the first half of the drive where there are no gas stations/hotels at the exits.It's more challenging to just wing it. Erie, PA is about 90 minutes after the border. It would likely be more than 3 hours from 400 and Finch. Leaving from Erie you should be able to get into South Carolina in about 10 hours of driving.

We do the drive in two days. Two hours to the border, 11 hours to Hunterville north of Charlotte (there is a restaurant my son likes to we stay over night here). Nine hours to Orlando the next day.

Traffic is really only an issue in Pittsburg and around Charlotte depending on the time of day. Weather is the wild card. We drove down in December once and had terrible lake effect snow all the way along I90. Once we turned south it was fine. The four or so hours in the mountains south of Pittsburgh would be interesting in bad weather.

 

[Bobbi_Can]

Thank you for the information.

 

[hardis5]

We've taken for a number of years the 90/79/77/95 route and have shied away from doing 75 down for other than the mountains at night or during a big storm, it is shorter and IMHO a more scenic route. If leaving at rush hour, you could make it as far as Erie PA within 4 hours (I'd not turn south from there if wanting to stop for the night) - the only wildcard is border times at that time of day but if leaving the GTA at 7 PM, you should miss the worst of any border delay. There are a lot of accommodation options just off I-90 in PA (and gas is cheaper there than NY state).

As PP has mentioned, once heading south on I-70, until getting to the larger centers a ways south there is little in the way of options for food, gas and accommodation and unless you like driving at night in the snow (the top half of 79 is open and blowing snow can sometime be a problem but nothing worse than I-75 and OH in winter) I'd pick a stop off of I-90 just before Erie.

Our last drive down in winter was February 2015 and we did in 2 days with a stopover in Columbia SC (leaving prior to 6 AM day 1). We have numerous times left 5-6 PM from the GTA driving through the night (easier with a small one that is asleep) and we seem to always be pulling off for that cheap fill-up in PA sometime between 9-10 PM.