Three day drive from Ottawa

[ccudmore]

when we drive from Ottawa to Orlando we do it in two days. Some friends (who have never done a drive that long before) want to give it a go but want to do it in 3 days. Does anyone have suggestions on where to stay when doing a 3 day/2 overnight stops trip along that route. They're doing the I81/US15/I95 route.

 

[minnie mum]

We do the drive from near Trenton, and have done it several times. But we prefer to stay on the 81/77/26, to avoid all the heavy traffic around Washington and Richmond ( unless bad weather forces us east). We usually stay in Hagerstown the first night. If they're on the 15, Frederick would be roughly equivalent. Our second night is usually in Columbia or Orangeburg. But going down the 95, Florence would be a good choice. All of these places have the usual assortment of chain hotels.

 

[disneyshakeygirl]

Hi fellow Ottawa person!

I did it in 3 days (could've done it in 2). We ended up staying in several Comfort Inns along the way. One about 5.5 hours out of Orlando. I can't remember the other two but all were very well kept and maintained.

 

[bankr63]

A lot depends on when they want to leave and what they want to do. We've done a 3 day to SC, but the first day was leaving after work and making it to Wilkes-Barre PA area. Then we meandered a bit and only made it to Chester VA (there was a longish stop at Hershey PA).

Similar schedule on the way home with an afternoon doing the Skyline Drive in VA (highly recommended). Stops were roughly the same areas as the way down.

Assuming this is because they only want to drive around 8 per day, the real question is going to be what do they want to do/see on the way down and (maybe) planning stops that accommodate that kind of touring. DW is the master of this in our family. She likes making stops that led to our Hershey visit - which was totally spontaneous based on the roadside sign. The Skyline Drive was planned, but the 2 hours at Luray Caverns halfway along was spontaneous. When travelling like this it is hard to plan your hotel - we just stop when we're tired and grab a AAA recommended location.

 

[OttawaDisGirl]

Woo! Ottawa! Yeah!!!