Tips for driving to HHI from PA

[lmb]

Hi
We'll be driving down this summer with a 2 and a 4 year old. I've heard I95 is bad on Saturdays but our ressie starts Sunday and were were hoping to stay overnight somewhere to break up the trip. Any advice about what time to start our drive and where a good stopping point is? I'd like to get most of the drive done the first day and don't mind driving at odd hours if necessary.

 

[dvcfamily41801]

Hi
We'll be driving down this summer with a 2 and a 4 year old. I've heard I95 is bad on Saturdays but our ressie starts Sunday and were were hoping to stay overnight somewhere to break up the trip. Any advice about what time to start our drive and where a good stopping point is? I'd like to get most of the drive done the first day and don't mind driving at odd hours if necessary.

Hello! We are also from PA. Just outside of Philadelphia. We usually leave Friday night around 9pm and drive straight thru overnight. We have gotten a hotel room on the island for Saturday night, but last year we went straight to HHI and had a studio for Saturday night and moved to our 2 bedroom on Sunday when our friends join us. Last year we were at the Golden Corral at 8am when it opened!! I am not a good passenger (get jumpy and nervous and anxious about other drivers) so it is best to do the majority of the driving at night. I sleep until about 2 and then take over sometime in NC and normally finish up the rest of the drive.

Our friends do it a little different by leaving early Saturday morning around 6am and they stay in Florence, SC at a Holiday Inn Express off 95 and finish up the drive Sunday morning (about 3 hours or so). By the time they arrive we have been lucky to have our 2BR all ready!!!

Our drive home is different in that we try to leave the resort by 10:00am and drive straight through stopping usually in Florence for lunch and about an hour outside of DC for dinner in VA, and of course a few stops for bathroom and Starbucks in between.

We were unable to get HHI for our normal week this year so we are going to just keep driving 4-5 hours and go to WDW instead. We are so bummed out about not being able to go as we reallllllly love it there!!

Have a fantastic time!!!

 

[Rogniik]

i usually leave saturday morning around 9am straight to HHI- get there about 9pm. Not a bad drive at all, didn't see many traffic back in december, except when i got to HHI. Strange, didn't think there would be this much traffic during off season. But overall, a pleasant drive from NJ.

 

[lmb]

We are from outside Philly too (Malvern) What would you say the drive time is like when you leave at 9pm? Driving straight through the night would be nice for the kids.

 

[pb4ugo]

with children as young as yours, i suggest that you leave very early before the children are awake and get a good headstart before other travelers are on the road. when the children are awake you will be well south and can take the time for a quick breakfast stop. then travel on until you get to florence, sc where you can spend the nite and have only about a 3 hr drive to the hhi resort. stopping early in florence will allow the kids to run off some of their excitement before/after dinner and to sleep well.

the previous poster referred to the holiday inn express which i believe is at exit #157 [we stop there enroute from nj to hhi annually and stay at the days inn]. there are 5 exits for florence, i believe, and there are many more motels at the #164 exit. dining opportunities for children are limited at exit #157.

check out these websites for info on travelling I95 and for discount motel rates/locations along the way:
http://www.i95exitguide.com/
http://www.travelcoupons.com/

and check out this site:
http://www.wyndhamrewards.com/
dh and i travel to hhi and to wdw annually and use this membership [free] to accumulate points with our motel stays and convert the points into gift cards at stores where we shop [home depot, target, etc].

hope this helps.

 

[dvcfamily41801]

We are from outside Philly too (Malvern) What would you say the drive time is like when you leave at 9pm? Driving straight through the night would be nice for the kids.

Last year we may have left as early as 8pm because I am thinking we stopped at a wine store in Delaware.....and we were at the Golden Corral in Bluffton around 8am. I think by the time we finsihed breakfast and got to the resort, it was around 9:45 and our studio was ready!! My DH took a nap for a bit and I took my son to the pool.

This year when we drive to WDW, we are planning on leaving around the same time. The first year we drove, we were so excited to get on the road, we left around 4pm on a Friday. We hit traffic in Baltimore, DC and Virginia. It was BAD. Originally we were going to leave Fri do the same thing and stay at HH for 1 night. But decided the hour on and off 95 for 1 night was not worth it. We would just keep going and get there Saturday instead of Sunday.

Feel free to PM if you have any other questions!! The 195 Exit Guide that was mentioned...was GREAT!! It is nice to be able to see what is at an exit for food and stopping if needed. I always make it a point of jotting down the miles at any stop we make so I get a gauge of how much further. I have from each state line ______ miles to Boardwalk and _______ miles to home.

 

[JVL1018]

I am from Northern NJ, no PA, but we drive to Hilton Head every year.
I cannot sleep in a car, so we don't drive through the night, as I wouldn't sleep at all.
We have been going each year since my kids were 6 months old and 2 years old, and the drive has always been fine. The kids actually look forward to it.

We leave Saturday morning anywhere from 6(only one time- last year because my son woke everyone up at 5 he was so excited to go LOL) to 8am, and knock wood, we have never hit traffic other than one time in NC and that was due to an accident.

My husband drives the first 4 hours, which puts us in Northern VA where we stop and eat lunch, then we switch off the rest of the drive and we stop whenever we feel like it at rest areas or to get a snack off the highway, there's no rush- if the kids want to run around for 45 minutes, fine with us.
We stay at the Wingate Inn in Florence, SC, and even with taking our time, we are there for dinner.
The next morning we get up and drive the 3 hours to the resort.

ETA: I agree that th I95 Exit Guide is a must!

 

[Metsoskil]

We're in the poconos, and we leave at 2AM and drive straight through to either Orlando or Boca Raton, where my grandparents live. Those drives are 17 and 20 hours respectively. I don't see any reason why you couldn't make HHI in one day, unless you are from the far western part of the state.

 

[5forDiz]

with children as young as yours, i suggest that you leave very early before the children are awake and get a good headstart before other travelers are on the road. when the children are awake you will be well south and can take the time for a quick breakfast stop. then travel on until you get to florence, sc where you can spend the nite and have only about a 3 hr drive to the hhi resort. stopping early in florence will allow the kids to run off some of their excitement before/after dinner and to sleep well.

the previous poster referred to the holiday inn express which i believe is at exit #157 [we stop there enroute from nj to hhi annually and stay at the days inn]. there are 5 exits for florence, i believe, and there are many more motels at the #164 exit. dining opportunities for children are limited at exit #157.

check out these websites for info on travelling I95 and for discount motel rates/locations along the way:
http://www.i95exitguide.com/
http://www.travelcoupons.com/

and check out this site:
http://www.wyndhamrewards.com/
dh and i travel to hhi and to wdw annually and use this membership [free] to accumulate points with our motel stays and convert the points into gift cards at stores where we shop [home depot, target, etc].

hope this helps.

Have to agree with this poster - best to get a real early start and you will definitely make it to Florence by late afternoon ( or you may find, as we do that by midafternoon you've gotten far enough to make it to HHI by 6 or 7 pm )

Have done NY to HHI many times north & southbound from when our kids were quite young - - southern VA, NC & SC in the middle of the night is NOT the best of situations ( I95 reduces to 2 lanes & often very little shoulder if at all on either side in event you have a situation where you need to pull off road ), also long stretches quite deserted and jmho middle of night is not a time you want to be pulling off I95 trying to find a reststop (often you need to drive a local road for some distance off I95 to find one) - again, jmho, you just can never tell with kids how frequent you need a restroom or how well they will even sleep in a car.

In Florence we like exit 160 which is Magnolia Mall exit as it has the newest hotels on Hospitality Road cul de sac ( Hilton Garden Inn, Marriott Springhill Suites, Courtyard & others ) and Mall is directly across on David McLeod Blvd. which is main road you'd take from I95 exit; plenty of places to eat too.

But usually we drive straight to HHI. We leave by 4 AM or 5 AM, stop for breakfast south of DC usually in northern VA & then continue on.

Leaving at 4 - 5 AM gets us into HHI about 7pm enough time for some pool time & even a walk on the beach. We use priceline to bid for resort level on HHI
( you'll get either the Westin, Hilton, Crowne Plaza or Marriott - all beach resorts ) and stay there for less than $100 per night and then check into DVC resort next morning. We've never have had a problem getting a room through priceline unless it was a holiday week or a golf tournament on HHI.

Have a great trip

 

[MinnieGi]

This will be our third summer driving to HHI from northern DE. Our kids will be 4 & 8 this year. Our plan is to leave @4:00 am to get through the DC and Northern VA area without traffic. After you get past there the rest of the ride is no problem. We actually drive all the way onto HHI and stay at the Hampton Inn on the island Sat. night and then check-in early Sunday morning to DVC.

We have learned through experience to get through the DC/NOVA area. Our first year we didn't think we'd find traffic on a Sat. morning through that area. Boy were we wrong!! Actually the beltway wasn't too bad, but we were backed up for two hours in NoVA. On our way back from our second trip we saw the same back-up as we were headed the other way.

Last year we did the 4:00 am start time and it worked so well. The kids were still sleepy and rode peacefully for the first few hours. We rode straight through DC/NoVA and made great timing the rest of the way arriving around 3:30 on HHI.

Good luck on your ride!!

 

[lmb]

thank you all! I think we will plan to leave around 4 am Sat and attempt to make it to HHI that day. I love the priceline idea too for Sat night.

 

[alystad]

We live outside of Phila in Bucks County and we leave at 3:30 am and get through DC before the sun comes up. Last year we drove to Disney and left at 3:30 and were in Orlando at 8:30 PM. It was not so bad, I could never dirive through the night but I can wake up early and get started. Last year gas prices were so high that on the weekend there were not many trucks. This could have been a factor with the ease of the drive. When driving we always leave around 3 or 4 am, my in laws live in Myrlte Beach and the DC area can be a mess when driving northand south.

 

[lmb]

One last question....we planned to drive home to PA on Sat but since we will be doing our return trip over Labor day weekend we're trying to decide whether it would be worth staying an extra night so we can drive home on Sunday rather than Sat. Any thoughts?

 

[Metsoskil]

One last question....we planned to drive home to PA on Sat but since we will be doing our return trip over Labor day weekend we're trying to decide whether it would be worth staying an extra night so we can drive home on Sunday rather than Sat. Any thoughts?

It's always worth staying an extra night

Driving Sunday is a little better than driving on Sat.

 

[MinnieGi]

Although we drive down in one day straight to HHI we do break up our return. We really break it up b/c we cannot get enough of HHI!!! So we spend the morning on HHI beach as you still have access to the beach house on the day of check-out. After spending one more wonderful day on HHI beach we shower and change up at the beach house and then get on our way. We drive for five or six hours till about the top on North Carolina and then spend the night there and do the rest of the way up to DE the next day and we are home mid-day. Works well for us.

Sunday may be a little less traffic coming home but probably not a noticeable difference. But however you can spend and extra day on HHI is worth it!!!!

 

[pb4ugo]

One last question....we planned to drive home to PA on Sat but since we will be doing our return trip over Labor day weekend we're trying to decide whether it would be worth staying an extra night so we can drive home on Sunday rather than Sat. Any thoughts?

I would check the pro baseball and pre-season ballgame schedules when planning my return trip - we have been caught in regular season football traffic when returning to jersey on sundays and could not find the enthusiasm for travel that some of the face-painted and flag bearing fans who shared the road with us found!