Would you rather: 9h drive in 1 day or split across 2 days?

[liamthompson]

The "math" suggests doing the trip in one day. Some people can't safely drive that many hours. Will the toddler be sleeping, crying or be screaming out of control? Have you taken road trips before? How did it go?

While husband and I would do the trip in one day by ourselves, we've never done it with our toddler so I'm in unknown territory! We do a 2.5h trip pretty regularly to see grandparents. The longest trip we've done with him is 3h which turned into 4h with traffic. He is great in the car - naps, snacks, sings/chats with me and happy to entertain himself with junk like a plastic straw or cup lid...but he is WILD once he's out of the car, from all the pent up energy. There's no way we're driving 9h straight and will need breaks, even if is just to run laps up and down the sidewalk of a rest stop.

One idea. Don't book a hotel your first night. Grab a chain hotel off the road if driving isn't going well. Grab a hotel in DS or on Palm Parkway if you make it one day.

This is also a good idea that I had not considered, thanks! That will definitely give some flexibility and take the pressure off doing the drive in 1 day if it's not going well.

 

[liamthompson]

One bad wreck can add 1+ hour to your drive, and avoiding that possibility, especially at the dense points of Atlanta, Macon, I-10, Gainesville, etc. is worth a quick stop in a hotel. My family learned this the hard way one Thanksgiving trip GA to FL and back; the 8 hour trip turned into 12+ hours with traffic and wrecks and construction along the way. We adjusted the hours we drive thereafter!

This is a good reminder, thanks! Some things we can control (how long we stop for food, etc) and some things are entirely out of our control like traffic jams!

 

[lovin'fl]

I'd prefer to split it. As we age we realize we are only good to sit in the car for about 5-6 hours. We have a 14 hour drive from our house in FL to our family up north and that is rough now. We do tend to do 9 and 5 hour split, or even 10 and 4, which is awful. But 7 and 7 isn't all that much better. We have had to go like 6 times in the past 14 months. We started to take autotrain 1 way every now and then. It's so expensive but a lot easier than that drive. Especially after getting slammed by another car that totaled our car coming home from last Christmas visit. So I'd say split the drive just to be easy and safe.

When we do drive that long haul, and since it's just us no (no kids or dog), we like to stop for longer meals to really stretch. Though we do tend to stop at truck stop gas stations for lunch, potty and gas...then get close to our hotel stop and do a nice bar place (one fave is Mellow Mushroom) to have a beer and dinner while watching some sport or another.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I do have a license and can drive...my husband just prefers to drive...perhaps this is just something I need to insist on haha. I don't think he realizes he's not as young as he thinks and is now prone to migraines! Compounding to it is that the heavy lifting of the packing/unpacking of a hotel room will most likely fall on him as well.

Split up the driving responsibility for 1 day but if he's a tad resistant then split it initially where he's more doing the driving but internally expect that you could take over earlier or if need be suggest earlier.

We drove 8hours last year to get to Chicago for a flight to Europe (we wanted to remove the flight from our home to Chicago) and def did it in one day. We will do it again come this March again to Europe. We split it up about 4 hours each driver and ironically stopped at the same gas station/restaurant there and on the way back home after the vacation in Iowa unintentionally. It's not the first time of driving long distances either but that's what can happen when you live in the middle of the U.S. lol.

9 hours isn't and never was a 2-day drive even when we were kids and our parents were driving us. But I'll talk a bit more below on this. For us Disney is at least an 18 hour drive usually longer with Atlanta traffic (not including stops) and while I have had a friend do it in 1 go without staying overnight I would not do that myself nor suggest that.

We do a 2.5h trip pretty regularly to see grandparents. The longest trip we've done with him is 3h which turned into 4h with traffic. He is great in the car - naps, snacks, sings/chats with me and happy to entertain himself with junk like a plastic straw or cup lid...but he is WILD once he's out of the car, from all the pent up energy. There's no way we're driving 9h straight and will need breaks, even if is just to run laps up and down the sidewalk of a rest stop.

Growing up we'd go to the Lake of the Ozarks to visit my grandparents but this is also a very common weekend destination for a lot of people in my area. It takes roughly 3 to 3 1/2 hours depending on where you are going at the Lake, sometimes longer. We def. did not have all the entertainment that kids can have nowadays and we often drove in my mom's '88 Accord so nothing super spacious.

Since your son is at least used to around that range then you could look to break it up similarly or at least get an idea based on the road signs what options you have coming up. You've said he's great in the car (we were fairly good in the car too) and can occupy himself which is great! If you think he might get super energetic when out of the car maybe look at doing a quick walk around a rest stop area or even just the area near where you could stop. Or even consider looking in advance what food stops may still have play areas. Those aren't really dependent on 1 vs 2 days because you might want that information regardless.

One of the bigger reasons I'd say think about 1 day over 2 days is thinking about will your son end up being more grumpy at having 2 days of travel primarily in the car with the destination not being reached for a longer time frame over a shorter overall time before reaching your destination.

Like another poster mentioned you could always plan for 1 day but build in the flexibility of knowing if you might need to stop and spend a night at a hotel.

 

[Stargazer65]

We usually make the driving part of the vacation and take our time. So two days for a 9 hour drive is reasonable for us. (Heck, we took 6 days to make the 15 hour drive from CT to Hilton Head).

That being said, we would also do a 9 hour drive in one day as well, if we just wanted to get there and didn't have anything to see along the way.

 

[liamthompson]

Especially after getting slammed by another car that totaled our car coming home from last Christmas visit. So I'd say split the drive just to be easy and safe.

That sounds like a nightmare! Bad enough when it's near home, so much worse while traveling!

 

[liamthompson]

we often drove in my mom's '88 Accord so nothing super spacious.

This detail made me laugh because we too, will be driving our accord! But since cars have gotten larger since the '80s, the current accord is probably enormous in comparison

One of the bigger reasons I'd say think about 1 day over 2 days is thinking about will your son end up being more grumpy at having 2 days of travel primarily in the car with the destination not being reached for a longer time frame over a shorter overall time before reaching your destination.

Another good point I had not considered, thanks! My kid has started asking "are we there yet?" so even for my sanity, I would prefer to only have to field that question one day instead of 2!

 

[DVCjj]

For MY husband it would be 3 days!! Ha
He had a job on his feet/legs for 12 hr shifts at least 6 days a week for many, many years and driving anything over about 3-4 hours is out of the question.

That’s why we fly 100%. He deserves to fly. And my joints now greatly prefer flying.

 

[Shir Kahn]

I'll preface this by saying we have no kids, but 9 hours for us would be a half day drive! We have a 32 hour drive to get from our house to WDW and we usually do that in 2 days. I've driven up to 26 hours straight! Can't imagine doing that with a kid in the car though! We've driven the 2080 miles about 15-20 or so times now, and about 7-10 times down to Disneyland which is around 2040 miles from us! I even sometimes let my wife drive 1 or 2 hours out of the 32!

 

[Lewisc]

I've driven up to 26 hours straight!

I can't judge you specifically driving that long is not safe for almost everyone.

 

[Stratman50th]

Up until I guess my early 50s I would do 10 to 12 hour days. That was in a car. I can't do that any longer. We have a motorhome now and we try and keep drive times between overnight stops at 6 hours or less. The driving comfort level is much higher in the bus but driving 45' and towing a vehicle behind on highways like I95 tends to really wear me out now.

 

[Mikey15]

I had not considered this, thank you! I think we'll be more excited going/more able to push through one day and more tired coming home so this is a good option too.

Definitely do what works for you!

But I actually feel the opposite. I’d rather stop closeish to the final destination, like ending up in Savannah on the way down (4-1/2 out of Central FL) and then “check in day” is a short drive followed by leisurely activities wherever we’re staying. Or, admittedly, we have relaxed and then gone to an evening event like a Halloween party too.

Where going back I kind of just want to get home quicker. And wouldn’t be paying a hotel night for getting in late.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This detail made me laugh because we too, will be driving our accord! But since cars have gotten larger since the '80s, the current accord is probably enormous in comparison

oh yeah Accords of today are downright luxurious compared to the past, still funny that that's what you're driving when I think of all the drives we did in my mom's

 

[mort1331]

You have had loads of opinions both ways and I will share mine as well, but only you know your toddler and how they are in car rides short and long.
We travel 24 hours straight from Toronto Canada, I drive 85% of the time sometimes 100. We have done it with kids small and now teens. Our kids fall asleep before we pull out on the highway, so they have always been great in the car. We have friends that their kids cant go 30 mins, everyone is different.
For your trip I would drive straight thru if leaving at 530am and even with stops should get you there before 5pm. Now the waterpark is only for the day you arrive. You mentioned about saving it for another trip,,,its only for this trip and the arrival day. So just know that you probably wont get the waterpark. But for a 3 yr old they wont know the difference between that and the pool so for me that wouldnt even be a consideration.
Good luck and have a great trip

 

[leahgoogle]

We would definitely do it all in one day. We are 16 hours away and we break it up into two days.

 

[dvczerfs]

9 hour drive, you must be coming from Jacksonville. lol. I live 17 miles away in Davenport and it takes me two hours to get to work some days.
I made the 1200 mile drive more than i can count. Even alone for five of them. It’s a 17 hour drive and I did it straight through. I also spent 40 years in sales and was on the road most of my life.
You do what is comfortable for you. Everyone is different. When our dd was little, we had a potty in the car and it had bags with big cotton bars in them. She never used them. But, do what is in your comfort zone.

 

[Shir Kahn]

I can't judge you specifically driving that long is not safe for almost everyone.

Oh I absolutely agree! I definitely shouldn't have, but I felt fine the entire time and was monitoring myself for any signs of fatigue as well as having my wife keep an eye on me! It was about 15 years ago, when I was younger and immortal, or as immortal as young people seem to think they are!

 

[kristenrice]

Our drive from West Michigan is 18.5 hours (non-stop) which amounts to about 24 hours with stops for food, bathroom, stretch, etc. When we drive, we break the drive TO Orlando into 3 days. We generally leave in the afternoon and drive until about 10pm, which lands us in mid/southern Ohio. The next day, we start around 8am and drive until we are in northern FL (Lake City area). Yes, we are only about 2 hours from Orlando, but at that point, we have been travelling for about 10-12 hours (depending on traffic) and we are pooped. In the morning, we sleep in and leave whenever we are ready and with a short 2-hour drive, we can arrive at WDW "fresh". We don't go to a park on arrival day anyways, but we do like to enjoy a nice "welcome" dinner.

On the way home, we do it over 2 days. We leave from WDW early (8am at the latest) and drive until about 10pm again, which puts us in the middle of Kentucky. The next morning, we get up early again and hit the road between 8-9am and drive until we get home, which is usually around 7-8pm. We are exhausted when we get home, which is why I would not want to do the trip TO WDW in 2 days. I need a day to "recover" from all of that driving.

For a 9-hour drive (probably about 11-12 once stops are factored in), I would also split it up on the way down. I would do a "longer" drive first and leave the drive on the arrival day short enough to do without stopping.

 

[GrumpyInPhilly]

One day for us if it was a 9 hour drive. Just last week, we did the 1000 mile trip from WDW to Philly and used DHHIR as our stopover for a few days. The last leg was 725 miles (about 14 hours w/ stops).

 

[mort1331]

One day for us if it was a 9 hour drive. Just last week, we did the 1000 mile trip from WDW to Philly and used DHHIR as our stopover for a few days. The last leg was 725 miles (about 14 hours w/ stops).

this is what I am doing in March. Driving from Toronto to DHHIR stay for a couple of days,,play some golf,,,then continue to WDW and pick up wife and kids at MCO on the way...if I remember them....lol