Yes! Another Nashville/WDW driving question!

[ptrbryant]

Finally, we've decided to drive for the first time this October...and save about $750!!!
I very much want to have one day at a beach...don't really care where at this point. We're breaking our drive up: 2 days down (via Atlanta) and 2 days back. On the way back, is there ANYWHERE with a beach where we could stay overnight on the way back home? I realize this would involve a whole new route, but a couple more hours would be okay. Is there a way to do this via the Florida Panhandle and up through Alabama...or am I adding a whole other day? Once we're at WDW, DH really wants to stay put until it's time to pack up.

Help!!!!

Thanks in advance!

Karla B.

 

[SB in KY]

I would probably just head over to either the east or west coast from WDW and then go home from there....Daytona is really close (east) although the beach is better over towards Captiva/Sannabelle (west but farther down), then you can head home from there....no farther back to Nashville.

It isn't too bad of a one day drive from Nashville....we do it in a little under 11 hours (my nephew does it in about 10, but I can only guess how fast he is driving!!)... if you are travelling with little ones it might be too much for one day...but I would definately get farther south than Atlanta on the first day.....that second day of driving gets old a lot sooner than the first one. We used to get to Gainsville when the girls were little (and we were coming from Nashville)...then the second day it was only 2 hours in and we had almost the whole day at WDW. Once one of them got sick and we ended up stopping in Valdosta (4 hours from WDW) for the night....that wasn't bad either.

If you hit Daytona before heading home, you could still spend just one night on the road....I think anything you hit in the Panhandle will take almost all day to get to from WDW and then if you have to get home to Nashville the next day you would have to leave so early that you wouldn't have much time on the beach.

 

[ptrbryant]

Yeah, DH really wants to break the driving up into 2 days...I agree about making the 1st day the longer one. I think we'll probably just have to add another day at the end of the trip so we have some time at the beach...probably Sand Key.

Thanks!
Karla B.

 

[gw_lit]

I'd say head to the Gulf Coast around St. Pete Beach/Clearwater Area. There are nice beaches there (I agree Captiva and Sanibel are nice too, but they're another 2 hours south of St. Pete). You'll have about an 11 hour drive or so from St. Pete to Nashville up I-75 to Chattanooga and then I-24 to Nashville.

Another option would be to head over to the Panhandle and stay around the Destin, Florida or Gulf Shores, Alabama area. Its about 8 hours straight up I-65 from Mobile, Alabama to Nashville.