Drive From Ny To Orlando

[ISLE39]

im thinking of taking a drive from long island NY to orlando next week on a whim. how long has it generally taken people from ny to drive down to orlando? my mapquest and gps says 18 hours with no stops so i figured out 20 and maybe one hotel overnight because i have another adult with me.

second question how about tolls from NY to wdw. what would i be looking at each way for tolls from here to there?
Thanks for any help i get

[Sean Riley Taylor's Mom]

It has been three years since we have driven down from Long Island. Once we had kids, we decided we would not torture ourselves anymore and get there in 2.5 ours instead of 17+!;)

Anyway, it usually took us 17 hours or so to get down there. That was with both my husband and I driving and leaving here around 9-10pm. We prefer to hit the Washington area in the middle of the night. We would drive straight through with only quick stops for bathroom and food breaks.
We would leave WDW on a Friday coming home and stop over in Virginia overnight.
I can't remember toll costs but most of them were the usual NY/NJ/VA tolls. Once you are past there I don't think there are a lot more. I am sure someone else will know for sure.
Have a safe trip if you decide to go!:)

[Ed]

I can't remember toll costs but most of them were the usual NY/NJ/VA tolls. Once you are past there I don't think there are a lot more. I am sure someone else will know for sure.
Have a safe trip if you decide to go!:)


There are no tolls along I-95 once you get below Baltimore; smooth sailing the rest of the way.

If you decide to use Florida SR 417 instead of staying on I-4 through downtown Orlando (ugh!), you can expect a total of $5.00 in tolls between where you get on 417 (exit 101B off I-4) and the International Drive exit (which becomes SR536/Epcot Center Drive).

[Marker]

According to MapQuest, from my house to Disney's Pop Century Resort it's 1229.82 miles, and 18.0 hours 47 minutes.

Sounds like a similar time estimate, so the distance must be similar too.

I've never driven it, but I'd like to some day. However, 1229.82 equates to 2459.64 miles round trip. At say 25 miles per gallon, that's about 98.5 gallons of gas. Gas here today is $3.45, and I know it's more expensive other places. So, just guessing an average price of $3.50, that makes $345 just in gas.

Throw in food & snacks for an 18 hour drive, and you're easily talking $400, and that's if you drive straight through and don't stay anywhere on the way. YIKES.

[Lehman Family]

We drive down from PA every trip now. The savings are getting smaller, but it's a fun trip. We take I-95 almost the whole way and it takes us about 17 hours with stops (gas, restrooms, dinner and breakfast). We usually get I-95 in the Maryland/Virginia areas so there are no tolls from there down, I can't say if there are North of that area.

We have 2 drivers so we don't stay at a hotel, we just switch when one gets tired.

If you can, time your trip through Virginia at night, there's a LOT less traffic.

[BMan62]

We drive down from PA every trip now. The savings are getting smaller, but it's a fun trip. We take I-95 almost the whole way and it takes us about 17 hours with stops (gas, restrooms, dinner and breakfast). We usually get I-95 in the Maryland/Virginia areas so there are no tolls from there down, I can't say if there are North of that area.

We have 2 drivers so we don't stay at a hotel, we just switch when one gets tired.

If you can, time your trip through Virginia at night, there's a LOT less traffic.

I used to make the 'white-knuckle cruise,' as we used to call it, on a regular basis, but just can't justify it anymore.

Driving from PA, for us, is no longer cost effective. @ $3.659 / gallon and 970 miles each way (+ internal WDW driving) it would come out to around $450 just for gas. Along with the amount of time on the road and wear and tear on the vehicle, it just doesn't make sense to us.

Besides, we can fly out of BWI on Southwest for $365 (just got our tickets for September, so I know this to be true) - a savings of $85 + almost 12 hours each way (includes drivetime from York to BWI, 2hr. 10 min. flight time and ME time from MCO to WDW.)

[ISLE39]

thank you for all of your input it was all very helpful

[c&d]

We just finished our drive to WDW and we met some neighbors while we were down there. They thought we were absolutely insane for driving. It took us from MA approximately 22 hours each way.

Part of the fun of the last trip was the drive. We both like road trips and it cost us about $600 for the 3 of us including gas, hotel room for 1 night each way and snacks. Much cheaper than the $1500 airfare we would have paid.

[Sean Riley Taylor's Mom]

I forgot to mention, we used to like the drive down because we were excited to get to WDW. So, we could tolerate the drive.

The ride home was the issue for us. By the time we reached the Jersey Turnpike I was usually ready to jump out of the car. That was before kids.;) You just want to get home at that point and it does not seem to happen fast enough!

My husband actually said yesterday that he wanted to drive down in December. I just laughed at him. Forget the sanity factor with three kids, I drive a Suburban, the gas would kill us!!