New York down to Sunshine State

[mickeymousedabomb]

So we will be traveling by car from Albany area down to WDW in 44 days and would like the fastest route there with one stop. For those of you Yankees that travel, what is your best route you've taken? We will have two of us able to drive and our 1st thought was to stop in Savannah but we'll have to see about that. So we'd love some input on this, thanks ahead of time!:car:

[nyobabe2]

We leave in 46 days, first time we are driving from Philadelphia.
We are going on a recomendation from my parents who drive every year. They go to Jacksonville and spend the night at La Quinta


and it's really inexpensive the time of year we are going, theres a few restaurants close by and they give you breakfast in the morning.

It's going to be tough doing 14 hours in one day but then we only have about 2 1/2-3 hrs to go the next day which is good since we want to go into the park.

Good luck!

[snuggs30]

Which way are you going?

[nyobabe2]

We are taking 95 all the way down and then get off at 295 for the hotel. Duh, sorry, left the part out that they asked about!

[dnickels]

I do a fair number of long drives each year and I know the planners of the world really like to reserve a hotel room ahead of time with the goal of getting to a particular city or location, but I really think you should just drive til you're ready to stop for the night rather than setting a specific location. I'd be shocked if there's a 10 mile stretch along I-95 without a hotel so finding a place to stay won't be a problem.

I just avoid tying myself into one particular location to stop because there are so many things you can't plan for. A traffic jam on the interstate due to an accident or weather or construction and suddenly that planned stop at 11 PM is looking like 1 AM. You can get to late evening and feel great or hit dinnertime and just be too tired to drive any more. :twocents:

Have a safe trip!

[nyobabe2]

With that being said I think a good idea would be to have AAA do a trip tix for us with different stops/options along the way.
Definetly don't want to book anything, more of a roll up and hope you have a place for us to lay our heads type of thing...lol

We're hearing alot about us getting thru the Washington traffic. Is this anything any of you have dealt with? I don't want to leave any earlier than 5:30 in the morning!

[LittleRoosMommy]

Did you say you were from the Philly area? If so, I would either plan on leaving very early or after rush hour. If you leave philly at 5:30 you will be hitting Baltimore and DC during the morning rush hour. I would avoid doing that at all costs!!

I'm from the DC area and you don't want to be sitting in rush hour traffic if you don't have too!! On a good day, the morning rush is from about 5-9am. On a not so good day, it can last until 10am or later.

Hope this helps! Have a great trip!!

[blondie219]

We are driving down the first Friday in December...we are leaving from Virginia so a bit south from you. We are taking 95 to Kingland, GA, which looks to be right at the GA/FLA line. Mapquest says that we will have another 3 hour drive on our arrival day to WDW.

[PETE FROM NYC]

I just did it last month, with my wife as a passenger and me doing all of the driving. My health is not great, so we took our time, driving til I felt like stopping for the night.
I had heard about DC traffic, so we left Queens on a Sunday morning, and saw no DC traffic.
We stopped in Virginia for two days to do the parks there.
Except for doing Busch in Va, we were on 95 all the way til we hit I-4 in Florida, then straight to Disney World, where we checked in at Pop.We also did other area parks after leaving WDW and got home 23 days later.Total mileage for the trip was a bit over 2700.
On the trip down we overnighted in South Carolina.Going home we stopped in North Carolina, and Maryland.
If you want anymore info, PM me with your phone number and I will give you a call and we can talk.
Enjoy your trip.

[MickeyMousse]

We have driven to WDW for the past 5 years and take I95 down, usually stopping in Hilton Head area for one night. We leave NY around 11pm and get into HH by 4pm...up and back on the road by 8am and into WDW by 3pm!
I could do the trip with my eyes closed by now!

[kathiep]

We leave central Jersey every year around 6am. I have to echo the poster who mentioned it's best not to tie yourself in with prior reservations. Sometimes we feel up to driving longer and others feel the need to stop. This year we actually hit such bad weather, that made us stop earlier than planned. We normally like to make just prior to the Ga/Fla border so we have under 4 hours the next day. But that first day of driving ends up being 15 or 16 hours :ack:

[dmerchant]

We also live in the Albany area and have driven many times to WDW. We take I-95 all the way spend the night in Charlotte. Get to WDW around 3:00 - 3:30 pm.