We are Houston area - made this drive last August and will likely be doing it again in November since air is INSANE! We also found the drive to be pretty enjoyable- minus the sad drive home (although not so bad since we stayed at the Beau Rivage on the way back
) and the stretch from Pensacola to Talahassee
We drove to Daphne, AL on day 1 and spent the night at a Microtel there and then drove to the Orlando area on day 2. We are in suburbia south of Houston and had some car drama, so we didn't hit the road until about 9:30a...which isn't such a bad thing since I fight Houston traffic enough- I don't need to be doing it again at the start of my vacay. We made a few stops along the way 1) potty break near Beaumont 2) DH wanted to take the grand tour of Lake Charles :lol: so we drove around for a while, found a place for lunch, found out it was closed for repairs
, found another place for lunch, etc. (edit- I remeber, we also stopped in Grosse Tete before heading over the Atchafalaya to see if the tiger was out) 3) we hit a lot of traffic going into Baton Rouge and it was about that time my contacts were going nuts- so we had to pull over at some point after the bridge and I changed out my lenses at a fine place called the Whiskey Bin :lol: 4) We stopped in Biloxi for a bathroom break...and then it was on to our first night destination on the other side of Mobile Bay. I want to say it was around 6:30 or 7 when we arrived.
I think we probably left about the same time on day 2 from Daphne...mainly b/c we weren't spending our first night in the Orlando area at Disney...i.e. no rush. We made our first stop east of Pensacola for a restroom break and to let our girls run around, we stopped for lunch in Talahassee, then we stopped in Gainesville and spent a good hour driving around since I used to live there, after getting back on 75 and then exiting onto the Turnpike- we stopped so DH could get a drink- somewhere not too far out of the Orlando area...I know we were east of the Okahumpa rest area. We hit the area around Universal around 5:45pm. Traffic was thick so it was about another 30-45 min before we made it to our lodging for that nt on Irlo Bronson (3 mi from the maingate). We stayed onsite for the rest of the trip- which was only a few minutes drive from where we were- so it wouldn't have made a huge travel time difference at that point had we just gone straight into WDW.
Basically- while we made a number of stops just for the heck of it- every travel reference I used to plan the trip estimated that each leg would be about 8.25-8.50 hrs. The travelmath website says it's about 14.5 hrs from Houston to Orlando, but of course that doesn't factor in basic stops for gas and quick meals...so I think 16-17 is a better estimate for overall time- even if broken up over two days. Obviously, we would have made MUCH better time without all of the little stops- but we felt the road trip would be more fun if we stretched it out with a few fun things to do vs. trying to get the best time possible. Not the right approach for everyone- but it was good for us.
