How many miles/hours do you drive before stopping for the night?

[DaddyDisneyMan]

Good Morning All,
Hope everyone's day is going well. We are getting closer to our family vaca (39 DAYS!! WOO HOO). We are driving from Detroit and heading down to WDW (1200miles). How far have you all driven before stopping for the night? I will be the only driver. We are leaving at 6am, with hopes of hitting Macon, GA; maybe even further if I feel up to it.

 

[ArielLover]

Good Morning All,
Hope everyone's day is going well. We are getting closer to our family vaca (39 DAYS!! WOO HOO). We are driving from Detroit and heading down to WDW (1200miles). How far have you all driven before stopping for the night? I will be the only driver. We are leaving at 6am, with hopes of hitting Macon, GA; maybe even further if I feel up to it.

I drive from New Hamphire, 1350 miles. I usually stop about half way through SC, about 800+ miles

 

[Mrsdonaldduck]

Around 18 hours give or take depending on Virginia traffic and how often we have to stop with the little guys. We are driving from north Jersey. We stop in South Carolina on the way there which is about 12 hours.

 

[Hot Lava]

4 hour non-stop drive here. Well, just for gas/bathroom. LOL. All the way down I-95!
Considering flying this year though. It's getting to be an exhausting trip.

How do you go straight through with the kids?

 

[WorldDad]

About 21 hours from up here in Wisconsin. We usually drive straight through so we can get an early start our first day at Disney

 

[erstwo]

When I stop depends on a lot of factors. If I'm driving by myself with the kids (husband flying in later in the week to join us) and we leave right after school gets out to start our 11 hour drive, I'll stop in south Georgia as well. It's just not worth the 'sleepiness' risk to me - once my kids are asleep in the car and all is quiet, I start getting drowsy - and usually I've been running around like crazy getting everything ready for a trip. Plus I still get a little freaked out about that terrible foggy pile up on 75 in the super early morning just south of Gainsville last year - totally confirms my reasons for just stopping for the night!

If you are considering Macon, it sounds like you will be driving down 75 (and not hugging the coast on 95.) 75 is my favorite road to travel. Lots of new or new-ish hotels just off the interstate all the way to the Florida state line. Once you get south of Atlanta, Macon will be your next big set of exits. I typically take 475 in Macon and stay at one of the hotels through there. South of Macon, you won't really hit civilization again until Tifton. Then south of Tifton is Valdosta, which is my favorite stopping point if I can make it that far. 4 short hours to the world from Valdosta! Have a safe drive and a fun trip!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

We usually fly, but if we drive, we drive it straight, no stops. Usually this only happens for a quick trip down after a longer stay in South Carolina, so from Disney back to Baltimore, about 16-18 hours, with my father driving the whole way. Makes no sense when we have two other drivers but anyway...

 

[luv]

Once drove 17 hours, straight on through. It was stupid and dangerous and I wouldn't do it again.

Now I do eight or ten and then stop. Whenever I start noticing that I'm getting tired of driving, I stop.

 

[Figgy1]

How do you go straight through with the kids?

Portable dvd player, kindle and hand held video games and the threat of being shipped to grandmas if they don't behave! They have no problems sleeping in the car, My boys are good in the car and Disney, Home not so much! LOL

 

[Hot Lava]

Hot Lava said: ↑

How do you go straight through with the kids?​

Portable dvd player, kindle and hand held video games and the threat of being shipped to grandmas if they don't behave! They have no problems sleeping in the car, My boys are good in the car and Disney, Home not so much! LOL

Still, you don't need a bunch of bathroom breaks with kids? Wow!

 

[diznyboyz]

Good Morning All,
Hope everyone's day is going well. We are getting closer to our family vaca (39 DAYS!! WOO HOO). We are driving from Detroit and heading down to WDW (1200miles). How far have you all driven before stopping for the night? I will be the only driver. We are leaving at 6am, with hopes of hitting Macon, GA; maybe even further if I feel up to it.

My wonderful husband drives us from Louisiana straight to Disney World. This takes about 13 hours obviously with a couple of "pit stops" as we call them along the way. Be careful on the roads and have fun!!! We will May 26th. 73 days left YAY!!! My kids are crazy with anything hand held having to do with video games..... my 16 year old is autistic and believe it or not but he will NEVER fall asleep the whole trip as he lives for this day all year long.

 

[George]

How do you go straight through with the kids?

Personally, it's easier to drive straight through for us (16,17 hour drive) than breaking it down into two days because of the kids. If we stop at a hotel and they get in the car for day 2, they are really cranky on the second day. But, for whatever reason, one day in the car even if it's really long is fine.

 

[Figgy1]

Still, you don't need a bunch of bathroom breaks with kids? Wow!

Guess I'm lucky they are older now! We used to start the drive at their bed time and they wouldn't get up until NC! First stop! Disney makes kids stay on their best behavior and I threaten really well (no follow through they haven't caught on quite yet) LOL

 

[Figgy1]

My wonderful husband drives us from Louisiana straight to Disney World. This takes about 13 hours obviously with a couple of "pit stops" as we call them along the way. Be careful on the roads and have fun!!! We will May 26th. 73 days left YAY!!! My kids are crazy with anything hand held having to do with video games..... my 16 year old is autistic and believe it or not but he will NEVER fall asleep the whole trip as he lives for this day all year long.

Mine also! Do you get a GAC?

 

[George]

Once drove 17 hours, straight on through. It was stupid and dangerous and I wouldn't do it again.

Now I do eight or ten and then stop. Whenever I start noticing that I'm getting tired of driving, I stop.

You've got to split time. I have a long early morning commute, so I'll drive from 4-9am and I'm A-OK. Then, everyone is awake, we stop for breakfast, and I eat roughly 2000 calories (if it's a Bob Evans or a Cracker Barrel it will be more like 4000 calories). After this huge intake of carbs, I'll lie down in the back seat of the mini van, while my wife drives. We'll switch until we're at our destination.

 

[George]

My DH both drive and now we have a 17 year old that may also be able to drive (not to sure about that yet). We are just a little south of Detroit so our distance is about the same. It would be nice to drive through but after 12 hours everyone is going crazy so we always stop around Tipton or Cordelle. There's no way we could do it with only 1 driver. We'll see about driving through though.....I do like the thought of waking up with the whole day rather than getting to the World around 1:00.

I did some of the driving on family vacations when I was 16-18 yo. I don't remember my parents ever really taking advantage and "relaxing" during this time.

 

[DaddyDisneyMan]

When I stop depends on a lot of factors. If I'm driving by myself with the kids (husband flying in later in the week to join us) and we leave right after school gets out to start our 11 hour drive, I'll stop in south Georgia as well. It's just not worth the 'sleepiness' risk to me - once my kids are asleep in the car and all is quiet, I start getting drowsy - and usually I've been running around like crazy getting everything ready for a trip. Plus I still get a little freaked out about that terrible foggy pile up on 75 in the super early morning just south of Gainsville last year - totally confirms my reasons for just stopping for the night!

If you are considering Macon, it sounds like you will be driving down 75 (and not hugging the coast on 95.) 75 is my favorite road to travel. Lots of new or new-ish hotels just off the interstate all the way to the Florida state line. Once you get south of Atlanta, Macon will be your next big set of exits. I typically take 475 in Macon and stay at one of the hotels through there. South of Macon, you won't really hit civilization again until Tifton. Then south of Tifton is Valdosta, which is my favorite stopping point if I can make it that far. 4 short hours to the world from Valdosta! Have a safe drive and a fun trip!

You nailed it all in this post, THANK YOU! 75 is the way we are taking and Macon will most likely be out stopping point for the night; BUT if I still feel up to it I will try and hit Valdosta. Either way, I'm not going to be stupid about the driving thing and push my limits. Even if we leave Macon at 9am I would imagine being at our resort around 5ish PM.

 

[erasure fan1]

We leave from a suburb of Chicago. Hop on 65 to 24 (around Nashville) then to 75 (around Chattanooga), all the way to the turnpike.

Not sure how far you are from 355 but have you thought of taking 57 to 24. Since 355 now goes to 80 you can pick up 57 through Illinois. We have done both and the 57 route was always a bit quicker.

I have made the drive straight throught before a few times (when we left earlier in the morning) and it took about 18.5 hours, but those last few hours in the dark are pretty rough. Keep the caffeine flowing and the radio on to stay alert. Good luck!

We did this once as well. My daughter fell asleep at around 6pm and we were about 4hrs out of Disney. My wifes parents were already there with the 2 bedroom so we figured why spend the money on a hotel room. You are right the last couple hours were rough.

Our normal thing is to make it to Tifton or Valdosta. But the last couple years we have been leaving as soon as I get off of work, Dalton is the goal then.

 

[meyeet]

How do you go straight through with the kids?

We left after dinner and drove through the night with a few movies along the way. The funny thing is that at least one kid was awake the entire drive through the night. We also take a kids portable potty in the van with us so if we need to stop we don't have to find a bathroom, just pull off the interstate, unbuckle and go.

 

[DisneyVet3369]

Not sure how far you are from 355 but have you thought of taking 57 to 24. Since 355 now goes to 80 you can pick up 57 through Illinois. We have done both and the 57 route was always a bit quicker.

Our normal thing is to make it to Tifton or Valdosta. But the last couple years we have been leaving as soon as I get off of work, Dalton is the goal then.

Interesting. We basically live right off 80 about 15 miles from the 57 interchange. We've never taken 57 before, maybe we'll give it a shot this year. How is the traffic/# of gas stations/# of rest areas in comparison? Gotta have those stops to stretch the legs, empty one tank and fill the other!

 

[Tomi-Rocket]

1st trip - half way, about 4 hours. 2nd - most of the way till we only had about an hour left. Last trip - just outside WDW at the exit just past.

Not sure how long for this year since we're taking the kids out of school early.