Three years ago, we drove to WDW for the first time, from our home here in London, Ontario, Canada. It was our first road trip down I-75, and it was a fun, sometimes challenging, a bit grueling, but always interesting, experience.
For anyone that has done it before, either once or multiple times, what were your experiences, good or bad, what tips would you have for anyone else travelling the same route, and what questions do you have that someone else might be able to answer.
I'll start with my own experiences and tips, apologies if this post is a bit lengthy.
Our trip took us from London to Detroit on Highway 401, then on to I-75 south through Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and into Florida, then onto the Fla Turnpike, followed by SR 429 to Western Way, and through the gates onto WDW property.
We left at 3:00 am, and we planned to stop at a hotel for the night around 7:00 pm in the Valdosta, GA area, which would mean only about 3 hours of driving starting the next morning to arrive at WDW. We were making great time, stopping every 3-4 hours for gas/food/bathroom breaks-until just after we crossed the border from Kentucky into Tennessee. The day before, a rockslide had covered all of the southbound lanes and part of the northbound lanes of I-75 just past the Jellico exit. We were diverted onto a southbound detour through Jellico onto a mountain road. A truck accident on the sb detour forced us to go back through Jellico and go south on the northbound detour-which meant heavy traffic both ways on a narrow mountain road with no shoulders and either massive walls of rock or dizzying plunges straight down on either side. All told, the detours took us 4 1/2 hours to complete a section of I-75 that should have taken 10-15 minutes. As such, we stopped for the night short of our goal, at 11:00 pm, in Cordele, GA. No issues the next day, and we arrived at our resort in the early afternoon.
The mountains in Kentucky and Tennessee were beautiful, but Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and Florida were fairly uninteresting, scenery-wise. Through Cincinnati was a bit crazy, due mostly to the construction. I did not enjoy driving through Atlanta, having to deal with 38 lanes of traffic (exaggeration, but not by much).
I had found out about a book called "Along The I-75" by Dave Hunter a few months before we left. It's basically a CAA/AAA triptyk on steroids; it had maps which included all food, gas and lodging at every exit, detour routes to take, common speed trap areas, travelling tips, and even info on the history of each area you pass through and roadside attractions/points of interest along the way. I highly recommend this book, and the new edition just came out.
We will be heading out for our second WDW road trip in 3 weeks, and one thing that we've learned from our last trip is that the front passenger/navigator/DJ should be in charge of checking traffic reports for the road up ahead, for the next state, etc. We might have been able to figure out our own detour around the rockslide instead of getting ensnared in the official detour, if we'd have done that during our first trip.
For anyone that has done it before, either once or multiple times, what were your experiences, good or bad, what tips would you have for anyone else travelling the same route, and what questions do you have that someone else might be able to answer.
I'll start with my own experiences and tips, apologies if this post is a bit lengthy.
Our trip took us from London to Detroit on Highway 401, then on to I-75 south through Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and into Florida, then onto the Fla Turnpike, followed by SR 429 to Western Way, and through the gates onto WDW property.
We left at 3:00 am, and we planned to stop at a hotel for the night around 7:00 pm in the Valdosta, GA area, which would mean only about 3 hours of driving starting the next morning to arrive at WDW. We were making great time, stopping every 3-4 hours for gas/food/bathroom breaks-until just after we crossed the border from Kentucky into Tennessee. The day before, a rockslide had covered all of the southbound lanes and part of the northbound lanes of I-75 just past the Jellico exit. We were diverted onto a southbound detour through Jellico onto a mountain road. A truck accident on the sb detour forced us to go back through Jellico and go south on the northbound detour-which meant heavy traffic both ways on a narrow mountain road with no shoulders and either massive walls of rock or dizzying plunges straight down on either side. All told, the detours took us 4 1/2 hours to complete a section of I-75 that should have taken 10-15 minutes. As such, we stopped for the night short of our goal, at 11:00 pm, in Cordele, GA. No issues the next day, and we arrived at our resort in the early afternoon.
The mountains in Kentucky and Tennessee were beautiful, but Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and Florida were fairly uninteresting, scenery-wise. Through Cincinnati was a bit crazy, due mostly to the construction. I did not enjoy driving through Atlanta, having to deal with 38 lanes of traffic (exaggeration, but not by much).
I had found out about a book called "Along The I-75" by Dave Hunter a few months before we left. It's basically a CAA/AAA triptyk on steroids; it had maps which included all food, gas and lodging at every exit, detour routes to take, common speed trap areas, travelling tips, and even info on the history of each area you pass through and roadside attractions/points of interest along the way. I highly recommend this book, and the new edition just came out.
We will be heading out for our second WDW road trip in 3 weeks, and one thing that we've learned from our last trip is that the front passenger/navigator/DJ should be in charge of checking traffic reports for the road up ahead, for the next state, etc. We might have been able to figure out our own detour around the rockslide instead of getting ensnared in the official detour, if we'd have done that during our first trip.