Overnight Pit Stop

slappy magoo

slappy magoo

Well-Known Member
On 8/19, my GF & I are leaving my sister's in PA and driving down for an 8-night stay at SSR, followed by 3 nights in Hilton Head. We are arriving 8/20.

Last time we went, we drove straight down, and while it didn't kill me, I must admit, we probably would've had more fun the first day or two had we stopped off somewhere and gotten at least half-a-night's shut eye.

So the plan now is to leave PA (I think the town's name is Elverson) around 7 or 8, work our way down to 95, take leg-stretching & meal breaks, and call it a night no earlier than 10pm (later if we feel we're on a roll, OR if we got stuck in traffic and want to make up for lost time.

Bearing in mind, we're just looking for a semi-decent place to crash, can anyone recommend a good place to try to reach before the end of the night?
 
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bgraham34

bgraham34

Well-Known Member
There is always South of the Border in S.C. Not sure if it is any good anymore but it was always a place for my family and i to stop on our way down in the 80's.
 
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slappy magoo

slappy magoo

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
bgraham34 said:
There is always South of the Border in S.C. Not sure if it is any good anymore but it was always a place for my family and i to stop on our way down in the 80's.
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The times, they have a-changed.

Last year, driving from Orlando back to NJ to avoid the wrath of the hurricane, I kept seeing billboards for SotB every mile or so. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and we decided to check it out. After a 3 1/2 minute pit-stop--in broad daylight, mind you--my GF begged me to get back in the car and just drive. I would've hung around if I were alone or with an adventurous buddy, but it was a place that had obviously seen better days. After returning, a brother-in-law admitted that the skeeviest night he ever spent anywhere was in a motel room at SotB. And I've heard lots of other horror stories, too. Nothing positive. So thanks, but, uh...no.

I'm guessing, before airfare got so (comparitively) inexpensive, SotB got plenty of 1, 2, or 3 day visits from people driving to or from WDW or other Florida destinations. But that business seems to have mostly disappeared.
 
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maelstrom

maelstrom

Well-Known Member
Santee, SC. There is a great Country Inn & Suites there. Free breakfast. Not sure if you will make it that far. We travel from NY to Savannah, GA in one day sometimes.
 
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CoffeeJedi

CoffeeJedi

Active Member
aaaah, South of the Border, those billboards are an I95 tradition. Like the stinging bitterness of Beverly that clears the pallette before the sweet rich experience of Mezo Mix, so too does Pedro prepare the spirit for Mickey. we always made sure to swing through SotB for a quick stop on the way down just to remark how CHEESY it is.

typically my family stayed overnight off of exit 164, there's lots of motels there so rates are low due to competition. the next day's trip through Geogia goes by pretty quickly if you leave before sunrise

(of course, when i went with friends, we did it in one 18 hour shot)
 
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Laura

Laura

22
CoffeeJedi said:
aaaah, South of the Border, those billboards are an I95 tradition. Like the stinging bitterness of Beverly that clears the pallette before the sweet rich experience of Mezo Mix, so too does Pedro prepare the spirit for Mickey. we always made sure to swing through SotB for a quick stop on the way down just to remark how CHEESY it is.
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LOL!! I know exactly what you mean. When we took those childhood drives to Disney from Upstate, NY, seeing those South of the Border signs meant we were "almost there" (relatively LOL)

Now that I live in North Carolina, the SOTB signs mean "we just left" :lol:

Anyway, when we go down in September we're going to stop in Brunswick, Georgia (Comfort inn with free wireless internet). Then when we wake up in the morning we'll only be 3.5-4 hours away!
 
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tigsmom

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
We usually stay at the Hampton Inn in Santee, SC. We drive down twice a year and have only had a problem once.

My advice is to make a reservation & have it held for late arrival on a credit card. If you don't do this they will sell the room out from under you.

We have also stayed at the Red Roof Inn in Fayettevile, NC (1/2 way between upstate NY & Orlando), again at this time of year make reservations.

We will be in WDW from 8/21 -8/25. :wave:
 
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mhead

mhead

Active Member
DisneyRoxMySox said:
Any Hampton Inn..

They are very cheap and clean. Not to mention safe.

They give you a free breakfast, so it will save you a little money.
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Must disagree with the safe part here - the only time I have ever had my vehicle busted into was at Hampton Inn. Then the staff was much more concerned about letting me know it was not there liability than they were in trying to help me out with the situation. I pointed out to them that the security camers had a TREE IN FRONT OF IT and that the "guard" was asleep in the lobby and no one had a response.
 
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R

RedBaron

Active Member
Last time we drove from Chicago, we stopped just north of Atlanta. Since it is a big city there are lots of places to choose from that are decent, and because it was not in the city itself the prices were not bad.
 
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slappy magoo

slappy magoo

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DisneyRoxMySox said:
Sorry to hear..

I guess we all have different experiences.
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Well, to be fair to both of you, there's no way you can know that every Hampton Inn is safe, any more than mhead would ascertain that what happened at that one Hampton Inn is indicative of all of them.
 
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W

weluvtink

Member
We are from NJ and we usually stop in Walterboro,SC at what I believe is a Days Inn. It's right off 95 and there's a Cracker Barrel right across the street. It's about an hour from Georgia. We leave around 6am and get there around 8pm. We have small kids so we stop often. It's clean and they serve their free breakfast early.
 
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tigsmom

tigsmom

Well-Known Member
weluvtink said:
We are from NJ and we usually stop in Walterboro,SC at what I believe is a Days Inn. It's right off 95 and there's a Cracker Barrel right across the street. It's about an hour from Georgia. We leave around 6am and get there around 8pm. We have small kids so we stop often. It's clean and they serve their free breakfast early.
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Gotta love the free breakfasts. :lol:
 
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Rcoaster809

Rcoaster809

Member
Im from Williamsport, PA, and before we started flying we would usually make it into South CArolina before stopping for the night. We always stopped at the rest areas to pick up discount books for hotels in the state, then stop at ones that looked good until we found two rooms. Now, with cell phones it would be easier and work better.
 
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mhead

mhead

Active Member
slappy magoo said:
Well, to be fair to both of you, there's no way you can know that every Hampton Inn is safe, any more than mhead would ascertain that what happened at that one Hampton Inn is indicative of all of them.
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Totally agreed however you must also agree that once you have had a bad experience with a particular place it makes it much harder to return to that same line when there are many other choices.
 
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K

KaliSplash

Well-Known Member
We welcome all of you to South Carolina. It ain't Disney, but you're on the way! (Of course, you could go to Disney's little Hilton Head Island location, but it's not exactly on the way and it's not exactly cheap.)

If you can make it that far, Savannah or Brunswick, Ga., have plenty of hotels, too.
 
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