Suggested Road Trip Route

[stitchsMom]

This year our transportation to Disney will find us on the road rather than in the air. We have always flown in the past, but this year the guys are going on a hunting trip during our 2 week trip to Disney. The cost of flying with all that hunting gear is astronomical, so we are driving instead, and hoping the lower gas prices will hold! Home for us is just an hour north of Chicago, and we plan on going through Nashville (will stay there overnight), from there I expect we will pass through Atlanta. My question is where is a good place to stop overnight between Nashville and Orlando? We plan on 2 over nights on the way down, with our arrival to Disney's Saratoga Springs on the morning/early afternoon of the third day of driving. We are open to camp sites along the way. Any suggestions?

 

[DISMOM]

How long do you want to drive on the first day? I would try to get to at least Chatanooga. I think from an hour north of Chicago, Nashville will be about 10 hours. What do you think? Try Mapquest or Trips.com to see about driving times. It just seems like such a long way between Nashville and Orlando. Yes, we have driven this from Southern Indiana, through Nashville, Chatanooga and Atlanta onto Orlando three times. I think that I would at least try to hit Georgia, which is a very long long state.

 

[DISMOM]

Have you priced shipping the hunting stuff and still flying.?

 

[Harptattoo]

We are AAA members and they have an awesome trip planner you can access online which would seriously hook you up with the travel info you are looking for. Also, if you book through them you get a 20% discount on the room rate. This all includes the piece of mind of road side service as an added perk. No I am not a sales person for AAA. Just a Disney fan with a membership to AAA and I use the benefits. This February will be our first time driving down from the Philly area and we used the heck out of the trip planner for our route info. Hope your trip is awesome Stitchsmom!

 

[MichWolv]

This year our transportation to Disney will find us on the road rather than in the air. We have always flown in the past, but this year the guys are going on a hunting trip during our 2 week trip to Disney. The cost of flying with all that hunting gear is astronomical, so we are driving instead, and hoping the lower gas prices will hold! Home for us is just an hour north of Chicago, and we plan on going through Nashville (will stay there overnight), from there I expect we will pass through Atlanta. My question is where is a good place to stop overnight between Nashville and Orlando? We plan on 2 over nights on the way down, with our arrival to Disney's Saratoga Springs on the morning/early afternoon of the third day of driving. We are open to camp sites along the way. Any suggestions?

I've done the drive from Chicago a couple times and found 2 days of driving to be sufficient. We would head to Chattannooga or the north Atlanta suburbs the first day, and then arrive WDW around 7 or 8 pm. Once we did that and stayed in a cheap place in Kissimmee that night before checking into WDW the next morning.

If you're going to stop once in Nashville, and then again, you'll be looking for southern GA or northern FL. Try Valdosta, GA or Lake City, FL. Neither is exactly a big city, but there are a handful of places to stay in each (don't know about campgrounds, as I've never looked). If you were feeling good the second day, you could make Gainesville or even Ocala, giving you a few more options on accomodations.

 

[stitchsMom]

Wow! Thanks for all the awesome feedback! We did price the flights with the hunting gear (bows in cases are very large) not to mention blinds, etc. So, we know that driving is a better solution. We found that Home to Nashville is a little over 9 hours driving (thanks to the posters who suggested the planning sites). So, we are going to stay there overnight. Nashville to Northern FL is another 9 hours, so we decided to make a stop in St. Augustine and stay there (thanks to the poster who suggested N.FL) so we can see the ocean. Then we will only have a 2 hour drive from St. Augustine to Orlando the following day. The best part is we found 2 great campgrounds at both of our stops! They boys are thrilled! Thanks so much to all for taking the time to give ideas - much appreciated!

 

[goofntink]

Why are you cutting across to the east coast of Florida? You should be coming down I-75 to Fl.Turnpike or I-4.You are adding 4-5 hours to your trip if you cut over to I-95.

 

[Phonedave]

Wow! Thanks for all the awesome feedback! We did price the flights with the hunting gear (bows in cases are very large) not to mention blinds, etc. So, we know that driving is a better solution. We found that Home to Nashville is a little over 9 hours driving (thanks to the posters who suggested the planning sites). So, we are going to stay there overnight. Nashville to Northern FL is another 9 hours, so we decided to make a stop in St. Augustine and stay there (thanks to the poster who suggested N.FL) so we can see the ocean. Then we will only have a 2 hour drive from St. Augustine to Orlando the following day. The best part is we found 2 great campgrounds at both of our stops! They boys are thrilled! Thanks so much to all for taking the time to give ideas - much appreciated!

Not bringing them on the airline, shipping them ahead of time. I have bought many a bow on eBay and shipping them is not that bad. Blinds should pack down pretty good as well.

I assume they are going for deer (or maybe boar). How are you planning on getting the meat home ? Well, they do have those BBQ grills at Saratoga Springs

-dave

 

[mickey7879]

We just drove from Maine and are currently in Melbourne, FL before leaving for Orlando in the morning for 2 1/2 weeks before we drive home again.

Every night we stayed at Courtyard By Marriott. The rooms are very nice and have a sleeper couch in them as well as the beds. Most of the also have a fridge. They also have a breakfast buffet every morning. It's not included in the price of the hotel room, but it varied for us from $7.95 to $10.95. It was always very good, never busy and once they found out we were driving, they always told us to go up and take anything we wanted for the road with us. That was really nice since we were traveling with a 15 month old. We also had a portable fridge with us that we plugged into the vehicle, so we would stock up on some milk and cheerios for him. They were always so nice to us there too.

I can't recommend a town to stop in over night, but this hotel was absolutely wonderful! We took 5 nights to drive down and stayed at Courtyard at every one of them!

Also, if you drive through Savannah, GA, watch out for traffic around 4:30 pm. We were stuck going like 3 mph for like 2.5 hrs! Still never saw the hold up either! Very frustrating!

Good luck driving and have fun!