Driving from Ottawa - which route is better I81 or I79 & I77 to I95?

[klam_chowder]

From Google Maps, the I81 route looks to be 1.75hrs longer but my concern is it goes through the DC area. How congested is this area on Saturdays?

The I79 & I77 route looks like it goes through some mountains. How steep are the grades there? Is the detour time worth it for the scenery?

Plan on leaving after work on a Friday, driving for just 3 hrs to cross the border and get a jump start. Don't want to be wasted when I get to Orlando so will be driving only about 9 hrs/day (not including breaks), and driving when it's light out. So arriving sometime Sunday.

(I read the "driving from Toronto" thread and the I75 vs I79 info...I75 doesn't look like it would make sense for me as I'd be driving very far west and then heading back eastward.)

Will be going in a "new to me" campervan and my first trip driving down - really looking fwd to it! Any insights much appreciated!

cheers,

 

[ottawamom]

I don't know how to properly link to another thread but here's an old thread (title at bottom) which I thought might be useful. You should be able to find it and view the whole thread but this response looks good.

We've done the drive several times from our home near Trenton. We take the bridge across the river near Gananoque, and start south on I 81. We try to avoid the I 95 for as long as possible, to avoid the major cities along that route. If you end up near any of those cities during high traffic times, you are in for major delays.

We stay on the I 81 until we hit the I 77. Then it's I 77 to I 26, merging onto the I95 near Charleston. Then stay on the I95 (taking the bypass around Jacksonville) till you get to I4.

Coming home, just reverse the process.

Going this route, the halfway point would probably be somewhere around Roanoke Virginia. But we take longer to get there, doing it in 3 days. We drive to Harrisburg or Hagerstown the first day, Columbia SC the second day and arrive in Orlando on the 3rd in late afternoon.

We always do a CAA trip tik, and I think it gives a driving time of around 21 hours. While those time estimates are for listed highways speeds, we drive a bit faster than that. But with stops for gas, meals, pee breaks, etc, we find it pretty accurate.

This spring we're thinking about doing it in 2 days. We'd probably try to go for about 16 hours and get down around Charlotte or Columbia if possible on the first day.

Route for driving Ottawa to WDW
Discussion in 'Canadian Trip Planning & Community Board' started by CanuckTraveller, Jan 11, 2013.

 

[Marbel]

We drove down towing a 30-ft trailer and took the 81-77-26-95 route. We wanted to avoid cities as much as possible. The entire route was surprisingly easy. I worried about the grades too but they weren't bad. You will have no problem in a campervan. We also took the 407/528/4 detour to avoid Orlando. 528 in Fla is a toll road. We didn't have a Sun Pass but it wasn't a big deal to stop. There was no traffic to speak of. Had to stop 4 times for tolls on 528. That was a surprise. Jacksonville in Fla and Syracuse in NY were the biggest cities encountered. We might be driving down again next year and would take this route again.

 

[iceprincesskcl]

We drove down towing a 30-ft trailer and took the 81-77-26-95 route. We wanted to avoid cities as much as possible. The entire route was surprisingly easy. I worried about the grades too but they weren't bad. You will have no problem in a campervan. We also took the 407/528/4 detour to avoid Orlando. 528 in Fla is a toll road. We didn't have a Sun Pass but it wasn't a big deal to stop. There was no traffic to speak of. Had to stop 4 times for tolls on 528. That was a surprise. Jacksonville in Fla and Syracuse in NY were the biggest cities encountered. We might be driving down again next year and would take this route again.

I agree with this, we drove down last may and took this same route, it was easy and avoided traffic in Washington! Was a great drive!

 

[klam_chowder]

Thx a mint for the info & replies - much appreciated!

I found that post (and others!) and read through it all so got some great info - thx for pointing that out, ottawamom!

Marbel, great tips & my anxiety is greatly reduced about the hills now!

cheers,

 

[minnie mum]

It's a really pretty drive down the 77.

One note about the I 4 in Florida. There are massive road projects going on for the next couple of years leading to major traffic delays. I'd recommend using one of the toll road routes to bypass this mess as much as possible. On our last trip we took the 417 which starts/ ends in Sanford and you leave/enter on the W Osceola Parkway, or the 536, which becomes Epcot Centre Drive. I think the tolls were around $9?? Totally worth it for the time and headaches we saved.

 

[Kellars]

We just came back on Sunday. We left Belleville Mon (Feb 22) morning and drove 81/77/26/95/4 to arrive Wed afternoon. There was a fatal accident on i4 in Orlando that had traffic stopped/crawling for about an hour. Our trip home was excellent, we left Sat morning (Mar 5) and took 95/495/81. It was a great drive and we made it home Sunday at 5. It was not busy Sunday morning around Washington and this will be our rte from now on if we can arrange weekend driving.

 

[bankr63]

Had to google map I79 to find it. Have no idea why anyone from Ottawa would go that far out of their way! Take the 81 to the 77. Doesn't go anywhere near Washington, and is a great route. No really heavy grades at all, the 77 has a very long grade down from 81 to towards Charlotte, but nothing scary. We tow a 20' trailer (mind you haven't taken it that far south), and I wouldn't be concerned about any of the grades along there. Some of the grades in PA are probably steeper, but still nothing extreme.

If winter driving, and snow west of the Appalachians, will take 70,15,17 towards Washington, but 15/17 totally bypasses the insanity. Prefer to stay over on 81 though as it is much less trafficked route.

 

[klam_chowder]

Thx a mint all for taking the time to post such excellent info - much appreciated!

minnie mum, great tip - I completely agree that the tolls are insignificant compared to the delays. I'll make a note of the I4 in my routing.

Kellars, I take it that after the 495 you took 270 to meet back up with the I81...do you remember if you headed north after Frederick and took the 15 to meet up with the 81, or did you take 71 to Hagerstown before heading north on 81? Further to go to Hagerstown but sometimes it's faster to go a bit farther and get on a big hwy.

bankr63, gotcha...I was confused about I79. Thx for the info on the grades.

cheers,

 

[Misha72683]

We did the I81 in October and it was a pretty straight-forward drive (except for a few GPS malfunctions).

 

[Kellars]

Thx a mint all for taking the time to post such excellent info - much appreciated!

minnie mum, great tip - I completely agree that the tolls are insignificant compared to the delays. I'll make a note of the I4 in my routing.

Kellars, I take it that after the 495 you took 270 to meet back up with the I81...do you remember if you headed north after Frederick and took the 15 to meet up with the 81, or did you take 71 to Hagerstown before heading north on 81? Further to go to Hagerstown but sometimes it's faster to go a bit farther and get on a big hwy.

bankr63, gotcha...I was confused about I79. Thx for the info on the grades.

cheers,

We took 270 to Harrisburg but next time we want to take 15 - We are adventurous. LOL.

 

[Evelyne]

We always take 81 83 695 495 than 95 to 4 it works fine but you absolutky need to avoid Baltimore and Washington during rush hours, we always manage to pass it between 11 pm and 4 pm, even with the 695 and 495! Have a safe and magical trip!

 

[bankr63]

Quick update. We did both routes last week, took the Eastern route down as we wanted to stop in Raleigh Durham area to visit Cabela's. Smooth sailing both directions. Was even more conscious of the grades, and the steepest ones are certainly in PA. The climb up through Fancy Gap in VA north of Charlotte is very long but gentle and steady, and the Highway is triple lane to allow space for the slower traffic. There is still a bit of construction through central PA (between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre) that is a bit of a mess, but did not really slow things down. I would still avoid crossing Jacksonville directly on 95 as construction continues to be a mess there (even at 10:00 pm), take the 295 Jax Beaches (East side) bypass around it. Much smoother sailing.

 

[klam_chowder]

bankr63, thx a mint for taking time to post back with your trip details - so helpful and much appreciated! Glad you had a safe trip!

cheers,

 

[ottjdub]

When we leave Kanata for Orlando we hit the road around 5-6pm. That way when we hit the 495 in the DC area it will be between midnight and 1am. No traffic to deal with. Normally arrive at South of the Border for a quick stop around 7am. Orlando around 3-4pm.
If you truly want to avoid DC then 81 down to 77 is a nice drive as well and will only add on an extra 20-30 mins. Again this all depends on your driving habits. hahaha

http://www.travelmath.com/cost-of-driving/from/Ottawa,+Canada/to/Orlando,+FL

 

[BeerMe]

We drrive from Buffalo and I always avoid the DC area like the plague. It's a real crap shoot. You can take I-81 to where it meets with I-77 in Wytheville, VA and then I-77 etc the rest of the way.

 

[bankr63]

If you truly want to avoid DC then 81 down to 77 is a nice drive as well and will only add on an extra 20-30 mins. Again this all depends on your driving habits.

http://www.travelmath.com/cost-of-driving/from/Ottawa,+Canada/to/Orlando,+FL

Interesting site, but their gas prices are way off. We paid at most $2.09/g in Northern NY State, with most prices in the $1.70 range. Lowest price paid was $1.67/g.

If you manage to hit DC in the middle of the night, then that strategy works. For those of us who would hit it during normal hours, the time lost in that area and along the much busier I-95 greatly outweighs the time penalty of the Western route. The attraction of the I-81/77 route is that for long stretches you can just set the cruise and relax. Charlotte is the only major city along the route, passing through last Saturday around 1:00 pm, we hit slowness at two spots for a total time penalty of about 6 minutes.

 

[mshanson3121]

From Google Maps, the I81 route looks to be 1.75hrs longer but my concern is it goes through the DC area. How congested is this area on Saturdays?

The I79 & I77 route looks like it goes through some mountains. How steep are the grades there? Is the detour time worth it for the scenery?

Plan on leaving after work on a Friday, driving for just 3 hrs to cross the border and get a jump start. Don't want to be wasted when I get to Orlando so will be driving only about 9 hrs/day (not including breaks), and driving when it's light out. So arriving sometime Sunday.

(I read the "driving from Toronto" thread and the I75 vs I79 info...I75 doesn't look like it would make sense for me as I'd be driving very far west and then heading back eastward.)

Will be going in a "new to me" campervan and my first trip driving down - really looking fwd to it! Any insights much appreciated!

cheers,

We did the 81 route. Far preferred it to the 95. It is technically a bit longer, but you easily make that time up when you're not dealing with traffic congestion going through DC etc... The grades are not bad at all, you'll have no problem with your campervan (saw lots going), and yes, the scenery was beautiful. We even stopped, and took a couple hours to tour the Shenandoah Caverns in Virginia. They're right off the highway (10 minutes) and the tour only took about an hour. We picnicked there for lunch after the tour, definitely worth it. CAA members get a good discount, too. Also, when we were pricing lodging (not that it will be an issue for you), we found hotels cheaper on this route than the 95.

 

[TFC_UNTIL_I_DIE]

Hi - I'm new to this board but I saw your post and I thought I'd offer my thoughts

I just did this drive over the holidays, driving down from Kanata on Dec 22 - we left at 3pm and even though I had a number of options, we made it to the preferred place which was south of Harrisburg on day 1. You really want to get as far as possible on day 1 because it makes day 2 easier. Plus everyone is excited on day 1 so the hours go by fast.

Anyways, here is a list of my suggestions based on mine experience and those of some friends who have been doing this from Ottawa down to Sunshine land over the years:

Load Navigator on your tablet and maps of each state and province you go through. That way your gps gives you a great nav system AND it shows miles per hour if you don't have them, and tells you if you are speeding. Basically free US nav system without any data plan needed! Great idea

Don't book any hotels in advance. You don't want to be tied down to getting anywhere. Each state has a visitor centre where you can get hotel booklets which give you rates for each - usually they will honour. Seems like you always get a better deal than online. And you can stop when you feel like it

Directions:

From Ottawa - don't cross at Ogdensburg! In winter the US side is dicey and in summer its full on Mennonite carriages. Country road. Instead, use the 401 on the Canadian side and cross at Thousand Islands. This is a big time saver

Empire State: Pick up the 81 and just get through NY State. Don't take the 481 ring road bypass at Syracuse - all the locals live on it so the 81 expresses you through the place much faster

Crossing into Pennsylvania, the KeyStone State, prepare for fog through Wilkes Barre area - can get very bad. No matter what time of year. If its winter, once you are through here you are generally clear of the bad weather!

Stay on 81 past Harrisburg. Now you are faced with the big 'Washington DC' question. Yes its true DC has tremendously heavy traffic and Maryland can be a bit daunting, especially if you are more used to Ottawa traffic. You don't want to go anywhere near the Baltimore-DC Beltway if you can avoid it (too bad all you Maritimers/Newfies that get struck here). DC traffic is really bad on the 95 south but it breaks up significantly around Fredericksburg so the key is to come through there.

There are 2 great options:
Stay on 81 until you pick up the i64 and come through Charlottesville and then on to the i95 at Richmond

or

My preferred: on 81 south of Winchester get the i66 over to Marshall where you pick up the #17 (which is the same as #15 for a stretch) which brings you out at Fredericksburg where you get the old i95. This is all twinned but watch your speed. Easy driving and saves 40min over the Charlottesville route.

Now take i95 to sunshine. Do take the 295 ring road bypass around Richmond - will normally save time

Stay on i95 through Jacksonville - the 295 bypass either way is where the locals live.

Also, the first tourist bureau in Florida - go in and get your free orange juice/grapefruit juice - nothing taste better and good washrooms there, maps and attraction brochures to keep kids entertained for the final leg

After that, I head to Miami so no so much help re drive to Orlando

Do get CAA - it becomes AAA in US which is huge relief if you have problems and sometimes gets you extra discounts.

Canadian credit cards often don't work in US gas pumps since you need a zip code so make sure you have cash for gas and don't fill up too late.

Have fun! Its a great road trip - its cool when you first notice palm trees and when you ponder what they mean by 'American Cheese'

 

[TFC_UNTIL_I_DIE]

We took 270 to Harrisburg but next time we want to take 15 - We are adventurous. LOL.

I second this route - huge time saver and scenic