Driving from Texas

[Delphinidae]

I wasn't sure what board to put this on so I apologize if this isn't the right spot!

We are leaving in a couple of weeks for our trip and driving from the Dallas area. We haven't quite made up our mind on if we are going to just drive straight through or stop and spend the night. If we are stopping, we will be aiming for somewhere between Pensacola and Marianna off of I-10. Was thinking of trying to go down and stay near the beach somewhere but that would probably take too much extra time

Anyone have any recommendations for hotels along I-10 in this area? We don't want anything fancy (because the more money we have for Disney the better) but we're just hoping to find something decently priced with a breakfast included.

 

[Delphinidae]

Is there a better board to post this question on?

 

[gincz24]

We drive from southeast Houston to Disney. Most the time we just drive straight through, but we have 5 kids and it's just easier to drive while they sleep. Now we have stopped a few times in Lake City, which I know is farther than you plan to go. There is a nice comfort suites there.

We also stopped in Midway, FL before and they had a nice Confort Suites.

 

[CarolynFH]

When we lived in Denison, just north of you, it was about a 20-hour drive for us to WDW. We have family in the New Orleans area, which is about the halfway point, so we would stay with them. (Search for motels in Hammond & Covington.) Now we live in the Houston area, and Mobile is the halfway point. There are several fairly new, nice chain hotels in Daphne and Spanish Fort, on the east side of Mobile Bay, which means that when you leave the next morning you're driving opposite to the commuters heading in to Mobile! However, we usually push on another hour to Pensacola. There's a cluster of Marriott chain hotels (Fairfield, SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites & Courtyard) just south of I-10 off of North Davis Highway. All but the Courtyard have free breakfast - we stay at whichever one gives us the best deal that time. We've stayed in Marianna several times - can't remember the hotel we liked but can advise against the Quality Inn for various reasons, such as not enough outlets to charge our many devices and AC that was inadequate to say the least.

And you're right - Pensacola Beach is too far out of the way. And besides, you'd get there too late and want to leave too early to enjoy it!

ETA: Marianna is another hour or two past Pensacola. Makes for a very long first day, but of course a shorter 2nd day when you're eager to get to WDW!

 

[Delphinidae]

We drive from southeast Houston to Disney. Most the time we just drive straight through, but we have 5 kids and it's just easier to drive while they sleep. Now we have stopped a few times in Lake City, which I know is farther than you plan to go. There is a nice comfort suites there.

We also stopped in Midway, FL before and they had a nice Confort Suites.

Thanks , I will be checking these out!

When we lived in Denison, just north of you, it was about a 20-hour drive for us to WDW. We have family in the New Orleans area, which is about the halfway point, so we would stay with them. (Search for motels in Hammond & Covington.) Now we live in the Houston area, and Mobile is the halfway point. There are several fairly new, nice chain hotels in Daphne and Spanish Fort, on the east side of Mobile Bay, which means that when you leave the next morning you're driving opposite to the commuters heading in to Mobile! However, we usually push on another hour to Pensacola. There's a cluster of Marriott chain hotels (Fairfield, SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites & Courtyard) just south of I-10 off of North Davis Highway. All but the Courtyard have free breakfast - we stay at whichever one gives us the best deal that time. We've stayed in Marianna several times - can't remember the hotel we liked but can advise against the Quality Inn for various reasons, such as not enough outlets to charge our many devices and AC that was inadequate to say the least.

And you're right - Pensacola Beach is too far out of the way. And besides, you'd get there too late and want to leave too early to enjoy it!

ETA: Marianna is another hour or two past Pensacola. Makes for a very long first day, but of course a shorter 2nd day when you're eager to get to WDW!

It's about a 16.5 hour drive for us, and we want to try to make it at least 10-12 hours the first day so we don't have too long of a drive to Disney the next day. Marianna is almost 12 hours from us so we may shoot for that but may not make it that far lol.
Our route doesn't take us through NOLA and we have family all over the state (born and raised there) but even if it did we probably wouldn't stop quite so soon into the trip. We may have to stop at the Coke museum in Vicksburg though!