Driving I95-I79?

[MaryannF]

We are driving to WDW at the end of August. We are going down I-75 but coming back we are considering the I95-I79-I77??? route. Not sure of the interstate numbers and haven't ordered a triptik from CAA yet. Someone told us that it shaves a few hours off the drive. I like the idea of not having too far to drive after crossing the border. Could someone who has driven this route please help me figure out where the half way point would be. Thanks in advance.

 

[DisneyLisa]

We used the I79/I95 route last year & just used ith this year (just got back on Friday). I think the halfway point for you would be around Wytheville, VA. But we always like to drive more than half way the first day so that we can arrive at WDW earlier the second day. It's a very scenic & peaceful route (not as busy & not as many trucks as the I81/95 or I75 routes).

I have our logs for all of our trips so if you have any questions about the route, I'd be happy to try & answer them for you.

 

[abbyndrewmom]

We just did this trip but the opposite direction 1-79/95 there 75 back. WE so much perrfered I-75. West Virginia really sucks the gas down, we spent nearly twice as much in gas on the way down then on the way back we had to fill up 3 times through west Virginia (we drive a Surburban.) Also the drive felt much longer on 1-79 it seemed like we were just going up and down and not getting anywhere. I-75 went much quicker. We will be sticking with it from now on.

Allison

 

[Bonnie40]

We used to always travel I75, but decided to try I95 last March and enjoyed it. I have to agree that it was wonderful to cross the border and only have a short distance to travel home. I hate that stretch from Detroit! I95 is far more scenic and we shaved at least 2 hours off the drive. I would consider trying it!

Bonnie

 

[Gdoody]

We have driven to Orlando 9 times in the past 12 years. We have tried several of the different routing options. Here are our opinions on each:

I90/I79/(US 19)/I77/I26/I95/I4 route - This is by far our favorite route. We find the scenery through the blue range mountains breathtaking. Being from a large city (Toronto) it also helps avoid most of the congested cities on the way down. There are several alternatives we have used on this route - 1) turn south at Erie PA onto I79, or 2) turn south at Cleveland on I77. We prefer I79 - shorter. Also, there is a shortcut from I79 to I77 if you turn south at Erie - use US 19 to avoid Charleston. This is a good divided highway. As one reply noted ? you may use more gas using this route because of the mountains. Also, I have found that the air conditioning suffers somewhat while in the mountains. I drive an Olds Siloutte Mini Van and did not notice a significant difference in gas. (1272 Miles)

I90(or 401)/I75 - The advantage to this route is that it is fairly flat and straight. The disadvantage of this route is that it is flat and fairly straight. It all depends on perspective I guess. I prefer the 79/77 combo because of the scenery, mountains and differences in routing. The other disadvantage is that you are routed through several large cities - Cincinnati, Columbus, Knoxville, and largest of all Atlanta. (1394 Miles)

I90/I81/I83/I95/I4 - This was the worst of all combinations for us. We made good time to Baltimore - arriving around 3:00 PM. We left Washington about 6:30 - 7:00 PM. I have never seen traffic this bad in my life - and we used the circular routes around the city. I would definitely not recommend this. (1472 Miles).

A few pieces of other advice based on our experience ?

1) Rand McNally Trip Maker is worth its weight in Gold. It plans the routes, your stops, budget and best of all tells you what is coming up at future stops. We print all of our maps out before we leave and have the Trip Maker on the laptop in the car so we can find upcoming lunch stops etc.
2) If you are traveling on Labor Day weekend ? be sure to book hotels ahead of time and secure with credit card. We made this mistake one year and ended up driving until 3:00 AM in the morning.

3) As mentioned, the halfway point on I79 route according to Tripmaker is around Wytheville, however, we have found this to be decieving. We find that if we leave early in the morning (7:00 AM), we can make Rock Hill, SC by about 10:00 PM. This has us arriving in WDW about 4:00 PM the next day.

By the way, we leave on Aug 22/23 for WDW. When are you leaving?

Glenn

 

[SandraC]

WOW Glenn, thanks a bunch! I've had my maps spread out all afternoon looking for the best route. I want shortest and fastest! I am in Mississauga, I79,I77,I95 looks good to me. We just went to Cincinnati via I75 and liked that interstate too! HUUUMMMMMMMM! Must think about this! S

 

[Gdoody]

Interesting - I asked Tripmaker to find the shortest route possible. According to Tripmaker there is another route using smaller highways - it will shorten the distance from 1275 miles to 1252 miles. The catch - instead of 21 hours, it will take you 27 hours. I think that I will stick to the I79 route.

Like several others in this forum, I also live in Mississauga, work in Toronto. When I leave from Mississauga, I discovered last year that the 407 Toll road is worth the additional fee. It starts the vacation stress free and bypasses all of the traffic on the QEW. The road will dump you out right where the 403/QEW split by Hamilton, bypassing the traffic jams on the QEW.

 

[SandraC]

We have a 407 transponder! We use it all the time. dh works near Wonderland. Actually, we are off to Wonderland in about 15 minutes!

We just got back from Cincinnati last week and we took I75 to Cincinnati and I71/I90 home and used the 407. It's a breeze. We just got back from North Bay yesterday and used it again. It shaves a ton of time off our trip.

Do you think CAA is worth it? Can I find all the travel to Florida info on the internet? Thanks! S

 

[MaryannF]

Thanks for your reply Glenn. We are leaving for WDW in the early am of August 22. We will be travelling down via I75. I'm hoping to get into Tennessee the first night. The second night we are staying in Georgia. On Aug. 24 we will drive to Ocala to see Don Garlitz drag race and antique car museum (daughter's request). We check into the All Star Movies the afternoon of the 24th and check out early on the 31st. We are considering driving back to TO using the I95,I77,I79 route. Where would you suggest stopping the first night? I checked out rates in Wytheville and they were almost $100.00 US a night with CAA. Seems a tad high. You are right about it being a bad weekend to travel without reservations. We found that out 5 years ago when traveling from WDW along I75. Where will you be staying? Thanks for all the great info.

 

[DisneyLisa]

Although Wytheville is the half-way mark, as I said earlier, we usually travel more than half way on the first day of travel (whether it's on the way down or the way back).

This year we left WDW at 4:00 pm so stopped in Orangeburg, SC for the night at 11:00. On the road at 9 am, we arrived at the border at 10:30pm. Orangeburg is about 6 hours from WDW (we stopped a bit to shop therefore it took us a little longer this year). If you want to travel a bit farther than the half way mark, Clarksburg & Morgantown are good places to stay. Then you're only about 5-6 hours away from the border on the second day. (I figure that giving you these times will help you figure out when & where to stop - hope it helps).

We got great Hampton Inn rates with the CAA for usually around $65-70 (2 double/queen beds). I've been told that Comfort Inns are great as well.

Glenn:

I agree about the 407...I'always use it when I visit my friend in Kitchener (used it on this trip to go pick her up as well) & my son starts WLU in Sept so I will certainly make use of it for the next 4 years . I know a lot of people don't agree with having to pay but I'd pay it any day to avoid a traffic jam in Toronto. Definitely worth it in my opinion.

 

[MikeJ]

Maryann,

Driving from London, we have determined that the midway point for the I75 drive is approximately Knoxville. Obviously if you're driving from Toronto your midway point will be an hour north of there.

When we drove down at Christmas, we left late in the day and stopped in Kentucky, then spent the next night right at the Fla/Ga border (we arrived by 6:00pm). From there it's only another three hours to Orlando, and if we had to do it again we'd have not stopped in Georgia and gone all the way the second day. We'd have pulled into Orlando around 9:00pm, but would have had an extra full-park day.

On our return trip, we left MK at noon and arrived in Ringgold, GA around 9:00pm. Left the next morning by 8:00 and were home in London by 9:30 that night.

- Mike

 

[Gdoody]

When we travel via I79 we typically stop in Rock Hill SC, just south of Charlotte. Currently a rate of $82 (Aug 22) and $77 (Sep 6) per night at the Hampton Inn (Expedia.com). This also includes breakfast, which gets us back on the road quickly in the morning. There are others in Rock Hill with rates starting at $38.50 and up, but I do not know the quality of these hotels. We find that going down if we leave by 6 - 7 am we can make this stop by about 10:00 PM. This timing will depend on the number of stops you make along the way. We typically make a 10 minute stop roughly every 2 hours, and lunch of about 1 hour, dinner about 1.5 hours. On the way back, we leave WDW by about noon, get to enjoy the morning in the parks, and make Rock Hill by about 10 - 11 PM. The next day we try to be on the road by 6 - 7 AM and usually arrive home between 1 - 3 AM. This year will be different for us, as we are now planning a stop at Hilton head on our return trip, and are planning to leave early afternoon on August 22.

As for CAA, I did become a member for one year many years ago (I believe the 93 trip), and did not really find the information useful. This may have changed over the years. I have also found that with the internet being so popular, much of the information is now available on the net and therefore CAA is not necessary just for trip planning. For piece of mind in terms of towing / breakdown while driving, I would certainly recommend some form of coverage. Again, I have not needed this because I have been covered by GMAC through my vehicle ownership since 1994.


Also, a further update to my earlier post on Rand McNally Tripmaker, I tried to upgrade to the 2001 edition today (They are always a year behind), and cannot find the software on store shelves. The new Trip Planning software that is now popular is apparently Microsoft Streets & Trips ($59 at Future Shop + $15 mail in rebate). The sales person told me it has all of the same features of Tripmaker and more. I am going to research it, if useful buy it and will post a review of my thoughts on it here in the future.

All for now!

 

[DisneyLisa]

I'd also like to add that there is a nice mall, the "Rock Hill Galleria" right next door to the Hampton Inn in Rock Hill (we had reservations there for our trip down, but cancelled & kept driving right through to Daytona Beach). But we did stop & do a bit of shopping .