Need help from experienced I-75 drivers

The B Family

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 5, 2001
My family and I are planning our first trip to Florida, leaving just north of Toronto at 3:30pm yuk I know but we will stick to the 407. Any advice? We fiqure we might be hitting the Detriot boarder arount 12:00 midnight. Any tips or things you think we should know would be greatly appreciated. We are leaving Wednesday. CAN"T WAIT!!!!!!!

Thanks
:cool:
 
I think you will be at the Detroit border well before midnight. We live about an hour from the border and can drive to Barrie in about 4 hours. Not sure how far north of Toronto you are, but it should only take you about 5 hours to the border from the Barrie area.

As for advice, get yourself a copy of Dave Hunter's book Along I-75. We got ours from CAA, but I have seen then in bookstores. This book is absolutely invaluable to anyone driving to Florida from Canada. I wouldn't consider driving without it. Are you stopping along the way or driving straight through? How many kids in the family? Let me know and I'll try to offer more advice.

PoohBWV, Moderator - Canadian Visitors Board
 
Thanks for the info. We are driving straight through, with 2 drivers. Kids are 8 and 11 with game boys so that should be able to busy for 12 hrs or so. We are at the south end of Lake Simcoe, how long do you think it will take us to drive all the way to Orlando?

Thanks
 
I think we have decided to drive to Orlando as well in May. Should be interesting!! We are going to try to make it as fun as possible, and take three days to go down, and probably 3 to come back, and have ten nights in Orlando. Can't decide whether to stay onsite for five nights, and then offsite for the other five nights, or just stay offsite for the full ten nights. If we stay offsite for the ten nights we plan on staying at the HIFS. We have two children 3, and 7, and we would like to go to wdw for 5 days, and do Universal for 2 days. Any thoughts? Any tips?
Any suggestions? This is our first big holiday as a family, and l want it to be as special and magical as possible. Thanks <IMG WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="15" SRC="/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif" alt="razz"> :)
 


We get on the 401 at the Allen Road (Yorkdale Shopping Centre is at this exit). It takes us approximately 4.5 to 5 hours to get to the border. We stop before we get to Windsor to eat and gas up so that once we cross over we don't have to stop right away. I think if you use the 407 you will by-pass the worst of the traffic. Definitely buy Dave Hunter's 'Along Interstate-75' guide. It is worth every penny. The last time we drove we got as far as the last exit in Ohio in 9 hours. The whole trip to Florida usually takes us 25 hours door to door. It takes us around an hour to get to Willow Beach, Lake Simcoe. A rough estimate would be 25-27 hours for your trip.


 
I bought Along I-75 for our drive down last July and it was great, especially when we heard on the radio we were about to encounter a back-up due to an accident and we could follow the guide's directions on where to get off and drive parallel to the interstate to avoid it. We are driving down again in March and I've been looking for the 2001 guide to check out road construction updates, but haven't been able to find it yet. Has anyone seen the new issue yet? It also made for an interesting trip because of all the additional info given about the area you were driving through.

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Julie

off-site '86,'87
DXL July 00
DXL November 00
off-site March 01
DXL 200?
 
It is available in Smith books in White Oaks mall and at chapters and chapters.ca just so you know.
We get ours every October as soon as it comes out we pre order that along with all 3 Birnbaums books for WDW hope this helped. We always stop for gas in West Lorne then we don't have to stop until we enter Kentuky. Then not until Georgia around Ringgold I think it is. We then stop for the night around Atlanta or a bit south of there. We left last time at 3 AM this time we are trying the leaving at bed time trick to see if the kids wll fall asleep. Hope we helped
Darren & Lis
 


Check out Dave Hunter's web site at www.i75online.com It is pretty neat and has some great info you can use just before you leave to WDW. It is very up to date for your trip south. The book will also help you plan your trip a lot more confidently.
Canadave
 
Thanks for the link to the website. Much appreciated. Looking forward to driving down in May, (l think) Going with 2 children. Thanks again
 
We live only 30 min from the border and leave between 8pm and 9pm. the idea is to clear Atlanta
before ruch hour. We usually arrive between 5am and 6am the traffic is still heavy but once you clear the bypass you can cruise right through downtown with no hassles. By the time you get through the kids are awake and ready for breakfast. Detroit to Atlanta 10-11 hours, Windsor to Toronto 3.5 hours. Atlanta to Orlando
8 hours with 2 1 hour stops.
 
We are leaving Friday (March 9) night as soon as DH gets home from work (4:00-5:00) and driving to Findlay Ohio for the night. Then driving to Macon Georgia for Saturday night and arrive in Orlando, late Sunday afternoon. On the way home we plan just one stop in Knoxville, Tenn.

Julie

off-site '86,'87
DXL July 00
DXL November 00 (no kids)
off-site March 01
 

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