Every year we drive from Virginia to Orlando, Florida for a Disney World vacation — and to visit family that lives in Orlando — that’s our excuse, anyway! The fact we have three kids who love Mickey and Minnie may play a small part in this decision — LOL.
Our friends think we are nuts to drive nearly a 1000 miles to and from Florida every year. However, over the years we have come up with some tips that help make the ride a little less stressful and easy.
For starters, we never ever travel on the weekend. It seems Interstate 95 is jammed packed with summer beach-goers on the weekends. It’s absolutely horrible and frustrating to be stuck behind a minivan in the left lane that will not get back into the right lane and yet is traveling lower than the speed limit — there really should be a law against that (there is, isn’t there?????). I often wonder do people realize the left lane is the PASSING lane and not the “I like having no one in front of me lane.” I’m beginning to believe they no longer teach that in driver’s education classes.
We travel on a weekday (Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday are best for traveling south on I95) — making the trip much easier because there isn’t much ‘rush hour’ traffic once one gets out of the DC metro area (which is where we live). So, if you are from further up north — like Philly or New York and beyond — you want to time your trip so you are NOT going through DC during peak rush hour. I say ‘PEAK’ rush hour because there is always traffic in DC. It can’t be avoided entirely. However, 5 am to 9:30 am is peak traffic. Then again in the afternoon, from about 3 pm to 9 pm. It’s impossible to avoid traffic unless you travel sometime between the hours of 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.
We leave at 3 a.m. in order to get out of the DC area BEFORE the rush hour starts. Even at that hour there is a significant amount of traffic going in the other direction which always surprises me. However, going south the traffic at 3 to 4 a.m. is minimal. This places us in North Carolina at about 6 to 7 a.m. which is where we usually stop for breakfast, potty breaks, and gas.
North and South Carolina are usually smooth sailing with very little traffic problems. We always love watching the ‘South of the Border’ signs on the highway — it marks the almost half way point for us.
Depending on how traffic has been we try to time our travel through Jackonsville, Florida to avoid their evening rush hour. We use to live in Jackonsville and the traffic there is no where near as terrible as in DC — but if you can avoid the 5 to 7 pm rush you should be okay. Often, if the trip has been uneventful we find ourselves going through the city of Jacksonville at about mid-afternoon — just before the evening crunch. However, if the ride has had some delays we’ll stop for an early dinner in southern Georgia or near the airport in Jackonsville in order to avoid the rush hour traffic in the heart of Jacksonville.
Once, you are through Jacksonville, it’s smooth sailing once again until you reach I-4 which takes you straight to Disney World. There is often traffic going through the city of Orlando — which really can’t be avoided — but it is nothing compared to the traffic in the northern cities … so no need to sweat that.