Best route to drive from SW Ontario to WDW?

We stop in Beckley on our first night from the GTA. It's a good stop, because you'll do the mountain tunnels on the second morning instead of late at night.

We like the Fairfield Inn, as it's near the highway, if you want a recommendation.
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/trav...ey/?scid=bb1a189a-fec3-4d19-a255-54ba596febe2

If you have a CAA membership, pop in and get them to give you maps and a triptik for your trip.

Sorry for your loss. Drive safely.
 


Thank you very much to you both. DH and I will map out our route tonight and this is going to be a big help!
 
We were due to fly out early Saturday morning from Buffalo. There are seven of us. Three of us will be staying behind and driving out after a funeral for someone very dear to us. It's been a terrible few days, and we are just trying to change plans now to make sure it all works out.
My 20 year old dd and her boyfriend, and my brother and his girlfriend will go with the original plan and fly out Friday morning. Dh and ds13 and I will go late Saturday afternoon. We are going to rent a van in Buffalo and return it to MCO when it's time to come home. We can't drive our car because it's not big enough for the whole group of us, and everyone else is under 25 and it would cost too much to rent their own car.

So I will give this thread a good read in the morning when I am not so weary but just offhand, does anyone know a good point to stop about 8 hours from Buffalo? We figure we will drive from about 3pm to 11pm and then grab a quick nights sleep and do the rest of the drive bright and early.

Thank you for your help.

Sorry for your loss!

In terms of a place to stop, Winston-Salem, NC has a ton of options but hotels tend to book up really quickly - if you stop there I would try and book something on one of the hotel apps (Marriott, Hilton) instead of trying to walk in. I have stopped there a couple times, the first two times we had to drive around to multiple hotels, the third time we learned our lesson and booked ahead of time. There is along stretch of highway between north and south Carolina where there is absolutely nothing, so that is something to keep in mind as well. I have had good luck in Fayetteville (which is actually along i-95) or Florence, SC (also on i-95), although those are approx 10-11 hrs driving. Richmond, VA would be around 8 hours and there are a ton of hotels in that area as well all down i-95.


Sorry about all the questions..as we are first time drivers..but if we take the Virigina/Carolinas/Georgia route, and do the drive without stopping over night (from GTA east area) are most of the stops for washroom/gas/food safe/decent places off the highway? Any areas to avoid?

As long as you stop at the "bigger" stops you'll be alright. I tend to avoid the washrooms on the side of the highway after dark and only stop if there are multiple gas stations/hotels at the exit. I have never had an issue feeling unsafe driving that route. There are a lot of little pockets with hotels, restaurants and gas stations so you never really go too far between big stops.
 


I would also recommend using the iExit app, it's super useful and accurate.
Will show you what's coming up at each exit from hotels to gas to shopping.
 
I would also recommend using the iExit app, it's super useful and accurate.
Will show you what's coming up at each exit from hotels to gas to shopping.

Just downloaded the app! Thanks for the recommendation. Usually we use Roam mobility in Florida but I am considering adding the Telus travel pass instead ( I think it's $7 a day). It's more expensive but I would be more comfortable knowing my plan was going to work most places and that we can use Google Maps etc.

Did you all pre-book your hotes for your night stops ? Beckley is already looking pretty booked up the night we need. We'd like to push as far as Wytheville, which should be around midnight or 1am but we are prepared to adjust those plans. I know there isn't much wisdom is prebooking a room when we don't know if we can make it that far, but the planner in me is itching to have something solid reserved.
 
Just downloaded the app! Thanks for the recommendation. Usually we use Roam mobility in Florida but I am considering adding the Telus travel pass instead ( I think it's $7 a day). It's more expensive but I would be more comfortable knowing my plan was going to work most places and that we can use Google Maps etc.

Did you all pre-book your hotes for your night stops ? Beckley is already looking pretty booked up the night we need. We'd like to push as far as Wytheville, which should be around midnight or 1am but we are prepared to adjust those plans. I know there isn't much wisdom is prebooking a room when we don't know if we can make it that far, but the planner in me is itching to have something solid reserved.

We use Rogers roam like home which is $5 a day, I'm assuming that's the same thing as Telus Roam Mobility.
At least one person should have a fully operational cell phone for sure...
We did pre-book a hotel on the way down (Columbia SC), but did not on the way back. We wanted to see how far we feel like going before stopping for the night. The app will tell you all hotels coming up too and if there is any discount.
We didn't have any problems finding a hotel with vacancy, but because I didn't have time to really read-up on the hotel, it ended up being kinda yucky. Was ok as we were only there from midnight til about 6:30 am, but still.
Just for a few hours sleep, if you can't get Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Xpress, try Comfort suites, Quality Suites, Comfor Inn, Sleep Inn, Microtel, even some Super8 or Red Roof Inn.
You will be able to find something just driving along but you will have to be a little flexible on the location. If Beckley is booked up, try Wytheville it's only about 1 more hour drive.
If you don't pre-book, start looking for hotels (use the app) about 2 hrs before you feel like stopping :)
 
I would book a hotel. That way, you're sure you have something. Make sure they know you'll be in very late. Also, if you go on to Wytheville, don't forget you'll be doing the mountain underpasses at night. Should be fine, but some people get nervous in the mountains at night.

You might also check Bluefield, which is just before the mountain passes.
 
We are about an hour outside of Kissimmee now. We left Waterloo ON yesterday morning at 5am. Stopped for the night in Charlotte NC at 6pm. We only stopped for bathroom breaks in those 13 hours (stopped 3 times). Then we left Charlotte at 8am this morning and should arrive at Windsor Hills around 5pm. We crossed the border in buffalo and basically south from Erie PA. It's been a great drive Today was busier for sure, but no long slowdowns. I had planned stops along the way for bathroom breaks, but had to be flexible depending on when the kids had to go. So iExit was super handy for that. We stopped at McDonalds all along the way, no one seemed to care that we were just using the bathrooms.

Hope that helps, I definitely recommend this drive, it's been pretty easy.

Eta, we did book the hotel before we left for our trip. We stayed at Home2 Suites by Hilton just off I-77 (we are a family of 5) and it was great!
 

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