Road trip from Houston to Orlando

[Dreams&wishes]

Hello there, we are flying in from Australia and will be going to DW in October.

I'm currently looking at flights and the flight to Houston is well priced.
However I was thinking rather than taking another flight to Orlando we could do a roadtrip instead! What do you guys think is there much to see? Is it a nice Road trip we will have young kids with us aged from 6 to 13.

Thank you

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Hello there, we are flying in from Australia and will be going to DW in October.

I'm currently looking at flights and the flight to Houston is well priced.
However I was thinking rather than taking another flight to Orlando we could do a roadtrip instead! What do you guys think is there much to see? Is it a nice Road trip we will have young kids with us aged from 6 to 13.

Thank you

It is mostly I-10 until you get to I-75. I find I-10 to be pretty awful. The highways are always under construction near the Texas/LA border. There can be traffic as you get to the Baton Rouge area. You can go through New Orleans which is an interesting place to stop and do things, but if you are looking for the shortest route, you do not actually go through New Orleans, you go north around New Orleans. There is a Buccee’s once you get to the Mobile area but it is generally very crowded because it is the best bathroom along all of I-10 from Houston until you get to Orlando lol. Still, it’s worth the stop. The Mobile area and then through the Pensacola area have some water views that are nice. But after Pensacola, it is really just boring highway— most places to stop along here off of I-10 are gross. You can always take detours to try to hit some things, but these are multiple hour long detours and will add days to your road trip. I am assuming you want to do it in 1-2days? But maybe not?
Also, do not go much over the speed limit in LA. They make a lot of their money off of drivers driving through their state. There are also a lot of cops from just beyond the Pensacola area through Tallahassee in FL. Don’t go much over the speed limit along that FL panhandle area.
One plus is that October is a good month to drive, as you should have nice weather!

 

[Dreams&wishes]

Thank you so much! It doesn't sound very exciting we have 4 days to burn, would that change things in anyway? I was thinking of plantation homes and quaint American towns anything like that down there? In Houston we could go to a rodeo and have some.mouthwatering BBQ?

The alternative is flying to Los Angeles and maybe do Disneyland.

 

[SteveMouse]

There are generally NOT rodeos in Houston on a daily basis. The Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show, https://www.rodeohouston.com/, held in February/March, is a large annual rodeo that also includes A, B, and C-list entertainment (depending upon the particular day and your musical tastes).

There aren't really historic plantation homes directly off of I-10, the major highway that runs East-West from Houston, Texas to Jacksonville, Florida.

New Orleans is an interesting city with lots of history and music. While there is great music daily (especially a style called "New Orleans Jazz"), there is sn annual festival called "JazzFest" that runs for two weekends in April. It is very popular and can affect hotel availability. One weekend has better performers than the other. You need to buy tickets a long time in advance. I don't know if riverboat rides a la Tom Sawyer/Mark Twain have returned.

As the Pp noted, to see things of interest. one usia needs to detour off of I-10. There are some nice beach towns like Destin, Florida and popular beaches like Gulf Shore, Alabama.

At Tallahasee, you can visit the capitol of the State of Florida. It is a semi-ornate building. I grew up in Florida and still respect the state. I don't think I would build a vacation with the capitol as a highlight, but more like an "added feature."

The drive is at least 14 hours of riding in a car, if one is strictly attempting to make time.

You probably would be better off taking some day trips off Disney property and going to some of Florida's springs, going to Saint Augustine, and. using the Brightline Train for a quick trip from Orlando to Miami.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Thank you so much! It doesn't sound very exciting we have 4 days to burn, would that change things in anyway? I was thinking of plantation homes and quaint American towns anything like that down there? In Houston we could go to a rodeo and have some.mouthwatering BBQ?

The alternative is flying to Los Angeles and maybe do Disneyland.

Yes, Plantation detours is one thing I was thinking about— but not sure how much you want to go off course. Here is an example of a two plantation detour. The first dot is Nottoway. The second is Oak Alley. Then you could go to New Orleans. The detour is along River Road part of the way which feels like Port Orleans Riverside resort. This adds 2-3 hours onto the trip, not counting the time you spend in the locations. Normally you would take the highway through Hammond (fastest route) and not take the right at Baton Rouge. If you decide to do any plantations check their hours ahead of time. You could spend an entire day (or days!) in New Orleans.
Not sure if you are interested in history but this is a great museum
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/
There are also museums on Jackson square of old government buildings.
You can take steamboat rides
https://www.steamboatnatchez.com/
Also ghost tours, cafe du monde, lots of restaurants, etc



The main Rodeo in Houston is in the spring. I looked up rodeos in October in Texas and there were two minor ones that popped up but no where near Houston— closest is Waco. There are a lot of bbq places in the Houston area.

I don’t know if you have any military interest but when you drive through Mobile there is a battleship you can tour that is basically right off the highway. If you stop at the Alabama rest stop on the way into Alabama they usually have discount coupons.
https://www.ussalabama.com/

As you get into Florida, you can detour to the beaches on the panhandle.

I am really partial to Disneyland! If you have not been there it is awesome and the fall is a really fun time to go there.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I agree with Stevemouse that the Florida capital building is interesting. You can also stop at the Louisiana capital building in Baton Rouge— you can see it from the highway. In the Louisiana capital building you can see where Huey long was shot. Make sure to check hours on those buildings ahead of time. I cannot tell you how many times we’ve arrived at the capital in Tennessee to find it closed. That capital building is our white whale lol. Capital buildings in the US are really interesting because each one is different and gives you a real feel for individual states. You can also get a stamp book and get it stamped at each capital if you like that kind of thing.

 

[SteveMouse]

One thing I did not mention above is that New Orleans is home to the Cafe du Monde, which is itself home to the best beignets on the planet. A beignet is fried dough. usually about 3 inches by 3 inches, served wit finely powdered sugar. CdM has been open since the 19th (1862). It's menu is
au laits, chicory coffee. milk, orange juice. and beignets. That's almost worth the trip unto itself. New Orleans is full of very good restaurant. The best feature local foods and a style of coking known as "cajun."

 

[jrmint427]

You can go through New Orleans which is an interesting place to stop and do things, but if you are looking for the shortest route, you do not actually go through New Orleans, you go north around New Orleans. There is a Buccee’s once you get to the Mobile area but it is generally very crowded because it is the best bathroom along all of I-10 from Houston until you get to Orlando lol.

We've made the Houston to Orlando drive several times! It's not very exciting, as others said, you can detour a bit to see New Orleans. We actually got stuck in that Buccee's parking lot trying to get out for 15-20 minutes once it was so crowded! It's not a bad drive, but not exciting either. We always broke it up into 2 days (it's ~14 hours of driving time). The FL welcome center is a quick stop (and used to offer free orange juice, I don't know if they still offer that). Depending on the cost diference, it might be worth it to fly directly into Orlando if you can.

In Houston we could go to a rodeo and have some.mouthwatering BBQ?

The rodeo is in the Spring but Houton has amazing BBQ and other food!

The alternative is flying to Los Angeles and maybe do Disneyland.

I would still vote DW over DL!

 

[tntbrd]

There’s a destroyer (I think it’s a destroyer) and a museum and paddle boat on the river in Baton Rogue. We really enjoyed stopping there. The Atchafallsya bridge is actually something I enjoy driving over so for me it’s something to see. Manuel does have a battleship and I think there was also a submarine as well but I could be misremembering. They were interesting to go to, there was also a restaurant there that had really good bread pudding. If I had four days I would definitely make a side trip to Nee Orleans. Since you’re starting in Houston you could always spend a day in Galveston, but since I’m from Texas it wouldn’t be on my list. If you have space fans there’s always NASA. Actually the truck you’re making is ideal for getting a good cross section of BBQ types as you’ll be in Texas, which is more about beef and then go through Mississippi and Alabama where you get more into pork and chicken based BBQ. If you stop in Alabama for BBQ then try to find a place with chicken and white sauce. You don’t see the white sauce many places outside Alabama. In the Destin area there’s a small amusement area right over the causeway. They have things to do with smaller kids and there’s a company that has a pirate boat and does a cruise to find treasure. There’s a bar for adults, but they do games and such with the kids. Our kids really enjoyed it when we were younger. There’s plenty to do on that route. You have to devote a little time to do it but if you e got four days then I’d take my time and see the sights. Get some Cajun cuisine in Louisiana, enjoy the BBQ you’re looking for. Try things you’ve likely never had like bread pudding or boiled peanuts. If you stop at the Bucees, when you come out go right, away from the highway. About a half a mile down there’s a road to the left, make a u-turn and come back. You’ll likely make it back on the highway in about half the time you could by waiting to turn left. Don’t forget to stop at the Florida tourist center and get a temporary toll tag/sun pass. Assuming you’ll be taking toll roads.

 

[Dreams&wishes]

We were really keen to visit Louisiana Mississippi and Alabama and get that southern charm experience.

We can try to add more days to it maybe 1 week in total? Are there any particularly charming towns that could make the list of the must places to visit?

Just to give you an overview of the whole trip we will be spending 2 weeks in DW, 1 week on a Disney cruise 4 days at universal so we have 1 extra week available which depending on our connecting flights could be spent in Los Angeles with maybe 4 days in Disneyland and the rest sightseeing or doing a roadtrip in the Southern states.

 

[tntbrd]

We were really keen to visit Louisiana Mississippi and Alabama and get that southern charm experience.

We can try to add more days to it maybe 1 week in total? Are there any particularly charming towns that could make the list of the must places to visit?

Just to give you an overview of the whole trip we will be spending 2 weeks in DW, 1 week on a Disney cruise 4 days at universal so we have 1 extra week available which depending on our connecting flights could be spent in Los Angeles with maybe 4 days in Disneyland and the rest sightseeing or doing a roadtrip in the Southern states.

I think this would really depend on how much you want to drive. I used to live in Tennessee and Alabama but now live in Texas, so we have taken the kids that way often for Disney World as well as general vacations and sight seeing. If you don’t mind drives then your options open up but you’ll need to choose what is most important. Off hand, I really like to visit the military park in Vicksburg Mississippi, but it’s north of where you’ll be so you’ll either go to Baton Rouge then north and need to back track to come back to New Orleans if that is a must, or go north out of Houston then East, and still come south back to New Orleans missing Baton Rogue altogether. If you go to Baton Rogue, the destroyer is the USS Kidd and the website is the name dot com. The Vicksburg military park is the sight of a civil war battle and houses a memorial to each state involved, an iron side ship, a cemetary and a small museum/gift shop as well as some battlements. It’s a drive through with ability to stop and walk. I have a history degree so it interests me and it’s a nice hour or two stop to get out and stretch. It’s the Vicksburg National Military Park. It’s part of our National park system and it’s easy to find when googled. New Orleans I must confess I don’t know much about. We have driven around the lake and through on the highway but that is all so I cannot be much help there. If you wanted to take a more northerly route and you went to Vicksburg you could always continue onto Montgomery, Alabama. This route will take you through Selma which is well known for its connection to the civil rights movement. Montgomery it’s self has many sights downtown which are connected to it as well. Maybe not so exciting for the kids. There is a zoo there (not big) but our kids like it. I always go to Prattville when we go that way, but I lived there when my dad was in the military. There’s a nice historic river front but not much else to see unless you’ve always wanted to go to a Bass Pro Shops and see what that’s all about. Still Montgomery has plenty of history to see and if you want to see those things it’s worth a stop. Atlanta is good for families, downtown there’s a civil right museum (huge), the Coca-Cola museum which was pretty enjoyable and the largest Aquarium in the US, if not the world (our kids really enjoyed that). We have continued on and stayed at Stone Mountain park in a yurt for a long weekend and gone to their small amusement park and did some hiking and watched the show and such on their granite sculpture (largest in the US) but it’s gonna be out of the way from the route you’re taking. If I were going that far I would detour to Chattanooga and do their attractions which are great for kids and absolutely beautiful but you’d be adding a lot of time, I wouldn’t advise it with all you have planned. If you’re going more southerly, or I you did Vicksburg and came back down, then the stop in Mobile is decent to see the ships. It’s the USS Alabam Battleship Memorial park. Again easy to google. I did go look it up, there’s the battleship, a submarine, some planes and tanks and artillery. There’s also a fair number of decent places to get some seafood and such within a short distance down the road. We are at a location that had an alligator off the patio in a pen, but I can’t seem to find it for the life of me now. When we came the southerly route we did stop in Destin, Florida for the pirate ship. It is the Buccaneer Pirate cruise and the address is
100 Harbor Boulevard
Suite A (Marina Level)
Destin, FL 32541

again our kids liked this a lot when they were younger and there’s plenty of other small activities and a restaurant or two. With little I think it’s worth the time. We stayed a couple of days in one of the towns around there so the kids could do some beach days. It wasn’t super expensive, there’s a ton of public beach access, we never ate at a bad restaurant while we were there. From there we continued on to DW. There are plenty of weird roadside stops you can make along the way but nothing of any import from there that I remember. I had wanted to make the drive down the coast to Tampa at one point and do some of their attractions and then go to Orlando but never did. That could be an option but I have no idea how long that drive takes. Depending on where you’re cruising from I hear good things about Vero Beach, there’s a Disney Vacation Club resort there and you may be able to get a room there if you wanted to lay up before or after the cruise and you’re going out of Port Canaveral. Of course if you’re leaving there then there’s an entire area devoted to NASA there that we will do when we stay at Vero in a couple of summers.

I will note last time I took I-10 I swore I wouldn’t do it again. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful drive and we really enjoy it, but it was a holiday weekend and it was ridiculous. I decided if we make that drive again (we live in West Texas now) we would go northerly through Vicksburgand, Montgomery and come down through Georgia but we haven’t made that particular drive so I’m not certain it’s any better than I-10. Just remember Texas is 75 miles per hour generally, but Avery state afterward is 79 miles per hour, with the amount of time you have I would explore and take my time. We would generally take two days to make that drive which is pushing pretty good, but if I had a week I would definitely decide what’s most important and do the drive I wanted (assuming the wife and kids are good with the car). I grew up doing driving vacations, we still do them about every other year as we are trying to show the kids every state and hit as many national parks as possible. The road trip is an underrated dinosaur in this country anymore. When I’m planning a new trip where I haven’t been I will get on each states travel website and download or order their travel guides, that will help you immensely in your planning. If you have any questions and want to reach out feel free to ask any questions. Sounds like an awesome vacation. Good luck.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Besides the Space Center in Houston, there’s also the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Besides the USS Alabama, there’s other ships and several planes at the Battleship Park in Mobile. There’s also Gulf Islands National Seashore in Mississippi and Florida. And Florida Caverns State Park near Tallahassee.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Closer to Disney, Cedar Lakes and Woods might be a fun stop, or Silver Springs.