Driving from NY to Orlando

[ukman]

My family and I are looking to drive from NY(JFK) to orlando summer 2012, have anyone done this route recently or are we mad in trying or thinking of it. Any advice much appreciated.

[Newhomebuyer]

My cousin, who lives in New Jersey, drives down to me in Orlando in and has 2 overnight stops. His wife will not drive and he is in his 70's. I believe some people do drive all the way but have different drivers.

[MTP]

We have considered driving from here in Nova Scotia, I reckon it would require two overnights and involve three long days of driving. I know that there are plenty of Canadians that will drive to Florida. From New York, with sharing driving, I reckon you could do it in two long days. Would you try that after just flying transatlantic, though ... not on your nelly. So ... you would need to arrive in NY, overnight and then do a day of perhaps 10 - 12 hours and then overnight and another day of about 10 hours. So you would be well into your holiday to do that and you wouldn't really have seen any scenery doing it, rather just sat on the interstate with cruise control on.

Would I do it with kids ... nah, I'd get into NY and then pick up a cheaper airline like Jet Blue to fly down on. Would I do it with Mrs MTP as part of the holiday ... very possibly.

[Skobe]

We drove down from NY last year, and made the trip in four days. I advise you not to drive in Manhattan, it was a nightmare. The GPS lost the signal between the high buildings, and I think we made the tunnels three times too much. We was reliefed when we got out on the NJ side and could start the trip.
We took the coastline down to Cape May, and had a nice trip with the ferry to Lewes, recommend this.
Also went down to Savannah, a lovely southern town and worth a visit.

[dsevant]

We did this route last October, traveling through Virginia in the fall, beautiful!!!

You can read all about our trip on the trips section of this website. It took us 7 days but we had stops in Washington, Virginia and Charleston.

Sat Nav is a must!!!! we totaled 1250 miles.

Good Luck

[Andrena]

We have done it and made 2 overnight stops plus a night in NY. It is a lovely drive, we also regularly drive from Orlando to Ohio and find driving in the US quite easy, particularly compared to driving here in the UK.

Andrena

[MTP]

This kind of driving in North America is definitely easier. For our trip in Feb this year, we drove down to Portland in Maine for our flights, which is a 10 hour drive. I worked until 4 pm, the kids had their day at school and then we headed off. It is essentially two lane divided highway (dual carriageway) all the way. We took it in 2-3 hour shifts and pulled in to the hotel at about 2.45 am. Very easy drive - get up to speed - set sat nav - point in the right direction. This just wouldn't be the same as what you would do in the UK, it would have been the equivalent of us driving from Inverness to London for flights, for some reason we would never have considered doing that. (Mind you - we did once drive through the night from Inverness to London, but that was for free Wimbledon men's semi-final centre court tickets pre-kids).

[chrizzy100]

We drive from MA to FL...we were going to do it in 2 weeks with my Grandson but book a fight this week after chickening out... its not an easy trip...we have done it with just one driver and just 3 hours sleep..boredom is one problem..its not a very nice drive unless you have time spare to do a few stop overs..friends of ours did it in 2 days this May with 2 young kids ..they enjoyed it

[shockey]

We have driven between Florida and the north east several times, sometimes straight up/down the I95, sometimes through the mountains (Shenandoah National Park and parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway). This year we went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. From New York you drive through Delaware, there's a nice stop off at Assateague Island to see the wild horses, then across the Chesapeake Bay-Tunnel (which is amazing), then down the Outer Banks to Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke, where you take a ferry. Further south you can visit Charleston (horse carriage ride round the old town and boat trip to Fort Sumter) and Savannah. I would say 4 or 5 days minimum for that route.