petee_c

Anyone care to post about their experiences about taking a family road trip to Florida? We've got 2 kids age 7 and 10, and are thinking about getting away for about 10 days. Approximate distance is about 2100 km one way. We'd be taking my wife's q7 tdi. Estimated fuel costs for the trip would be under $400.

Airfare plus parking and car rental if we flew out of buffalo looks to be about $1600.

Did u road trip with your kids to FL? would you do it again?

Peter

theiceman

2 days there 2 days back with kids .. there goes 4 of your 10 days. Brutal putting yourselves or kids in a car for 24 hours..

Christien

We did it last year over the christmas holidays. My wife and I and our 2 daughters, aged 5 and 3 at the time. We drove our Odyssey and it was packed absolutely solid. Then again, my wife packs heavy. VERY heavy. We brought everything we could possibly think of needing - DVDs, handheld games (leapster stuff), books, colouring, dolls, toys, endless snacks, you name it.

We did the drive down in 2 parts - first night was somewhere in VA, I think, made it to Orlando the 2nd night. The way home was 3 parts, because we left late afternoon: Jacksonville, West Virginia, home.

The drive down was a piece of cake, really. We stopped probably every 3 hours, just to stretch legs. First day lunch was a golf course/resort type place, sort of like a really pretty community based around a golf course. We found an awesome Mexican place for lunch, and took a short walk on the course for some exercise. 2nd day lunch we got takeout in Columbia SC. We put "park" in the garmin and found a beautiful urban park in a really nice neighbourhood - awesome.

The way home was harder, as would be expected, but believe it or not, the kids tolerated it better than we did. They had the "let's just get home" attitude.

Total cost for the drive, including motels and food, was about $900. If (when) we do it again, that will jump to about $1000. Here's the biggest tip: spend the extra $20-50 for a better hotel. We did Super 8-type places all the way, and 2 of them were disgustingly gross. As in, can't believe I'm putting my family into these beds. We checked for bedbugs and stains, so they passed those tests. But next time we'll do the Holiday Inn suites, which are usually $90-100.

If you're going in off-season and the flights are what you say they are, I'd fly, no doubt. We went over christmas, and flights were going to be about $2500 for the 4 of us. If you drive, do it for the adventure, not to save $600.

hoffa

A friend of mine just flew out of Niagara falls (not Buffalo). A new airline is flying direct from there to Buffalo. I just did a quick search for late feb (for a week) and it was 1000$ for 2 people. Worth checking it out.

www.allegiantair.com

Chimcu

did it once.. it's brutal.. especially on the way back.. Unless you want to see the US of A then I suggest you bit the bullet and fly. It's a vacation, might as well splurge a little

porsche0nut

When I was a kid we did this road trip, my parents, myself and my 2 sisters in my Dad's '91 Acura Integra. We packed light. No DVD's or electronics, we passed the time with games my parents made up or learning about the areas we were passing through. Ok, we had handheld games like rubik's cube and books etc..

We took a bit longer than the above, if I remember correctly we did it in 4 or 5 days driving there, and 3 back or something. If you make the drive a part of the trip it's a lot more pleasant. Stop in towns, stay overnight in places, and enjoy the trip down and back as much as your time at the destination.

This might be hard to do with 10 days... and taking your time also means hotel/meals $$ each night... but it's certainly a much more enjoyable way to travel. Worth doing if you can extend by a couple of days.

Imo000

+1000. If you and the kids are not used to 10hr/day drives, this will be hell. Also, I don't think you'll be able to pull it off for only $400 of diesel. Going through the mountains with a fully loaded large SUV will guzzle a lot of heating oil.

Dr Mitch

10 days isn't a lot of time when you're driving - will SEEM like a whole lot longer in the car though. My friends did it a few times with kids about 4 and 8yo - they go down for baseball spring training camp and often make a trip out of the drive itself stopping at various places along the way. But hey, if you got a bunch of DVD's and an Xbox and headphones, you may be good to go 10-12hrs/day.

Adamant1971

Fly = more vacation

theiceman

Well i guess the overwhelming opinion is ur crazy to try this

moab

My dad made my brother and I drive down with him to Miami when I was 16 or 17. My brother was 12. My mother said "no way" and flew down and met us there.

I hated the drive and found it very tiring, even as a teenager. I recall that we had just crossed the border into Florida and I was nodding off at the wheel because I was exhausted (it was the middle of the day). My dad kept slapping me on the side of the head to keep me from falling asleep. Thanks dad, you could have just taken the wheel yourself!

911 Rod

Fly the kids and wife down and drive by yourself in the Porsche.
Quality time for all

Turbodan

jet blue flys out of buffalo direct for $206 return each including tax

Dan@SCB

i did a 2 week trip. Toronto to DC to Miami to Orlando to NYC to Toronto. Was with Brother, Mother and GF. Not sure if i want to drive those boring roads again...

AM993

We have driven from Toronto to Naples, FL (2400 km one way) several time and will do it again. Last time (March break 2012), we left at 2:00am after a (short) night. The kids (11 and 8) transitioned from bed to SUV to finish their night. We drove for 16 hours to Savannah, GA. It was a breeze. Kids had a stock of DVDs to watch and my wife and I alternated the drive every 3 hours or so. We could have finished the trip (8 hours) the next day but decided to stop in Orlando (4.5 hours from Savannah) for a day and a bit. The journey is half the fun
PS: follow Christien's advice and book your overnight stay(s) in decent hotels for a good rest