Indianapolis to Disney - how to break up the trip

[purduepete97]

I know there is a lot of personal preference involved in the decision, but intersted in how people break up the Indy (or other similar Midwest starting point) to Orlando trip. We have 8 and 5 yo. girls that are pretty good travelers.

Two or three options for our travel days:
1. Leave Thursday after work and get 4-ish hours in, then finish the rest (10 hrs) Friday.
2. Leave Thursday after work and get 3-ish hours in, go another 6-ish hours Friday, and finish up Saturday.
3. Leave Friday morning and get 8 hrs in, then finish up with 6 hours on Saturday.

What would your preferred plan be? And, if you have recommendations for an easy (i.e. close to interstate) overnight campground at the appropriate location on the trip, feel free to throw that in too.

Thanks,
Brian

[ependydad]

It looks like it is about 975 miles from Indianapolis to Walt Disney World. That's about 50 miles longer than what it takes us from Maryland.

My preference is to start driving after work and only go about 120-150 miles before stopping for the night. The sad part is, that's usually getting around DC so that can be anywhere from 2 to 4 (or even 5) hours.

We then drive about 500 miles the next day (which is about a 12 hour day for us including stops).

That lets us finish with an easy morning the last day so that we can get there as early as we want (which, we aren't early risers!).

[ependydad]

Now, assuming you're going down I-75 from Atlanta to Florida, just the other night we stayed at I-75 RV Park. It was $27 for the night, but it was within a stone's throw of an exit ramp. If you have light sleepers (turns out my mother-in-law heard a lot all night long), it might not be the best. My only negative was that it didn't have a pool- I like a pool at the end of a driving day to soak away some of the stress of driving.

[dblr]

We used this park last year and it was very good Welcome! - Twin Oaks RV Park

[kluza2786]

Brian - When we went to Florida last February from the Cincinnati area, we stopped the first night at Chattanooga, the second night at Valdosta, then into Ft. Myers the next day. This broke it down into a little over 400 miles per day which allowed for a leisurely drive at a safe speed and still arrive at the campground by 4:00 PM or so. The CG at Chattanooga was very nice and quiet, the one at Valdosta was close to the highway so there was quite a bit of noise from traffic.

[ptylerp]

I would plan my trip around getting through that wonderful Georgia town. Atlanta can be very interesting driving. I always go straight through vs the I 285 bypass. From the north morning time would be bad but anytime after ~10 AM should be ok. But I would plan to be out the south side before ~3 PM.

I-75 between Atlanta and Macon can be a little busy, especially late afternoon with the going home traffic.

Have a good safe trip.

[kluza2786]

You are correct on "HotLanta". Coming back we were going through there on Saturday morning and it was still pretty heavy traffic. Going down we went through there on a weekday, but it was late morning - about 11:00 AM and wasn't too bad - considering other times that I've been through there!

[conceptumator]

We do the Orlando to Nashville run quite a bit. Might think about stopping in Nashville for the night. There are some really nice CoE parks on the lake or the KOA by Opry Milks is nice. After that, we stop somewhere around Atlanta. I've done the Nashville to Orlando in a day but it's a hard drive, probably close to 16 hours with traffic.

[TheJamo]

We just made the trip down to Disney a couple weeks ago from Columbus Ohio. We took a different route than you on the way down but on the way back we drove from Orlando straight to Stone Mountain, GA, just outside Atlanta on the east. That made for a 7-ish our drive which wasn't bad. I HIGHLY recommend Stone Mountain campground, and all the activities at Stone Mountain. For a very reasonable price you can get a stay and play pass for you and your campers which gets you everything Stone Mountain has to offer. They also have a shuttle which takes you from the campground to the rock every 45 minutes or so. Definitely check out the free laser and fireworks show at night, it's great.

We stayed there two nights and then drove straight through to Columbus on the way home, ended up being about 9 hours home.

[purduepete97]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Will be evaluating and let you know how it comes out.