Anyone here DRIVE to Florida?

Can you please give me any tips, suggestions, or your "plan". i think this is a horrible idea with my 3 kids, but my husband has his mind set on it. He wants to just drive and wing it. I said, you need some sort of plan when to stop.... especially with 3 kids under 6 years of age.

TIA

Re: Anyone here DRIVE to Florida?

my parents had 7, we did the drive fl to ny all the time.
best stopping place is NC
good luck!

Re: Anyone here DRIVE to Florida?

We just drove from Illinois (where we live)to Orlando with a 5 year old and 11 month old twins. I won't lie. It was very hard. We drove to Atlanta (ended up 16 hours), then stayed at BIL's over night. Left the next day for Orlando. The trip back was much better. We planned it better with the timing for naps/feedings. We had to stop a bunch of times and the best thing we did was make long lunch & dinner stops (like an hour.) we stopped at Cracker Barrels and the babies could sit in high chairs, look around, get some stimulation. While driving I sat in the 3rd row of the minivan with older DD so I could give bottles to the babies without stopping. I think it would have helped if we had dvd players for them to watch, since they were rear facing & couldn't see the one in the car. Our portable player broke. I had a bag of toys next to me, so I entertained them with those when they got cranky. Older DD was great. She had her dvds (& headphones), a travel art desk, snacks, water and her "bag of fun." I would say to think about your timing & what will work for your kids and you. I wish we could have left at bedtime & driven through the night. It just didn't work for us this time. I think it would have been easier though if we could have done it that way.

Good luck!

I will say, on the plus side, it was great being able to pack everything we needed in the minivan & not worry about the stroller, carseats, etc getting onto the plane. I think, at this age, for us a plane trip would have been much more stressful, not too mention expensive.

Message edited 5/21/2012 3:10:48 PM.

Re: Anyone here DRIVE to Florida?

We just drove to West Palm in April...we didn't have a plan, but hoped to get to Savannah the first day so we could get to our hotel early the next day. It was a long trip, and the way back was rough with traffic (end of a holiday week) but we will do it again.

Re: Anyone here DRIVE to Florida?

We drove from NY at 8pm through the nite on a friday nite and were in Orlando at 2pm. It was so simple doing these hrs as the kids slept the whole time, pretty much. We brought food in the car and barely stopped. Just for gas mainly.

Re: Anyone here DRIVE to Florida?

We drove to FL as well. We split the trip into 2 days and looked where the halfway point was and stopped there overnight then continued the next. We stopped for gas and to grab a quick meal. I am not sure if I will do that again! It definitely was a lot.

Re: Anyone here DRIVE to Florida?

We are doing it with three kids 6 and under this summer. We drove to SC two years ago and they did great. We plan to stop in North Carolina, but now maybe we will just leave at 8pm like the PP said and go straight through.

I prefer to drive and take my time. Lugging three kids and all that crap to the airport is very unappealing to me.

Message edited 5/22/2012 11:23:50 AM.

Re: Anyone here DRIVE to Florida?

We drive to Florida once or twice a year with our 3 kids. Its easy. We leave at 4pm, and are in Florida at 10 or 11 in the morning.

We stop at the last rest stop in JErsey for dinner. The kids usually fall asleep around 8:30 or 9 and watch DVDs or play on their leappads.

They sleep thru the night and wake up at around 8am. We stop once they wake up, usually at the last Denny's in Georgia and then hit the road. The last hour two is usually the hardest when they start fighting and are over being in the car. But its exciting enought that we start talking about Disney and the rides we'll go on to distract them.