Florida for Thanksgiving
Driving directions to Bonita Springs, 1,087 mi – about 17 hours 11 mins
Drive 13 hrs from Baltimore. Stop over and rest in Gainesville, FL. for a few hours. Continue for 4 hours to Fort Myers.
Potential stops
Lake Alice on Univ. of Florida campus.
Gainesville Map
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my site! We have driven to Florida almost every winter for the past 10 years or so. And I must say, this last trip was by far the best. We drove all night. We had never done that before. We have 3 children (ages 7, 3, and 1). And usually they are whiny and bored with the trip. This time they all fell asleep and slept almost the whole way. It was pure heaven. We left from Northern Virginia about 7 PM and crossed into the State of Florida at 6 AM. We ate breakfast and drove another hour and checked into a hotel. We were able to hang out, use the pool, etc. And then the next day we drove the remaining 4 hours of our trip, which was nice and short. I will admit that it was hard to keep my eyes open and luckily my husband was able to take over the driving, but that was nothing compared to a thousand "Are we there yets?" or a crying baby.
In the past, we would leave early in the morning (after rush hour if during the week) and drive until we got to South Carolina/Georgia and check into a hotel. But frankly, the kids were difficult sitting in the car awake for that long of a drive. And then we would have to do the same thing again the next day. Now that we have done the drive all night, I would never do it another way. Just make sure you have caffeine soda or something similar!
Another option to look into is the Amtrak Auto Train. It takes you and your car to Sanford Florida. We often do that one way of the trip to cut down on the driving - it's more expensive but sometimes it's worth it. Good luck!
17 hours! Wow. I'm game. We'll just think of the beach and oysters waiting for us when we get there...
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