How to Drive from New York to Florida with Kids

It’s almost mid-winter break here in New York, when the kiddos are sprung from school for a week following the President’s Day holiday.  Major airlines know this and any flights to Florida during this time period are always through the roof expensive.  But Baby, it’s C-O-L-D outside and sunny skies and 70-degree temperatures would be lovely right about now, wouldn’t they?  If that $600 per ticket price tag is too much for you to bear, why not make it a real adventure with a family road trip?

We’ve made the big New York – Florida trek twice now.  The first time as a family (and I have a really good story about that time!) and last winter I hit the road on my own with the three girls.  I did a lot of research before each trip, more so the second time when I was going to be the only adult present.  What I really wanted was an article to give me step-by-step instructions for how to do this–where to eat, where to stay, how many miles to do each day, possible fun places to stop along the way–but other than weeding through posts on travel forums (which were certainly helpful) there wasn’t anything out there.  So since it’s just about that time of year again, and inspired by a girlfriend who emailed me yesterday saying they’re thinking of heading south on I-95 with their three offspring this February break, I decided to write it up myself.

For the purpose of this post I’m going to consider the starting point of this trip to be the greater NYC area and the arrival point Jacksonville, Florida.  If you’re in Buffalo or you’re headed to Miami, you’re going to have to tack on some extra time.

How Long Does it Take to Drive from New York to Florida?

To answer this question we have to consider a few factors.  First off, how many adults are doing the driving?  If two people are sharing the driving and are okay taking turns driving through the night you could essentially do the trip in 15-16 hours, leaving New York around six o’clock in the evening and crossing the Florida state line by nine or ten o’clock the next morning.  I wouldn’t recommend doing it this way, though.  Even if the kids are good car sleepers and even if you and your spouse sleep while the other drives, everyone will still feel totally jetlagged when you arrive and that makes for a pretty cranky day.

If your goal is to get to Florida as quickly as possible without feeling exhausted upon arrival, I suggest stopping for one-night a bit past the half-way point in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a 9-hour drive, and doing the second half of the drive the next day, getting you across the Florida state line about 7 hours after getting on the road in the morning.  I’ve created a step-by-step driving time line for this road trip to help you plan.

If you aren’t anxious to get to Florida as quickly as possible, there are all sorts of things you could do and places you could visit on your way down, but that’s not the focus of this post.  I’ll write about that another time.

How Much Will it Cost?

Gas prices fluctuate all along the east coast and every vehicle gets different gas mileage, but AAA has a helpful and accurate online fuel calculator.  You enter your starting city, your ending city, and the make, model and year of your car, and the calculator will estimate how much you will spend on gas.  According to the calculator, if I drove my 2006 Honda Odyssey from New York City to Jacksonville, Florida today it would cost me $174.57 one-way with an average price of $3.53/gallon for regular.

The other expenses you’ll have are food and hotel accommodations.  Leaving after breakfast means you’ll have lunch and dinner on the first travel day and breakfast and lunch on the second travel day.  All your meals beyond that I’m considering vacation expenses, not travel expenses, and this post is just about the getting there part.

For a family of four budget around $30 for breakfast and lunch and around $45 for dinner.  My husband thinks I’m low-balling it here, but at a Cracker Barrel adults will eat for around $10 and kids around $5 for dinner.  You’ll also want to budget from $90 – $120/night for lodging depending on which hotel chain you opt to book.

For the next three questions, a great resource is the book Drive I-95 by Stan Posner and Sandra Phillips-Posner.  The book provides exit-by-exit information and detailed maps of Interstate 95 from Maine to Florida plus an entire travelogue section following the map pages with descriptions of nearby restaurants and lodgings, off-exit attractions and roadside whimsy.  The book also has a list of the toll-free numbers of all the hotel chains with hotels along the I-95 corridor, a list I employed on our return trip when a semi-sick kid prevented me from continuing on to our planned stop and I needed to make a quick detour to one of the hotels off the nearest exit.  If you’re headed south or north on 95, this book should definitely be on your packing list.

Where Should We Eat?

One of the biggest concerns I had about doing this trip was what we were going to eat.  I knew I wanted to get south efficiently but didn’t want to detour off of 95 looking for decent food.  I also knew that a certain amount of grease and high-fructose corn syrup and dyes were going to be unavoidable considering we were going to be on the interstate the whole time.  One way to offset this is to pack a bunch of groceries.  I’ll go into more detail about this below in the packing section.  A couple of days before the trip I hit the market and loaded up a couple of bags with healthy, non-perishable snacks, a big bag of apples, and a crate of clementines, which was great to have.

I had grand plans to stop at some of the kitschy joints the Posners talk about in their book, including the River City Diner off exit 83 in Virginia and Willie’s Wee-Nee Wagon off exit 38 in Georgia, but we got a late start on our departure day and ended up doing a drive-thru for lunch and couldn’t find Willie’s the next day though we did try.  One place that the girls like to stop is the Cracker Barrel.  Practically every exit off I-95 has a Cracker Barrel, especially once you get south of Virginia.  The food is decent, though you can’t plan on getting a green vegetable (the green beans I ordered were the color of fatigues), but it’s bright and cozy and friendly and it’s my go to place when someone needs to pee because you can always count on a clean bathroom.  Plus, the kids love browsing around in the store there, especially the section of old-fashioned toys & candy.  One thing they offer here are audiobooks.  You can purchase an audiobook in one Cracker Barrel store and return it down the road when you’ve finished it, having your purchase price refunded minus a small rental fee.

We did make a stop for lunch at Jasper’s Porch in Ridegeland, South Carolina where we took part in sweet tea, crab soup and a buffet chock-full of deep-fried greasiness.  The food was edible, the service was cheerful and the girls enjoyed tossing bits of bread to the huge fish, no idea what they were, swimming in the pond off the porch.  The Blue Heron Nature Trail trail head is located just off the parking lot and is a good place for post-lunch run-around before another 4 or 5 hours of driving.

Where Should We Stay?

Hotel accommodations run the gamut.  I really like the DoubleTree hotels by Hilton and a room with 2 queen beds at the DoubleTree in Fayetteville is pricing at $117.05 (tax included) for 2 adults and 2 kids for one night during President’s week.  A room with 2 double beds at the Hampton Inn (also owned by Hilton) in Fayetteville is pricing at $88.03 (tax inlcuded).  The girls and I stayed at the Fayetteville DoubleTree when we did our solo road trip and were greeted by a friendly staff in a warm, well-lit lobby with chocolate chip cookies for everyone.  It was clean, quiet and comfortable and I felt perfectly safe staying there on my own with the girls.

Every major hotel chain is represented along I-95.  I do suggest making your reservations in advance, choosing a place to stay that first night based on the number of hours you plan to drive.  Most allow you to cancel penalty-free if you do so by 6pm the evening of your arrival.  I always feel better having a reservation–I’m not comfortable flying by the seat of my pants when traveling with the kids–but for the most part you won’t have trouble finding a place to stay on a whim as you travel along 95 simply because the options are so plentiful.

What are Some Fun Places to Stop?

Again, Drive I-95 is an excellent resource for finding cool places to stop during your travels.  The Posners list everything from The Good Earth Peanut Company in Virginia to the Pee Dee State Farmer’s Market and the Le Cruset Factory Outlet in South Carolina (where I couldn’t resist a quick stop), and the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Georgia.  Another place to visit for information about interesting attractions is Roadside America with listings for offbeat roadside stops in the U.S. and Canada.  I like to pick a place for lunch that is an attraction in itself and then find another fun place to stop a few hours later.

What Should We Pack?

In a nutshell–snacks, water and activities to keep the kids busy.  To help you with this, I’ve created The Ultimate Road-Trip Packing List to help you to outfit yourself for 20-plus hours in the car.

Do We Really Want to Do This?

Driving from New York to Florida with kids is not an easy undertaking.  It’s a lot of hours in the car.  You know your kids.  Can they nap while driving?  Do they get carsick?  Do they drive you bonkers just driving a couple hours to the beach in the summer?  When I decided to do this on my own my friends thought I was crazy, but we had a great time and the pull of the Florida sunshine in the dead of winter definitely helped.  My girls are pretty good at making their own fun, too, and one of my favorite quotes from our New York-Florida road trip last winter came from my 10-year old daughter.  We were on the stretch of road between North and South Carolina when the billboards for South of the Border become more and more prolific.  “37!” shouted the 8-year old upon sighting yet another sign.  From the third row came Stella’s voice, “I’m tired of counting the Pedro signs.  Let’s count roadkill.”

If that’s not a testimonial for the memories a road trip can make, I’m not sure what is.