Stopovers from DC to Charleston, SC by car
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Anonymous
| Thinking of doing a road trip from DC to Charleston. Will have a two month old in tow so will want to break up the trip for feedings and also general sanity. What are some good places to stop to break up the trip? Willing to stay over a night or two here and there if the city is worth seeing. |
Anonymous
| Honestly, nothing. Even if you go way off course there not really anything “worth” staying over anywhere. |
Anonymous
| Go to the new “buccees” rest stop on the border between NC and SC. Just a weird southern experience if you have never been. |
Anonymous
| Why would you break up the trip for a night or two? It’s a 7 Hour Drive. There is really nothing of interest which is unfortunate. We do this trip at least annually to go down to Kiawah/Seabrook. I agree with stopping at Bucees, certainly an experience! |
Anonymous
Mmh more like 8-9 hours? And OP also said she has a 2-month old so even doing 7 hours straight is untenable. |
Anonymous
| Raleigh is about an hour out of the way, but that's an option. Other would be Fayetteville. We've stopped in Wilmington NC for a night on the way to Charleston before, but that's a pretty front heavy drive and adds 2 hours to your trip. |
Anonymous
We trued that, the line started forming miles before the actual I95 exit. No store is worth that level of crush |
Anonymous
| Wouldn't a 2 year old sleep for most of the 8 hour drive ? |
Anonymous
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It took us almost 14 hours to Hilton Head from Bethesda two summers ago and we try to drive fast so I feel your pain in needing to break up the trip. There's no way it's 7 hours unless you fly through the middle of the night.
We stayed overnight in Rocky Mount, NC which has absolutely nothing going for it except a cluster of inexpensive hotels. It was supposed to take us 4 hours to get there on a Friday and ended up taking 6, which put us in a foul mood  The area around Stafford, VA alone set us back an hour and was just brutal -- nothing like being an hour from home and then losing another hour, barely chipping away at your trip.
It then took us another 7.5 instead of 5.25 hours from Rocky Mt to Hilton Head (the last hour being in shooting distance of Hilton Head was especially demoralizing. Just so much traffic all trying to disperse onto the island.) Like others have said, the drive is dreary and nowhere interesting to pull off. You just have to make your peace with it
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Anonymous
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Boring drive and yes in traffic it can take 10-12hrs. The worst part of the trip is the 100mi to and from Richmond. The Carolinas are easy but boring.
Heading south leave by 6am and you can do one long painful day. Nowhere exciting to stop so pick bigger towns and sit down in a restaurant or Starbucks. Alternatively we often leave at 8pm, get to Petersburg south of Richmond and then stay in a hotel. If your baby will sleep in the car that’s your best option IMO. Coming home we usually leave around 3pm. Drive for about 5hrs until mid or northern NC and again pick a hotel. Then leave crazy early so that you’re back in DC by 11. Any later and you get stuck in northbound DC traffic. Especially since you’ll need more stops at that age, this is my best advice. |
Anonymous
| Stormin' Norman's BBQ at exit 107 (NC) in Kenly, NC for lunch! |
Anonymous
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I’d drive straight thru. Leave at like 4am so you don’t hit the awful traffic between DC and Richmond. Bio mom sits in the backseat for duration of the trip with baby. Can feed and comfort infant in the the backseat.
Seriously, it’s no big deal with an infant that small. We did a cross-country road trip with an 18 month old….that was A LOT harder as he couldn’t really entertain himself and wasn’t into screen time yet. |
Anonymous
| I do the drive frequently. Just drive through. With a kid that age I would do Hilton Head over Charleston with a day trip Savannah. Hilton Head and Charleston are the exact same drive time from this area. |
Anonymous
| Pedro's |
Anonymous
Buccees is destroying SOTB. And the whole Pedro thing needs to go, its 2022. |