Anonymous wrote:We've made that trip so many times. Our forever home is at Ponte Vedra Beach (just south of Jax). We are back and forth between DC and home all the time. It's an easy 10-11 hour drive.

We do the same. Actually just came back last week. 12 hrs both ways with 2 or 3 stops. we stay right in Ponte Vedra Beach. Flights, though, are cheap if you plan. They were as cheap as $140 roundtrip total this spring.

Neither - jacksonville is a shithole!

My in laws live in Jax. We have never driven - we always fly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OMG, how could you consider anything but flying? Even if they shut 95 for just me, and allowed me to speed the entire route, flying seems the way to go.

I agree. This whole 'oh, it's only an easy 10 hour drive' concept is so foreign to me. I wouldn't dream of doing anything but flying if it's over five hours of a drive.

Some people like to take vacations but can't afford to fly. Especially larger families. It gets prohibitively expensive to fly once you are buying 5+ roundtrip tix, plus renting a car at the other end.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've made that trip so many times. Our forever home is at Ponte Vedra Beach (just south of Jax). We are back and forth between DC and home all the time. It's an easy 10-11 hour drive.

10-11?

I doubt that.


been to Fl many times with a dad who had a lead foot
10 hours is impossible.

I don't doubt the PP. I just checked the time from north end of JAX to my parents house in Kissimmee -- 3 hrs. according to mapquest. Assuming that mapquest is a little slower driving than we are, it's probably 2.5 hrs for us to drive the same distance.... and since we have gone from Alexandria to parents house in exactly 13.5 hrs.... it stands to reason that from Alexandria to the north end on JAX would, in fact, be 11 hrs. We stop at all the rest stops and maybe one additional stop for gas/treats in the mid-afternoon.

We average 60 mph (including our rest stops) for the whole day; we are generally driving at an actual speed of 70mph.

OP --- you don't need a hotel on your drive and you don't need to leave at 3:00 a.m.! You just get in the car and be on the road by 6:30/7:00. If you are in MD --- well, that might add on an extra 30-60 min. Maybe that would be too much for you. For us, it was very do-able. Your hardest part is going to be the 2-3 yr. old! They don't have the patience to sit and don't have the focus to watch videos/games.

I can barely make Hilton Head in 8 hours. No way is Jacksonville 2 more hours on the road. Also, I am not going to enter the debate about whether the cost is the same - lets just agree that it is the same. If so, why would you wake up at 3:00AM to drive????? I might, might do that for work(and I would be looking for a new job ASAP), but why wake up that early, on vacation?!?!?!?

Anonymous wrote:OMG, how could you consider anything but flying? Even if they shut 95 for just me, and allowed me to speed the entire route, flying seems the way to go.

I agree. This whole 'oh, it's only an easy 10 hour drive' concept is so foreign to me. I wouldn't dream of doing anything but flying if it's over five hours of a drive.

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how it could cost the same- sounds like you need to search your rental prices better....

I would load leave around 330 am and do the drive straight through- I prefer driving with kids to flying unless I simply cannot drive it.

The best minivan rental I could find was $550/week. We need two hotel rooms each way because we won't all fit in one hotel room, plus gas. I have estimated that the total cost of flying is $1,250 and $1,290 for driving. With 4 children 6 years and under, it's highly unlikely we can do this in one day.

OMG, how could you consider anything but flying? Even if they shut 95 for just me, and allowed me to speed the entire route, flying seems the way to go.

I don't see how it could cost the same- sounds like you need to search your rental prices better....

I would load leave around 330 am and do the drive straight through- I prefer driving with kids to flying unless I simply cannot drive it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've made that trip so many times. Our forever home is at Ponte Vedra Beach (just south of Jax). We are back and forth between DC and home all the time. It's an easy 10-11 hour drive.

10-11?

I doubt that.


been to Fl many times with a dad who had a lead foot
10 hours is impossible.

Maybe everyone, adults included, wore a diaper.

I agree that it would be nearly impossible to do it in 10 hours. I'm the poster who drives down to Palm Coast, exactly an hour south.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've made that trip so many times. Our forever home is at Ponte Vedra Beach (just south of Jax). We are back and forth between DC and home all the time. It's an easy 10-11 hour drive.

10-11?

I doubt that.


been to Fl many times with a dad who had a lead foot
10 hours is impossible.

New poster here, I believe it. We drive to disney world a few weeks ago in about 13.5 hours, and that included some bad traffic that really delayed us. Jacksonville is a few hours closer than disney. If you only stop a few times and make them very quick stops, you can make great time. Also, we left around 3 am on a Saturday, so for the first several hours there was no traffic.

Anonymous wrote:We've made that trip so many times. Our forever home is at Ponte Vedra Beach (just south of Jax). We are back and forth between DC and home all the time. It's an easy 10-11 hour drive.

10-11?

I doubt that.


been to Fl many times with a dad who had a lead foot
10 hours is impossible.