I posted in this thread awhile back. Our plans have changed now and I wanted to get your guys' opinion on when to leave to make the drive down.
We'll be driving from Michigan. It's an 18 hour drive...
So we will be checking in on a Monday. We will both have the previous weekend off. When do you suggest we leave? My initial thought is to leave around 5pm on Sunday, drive through the night and arrive on Monday around 11am. I'm afraid of starting our trip off being exhausted on Monday. But I was thinking we could nap once we arrive and are able to check in, go to dinner at Raglan Road maybe, and then head back for an early bedtime.
What would you do?
We are in NW Ohio, and the drive is about 17-17 1/2 hours for us.
We leave between four and five am and drive straight through, which works great for us.
We start the trip with only a couple of nighttime hours. We are always excited that we're leaving, so it's easy to stay awake.
Then, the end of the trip is the same way. This is when it's most important, because you're getting tired and are more prone to fall asleep at the wheel.
But by the time it gets dark, we only have a couple of hours left to drive, so it's never an issue.
We hate having to stop and waste money on a hotel, just to have to get up and still drive some more.
We prefer to get there in one day, spend the night at a hotel, and be totally rested from the trip when we get up in the morning.
Then we hit the parks first thing and get a full day of fun, rather than still having to finish the drive and check in and get settled before being able to go to the parks.
we have tried driving through the night (in our younger days!), stopping part-way down, and driving as described above.
The last is by far the best way to go. We never feel beat down like we always did with the other two scenarios, and we don't feel like we wasted two days of our trip for travel one way.