Driving from Atlanta to Orlando with kids
 

We are planning a road trip over the holidays from Atlanta to Orlando with two kids (ages 1 and 4) and want to know where a good place to stop mid-point would be. From the map, looks like Tallahassee is right in the middle. Does anyone have any other ideas for a fun stopover, place to stay or things to do for a day?
thanks!

I would just stay on 75 and find a hotel with a pool or a little playground. But if you really want to delay your trip by a day, I would look more at St. Augustine and the beach there than Tallahassee. Plug this all into mapquest to see the difference in makes in the trip time.

Well, it's 6.5 hours. I'd just stay on 75 too.

If you wanted to stop 1/2 way, perhaps Valdosta. When they are older, maybe
http://wildadventures.net/welcome.asp

With two kids at those ages I'd just get as much time on the road as possible and stop for the night in Ocala. Get a good night's sleep and ready for Orlando in an hour or so the next day.

Any reason you are going thru Tallahassee? That is way out of your way. Get an early start and drive straight thru. Kids that age will sleep a good part of that way.

We used to stop in Ocala for the night. We'd go to the Disney Welcome Center and buy our tickets so we didn't have to stand in line at the park. Plus the center was decorated in Disney which got the kids fired up.

I echo the idea of going straight through. We made the drive with preschoolers, from Marietta, and there isn't a lot between there and Orlando. Hardly worth stopping. We hit the rest stops whenever they looked relatively decent, kept a library of videos going and snacked our way south.

We do this drive often, sometimes to Orlando, sometimes to Tampa.
Tallahassee is way out of your way--you would have to hop onto 10 W. Don't bother with that.
I agree with the others--not too much to do between ATL and Orlando.
The Suwannee River Park (Stephen Foster?) is pretty --right off of 75. Don't know how fun it would be for the little ones.
My advise is to get on the road super early--we leave between 4-5 am--miss Atlanta's ungodly traffic, the kids sleep, sometimes all the way to Valdosta, which is a 1/2 way mark. Stop have a nice breakfast, let them run (we do "exercises" at rest areas, races, etc--they love it!)
Drive straight through (at most 8 hours), get to Orlando early and hang out. Take snacks, toys (buy some stuff beofer that is new at a dollar store), books, video and you will be fine. Many hotels have heated pools and with temps sometimes in the high 70's , the kids can run around the pool area and you can relax--especially if you are doing the parks --are you??? That's a whole 'nuther post!

Stay on I-75 and spend the night at the Hampton Inn located in Lake City, Fl. You will get a good rate and the hotel is fairly new and very, very nice. They have a nice pool. There is not too much "entertainment" for children your age, so save the real "entertainment" for when you arrive in Orlando.

We would leave Atlanta around 4 in the morning, leave the kids in their PJ's and make a good start. Stop for breakfast, stop for lunch (the kids would usually be back asleep), and keep going. You will make good time and the kids will sleep through most of it, saving the price and hassle of a room.

We've driven straight from Atlanta to Orlando. It's not that bad of a trip. With stops for food, gas and bathrooms, we've done it in 7 hours. Spend the time in Orlando. There's not much to see and do on the way.

Ditto driving straight through! It is not that bad a trip IMO.

Thanks, everyone! I'm hoping for a last minute Air Tran Sale now, but otherwise we'll leave at night and go straight there. Appreciate the good advice.

Ok, I know you are planning this for winter, but there are probably people reading this who plan to do the trip another time of year. That said, if I were making that trip in the summer, I would make sure I stopped either going or coming back at Ichetucknee Springs to go tubing. http://tinyurl.com/y2zqy8

My children (now adults) still laugh and ramble on and on about the two trips when we stopped there. One (make that two) of our most enjoyable family experiences.

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