RoamsAround

Well, I've done plenty of road trips along the US Interstates (and perhaps 10 R/T's on I-95 between NYC and FL) and I rarely made reservations. We just drove till we got tired and then began watching the roadside billboards to see how far it was to the next batch of motels. On the off-chance there were no vacancies at the ALL of motels at one exit we drove 10 to 20 minutes further to the next exit where we'd find a whole different batch of motels to choose from. Never had a night where we had to "sleep in the car".

On those rare occasions I did make reservations I did so around 4PM for a place about 2 or 3 hours down the road.

We liked the flexibility of driving until we were tired - sometimes we'd stop for dinner around 6PM or 7PM then being somewhat refreshed after a leisurely dinned we'd drive a few hours more and find a place.

booksw

For whatever it's worth, there is a great restaurant in Florence, SC right off of I95 called Percy and Willie's. I try to stop there if I am passing through around dinner time.

brandons

Thanks everyone for their helpful responses. I am planning on waking my family up at 3 am and being on the road by 4 am. I agree Savannah is really far especially since we will have to stop and eat and use bathrooms. But perhaps because I will leave so early that it is possible. If not I would want to stay in SC. Dillon, Florence or Santee?? I would like to get majority of drive out of way the 1st day. Our final destination is Hollywood FL.

Also on drive back to NY I wanted to stop in either Charleston or Raleigh for 2 nights. Does anyone have any thoughts which would be more fun with my kids (ages 7 and 10)

Gretchen

Oh, Charleston, and much more on your way. Raleigh is out of the way.
You will probably get below Florence starting that early--I guess depending on when you hit traffic in the big metro areas.
Savannah is an hour and half south of the Charleston area but you could make it between Charleston and Florence, I'd think.

starrs

I agree that the Santee area would be a good place to stop. As much as I love Savannah, there's no way I'd drive that far just to spend the night and move on the next morning. Add in some relaxing time, then maybe. But while you are trying to cover that much ground in that amount of time? No.