Driving to Walt Disney World

Written by Lucy Saturday, January 10, 2015 Post Comment

After you have picked out the days and where you're going to stay, the next big decision is how you're going to get there. We always fly, but this year we were trying to go as cheap and as stress free as possible.

Since Michael is still in a car seat and we were going to be taking a stroller, that was going to be two more items that we would have to check for the flight. Besides the additional checking fees, the quotes we kept getting for a direct flight from Dulles to Orlando was always around $800 for the three of us.

I really didn't want to drive all the way down there because of how long it would take, but we wanted to go as cheap as possible. We didn't want to add more miles to my Hyundai Sonata so, we ended up renting a new Hyundai Sonata here in Northern Virginia. We wanted to make sure that we got good gas mileage and had plenty of room for us all and knew that the new Sonata could do just that.

The drive from Leesburg, VA to Orlando, FL is about a 13.5 hour drive. We decided that we would leave the day before our first night at the Pop's Century. We waited until after Michael got out of school and drove down to the area where Jon works to pick him up since he worked a half day.

driving from Northern Virginia to Orlando Florida for a Walt Disney World vacation, driving to Walt Disney World,

I let Jon drive us out of the traffic that is the DC Beltway.

Because of the trip being 13.5 hours, my mom had booked us a hotel room in GA so that the next morning the trip wouldn't be too long. She also decided to make us sandwiches to eat for dinner and I bought a lot of different snacks and drinks to help us out for our trip.

Besides having an abundance of Disney movies to watch on our portable DVD players, I had some other stuff to help preoccupy Michael's time. Check out my post, How to pass the time during a long car ride with a toddler to learn more about that.

It did take us longer to get there, but it was cheaper than flying. I think next time, we'll probably fly. Basically just weigh the pros and cons and then decide what works best for you.

Tags: Disney vacation Walt Disney World

Lucy

I'm a stay-at-home mom in the DC Metro area who tries to focus on family, fun, and frugality. I'm always looking for new and exciting things to do with the family. Follow me on this adventure called life!