Philadelphia to Florida Keys and back 10 to 12 days

Hi,

This is going to be our first road trip ever so please be kind if I am asking questions that are way to simple.

We have a total of 12 Days for this trip and would like to drive down to Florida Keys from Philadelphia and back.

1. Tips on best route "we were going to hit 95-S" PA, DE, MD, DC, VA NC,SC, GE and FL

2. Places to see and stop over for a day or 2 on the way

3. Any recommended local restaurants or famous foods

4. Site seeing along the way

5. What should we carry in emergency kit if any

6. Any town or areas we should avoid on this route

7. Best times to drive Day or Night

We love the out doors, ocean, beaches, mountains, trails, history and good food with great wine.

also any MALLs as I am sure wife will love to go shopping.

Thank you in advance,

Manish

Welcome to the RoadTrip America Forum!

For starters, you might want to acquaint yourselves with out Roadtrip Planning Pages, which would give you some of the answers you are looking for.

I-95 is a busy road, but also a direct one for what you are trying to accomplish. Do you own a good atlas? If not, pick one up yesterday. You can get one for about $5 in the major department stores. Even if you have GPS, the paper maps still come through in a pinch.

I find that driving outside of rush hour is usually fine around larger cities, so between 9am - 12 pm and 1pm - 3pm. Outside of metropolitan areas, any time during the day is usually okay. On a heavily traveled road like I-95, you might be more likely to run into construction at night (depending on what budgets have done to highway maintenance), plus night driving can be just as taxing as driving in heavy daytime traffic. Also, if you're driving at night and see some place interesting you want to visit, it might be closed.

Have you ever been across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel? You could put that into your route either on the way South or back home for a diversion. It's definitely something to keep in mind.

As far as restaurants, it's pretty hard to know what the best ones are in every area, so my advice would be to ask someone local to where you are visiting. You can also try some of the online review sites that cater to that sort of thing. So far I've had good luck trusting the reviews at those places and have been able to find restaurants that I otherwise wouldn't have ever known about.

Malls you should be able to spot from the highway.

For anyone traveling the I-95 corridor, you ought to consider getting these two books and keeping them close at hand in the car.... Here are our reviews, and there are some pretty good tips and attractions in the review articles too....

Drive I-95 by Stan Posner and Sandra Phillips-Posner

Along Florida's Expressways, by Dave Hunter

We've also published some articles about some day trips along the way that you might consider...

Gator Country: Three Day Trips from Gainesville, by Anne Sponholtz

Five Day Trips from Charleston, by Carol White

Peaches, Catfish and Camellias: A Road Trip through Georgia by Anne Sponholtz

6 Day Trips from Jacksonville, Florida, by Anne Sponholtz

There's More to Orlando than Mickey Mouse, by Anne Sponholtz

A couple more ideas for your return trip....
A Genealogy Road Trip: Florida to Canada by Anne Sponholtz

So, check the preceding out and then let us know and we can tweak it further...

Mark