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Hello,
I don't know if you are still planning or your are finished, but I have done the drive twice. It really isn't a three day trip. Going there, we split the drive and stop for the night, finishing in MB the next morning. Coming home to Richmond Hill, we leave around 6am and get home the same day just before midnight. That would included stops for gas, food, and stretching.....
Good luck and enjoy. It is a nice drive.
Paul
Hi Paul,
Good to see a fellow York Region resident on the forum!!
Thanks for the feedback and pointers.
Since we have the time, we wanted to approach the trip a bit differently and enjoy the sites/attraction on the way there and back. Hence, the 3 (now possibly 3.5) day trip to and back. I am hoping to make one stop each day where the family can either see a site or do an activity and hope that this would encourage more longer road trips in the future.
I am wondering if you would share the route you take to Myrtle Beach? Have you stopped at any attractions between Roanoke, VA and MB, which you would recommend? One of the previous recommendation was a Zoo in NC. However, after reading reviews and thinking about it some more, we have decided that it may end up being longer stop then we would like it to be.
Thanks again for your help.
Regards
No Problem. We go the route most people would take, crossing at Queenston Lewiston, taking the I-90 to the I-79 and down through Pittsburgh, letting the GPS take me all the way into Myrtle Beach. We love the drive, especially in the mountains, seeing the wildlife and the tunnels under the mountains. I couldn't tell you about any attractions on the way down as we haven't stopped at any this year. I would definetely reccommend going to Barefoot Landing in MB. Great restaurants and atmosphere and the kids love it there, fireworks every Monday.
This year we are going in the middle of August and I was thinking of trying to go down through Richmond and Washington........
Good tidings on your trip.
Paul
Hi Guys,
I need some ugent help here. Our trip has changed quite a bit from the original, dates and routes. We are not doing this trip (Toronto to north myrtle beach) in two days. We have already done the first day today, which was from Aurora, Ontario Canada to Beckley WV. We are here in Beckley for the night and need to leave early morning tomorrow towards NMB.
Looking at the maps, I think of following route and was wondering anyone can provde any sort of feedback on it. We are simply trying to get there rather then sight see at this point:
77 South
74 Sourth
40 East
73 South
74 East (not sure if that is US or state route)
95 South
301 South
501 South
22 East
17 East/North
Sounds pretty complicated. I am hoping someone will be on here either late tonight or first thing in the morning and will leave some guidence for me.
Thanks in Advance
Regards
I-77 to I-74 (Mount Airy Bypass)
I-74 to US-52
US-52 to I-40 Business (US-421) Winston-Salem
I-40 Business to I-40
I-40 to US-220 Greensboro
US-220 to US-1 Rockingham
US-1 to SC-9 Wallace
SC-9 to Bennettsville, follow the SC-38 signs around Bennettsville. ****
SC-38 to US-501 near Latta, turn right.
US-501 to SC-22
SC-22 to US-17 and you are there.
**** Coming into town, bear right at the hospital. There's also a Huddle House and a Walgreens at the intersection. This is the SC-9/38 bypass. Turn left at the Honda dealer onto US-15/401 SC-9/38. Go about a mile and turn right at the Pizza Hut onto SC-38.
If you play with Google Maps, you will see what to do.
These are all Interstate-quality roads from Beckley to just north of Rockingham, you should be able to do that leg in about 5 hours. From Rockingham into NMB is mostly 2 lane (or was last time I took it, which was many years ago), this will probably take at least 3 hours.
Thank you GLC for your help with directions. I followed it with minor modification and it worked really well.
We did get a bit lost when I-77 merges with I-81. We took I-81 south. However, within few miles, we realize we were going in the wrong directions.
I will be back on here to figure out our way back to Toronto with possible new stops, as that trip will be 3 days instead of the 2 very long days.
Thanks again for everyone who helped.
So I am back here, looking for your help, with yet again changed plans.
We are planing to leave North Myrtle Beach Friday 31st and would like to reach Toronto Ontario by Saturday night.
Is there a way for me to incorporate Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline drive into this trip? What would make most sense; drive part of blue ridge parkway and part of skyline drive or just part of one or the other or none at all?
If I were to do any of these drivers, I don't think I will have the time to get off the car and do much at all, but it would be nice to do the part of the drive and see what we can from the windows of the car.
Any ideas, as to where to stop for the night to break the trip would be great.
I have been using the 550 mile a day rule to plan my trip, however, it gets challenging to figure out how much can we drive when we are dealing with so many local roads and roads with much slower speeds. On our way here, we drove 588 miles the first day and another 430 on day 2. One our first day, we were on the road from 6:15 and reached hotel around 7:30 with 1.5 hour lunch stop and several 5/10 minutes stop for kids to stretch. Our 2nd day was a late start at around 8:30 and arrived in Myrtle Beach around 5:45 with similar one long lunch break with several 5/10 minute breaks.
Thanks again for any help y'all can provide.
Regards.
(p.s. we may also be dealing with some rain as we drive home on Friday, depending on weather)
I don't think you'd have much of a chance to drive the Blue Ridge based on your goal of making the trip in 2 day, and the fact that the Blue Ridge is a very slow going route that basically runs at a 90 degree angle from where you are trying to go.
The easiest place to do a short stretch would be to take NC-89 near Mt. Airy north/west and get on the Blue Ridge just north of the Virginia/NC state line. From there, you could take the BRP back to I-77. That would be a relatively short section of the road, but I think trying to do much more than that could become a time problem.
Thanks Michael for your input.
I guess I will have to put the Blue Ridge and Skyline drive off for another trip. I have worked out another route for our return trip and was hoping for input in terms of times, as this route takes us though some small highways as well.
Reason for using this route over the one we used to drive down here is simply to see something different. Also have read the I-81 is a pretty drive. My map has several stops (small towns) on them, these were only used to make the map select a certain road/highway. I was thinking of stopping in Hagerstown, MD for the night. Wondering if this will be achivable in your opinion? Also, would it be a good stopping point to gives us two equal days for travel?
MS Street and Trips suggesgted to use 68, 70, 99, 350, 80, 219 from Hagerstown to Buffalo area. This is a bit shorter driver, but my concern was with 350 and 219 being only a two lane highways.
Regards.
That looks like it's a bit too much for a 2 day drive - you need to stay on limited access highways as much as possible.
I'd go to Wilmington, then take I-40 to I-95. Take I-95 to Fredericksburg, then US-17 to I-66 to I-81.
US-15 north out of Harrisburg should be OK, but I'd cross over at Northumberland and take PA-147/I-180 into Williamsport, then US-15 to I-86 to I-390. Stay on 390 to the Thruway.
Hagerstown is the halfway point.