South Florida To Seattle Washington

Helo everyone! I’m planning to drive the first week of December from Miami to Seattle. I’ve never driven in snow before but my partner who will be coming with me has before. I’d like to know what would be the most direct and safe route across the country. I know that snowfall is unpredictable but I’m not actually sure on which states have snow in December, but I’d like to avoid snow as much as possible.

We’re taking two cars and neither of us have four wheeled drive and we’re hoping to do 5-6 hour minimally a day but we want to only do daylight driving and not exceed 65-70 miles per hour. Driving out of Florida can easily be done at 70 but I’m not sure about other states.
We are shipping our items so we’ll have a few boxes in the car but we’re not hauling anything.

Are there specific cities and towns you guys would recommend? We have cats so we’ll be staying in pet friendly hotels along the way. I would like to make the trip in 10 days max but if a more reasonable drive is 12 days, that’s okay too. Thanks everyone!

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

Travelling for around 6 hours on average per day is right on target for making this a 10 day journey. Having a couple of days spare for possible weather interruption is a good plan to have. Interstates are a priority to keep clear and traffic moving and if you should happen to see significant snow on them it's best just to pull off the road and rest up while the road crews go to work and the let the storm pass. I would leave your plans open to change and check the weather forecast close to departure and finalise your route then, although the most direct looks to be I-75 N, I-24 W, I-64 W, I-70 to Kansas and then North on I-29 to I-90. (Others may come up with a better route option with local knowledge) If you want to look at overnight options you will be looking at covering 300-350 miles per day and adjust accordingly to suit best lodging options available. Staying west of any major city will help you to avoid any morning rush hour traffic heading into the city. You can get an idea of prices in chosen towns by looking at the RTA lodging link in the green tool bar above.

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Driving out of Florida can easily be done at 70 but I’m not sure about other states.

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Speed limits get higher when you go west. You will even see 75 and 80.

A Few Things
First, taking your desire to "not exceed 65-70 miles per hour" to heart and noting, as glc did, that higher speed limits are common on the high plains, I'll just remind you that if the weather is good you can sometimes get off the superslabs and travel at a slightly more relaxed pace on the US highway network that often runs parallel to the Interstates. If you follow the general route that Dave gave you, then you might, for example, want to consider an alternative to I-90 in South Dakota where the speed limit is 80 mph for stretches. And lo and behold, there's US-18 which runs parallel to, but maybe 20-30 miles south of, I-90. You'd get off of I-90 north of Vermillion and take US-18 to Oelrichs and then use US-395 to head north and rejoin I-90 in the Rapid City area. Such a route also has the advantage of taking you by several national parks including Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial.

There are many more such options available to you if the Interstates prove not to your liking. I can't list them all and using them would be highly dependent on the weather you experience in any articular areas. But with a good atlas, Dave's basic backbone of a route, and some discussion between the two of you, you should be able to find some possibilities for taking some roads less traveled. I will also note that at your intended pace and if you get started at the break of dawn (not all that early at that time of year and that far north) you'll have time for one or two short scenic breaks each day and still cover a decent number of miles while driving in as little as 2 hours at a time.

One final consideration. You both will be driving and so you'll have to adjust to the skill level of the less-experienced driver. Mostly that will mean just sitting out any snow/sleet/ice storms in a nice warm motel room and waiting until the road crews have everything back up and running smoothly again. Such events might force you to take closer to 12 days than the 10 required by your stated preference for pacing. Most importantly, you won't have certainty about the weather you'll encounter even in the Mississippi valley when you leave Miami, and absolutely no inkling about the weather you'll see in the Rockies. It's just too far in advance for any meaningful forecast. So you will have to remain flexible about your plans and ready to make changes on the fly. If you find bad weather forecast for an area/time where you were planning to use a 'side' road, I'd strongly encourage you to opt back onto the Interstate instead. Those roads are the best maintained (plowed/salted/sanded) at the start of, during, and after any storm and would be your safest and surest bet.

AZBuck

Thank for your replies! Would it be better to go along the southern border of the US through Texas and go through Nebraska, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon to Washington? Or Nebraska, Utah, Idaho? I’m thinking that if we stay south longer, we can avoid icy roads better until we hit the Nevada/Oregon areas. Would that add too much time or is it a bad idea to go through Idaho or Oregon that way? Someone mention mountain passes and such in the NW as well because supposedly some areas only have one road in and out?

I’m trying to stay at 65-70 for safety but also better MPH. I’m also driving with my cats so I don’t want to go too fast.

First, and this is important, staying on a more southerly route does NOT mean that you will avoid snow or ice, nor even make such conditions less likely. The only way to have a true idea of what conditions will be like as you drive is to look at the ACTUAL (issued in the first week of December) weather forecast, and as pointed out previously the weather for the western half of your trip will be a total unknown at the start of your RoadTrip. The one thing that is known at this point is that staying south on your proposed route will add two full days of driving to your trip. That's two more days where you could experience bad weather. Also note that, just for one example, Flagstaff AZ sits at an elevation of about 8,000 feet and can and does see ice and snow each and every winter. The other thing you know is that states and other jurisdictions that see less (Not no) bad weather spend far less of their budgets on plows/sand/salt and so are far less prepared and equipped to deal with winter weather when they do see it. For all those reasons, the advice you'll see here over and over again is to take the most direct all-Interstate route available to you, but still leave a spare day or two in your schedule to deal with the inevitable bad weather along the way.

AZBuck

Thank you that helps a lot! So I would take the interstate to Kansas and then i-29 to Sioux and then i-90 through s dakota, wyoming, montana, and to east washington. And take alternate routes where applicable. Are there specific cities you would recommend staying in and should I bypass cities and go around or go through the city for best ice plowing situations?

I want to book hotels in advance and I cancel any 24 hours prior so hopefully we can manage that.

I generally recommend that you bypass cities when they have an Interstate-quality bypass or belt route, but see below. I would not recommend you book hotels in advance, there should be no need to, there are plenty of hotels at Interstate exits near any towns of any size and you won't be traveling at a peak time of the year. That would "lock you in" to trying to travel a specific distance each day, and in the winter, you should be more flexible than that. Away from bigger cities, hotels should be more reasonable cost-wise and be less of a hassle getting in and out of. Use your smartphone and a site/app such as hotels.com to research when it's getting near time to stop for the night.

Cities:

Atlanta: I-285 west
Nashville: Straight through on I-24
St. Louis: Straight through on I-64
Kansas City: I-435 north

Try to avoid those 4 cities in rush hour. If your overnight stops happen to coincide with any of those 4 cities, go through or past them and stay in a suburb on the other side. That would make it easier to get away in the morning.

A recurring admonition in the advice you've gotten so far is that you'll have to be willing and able to adjust on the fly to both weather conditions and your choice of routes as you ease on down the road. So making reservations more than a day or two ahead of where you are is going to prove counter-productive. If I were in your shoes, I would make reservations for the first couple of nights' stops, but no more than that. Your first two stops would then be around Lake City FL and Marietta GA. I'd then take some time each evening, after watching the Weather Channel for a bit, to make the next reservation for two nights out depending on the weather forecast. As you might surmise from my recommendations for the first two stops, I'd aim for medium-sized cities on the far side of major metro areas, so that you'll have a good choice of lodging options and not have to fight any morning commuter traffic.

You should also be aware that general motel policy is that you can cancel more than 24 hours ahead without penalty, but that may vary with individual locations. If you are a member of any rewards program, that may also give you a bit more flexibility. But never feel that you have to press on through bad weather just because you have a reservation. With two cars, each driving 3,300+ miles and taking up to two weeks, this is going to be a somewhat costly trip no matter what, and a forfeited reservation or no-show penalty is simply not going to be worth endangering your lives.

As for driving through/around cities for the best road conditions... In my experience, most major cities have beltways of some sort that allow you to go around the suburban fringes rather than right through the heart of the city and in general that's what I'd recommend. EXCEPT if there is winter weather when you're trying to get past a big city. The combination of snow and heavy traffic can be lethal, with the traffic keeping the road crews from doing a thorough job, and people driving much too fast for conditions. Under such circumstances, just get off the road for a day or even a few hours until things (either the weather or the traffic) have cleared up to the point where you're comfortable. I would NOT recommend trying to make major detours at the last minute in bad weather, again -- it's just not worth the added risk.

AZBuck

Thank you everyone for the advice! We’re currently in Kentucky and we’ll be heading for Omaha next. What place would you guys recommend as a last stop before going over the rockies? I want to try going through the mountains first thing in the morning to avoid driving them at night. Would Billings in Montana be a good stop or a bit further? I can drive 6+ hours over the mountains but I do want to get a head start.

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Also how are the mountains east of Seattle? Should I also try to rest for the night before and start going through the mountaisn in the morning? Which town would you guys recommend?

I'm really confused, when you initially posted you talked about driving just 5-6 hours a day, now you're saying your in Kentucky and planning to get to Omaha next - which is 10-11 hours away and the upper limit of how far you should travel in a day - and that's assuming you're at the Kentucky/Illinois border.
Then you're talking about going from Omaha to Billings, which is about 850 miles and about 15 hours on the road, and nearly 50% more than you can safely travel in a day.

So beyond the obvious that you need to stop well before you get to Billings, you also need to rethink your definition of mountains. It really isn't a case that you go up a big hill and then come down and you're done - you'll be going over a few mountain passes, but also several more smaller hills, starting when you go through the Black Hills (which are actually mountains) in South Dakota.

Billings is a perfectly good place to start before you head into the most significant mountains of Montana, but you'll need to stop someplace before that - perhaps Rapid City or Wall SD.

Similarly, if you stop in Billings, you'll need to stop again somewhere again before Seattle - Coeur d'Alene, ID could be an option.

Sorry, I posted my reply in a rush. We’re heading to a bit outside of Omaha and it’s near 8 hours but after that, we are taking 2+ days to Billings. Would it be advisable to stop in Billings or Bozeman? And yes, we were planning to stop in Spokane or Coeur.

How is trip going? Have you made it to upper midwest yet? What's weather like and driving conditions?

I don't see much difference between Billings and Bozeman other than the distance between them. It's pretty much river bottom highway between the two except that there can be ferocious winds at Livingston (2nd windiest place in the US I think). There is a bit of a pass west of Livingston but it's just one of many on I-90.

One thing I know from personal experience is that you might rather not overnight in Butte because it seems to be 10F colder overnight than either Missoula or Bozeman. That can make a big difference when temps are going below zero. (I had a -30F start one morning one December.)

Any of the cities you've mentioned would work for overnight stops, but considering your statements and where you are now/are planning to be, I think Billings/CdA make a lot more sense.