San Francisco To South Beach In 4 Days

[athenababy24]

Hi everyone,

My friend and I are leaving San Francisco, CA in mid-May and need to find a route to get to South Beach (Miami), Florida in about 4 days. Any suggestions on what roads to take, cities/hotels to stay at, how many hours/day we need to drive?? This is our first road trip ever and have no idea how to go about driving for such an extended period of time over the entirety of the USA. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks,
Athena

[Quebec Gen]

Road Grettings Athenababy24 and welcome aboard the RTA Forum!

My friend and I are leaving San Francisco, CA in mid-May and need to find a route to get to South Beach (Miami), Florida in about 4 days.

Now I don't want to discourage you but I don't think 4 days is enough to complete this 3 116 miles trip, especially if you have never driven long distance before. It would require you to drive ~ 779 miles each day which means 12-14 hours of plain driving and I'm not calculating gas/food/rest stops, road work, traffic and weather constraints! 779 miles can be very straining even for experienced road trippers.

If you could take an extra 2 days to complete the trekk, that would surely be a more pleasant road trip. You would have time to stop and visit some places and see more than just gas stations and buildings afar.

Any suggestions on what roads to take

From San Francisco, I think the fastest route would be I-5, I-10, I-75, FL Tunrpike and I-95 to Miami. Another (longer) option : US 50 or I-80 to I-15, I-40, I-25, I-10, I-75, FL Tunrpike and I-95 to Miami. The possibilities are endless, it depends on what are your priorities : do you prefer scenic roads or going faster by using only interstates? Do you want to visit big cities or small towns? Do you want to visit national parks on the way?

Gen

[Midwest Michael]

I'm in total agreement with Gen. If you have never taken a long distance roadtrip before, you need to strongly consider adding at least another day or two. Making this trip even over 6 days would be a fairly strenous drive but at least you'd be limiting your drives to a far safer and more tolerable experience.

To do this trip in 4 days, you'll have to cover nearly 800 miles a day. Even if you only take the fastest Interstate route and limit your stops to gas stations, that will still put you behind the wheel for close to 15 hours a day - every day for four days. While having two people will help make this possible, there will certainly be no time to enjoy yourself.

As far as a route goes, I like The route I got via Rand McNally.com, which recommends taking I-5 south to the Bakersfield Area, CA-58 to I-40, I-40 to US-287 in Texas. That will take you to Dallas, where you pick up I-20 and take it to Shereport, and cut down to I-10 via I-49. Once in Florida, I-75, the Florida Turnpike, and I-95 will take you to the beach. The trip is still 3100 miles, but Dallas is the only major city, and you bypass I-10's heavy traffic areas of LA, Phoenix, and Houston.

[athenababy24]

Thanks for the info. We actually have 5 days on the way there, but we wanted to try to do it in 4, because we start work the next day. It sounds like we might need to rethink this, though,based o n your advise. As far as our priorities, we unfortunately dont have time to do much scenic touring, because we are so time-pressed...so I guess just as fast as possible would be good. It seems like you two have differing opinions on which route to take, anyone else have some input? Thanks so much for your help.

[lhuff]

I can't help with the starting options in California, but I-40, US 287 and then I-20 to Florida are probably going to be your best bet. You will skip south Louisiana and Mississippi going this route. The roads are open and fine, but there is still a lot of rebuilding, etc going on in those areas. It may slow you down since you're doing a speed run. Also, you are more likely to find motel/hotel rooms going a more northerly route.

And Michael - just have to poke fun at you for spelling my hometown Shereport. :)

Laura

PS - Just noticed I put Keithville as my hometown - Keithville's a suburb of Shreveport too small to be found on many maps.