Dallas Forth Worth To Orlando Florida Family Trip

[Sanjeev Shrestha]

Has anyone done Dallas,Texas To Orlando,Florida Family Road Trip? It will be a two day trip. This will be a road trip in budget? Any suggestions would be appreciated. like places to stay, things to do in Orlando.. and any others.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Two days is just about the minimum amount of time needed to get from DFW to Orlando, so you'll have to stick pretty much to the Interstates (with the exception of US-49 from Jackson to Hattiesburg MS and US 98 from Hattiesburg to Mobile AL. You'll also have to limit your R&R stops to those near to your direct route. I'd probably pull up for the night around Hattiesburg as you are likely to need a little extra time on the first day to get packed up; you'll also need a ittle extra time to clear the DFW metro area; you'll lose an hour to the time zone change the next day; and US-48, although a four lane divided highway for the most part, will be a little slower than pure Interstate quality roads.

Orlando is chock full of attractions, most notably (but not exclusively) the well-known theme parks. It would also be worth a day trip to head over to the Atlantic coast and visit the Kennedy Space Center and the adjacent beaches and national wildlife refuges.

AZBuck

[Lifemagician]

Hi and Welcome to the Great American Roadtrip Forum.

At more than a thousand miles by the most direct route, this will be two long days on the road. Especially with a family, which always means more frequent and longer stops.

As for budget lodgings, that really depends on how many are in the travelling party. Most hotels rooms are for four, with the ability to import a cot or roller bed for a youngster.

In Orlando, I am not aware of anything which can be done on a budget. Certainly the main attraction - the theme parks - are anything but budget destinations. Even the Space centre at Cape Carnarveral is not exactly a budget destination.

So how tight is your budget?

Lifey

[DonnaR57]

Three years ago, we started early one morning (before daylight) in Decatur, TX (just northwest of Fort Worth), swinging around Dallas as much as possible. We caught I-20, went through Louisiana, and swung through Vicksburg National Military Battlefield, in Vicksburg, MS. We didn't stop at every point, just the major ones, but still spent a good 2 hours there. However, it made the day really, really long.

At Jackson, we caught US-49 (as AZBuck mentioned above) through Hattiesburg, but continued through to Wiggins. The reason why we chose Wiggins over Hattiesburg had something to do with budget lodgings. We had reservations that night (something we don't always do), only because we knew we were going to stop at Vicksburg and wanted to be sure to have a place to stay if we came in later than normal. I'm glad we did, that place was "No Vacancy" by 7 pm.

The next day we continued on US-49 all the way down to I-10. Then we took I-10 all the way through to I-75 in FL.

Budget??? In Orlando???? You can stay in Kissimmee for less than the cost of staying in any of the Disney park hotels or Universal, for that matter. But don't forget to add in the cost of the parking, plus the parks themselves. We stayed in one of the Disney "budget-friendly" hotels, used their transportation to get around the property, except for one day. One day we drove over to Universal Islands of Adventure, had to pay for parking. However, on the way back to our hotel, we found a place for dinner, and took it "to go". We did get some funny looks from other Disney tourists when we walked into our hotel carrying a bag from Olive Garden.

There are some places within each Disney and Universal park that can be considered more "budget friendly" than others, for eating purposes -- but those are still pricey compared to what's outside.

Donna

[travelingman]

About an hour north of Orlando is wonderful BLUE SPRING STATE PARK. They have 6 cabins that run $95 per night and sleep six. They even have a gas fireplace. You can swim or snorkel the crystal clear water of the spring run or rent tubes nearby and float down it. You might float past schools of huge Gar or Tarpon. There are canoe rentals and boat rides nearby. However, access is forbidden when manatees are present in the winter. It is a fabulous place.

https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Blue-Spring

The entrance and beautiful Boardwalk to the spring.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh6TX248-Gc

Clear water snorkrling. I saw lots of gar just like this video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=twD4p65IIhQ

Who needs expensive water parks when you can have this?