Anyone stop overnite going to HH from NJ area?

[BWVDenise]

I think I have finally conviced dh to give HH a try next year. We have 3 young'uns and I think they would do better if we split the drive to 6 hours each day.
If you have driven from the NJ area and stopped overnight, where is a good place to stay?

Denise

 

[TriciaT]

Denise,

I have two sons, 9 & 5 and we are going to drive straight through to HH but late at night. Either dh or I will take a nap after dinner and we will leave before midnight. Hopefully the kids will sleep most of the trip and we will arrive at HH at approximately noon.

Six hours into the trip would be somewhere in Virginia. If you are a AAA member, you could get a guide book and see if they have some recommended motels.

When we drove from NJ to Orlando, we stayed in Fayettville, NC which was really nice. That is exactly half-way to Orlando. There are many economy motels, like Econolodge, or Holiday Inn that offer a free breakfast and room for about $50 with a AAA card. I guess that would be about 3/4 of the way to HH though.

 

[sueg]

We have driven down twice. We stopped both times. The first year we stopped at Richmond, but we should have travelled a bit more be fore stopping. The second time, we stopped at D.C. for two days. We travelled to Durham N.C. from there. A bit out of the way, but we were in no hurry. That is the real issue.

 

[NJParkhopper]

Have stayed at Fayettville before. It's not bad at all there.

 

[DownNeckBoy]

You sound like a very concerned mother. If I had to stop on the way to HH, I guess it would be in the Fayetteville area. However, as a father to two boys (3 and 7) I've found that if they are sleeping for 5-6 hours on an early morning trip, it makes the last 5-6 hours to HH a relative snap. There are far less "Are we there yets?" from the boys. That's why I prefer to leave as early in the morning as possible. Good luck with your trip!

 

[Chameleon]

We are going to HH next week. We are leaving in the evening and driving straight through so my 17 month old will sleep the whole way. If we leave at 7 pm we should be there by 8am. I will let you know how it works out.

 

[KNWVIKING]

... we drive straight thru to Orlando from Vineland. We leave at 8:00 pm to miss all traffic thru Baltimore,Richmond and DC, and hit I-95,exit 8 for HH about 5:30 am. It's less then an hour from there to HH resort. You might want to consider napping till around midnight and driving straight thru the nite rather the stopping at a hotel.

 

[Lesley]

If you really want to break the trip up into 6 hour segments I'd suggest somewhere around the VA/NC border....possibly more into NC, but I can't recall where exactly 6 hours would be. Perhaps Wilmington (NC not DE). As others have said Fayetteville is 8 hours from NJ (or PA). It probably wouldn't be so bad to do 8 hours and then 4....leaves you more time on your arrival day.

On our one trip to WDW we drove to Walterboro (not far from HH) on our first day, then onto WDW the next. The longer/shorter split really made the second day of driving feel like no problem....a stay in Fayetteville might do the same for a drive to HH.

And the overnight idea does work well with little ones if you can handle it. It was much easier on my ds (currently 6yo) to do the overnighter than the two day driving thing. And my dd (who was 5mo. on our last trip) probably would have had a terrible time if we hadn't driven overnight. I'm a night owl so driving through the night doesn't bother me at all.

 

[pentex]

We drive straight through to Orlando and always have with our children: the youngest age was when my little one was four months. We find it's best to leave NJ in the early evening, stop for dinner and then settle kids in for night. They sleep right through the night, and because they've been "out" for the majority of the travel, aren't whining about being in car so long. After a fun brunch (at Cracker Barrel, of course), there's not too much to deal with in driving after that and they are so excited about getting to Disney, it has never been a problem.

Of course, driving home is different...I don't think I could take that because there is no vacation to look forward to. So, we take the AutoTrain from Sanford to VA and drive from VA. That is a vacation in itself and is often the best part for the kids.

Last July, we drove straight to HH at night and that was just fine. The drive home seemed endless, though, without anything to look forward to. We said if we did that again, we may stop in Wash DC area for a night for a break.

Basically, our theory is that it is better to have kids sleeping (and quiet) during a long drive than have them wide awake the majority of the trip. It makes it easier on all of us in the long run. Our road trips have become a family tradition and a source of great fun and memories.

Have a great trip whatever you decide to do!!!