Help me with a road trip to New York City to Miami

Persevere

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 10:21 am

First of all, try to take your time. If you are anxious about getting there quickly and not stopping more than necessary, you will probably have some screaming kids in the backseat and it will be a stressful trip. Here's what we do: when the kids are starting to get crazy, I open my map and search for playgrounds near my current route. I look for the best ones that are closest to the route. Then, I can tell my kids in 30 minutes we are going to get to a really fun park etc.

Unless you need gas, stop at parks with playground instead of rest stops. There's a gorgeous playground in Delaware very close to the 95 called Can-do playground.

It's kind of fun, because every state has unique playgrounds and it's just the best way for the kids to get their energy out.

Most of these playgrounds have bathrooms that are decent enough.

Scotty

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 10:40 am

Second the above. How long can your kids drive before they begin to disintegrate? For example, if they can do 4 -5 hours with just story tapes and music, break up your trip into five hour increments (with substantial breaks, trips, outings, or playgrounds and meals in between). That will let you know how many days your trip will take, and where to sleep over. I agree with the above poster that you should take your time. The goal is to enjoy the road trip, Not necessarily to enjoy Florida… So unless you’re going to be staying in Florida for a substantial amount of time, you may have to change your expectations one way or another.

Depending on how much food you will be dragging along with you, you may also want to seek out Jewish communities along the way where you can replenish your supply.

Depending on how old your children are, you may find different attractions in different stopovers work better for you. Using the hour metric above, search out locations on your way within that five (or four, or seven) hour radius and there you go.

MAKE SURE YOU ARE RESTED AND THAT OPTIMALLY YOU HAVE TWO ADULTS AWAKE AT ALL TIMES. You do not even realize how tired you can get and how quickly it takes to drift or nod off.... TWO SECONDS Can God for bid mean the difference between life or death! Having two adults awake at all times and talking or conversing helps the driver stay alert Ans the passenger adult double checking his/her alertness.

amother

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 11:37 am

Thank you!
My kids are pretty good with driving. We make long drives to their grandparents all the time, but have never done such a long route.
My point is that we also want to enjoy the trip until our destination. We want it to be part of the trip. I’d love to get a basic exciting route if anybody has suggestions.

Ema of 5

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 12:15 pm

We’ve made stops at Richmond, Williamsburg, Dutch wonderland, south of the boarder, national museum of the civil war soldier, Watkins regional park, St. Petersburg, Daytona, Washington DC, Philadelphia…..what I usually do when I plan a road trip is use google maps to put in start and destination locations, then use trip advisor to find fun things to do along the way.

Amarante

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 12:45 pm

How long are you willing to spend on the trip and how old are your children?

There are so great things along the route. Williamsburg is a really fun historical place to visit for kids because they get to actually be in an authentic pre-Colonial village.

Obviously Washington DC has some fantastic places to visit depending on interests but if you are in NY you could probably do that better if you just went to DC on vacation with the kids.

There is probably no point in visiting any beaches or the like since you will be in Miami.

Ema of 5

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 1:40 pm

amother [ SandyBrown ] wrote:

I plan on doing that drive too pretty soon. I am concerned about where to sleep along the way.

We use hotel tonight or Airbnb. What we usually do is we go to a destination, sleep there, and then do something there the next day. For example, last summer our first stop was Niagara Falls. We drove there Sunday, stayed overnight, went to see the falls, and then drove to our next destination.

amother

Melon

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 2:10 pm

AAA can help you plan a road trip.

Some ideas - not sure how they fit into the route

Atlanta
Savannah
Charleston
Barrier islands
Blue ridge highway

We once did the drive from Atlanta to Miami - there was a pecan museum that looked interesting but it was closed.

ruchelbuckle

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 3:11 pm

blue ridge parkway and atlanta are totally out of the way.
Charleston SC is a little bit out of the way, but not so bad.

Savannah, Richmond VA, Fayettville NC are all basically right off the I-95. use trip advisor or whatever to find things to do that will be interesting to your kids in those cities.
I think a week would be a very long time, but it depends on what activities you want to do in those cities and what your stamina for a long distance drive is (are you the only driver)
Here's an idea:

Leave on Sunday from NY. drive to Williamsburg VA.
Spend the day in Colonial Williamsburg.
Tuesday: drive to Charleston, SC. Sleep over there.
Wed: do a few activities in Charleston (aquarium, maybe)
Thursday: drive to Miami. If it's too much to do in one day, then stop in Savannah.

have fun!

Scotty

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 3:14 pm

Norfolk has a Jewish community, plus fascinating naval history/industry and submarine base, just make sure well in advance that there is public access to any attractions (Especially with Covid).

Charleston has fantastic history, tons of things to see and do, some of the top rated beaches in the US (and dolphins!)

Don’t forget to see the Everglades when you are in Florida!

amother

Magnolia

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 5:49 pm

I would think about how many days you want the trip to take. Based on that, you can plan which places to visit along the way. Kosher restaurants are available in NJ along the turnpike, in Baltimore Maryland, Silver spring, MD, Washington DC, not sure south of that. If you decide which cities you want to visit, we can recommend food places!

benny

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 9:16 pm

We did this trip twice! With same age kids. Had a blast! Best memories.
For us the trick was that our focus wasn’t to get to Miami the whole time. It was the actual road trip itself. Seeing the sights, taking it slow. It was thrilling for the kids to be in so many new places. We usually spent a few hours driving, then spent a few hours on a trip and then continued driving in the evening until we stopped at the next hotel. We did colonial Williamsburg, luray caverns, Us white water rafting and ropes course/zip lines in North Carolina, south of the border, savanna ga, Tybee island in ga and then stopped in a bunch of places in Florida. A lot of things in Orlando, Daytona beach car racing. We stopped in a lot of nice interesting shuls along the way for minyan which was a real experience. We also made the car really fun. If you want specifics/logistics you can pm me. Enjoy!!! Wish we could do it again.

amother

Thu, Jun 10 2021, 10:16 pm

benny wrote:

Thank you Benny! I will pm you for specifics when I’m doing my actual plans