Miami to Orlando

[lizzyj]

Hi we land in Miami and then driving straight up to Orlando. We have done this before but previously stayed in Miami for the night and drove up the next day on the non-toll road. I am sure I read that the toll road is a lot quicker, does anyone know how much quicker it is and roughly how much it costs. Liz x

[d1gger]

Hi, we did the tolls last year to and from Orlando/Miami - so both ways - I would certainly recommend it, think we only ended up paying around $20/$30 or so all in - so that includes all tolls (inc those in Orlando) - using the easypass system, so you just drive straight through as opposed to stopping and handing over cash.
Not done the journey without the tolls, so couldn't say how much quicker, but I would definitely use again - takes the stress out of things, knowing it should be quicker and more straightforward etc.

[d1gger]

oh just to add, whilst in Miami, went down to Key Largo and then back up to Orlando - that drive took about 4.5hrs - with stop offs too - so not too long at all - plus didn't really feel that long if you know what I mean.

[lizzyj]

How do you get the easypass, is it something the car people sell you?

[d1gger]

I think most car hire companies have them already installed - its a device which sits on your windscreen (usually above the mirror at the top)

[skindogg]

Alamo have in my exprience the best system it reads your number plate then bills you the tolls plus a small admin fee to your card a couple of weeks later. I've never found it excessive. Maybe there are posts in the car rental forum that would answer exact charges but I never find it excessive and I remember someone saying on here that Alamo have the best system for doing tolls...

[NewtoOrlando]

We did it last year on the toll road, and used the toll road on the way back to Miami too. We used the toll roads around Orlando a few times and w did the sun pass from Avis, we got the bill a month later and it was £48, that was over an 18 day stay which I didn't think was too bad.

We drove the next day stopping at Vero Beach, took about 5 hours all in all as we stopped for an hour at Vero.

[lawsy]

We drove straight up the toll road and it took us 4 hours to Sunset Lakes.

[JAF]

sunpass/rentalcar this page gives the details of different car hire companies policies regarding toll pass scheme.

We normally use the US27 which is easy to get on to from the airport and is toll free we have found it does not really take that much longer than the toll road

[pegasus928]

We did this last year both ways and our bill, which came in a couple of weeks after we returned was just over £20 - way less than we had predicted using the Turnpikes own toll calculation tool.
The other thing I would mention, purely because it caught us out on the way up to Orlando, is don't rely on the service plazas if you fancy stopping for a bite mid way. They close quite early on and as I remember it we stopped at around 9pm and couldn't find any of the food places open.