Miami - Orlando landing @ 17:25 do we drive all the way or hotel half way

[Mrs_Taz]

Originally Posted by Matty777

Arriving in Miami on Friday afternoon(2 weeks time)
Staying at the Sheraton, near airport but more importantly 2 minutes walk from the Car Rental site.
Beer, food, kip.
Intend to be up early (as per the norm for 1st few days) and hope to be in Disney about 09.30 Saturday morning.
Traffic is bad around Miami most evenings, too tiring to hack a further 2 hours North and stay somewhere a bit "iffy"

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Snap - Flying same day and staying at the same hotel for the night.
I liked the idea of walking across to the car hire place in the morning too.


Louise

[scarecrow]

Originally Posted by popdriver

So if anyone could offer their wisdom I would be most great full.

We land on August 16th in Miami at 17:25, so I reckon we will be in the car by 19:00 having used Alamo online checkin.

Option 1 is to drive all the way and take regular stops, coffee etc...

My preference is drive roughly halfway and grab a cheap hotel en route, can anyone recommend a stop over or would atttemp the full drive?

Also do you advise turnpike or inland route?

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we are on your flight and having done the trip before, we are staying over at an airport hotel, we will be up at silly o’clock and I reckon we will be in Disney for 10.00. We can check in get park tickets and head to the parks and come back to the hotel around 3.00. Don’t forget it will take at least an hour and a half to get out of the airport by which time it’s midnight UK time.

[MinniMouse]

We’ve just done it. Not Miami to Orlando but Edinburgh via JFK to Orlando. Left house at 6am - flight was delayed by over 2 hours - it left Edinburgh about 12.30. Instead of a 5 hr stopover it was a 4 hr stopover - plane late landing then next hop was late leaving. Landed at mco about 11pm. The only good thing was because we cleared security at JFK it was literally off the flight and straight to baggage. Our cases were first off (which is a first for us) then straight to the garage. We then drove to Naples. Arrived at hotel 3am. 25 hrs after leaving home. Absolutely shattered. DH struggled the last half hour driving. I rabbited on the whole journey to make sure he was okay. He did struggle last half hour though. If we did it again I’d book a direct flight and drive straight through. If we could only go indirect id book a hotel near the airport for the first night.

[wedinflorida]

We drove to Port st Lucie and stayed in a hotel there for the night. Can’t remember what time our flight arrived but do remember we flew through immigration and was in our car by 6pm. It went all downhill from there unfortunately.

The weather was wet and miserable and it took us 2 hours to get out of Miami and even then the traffic was slow going for most of the journey. We had a quick pit stop at a services and finally arrived at the hotel close to midnight.

We were so tired and wouldn’t attempt it again. I think we would possibly try and stay on the outskirts of Miami next time then take advantage of our body clock and get up early and drive the rest of the way then.

[bullandog]

Hi anyone any recommendations. We to are also on the AA39 flight landing at 17.25 in Miami. I have currently 2 different hotel rooms booked. First hotel at the Hyatt which I believe is 5 mins from airport. Secondly I have booked a room at the Hampton Inn at Hallandale beach.
Any advice is appreciated as to were the best place is to stay.

[DisneyWannabe]

We did Miami flight a couple of years ago and opted to stay at Boca Raton for the night. However, if we did it again it would be airport hotel as DH was so tired. We didn't exit the airport until 8pm and then drove for about 2 hrs, we were all worn out and went straight to bed, but as always up at 4am and drove straight to Orlando.

With hindsight, we would have been bettered served staying at airport overnight and setting of from there at 4am.

[choccyface]

We flew into Miami on Saturday and landed at 4.30pm. Only our flight at immigration and we were on i75 an hour after landing. No traffic out of airport either!xx

[popdriver]

Originally Posted by choccyface

We flew into Miami on Saturday and landed at 4.30pm. Only our flight at immigration and we were on i75 an hour after landing. No traffic out of airport either!xx

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Fab - I am on the fence - did you drive all the way

[Guest]

Originally Posted by popdriver

Fab - I am on the fence - did you drive all the way

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I'm doing the trip the other way from Sanford to Miami. We land at 4.30pm ish. Driving straight to Miami. The way I look at it is

1) Will sleep a little on the plane
2) Always exciting being in Florida so don't want to sleep and waste a day in a drab airport hotel.
3) Buy a can of Redbull (it really does work)
4) Grab a coffee and a 15 minute stop about half way.

I admit I am the type of person that can get by with 4-5 hours of sleep a night and I can 'catnap' meaning after 5 minutes of snoozing I feel awake and refreshed.

[legolass]

Our experience over the last fortnight - we landed in Miami at 7.30pm, had debated about where to stay, had decided to drive to Clewiston about an hour and a half from Miami (tbh when we eventually got to the car hire it was dark and I half wished we had decided to stay at the airport but we had already booked the hotel). Arrived to find they had made a mistake with the booking and only a king room available for 4 of us 😳, got a couple of fold down beds thankfully ... Drove to Disney the next day on the 27 which was really straightforward and quite a nice drive.

We had planned to drive back down to Miami on the same route but read that there had been some roadworks so decided on the turnpike ... well it was more stressful than the slower road but we made it in one piece. I think I would recommend staying somewhere close to the airport and taking the slower road. The turnpike was faster but a bit more stressful!