Driving to Tampa

[HandSanitizer]

Anyone got any advice on driving to Tampa? Heard a lot of people say to stay in Nashville. Go through Atlanta etc..
But just had someone say to drive through Memphis then through Birmingham. Its quicker and let motion sickness?
leaving from Des Moines. It it more miles and says more time on google, but sometimes that isn't right when it comes to going through hills and traffic etc...

Thoughts?

 

[Triggermv]

Well, my first thought is why you are driving to Tampa when there is ridiculously cheap direct flights there through Allegiant out of Des Moines? Past that though, I've got no advice. Good luck!!!

 

[Clonefan32]

Anyone got any advice on driving to Tampa? Heard a lot of people say to stay in Nashville. Go through Atlanta etc..
But just had someone say to drive through Memphis then through Birmingham. Its quicker and let motion sickness?
leaving from Des Moines. It it more miles and says more time on google, but sometimes that isn't right when it comes to going through hills and traffic etc...

Thoughts?

Drove to Orlando over Spring Break. We did Memphis/Birmingham/Panhandle route on the way down and the Atlanta route on the way back. Atlanta route was much faster, although I will say we went through Atlanta pretty late at night and thus avoided too much traffic.

 

[Tank]

From Des Moines:
Go through St Louis, Memphis, Birmingham and then the FL Panhandle. It is a nice drive and you get to see the south while avoiding Atlanta.

Stay in Memphis, then Destin or Panama City Beach. It is a great drive but I am also biased b/c I live in the Ft Walton Beach/Destin area.

 

[HandSanitizer]

Got 3 kids and my sister just moved down there. have a lot of time off so thought we would just drive down. Never driven to Florida. Always have flew.

 

[Buster28]

Avoid Atlanta by road or air. You'll be glad you did.

 

[HandSanitizer]

From Des Moines:
Go through St Louis, Memphis, Birmingham and then the FL Panhandle. It is a nice drive and you get to see the south while avoiding Atlanta.

Stay in Memphis, then Destin or Panama City Beach. It is a great drive but I am also biased b/c I live in the Ft Walton Beach/Destin area.

Thanks! May have to try this way. Appreciate the advice.

 

[HandSanitizer]

Drove to Orlando over Spring Break. We did Memphis/Birmingham/Panhandle route on the way down and the Atlanta route on the way back. Atlanta route was much faster, although I will say we went through Atlanta pretty late at night and thus avoided too much traffic.

So have you driven both? So Atlanta was faster, but could depend on when you go through it?
What about the drive? If you are easy to get motion sickness (wife) Memphis route better?

 

[no2cyclones]

Having experienced both Nashville and Memphis a bit, I would recommend Memphis if you're going to be there for an evening. Great downtown area with restaurants, bars, music, and (most importantly) great barbecue.

If you're going through during the daytime, however, I recommend Nashville. Lots more to see/do if you want a few hours off the road.

As others have said, avoid Atlanta during rush hours. At. All. Costs.

 

[JRE1975]

I have too much experience on this drive-

fastest is going thru Atlanta as long as you plan the trip to avoid rush hour and driving I-75 thru downtown in non-rush hour times is faster than the by-pass. To make it a two day trip find a place to stop south of Nashville.

The following route takes about 1- 1.5 hours longer in the car, but is a lot less stressful-

Get to Nashville, go south on I-65 to Montgomery, take 231 (take the by-pass to 231 on the north side of Montgomery), take 231 down to I-10, I-10 east until you are about 20 miles east of Tallahassee (Florida Georgia parkway) go south a few miles to highway 98 and go south and follow the map to Tampa, and use the toll road it is only about $6-$7 . There are some small towns and some stop lights, but no traffic and it is divided 4 lane road the whole trip. Easy drive. Half way point on this trip is around the Alabama Tennessee border.

Good luck, it will go quick.

There are always troopers on I-24 in Illinois!

 

[Wesley]

So have you driven both? So Atlanta was faster, but could depend on when you go through it?
What about the drive? If you are easy to get motion sickness (wife) Memphis route better?

Watch the weather fronts. I would prefer the northern route if it was stormy.

 

[JP4CY]

I had a blast in Memphis for the Liberty Bowl. I would stay there.

 

[carvers4math]

We have gone to Orlando several times with the overnight in Nashville and through Atlanta. Everything is easy except through Atlanta, which terrifies me, but I wasn't the one driving. However, as everyone else said, just time when you go through Atlanta. We once did a crazy thing driving straight to Atlanta and not leaving Iowa until mid afternoon. Gotta say that Atlanta at 4:30 a.m. is a piece of cake.:laugh:

 

[huntt26]

Both Memphis and Nashville are great to party in!

 

[HandSanitizer]

Thank you all for the post. Will help me out a ton. I just spent the last week driving a rental car all around Houston so Atlanta can't be too much worse. I think I may aim for the less stressful route though.

 

[DIRustCohle]

Atlanta route is at least an hour shorter, but you can actually hit bad traffic even outside of Atlanta to the south, so that could even it out. Either way, don't stay in Nashville. A longer first day, shorter second is always better. Make for south of Nashville. Athens/Decatur/Huntsville is about 2 hours south, and on the east route, Chattanooga is about two hours. Splits the drive up 14/10 pretty much.

 

[sunnysideup]

Atlanta route is at least an hour shorter, but you can actually hit bad traffic even outside of Atlanta to the south, so that could even it out. Either way, don't stay in Nashville. A longer first day, shorter second is always better. Make for south of Nashville. Athens/Decatur/Huntsville is about 2 hours south, and on the east route, Chattanooga is about two hours. Splits the drive up 14/10 pretty much.

This. I drove to Orlando last year. Left from the metro and took the STL/Nashville/Atlanta route. Easy as pie. On the way down stayed the night in Chattanooga. Nice town with some good food/bars in the downtown area (kind of like a Court Ave district). Atlanta wasn't bad at all. If you are hitting it on a weekend you can pretty much go straight though with no issues. Otherwise the beltway is available and it only adds another 20-30 minutes at most to the drive.

 

[sunnysideup]

On a side note to this I think hands down Nashville's traffic is worse than Atlanta. At least Atlanta has an option to go around. In Nashville you pretty much have to go straight through no matter what. And most of the interstates downtown are all tore up with construction.

 

[MeanDean]

Agree on Nashville is as bad or worse than Atlanta. All kinds of quickie exits left or right to stay on I-24.

Like everyone said, avoid Atlanta anytime between 6 AM and 10 AM and 3 and 6 PM. And go straight through on 75, do not take the loop around. If you have more than one person just get in the diamond lane and keep up with the car in front of you. You make good time and have your own exit lane downtown which is nice. I also feel safer having that left shoulder available rather than being in the middle lanes.

Be forewarned, you can always hit a bad back up if there's an accident no matter what route you choose.

Also, if you're going through southern Illinois, there can be a backup crossing the Ohio River into Paducah. They are working on the bridge and it's only one lane. Going south in December we were backed up about a half a hour.