So I've decided to drive this year. We've always flown but with new puppies and an extra kid tagging along, we're renting a minivan and driving. Plus I recently had horrible experience with the TSA where they caused us to miss a flight.

A few questions... What route would you recommend? HWY 10 from Houston, then HWY 12 around NOLA, then HWY 10 again to Pensacola? Is there another route to consider?

From Pensacola, should I take HWY 98 or 10?

What time of day is best? I was considering leaving late evening and driving over night to avoid traffic and to avoid stops while everyone sleeps.

Any other tips? We're leaving this upcoming weekend.

TIA

Consider spending the night somewhere around Slidell. You can priceline a hotel for pretty cheap and it makes the trip over much less stressful.

This trip we took 10 to Defuniak Springs and then headed down from there. Plug it into Waze and do whatever it tells you.

We just got back from that area and had a great time!

Where are you coming from? Houston - Take the 10-12 route. Dallas - Take 20 to 49 through Hattiesburg

You will almost always hit Baton Rouge traffic, as well as traffic at the Mobile tunnel. However, I've never done either in the middle of the night, so that may work.

Take 10 all the way to Defuniak Springs. Do not take 98.

When you get close, take the 331 bridge, not the mid bay bridge (293).

And yes, follow Waze once you get off the interstate. Sometimes there can be a ton of traffic as you get close to 30A. Waze can help guide you around a lot of it, as there are several ways to get there

If you go to defuniak springs (which I agree with) how would you end up on the mid bay bridge?

Not sure Waze will help much, because there aren't many options once you turn on 331 south

Ditto the comment about the 331 bridge and using Waze as you get close. An accident or some unforeseen construction and you are hosed.

We drive every year from katy. Very easy to do. Leave in morning and arrive by dinner. We do not go through pensacola, stay on 10 except around slidell, then back on 10 as long as you can until you take tge toll road into east destin area.

Wife is wanting an extended weekend trip to the beach this summer and not in Texas. Would y'all recommend Seaside? We'd be driving in from College Station. I know nothing of the beaches out that way.

The water in the Destin area is beautiful. Better than anything in Texas by a mile. Orange Beach can be just as pretty on occasion, but not all the time.

We really like the 30a area, and have been going for about 10 years. That said, it is getting crowded. It'd far more crowded today than it was 10 years ago. Also, I prefer the Grayton, Blue Mountain areas over Seaside. They are less expensive, and the beach/water is the same, but that's just my opinion.

If it were up to me, I would just go to Port Aransas, but my wife loves the 30a area and won't go anywhere else. To her credit, it is beautiful there .

If you can handle driving overnight, it is the best decision by far, especially with kids. No traffic and you have a whole extra day to do stuff.

Ive been to beaches in cancun, hawaii, texas, puerto ricoand we have decided that destin is the best bang for our buck from katy. We can get there in an easy 9 hour drive, beaches are awesome with white sand, which beats a 4 hour drive to corpus by a long shot.

We have driven to Mobile, stopped and ate at Felix's (one of my favorite places ever), caught a little shut eye got up and finished it off in the morning. You get some sleep, a great meal and about a full day at the beach when you get there the next day.

From Austin, we spent the night in New Orleans on the way there. Snuck in dinner at Mother's, breakfast at Ruby Slipper, coffee at Cafe du Monde, took the kids on a street car ride, and then hit the road.

We found that Waze helped a ton, even when we didn't expect it. It diverted us around two wrecks, one in La., and one in Fla.

We stayed in Rosemary - stopped at Publix on the way in, parked the suburban in the garage, and didn't start it again for a week.

Beach chair service is a thing, and hard to avoid.

Only take 98 if you're planning to take the toll bridge over to Pcola Beach and drive along the National Seashore. It's kind of cool to drive that and Okaloosa Island since they're the only pristine beaches in the area (i.e. not covered in/obscured from view by condos) that you can drive along. But that's only recommended if you really want to do that and are really not in a hurry.

Otherwise, 331 is the way to go despite the construction. If you can swing it with your accommodations, think about coming in middle of the week or even Sunday is better than Saturday, because everybody else and their dog is coming in on Saturday and both 331 and mid-bay will be backed up. Mid-bay probably worse because of the toll plaza, but I've seen 331 backed up to damn near Hwy 20 (5 miles or so north of the bridge). We went into Destin Sunday evening via mid-bay and there was no traffic. Took 331 bridge on the way to Panama City last Thursday and it was empty.

Stop at the Shed BBQ in Mississippi.

We just got back from Blue Mountain Beach. Left our house in CS at 4:00 am. Got to the condo about 5:00 pm. We were traveling with another family, 5 kids in total. We made 2 stops to sit down and eat including Felix's in Mobile and one other time to get gas. Felix's has become a tradition for us too.

Locals say the Mobile tunnel starts to back up around noon. Ok the way back, we spent the night in Baton Rouge to visit friends. IMO driving straight through is better. Bite the bullet and only use one day to travel.

The Shed's a cool place, but in my experience, the bbq is just so-so. A great place for friday night drinks and a live band, but not my first pick for a quick stop lunch on a long drive.

If you're going to stop and eat in that area of MS, I'd recommend taking the 15 minute detour off the interstate to Bozo's in Pascagoula for a po-boy. RIP SOS in Ocean Springs and the best fish sandwich on the Gulf Coast...

Also, you can skip the tunnel in Mobile via 165/Water St. but it's a good bit out of the way. I'd trust Waze or Google maps to direct the shortest route.

So I downloaded Waze based on this thread. Does it basically work the same as google maps? Just type in the address and it gives you the best route?

We started traveling to Destin in 1985 from DFW. We have tried just about all routes & times. Traffic on Sat is awful & part of the reason is because that is the "turn over" day that the rental companies use. Some use Sunday but the volume is much lower. We usually leave DFW on a Fri afternoon & drive as far as we can. If you can get thru Mobile before noon on Sat it will make a big difference. One year we breezed right thru Mobile late at night & spent the night at a hotel just east of the tunnel. Also the earlier you can get to the grocery store on Sat the better. They actually start running out of things!

Heading that way July 5. Hoping most folks have already traveled that direction for the holiday and we may miss some traffic. Also leaving early - 5am ish - thinking most are sleeping off the effects of 4th partying.

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Also the earlier you can get to the grocery store on Sat the better. They actually start running out of things!

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The Publix in Watercolor was like Black Friday last Saturday. Pack your essentials if you can and try to hold out until Sunday for your store trip, or take the extra 20 minutes and drive to Walmart in Destin.

There's a Walmart in Santa Rosa Beach, too. FWIW, I went to Destin Walmart the Sunday before last at around 6pm just to pick up some ship to store items, and the place was a damn mad house.

That is the one i was talking about, has the walmart liquor store attached to it.

Heading to Rosemary Beach on Friday. We've been going to Destin for 15 years or so and decided to do a quieter, less congested location. Hope it works out!

Booked a hotel for $126 in Slidell. Traveling with three kids, so plan on doing 8 hours of road time from DFW in 2 hour chunks. Only an hour and a half from Slidell to Mobile tunnell, so should get there before the noon rush.

Any recs on Rosemary Beach?

Genuinely curious, if you've been going 15 years why are you taking the Slidell route? I think most of us who make the trip frequently have determined the 20 to Jackson and down through Hattiesburg route to be the quickest and most pleasant.

My wife works out at Rosemary frequently, so she usually doesn't feel like out there on weekends off, but we have had a couple great meals at Paradis in the past and they had an early bird special with half priced entrees from 5-6, I think. Now that 30a has blown up, they may not do it anymore.

Good question. We went the Hattiesburg route last year and didn't see much difference.

Only show Slidell as 6 minutes slower.

We've booked a hotel already for the trip out there, but give me your thoughts and we might change our route for the way back.

I don't know that there is a while lot of difference. My opinion is based entirely on anecdotal experiences. But generally, LA roads suck and their Hwy patrolmen suck worse, so the quicker I can through that state, the better. Also always just seemed like more major construction/delays on 10 than 20. May not save a bunch of time, but it always just seemed like an easier drive.

Once I decided that, I stuck with it so I haven't done the LA route in years. I was kinda hoping you had a good excuse for me to try it again next week just for kicks. Seems like it's just more personal preference than anything.

Got ya. I'll update you on Friday when I'm sitting in traffic after receiving my ticket ha!

Headed to Destin on July 2nd. This thread is of interest to me. Right now the plan is to make the entire trip from Cypress beginning at 4am. May change my plans based on feedback but we will see. Good and informative thread though.

Forgot to add, I've had bad luck with car trouble over the years, so that 20 mile long bridge over Atchafalaya Swamp always freaked me out - breaking down or getting a flat in the middle of that thing would be the worst.

2ndChance, I've always made the trip in one day whether to/from DFW, Houston, Austin, or BCS. It should be a breeze in one day from Houston area. If you leave at 4a and even allowing for stops/traffic you should get to your condo right around check in 2-3p.

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Forgot to add, I've had bad luck with car trouble over the years, so that 20 mile long bridge over Atchafalaya Swamp always freaked me out - breaking down or getting a flat in the middle of that thing would be the worst.

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Man you are not kidding! That thing freaks me out too! Amazing engineering project there for sure.

We've always driven straight through. Tomorrow will be the first time we did a two day trip from DFW. 2 year old is my biggest concern. Other kids will iPad/DVD all the way there.

My neighbor and homebrew homie is an LSU grad and Slidell native. He swears by Southside Cafe and the chocolate daquiri from Daquiris Now.

I'll be hauling an 8 yr old, 2 yr old, and 5 month old for the first time when I drive it next week... pray for me.

Made it to Slidell. Dealt with some pretty serious traffic in Baton Rouge and again in Hammond. Will do Hattisburg route on way back. Still made decent time though, but not exactly a relaxing drive.

Hearing tons of June grass in water. That stuff sucks. Hopefully it clears out soon.

My dad's company chartered a party boat for a fishing trip tomorrow, so I'll report on water conditions tomorrow evening. We had a couple nasty lines of storms blow through tonight from the north, so with any luck it broke up some of that junk or pushed it offshore a bit.

We love vacationing on 30A. Great beaches, attractions, & accommodations. You're on vacation..... Stay a night in New Orleans. A little out of the way, but well worth it. An Aggir owns the restaurant in Alys beach. He also owns a sandwich shop closer to The Water Color development. Plus, you're in SEC territory. Wear your Aggie gear. I talked to Tommy Bowden the last time I was there.!

George (the Ag) sold George's and La Cocina last year, but still owns Seagrove Market at 395/30a. He's really friendly and setup some great restaurants on 30a. Even the two he sold are still solid (actually just finished eating at La Cocina).