My in laws do a summer trip to Gulf Shores every summer. My wife and I have historically flown to Pensacola and rented a car, but this year we've decided to drive as we have a 1 year old kiddo in tow.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the journey in general, and where to stay if we decide to split it up into two days?

Would like to stay somewhere decently nice/safe if possible, but doesn't appear to be much along the way.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Sheraton Flowood in Jackson, MS near the airport is safe and a great hotel. Have not stayed myself but people I know traveling back and forth frequently have raved about it.

I second Hotel Indigo in Hattiesburg. Just stayed there to split up trip to 30A. Never have stayed on the way back but Monroe,LA would be about 4 hours from Dallas if you decide to do that.

We have done that drive every summer for a decade...and yes with newborns.

Hit the road by 7am, and you are there by late afternoon. It's not that bad.If the kiddo needs feeding, etc...just have an adult sit in the back seat, and trade out when you get gas.

One day for sure. I don't know how much of a one year old your kid is. There is a big difference between newly 1 and almost 2, but either way, the kid will be fine.

If they're on the older side or fully walking/running, then maybe try to stop for lunch where they can get their wiggles out. At a place you can keep an eye on the car so you're not worried about a break in with all the stuff you'll have.

If you need somewhere to stop to let the kiddo run, there is a place in Vicksburg named Riverfront park that is about 1/2 way. As the name would suggest, it's on the river right when you cross the bridge and get to Vicksburg. It's not the best side of town, but in the middle of the day it's fine. There is lots of room to run and some playgrounds. The park is about 3-4 blocks north of the interstate, and there is also a McDonalds about 2 blocks south of the interstate is you need something easy.

Do a live posting blog while you drive!

T dizl televizl said:

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Thanks everyone for the replies. Told my wife (who likes to dog on how much time I spend on texags) that I asked the greatest minds in the world and the consensus was to not stop and do it all at once.

She rolled her eyes once she realized it was texags lol and then said yeah that probably makes sense.

Now I sit and wait to be told which option we will take.

Thanks again for the help!

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Texags- saving marriages one at a time (not a very good t shirt slogan)

We left a day early and stayed in Mobile downtown. Let's the kids walk around the park, then in the morning we killed time at the battleship then drove into gulf shores in the afternoon, hit the grocery store and checked in at 3 at the vrbo. It was nice to split it up and the museum is pretty cool.

RogerFurlong said:

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We left a day early and stayed in Mobile downtown. Let's the kids walk around the park, then in the morning we killed time at the battleship then drove into gulf shores in the afternoon, hit the grocery store and checked in at 3 at the vrbo. It was nice to split it up and the museum is pretty cool.

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last time i drove to Rosemary with the kids. This is where i stopped. made the next day super easy. we milled around in the morning. slowly got going then stopped at a beach front restaurant just before Rosemary that the kids could play in the sand and eat while waiting for our rental check in.

It adds miles and time, but if you prefer the scenic route, I've done the drive twice heading southeast out of Shreveport to Baton Rouge. Head east from there and you can drive the beach on Hwy 90 from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi. Mississippi Beaches were nicer than I expected. If you want to stay south you can take the Dauphin Island ferry to Ft Morgan and then you're basically at Gulf Shores.

I'm the kind of driver that doesn't just go the fastest route if adding a little time let's me see cool stuff.

DallasArchAg05 said:

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It adds miles and time, but if you prefer the scenic route, I've done the drive twice heading southeast out of Shreveport to Baton Rouge. Head east from there and you can drive the beach on Hwy 90 from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi. Mississippi Beaches were nicer than I expected. If you want to stay south you can take the Dauphin Island ferry to Ft Morgan and then you're basically at Gulf Shores.

I'm the kind of driver that doesn't just go the fastest route if adding a little time let's me see cool stuff.

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With the Dauphin Island ferry you need to monitor their facebook page to make sure it's not full. Don't want to get stuck waiting in line and one of the ferry's goes down. Its super convenient if you're staying in Fort Morgan.

DallasArchAg05 said:

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It adds miles and time, but if you prefer the scenic route, I've done the drive twice heading southeast out of Shreveport to Baton Rouge. Head east from there and you can drive the beach on Hwy 90 from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi. Mississippi Beaches were nicer than I expected. If you want to stay south you can take the Dauphin Island ferry to Ft Morgan and then you're basically at Gulf Shores.

I'm the kind of driver that doesn't just go the fastest route if adding a little time let's me see cool stuff.

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Im the ty

Done this drive for 10 years with 2 - 3 kids. All in one day is absolutely the way to go. Leave around 6-7 am and you'll be eating dinner at the beach. I20 to Jackson, then to Mobile, then I10. Berry's seafood south of Jackson is a great stop, good buffet and good family atmosphere. Plenty of other options along the way as well. Louisiana welcome center has free coffee. We take all our beach stuff in the van, way better than flying in and trying to source it all there.

You pass 2 Buc-ee's btw! I insist we stop at the Alabama one even though we're only 45 minutes from being at our condo.

WT05 said:

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Done this drive for 10 years with 2 - 3 kids. All in one day is absolutely the way to go. Leave around 6-7 am and you'll be eating dinner at the beach. I20 to Jackson, then to Mobile, then I10. Berry's seafood south of Jackson is a great stop, good buffet and good family atmosphere. Plenty of other options along the way as well. Louisiana welcome center has free coffee. We take all our beach stuff in the van, way better than flying in and trying to source it all there.

You pass 2 Buc-ee's btw! I insist we stop at the Alabama one even though we're only 45 minutes from being at our condo.

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I do the same when we go to Destin/Miramar Beach. It's about that time that I really start to feel the fatigue and need to walk around a minute. The last stretch can have heavy traffic, so it's better for everyone if I've had a break before getting to that point.

Following back up on this.

We made the drive down to gulf shores (fort Morgan) and did it all in one day. Took I-20 route then came through Jackson/Hattiesburg and down to mobile.

Drive in and of itself wasn't too bad. There were some stretches of construction and traffic that bogged us down but nothing too terrible.

Overall travel time was 11 hrs 45 minutes with stopping just for gas basically and to shovel down some pre made sandwiches.

One piece of advice I would have for others is don't leave Dallas at 8 am. That put us arriving into mobile at 5:45 on a Friday afternoon which meant traffic. Not terrible but not ideal for tail end of the drive.

We head back to Dallas later this week and might try to swing a stop into the golden nugget in lake Charles or somewhere else. Just to try to not do it all at once. I have some joint issues in my legs and 12 hours without much break was hard on me

Beach has been wonderful. Highs have been around 90 but with a good breeze and cools down at night to be able to sit outside comfortably. My in laws always get a house right on the water so that has been fantastic. Seeing our son in the ocean for the first time has been special as well. He turns 1 on Friday so this has been a cool way to finish up the first year.

FayetteAg92 said:

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Wife and I had two kiddos at the time but a couple of years ago we drove to straight thru to Destin. I joked with her that we should leave in the middle of the night and we actually went through with it. Sounds crazy, but hardly any traffic and kids slept the whole way. We left around 1 am.

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Not to gulf shores but we do long road trips skiing or pulling our rv to the west. We routinely leave at 3am or so. Sometimes we're damn near to Amarillo before the kids are awake.

These ideas just take a man/beast/machine of a driver, which I am, to do.

It's convenient for everyone else but me. And I'm ok with that.

We did 800 miles home in 1 shot pulling the RV. I am all that is man.

And it's amazing how the promise of a McDonald's breakfast buys a lot of cooperation for those early morning departures.

I think the Jackson route is a bit faster, but that 3 hour "just set cruise, turn off your brain, and drive" stretch on 49 if you cut diagonally across LA is pretty nice. There is hardly anyone on it. I think both routes are probably within 10-15 minutes of each other

Drove back today and took I-10 route to Baton Rouge and then up 49 to Shreveport. Would say I much preferred this route just from the standpoint of ease of turning the mind off from Baton Rouge to Shreveport like poster above said.

We made it home in 11 hours vs 12 hours on way to gulf shores via i20 route and then cutting down through Mississippi.

With 1 year old in tow that hour of shaving off time made huge difference.

Thanks to everyone who contributed on here. Appreciate all the advice

Good to hear. The trip there is oftentimes going to be longer because of the traffic in/near Mobile in the evening, and if you do it on a Saturday, the trip into GS is more too since so many rentals are Saturday-Saturday. So all else held equal, the Jackson route is slightly faster, however, the ease of 49 for 3 hours near the middle is hard to beat. So that's the way we almost always take. We've been renting a house on the beach there every other summer for the past 18 years, from the time our kids were 5 and 1 to now 23 and 19