Road trip from north Alabama to Florida during Spring Break

[akt85]

This weekend, me, my mom, sister and brother in law will be traveling from Huntsville, Alabama to Live Oak, Florida between Tallahassee and Jacksonville to see my grandma. My brother in law is a teacher and it is his spring break next week.

Normally, we go I-65 to U.S. 231 to I-10 to go see my grandma. However, I-65 in Alabama is heavily congested during Spring Break with those going to the beach. There is I-75 in Georgia, but Atlanta is also congested.

From personal experience, how would you recommend going from north Alabama to the Big Bend region of north Florida while trying to avoid I-65, especially between Birmingham and Montgomery or through Atlanta if going through Georgia is the best route?

Is Atlanta traffic as bad on a Saturday afternoon? Has anyone bypassed by Atlanta by getting off at I-20 at Bremen and going through Carrollton, Newnan and Griffin and picking up 75 below Atlanta around Jackson?

[Max Rockatansky]

I used to drop into Florida via from Columbus via US 431, Dothan and US 231 quite a bit.  My trips were usually heading west from the state line to Destin, but I don't see why it wouldn't work just as well going east.

[1995hoo]

Atlanta seems like it's way out of the way to the east. Have you considered using US-280 southeast from Birmingham through Opelika and Phenix City, entering Georgia just to the south of Columbus, and then at Richland continuing down GA-520 to Albany? From there, the most direct route is probably GA-133 to Valdosta and then connect south by whatever route suits you.

[freebrickproductions]

I'm gonna second US 431 from Huntsville to Dothan. I know the route was historically nicknamed the "Florida Short Route" for a reason, lol.

[formulanone]

We usually plan for I-65 > I-85 > US 231 > I-10 > I-75 (for points like Gainesville, Tampa, Orlando).

If traffic gets bad near or inside the Birmingham metro, Google Maps frequently suggests US 280 (and/or GA 520) towards I-75, which is a lot less stressful. It's been known to shunt us over to 280 towards US 231 or even 431.

I'm lucky my wife doesn't mind if we take different routes since traffic makes her nervous, but it's also makes the pit stops and food choices a little less harder to predict. We'll sometimes use area around Tallahassee to Dothan areas as a stopping-off point from South Florida for the way home. Depends on how late a departure we get in our planning in advance (or if there's an FSU football game that weekend, which forces us quite a bit away from the area).

[jdb1234]

We usually plan for I-65 > I-85 > US 231 > I-10 > I-75 (for points like Gainesville, Tampa, Orlando).

If traffic gets bad near or inside the Birmingham metro, Google Maps frequently suggests US 280 (and/or GA 520) towards I-75, which is a lot less stressful. It's been known to shunt us over to 280 towards US 231 or even 431.

I'm lucky my wife doesn't mind if we take different routes since traffic makes her nervous, but it's also makes the pit stops and food choices a little less harder to predict. We'll sometimes use area around Tallahassee to Dothan areas as a stopping-off point from South Florida for the way home. Depends on how late a departure we get in our planning in advance (or if there's an FSU football game that weekend, which forces us quite a bit away from the area).

I used to go this way as well.  However, I had gotten where I preferred taking US 280 & GA 520 to I-75.  US 280 south of Birmingham is a pain, but if you time it just right, it can be manageable.

[akt85]

It's probably been 20 years since I've driven between Columbus and Albany down U.S. 19 to I-10. Are there more services between Columbus and Albany now than there was 20 years ago? How about on U.S. 431 between Phenix City and Dothan?

[akt85]

I tried going I-65 to U.S. 280 to Georgia 520 to U.S. 19 down to I-10 to go to my grandma's house. There was very little traffic on 280 once I got past Chelsea. I-65 had standstill traffic between Birmingham and Montgomery on a Saturday morning due to spring break.

On the way back, me and my mom took the usual I-10 to U.S. 231 to I-65. Since it was midweek, there was much less spring break traffic and except for a wreck at Vestavia Hills we easily got around, it was smooth sailing home. Going the backroads to Florida seemed to take longer, but with all the traffic jams due to spring break, it probably would have taken the same amount of time going our usual way. At least we got to see all the peanut and pecan farms of South Georgia.