RT2 – Day 7 – A long day's drive from Washington to Savannah

After our day in Washington, we head south. The goal of the trip is Florida, and there’s some driving to do before we get there. Today is the longest leg of the road trip: nearly 900 km to Savannah, Georgia. At last we’re leaving the polar cold behind and getting closer to the tropics.

Leaving Washington and the cold

One last look at our hotel and the red-brick buildings of Washington, still hung with their Christmas wreaths, and we were back in the car. Check-out was quick and we set off at around 9am. Breakfast wasn’t included at the Arlo, but the Nespresso machine in the room did the job for the morning coffee.

Nine hours on I-95

We followed Interstate 95, the motorway that runs the whole length of the East Coast, from Maine to Miami. On the route: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and finally Georgia. Allow about nine hours’ driving, not counting breaks. The landscape changes little by little: fewer towns, and a lot of pine forest.

On a day like this, it’s best to leave early, plan a break every two hours and take turns at the wheel if there are two drivers. American rest areas are free and fairly clean, and you’ll find petrol stations and shops at almost every exit. For everything else, see our guide to driving in the United States.

If you can, we’d advise taking a lot more time than we did over this route. Our aim was Christmas in New York and New Year’s Eve in Miami, so we were in a bit of a hurry on the way down. It was a choice we made, but it’s really worth doing it at a gentler pace.

Shopping at Food Lion

In the evening, before arriving, we stopped to pick up a few things at a Food Lion supermarket. We almost felt at home.

On the shelves, though, we were soon back in America: tubs of mac and cheese to heat up in the microwave for $1.19, cereals in every colour and giant bottles of soda.

Arriving in Savannah

We arrived in Savannah after dark, pretty worn out by the long day in the car.

For the night we had picked a cheap hotel, just as a stopover on the journey: the GLō Best Western Savannah-Gateway, right by I-95, for $116 with breakfast. Honestly, not great at all: the cleanliness was borderline and the breakfast was nothing to write home about.

The rest of the drive down to Florida is on day 8 (coming out on November 8, 2026).