I don’t even know how it started. Brittany’s mom had mentioned that we were all welcome to come visit her place in Florida, and the next thing I knew, Brittany and I had a fully fledged spreadsheet going. I think it probably started with “Okay, hear me out… the Outer Banks is basically on the way…” and I had eventually convinced her to drive to Florida versus flying down. Y’know, a friends road trip!
So, the Baranilo Road Trip was born! We had the best time taking our five kiddos down to North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia. It was a trip that was full of incredible memories and moments and dancing and laughter. But it was also a trip with lots of stressful moments, kid meltdowns, and tired mamas. Overall, we are so so glad that we took this trip, and all five children did an INCREDIBLE job on this trip. My kids are no stranger to road trips, but this was our first time traveling with friends!
Brittany and I love to travel together and we’ve often joked that our kids better travel well together too or they’re out of the club. But they all did fantastic. People definitely gave us some looks when we told them about our plans, but we’re used to people looking at us a little crazy.
We had originally planned to rent a car and drive down, but car rentals were SO expensive (like, over $2k expensive) and that wasn’t feasible. So we had decided we’d each be driving our own vehicles down like a caravan. But! Then Brittany found really affordable rentals via triple A I think and we ended up renting a car together and that ended up being perfect, and a game changer.
The Itinerary
We started in North Carolina. The original plan was to leave early Wednesday morning, but we decided to leave Tuesday night and drive through the night, and that gave us an entire extra day in NC. I love the Outer Banks, and Brittany and her kids had never been there before so I was SO stoked for them to experience it! We had a super cute air bnb (with a questionable amount of flies, but the kids LOVED chasing them and using the fly swatter) that was right on the water.
We arrived on the Outer Banks early-ish in the morning on Wednesday, and we started out at Nags Head Woods Preserve. This started off rocky but after a break for an early lunch, we were all in better spirits to find the waterfront access of the preserve and I’m so glad we persevered! We spent time at the beach, absolutely delighting in the waves. Visited the Wright Brother’s Memorial which all the kids adored.
After the Outer Banks, we drove through the night again to go stay with Brittany’s mom in the Villages. We were there for a few days and the kids all had a great time! Her mom has a pool that kids lived in most of the time, and it was so fun. We also spent an entire day at Sea World, which was such a special experience! This was a super fun low-key part of the trip, and we are so grateful for the time we had there! It was a nice time to relax and unwind a bit before the final leg of our trip. Brittany’s mom was kind enough to keep all five kids so that we could go see Elevation Church in Orlando. I’m especially grateful for this time in Florida because I ended up super sick as we were leaving North Carolina, and I was off-kilter for the entire next 48 hours.
After Florida, we made our way to Savannah, Georgia! I’ve always wanted to see the trees there, I don’t know why, I just always have. They’re so pretty and I wanted to photograph them! We checked out a few of the big ticket places in Savannah: Tybee Island (HUGE hit with the kids, the water was SO warm!!), the waterfront, Bonaventure Cemetery, and Forsyth Park. The kids loved the air bnb, and got super creative in one of the bedrooms making ramps out of mattresses and cushions.
Then we started our trek back to Maine! We stopped overnight in Virginia to rest and break up the drive, and then headed the rest of the way back. The drive was pretty uneventful, with one really bad spot of traffic that drove me absolutely bananas, but overall we made it! And then we went back to school two days later, haha.
3300 miles
68 hours in the car
11 days
2 adults, 5 kids 9 and under
North Carolina > Florida > Georgia
I hope that this trip becomes a core memory for our kiddos. You can see a fun reel that captures the essence of our trip here.
The Finances
I always like to share the finances of any trip that I take, so that it can help others get an idea of what to expect for something like this!
A few things to keep in mind:
- We rarely ate out. I think only two or three times did we order take-out. Before the trip we bought a lot of food that would travel well and ate a variety of snacks and sandwiches on the road. In each city we stayed in we also hit up the grocery store and planned out what we would need for our meals at each stay and cooked at home!
- Being able to stay with Brittany’s mom in Florida was huge for us in terms of cost-savings, plus it was just fun for everyone to get to hang out with “Bada” 🙂 So we only paid for lodging for two air bnbs and used points to pay for 100% of our hotel rooms in Virginia.
- We got discounted prices on our Seaworld tickets using Triple A, I believe. Brittany booked those ones, but she was able to save us money on our tickets which was a huge help!
- We split the cost of everything EXCEPT for sea world tickets and our own souvenirs.
The finances:
- Our shared cost for the entire trip was $2954.50, so Brittany and I each paid $1477.25.
- I spent individually: $218 on souvenirs from the whole trip and food at Sea World. My Sea World tickets were an additional $211.
- Our Outer Banks Air BnB: $669.07
- Our Savannah Air BnB: $498.13
- Gas: $430.74
- Food: $457.17
- Rental car (Ford Explorer): $713.93
- Tolls: $108.44
What We Did in the Car
At no point during this trip did the kids have screens in the car. We listened to music, podcasts, read books, did a lot of coloring and drawing! The kids did sleep pretty well on the two nights we drove through the night. Brittany was amazing and she created activity books and little packets for each of the three states we were visiting. She swapped out the packets at each location and the kids loved them and having their own little folders. Were the kids bored at some points? You betcha. But they did fine. They also had to put up with shenanigans from me and Brittany, hahah.
The Photos
These are just a fraction of the photos we took!
Linda is a Portland-based photographer specializing in weddings and creating family legacies from Portland to Boston and across New England. You can see more of her work online at lindabarryphotography.com, on Instagram, or on Facebook. If you want to reach out directly: linda@lindabarryphotography.com.
If you liked this post, you might like these also!
comments +