Early planning of a possible road trip to the beach

We usually take 2 little trips each summer, one on a lake with all my family for a week (3 hr drive north) in Wisconsin and then 3 days at the Wisconsin Dells.
If I can plan ahead and I can get enough time off, maybe arrange 8-9days off we are thinking of taking a road trip next year. We think it would be easier and cheaper than flying with a family of 5. Oldest is autistic and we have never flown and can have more control of situations if we drive. I am just not sure it is feasible to drive to the coast from southern Wisconsin if we take 2 days to drive and only have 8 days total. And we would have to do it over spring break or maybe mid June. Would rather not have a very populated place for DD1. All kids like water and am afraid if we do Carolinas the water will be too cold. I think Florida would be too far for a week long trip. Not sure how far we could drive in 1 day.
Any suggestions?

We often do 10 hour drives for vacation. Flying isn’t practical because we need gear and airports are all dinky (and expensive). Most times we do that in one day. My kids have been doing these trips their whole life and handle them great!
I would do somewhere in June for weather. We go to Virginia (Sandbridge- highly recommend) and some years we’ve done June. It’s been warm enough.


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June will be warm enough in the Carolinas. It is even usually warm enough for beach weather in the midatlantic.

When we do longer drives we do more on the first day. So if you have a 16 hour trip do 10-11 on day one and you only have 5-6 on day two. Usually that means we are there for a late lunch and can enjoy the afternoon and evening at our destination.

We always drive and do 13 hours yearly. My kids are used to it now. We tend to pack the night before and then just have a small bag to throw any last minute things into, like toothbrushes. We tend to leave about 6am. That gives us enough sleep and we are at a hotel in time to relax, especially for a second driving day.

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