VS 005 LHR-MIA

Morning all,

The wife and I are flying to MIA next month and are picking up a rental car and heading to New Orleans. We were wondering roughly how long it usually takes to get through Immigration at MIA and out to the rental car lots as we want to get a few hours drive in that evening and would like to know roughly how far we can get so we can look at Hotels.

Many thanks
Dominic

Wow, that's some drive.
Just bear in mind even though the clock may say 6pm in Miami your brain will say it's 1 a.m.
Also bear in mind you'll be driving a car that's strange to you on the wrong side of the road so you'll need all the concentration you can muster.

We do a much shorter drive from Orlando up to South Carolina and stay at the airport hotel so we are totally fresh for a drive the next day. Our son did the trip one year and drove from Orlando to Daytona on the day of the flight and seriously regretted it due to fatigue.

In my experience it's impossible to say how long it will take to clear immigration and customs as it depends a lot on whether any planes land in front of you and you can't go on schedules.

I'd allow an hour and half and hope you get through quicker.

Dick D

Morning Domenic,

As many on here will testify, MIA immigration is one of the worst that you could wish to encounter. I have been through there on 3 or 4 occasions, in UC and PE, and found myself looking at the queue behind me in horror - I dread to think how long it would take to clear in economy. It took me 45 mins from getting of the plane in UC once, so be prepared!
I'm sure there are people that have breezed through but the general opinion seems to be that it's a painful experience.
Once you have got through that part, the rental car centre is reached via monorail from the main terminal. This can be a bit hit and miss as to how long the queues are, but that will depend on your rental company.
All in all, I personally always book a hotel in Miami just due to knowing what it CAN be like getting out of the airport. Apologies for the doom and gloom, I hope it turns out to be the opposite!!

Thanks for the replies,

We are travelling UC in 18/19A so should be pretty well rested and amongst the first off the plane through to Immigration, I am a Hertz No1 Gold member so can go straight to my Dodge RT Challenger (think the General Lee) without the need to visit the counter. We are both old hands at USA road trips and are very accustomed to their way of driving.

I was expecting it may take up to 2 hours to reach my car so anything less would be a bonus, sounds like we might make it as far as Orlando for a night, then taking the coastal road to Pensacola the next day.

Many thanks
Dominic

May seem like a silly question but why fly to Miami then drive to Orlando, rather than fly to Orlando?
Dick D

May seem like a silly question but why fly to Miami then drive to Orlando, rather than fly to Orlando?
Dick D

Reward availability ( and the LHR CH ) ??

DL

May seem like a silly question but why fly to Miami then drive to Orlando, rather than fly to Orlando?
Dick D

Reward availability ( and the LHR CH ) ??

DL

Not at all silly, we managed to book a couple of G's last month and of course the LHR CH and DTCI

Dominic.

The problem in MIA is that immigration is such a lottery, I've flown there 3 times and on two of those occasions I've been in the queue for the rental shuttle (last flew there before the new rental car facility) within 30min of getting off the plane, and the other it took about an hour. That was when VS5 left LHR earlier though so there were fewer flights arriving at the same time! You do hear horror stories of 2-3 hours just for immigration though.

Once you're in the car it's an easy drive up to Orlando, you have a choice of taking the Turnpike or the more lightly-trafficked US27 which we found much quicker and yet at the same time less frantic - if you've just come off a long flight it's a nicer route to take.

With the later arrival time of VS5 now though I think I'd lean toward the idea of just staying overnight near MIA and then hitting the road nice and early the next morning!

We've already booked next years flights and for a moment or two you had me considering MIA for 2016.
Now if I were in a Dodge Challenger maybe I'd add 230 miles to my journey in return for a better chance at an upgrade.
I'll probably be in Jeep or similar so I think I'll go with plan B and fly to Atlanta.

Dick D

Why not just fly from MIA to New Orleans?

Why not just fly from MIA to New Orleans?

Simply because we love a bit of a road trip.

Why not just fly from MIA to New Orleans?

Simply because we love a bit of a road trip.

Awesome (my kind of mentality) .
Since BB I don't think of the Challenger as the "General Lee" any more ( and I remember the original lol ).
Great car to do a trip in nonetheless .
Have fun .
DL

Challenger = Sam Hannah in NCIS LA
Enjoy the trip.
Dick D

Try looking up Miami on the CBP website that gives you 'average' wait times at the airports
http://awt.cbp.gov/ you can check histories and get a feel for the sort of time you can expect. (then double it )

I drove from Orlando to Little Rock in 2005(900 miles) but we stopped just over the border in Georgia the first night around 200 miles) then the bulk the following day boy was I shattered when we got into LR. I would suggest getting as far as Kissimmee/Orlando is your best bet that will only leave you around 600 to do the next day.

Challenger = Sam Hannah in NCIS LA
Enjoy the trip.
Dick D

Exactly what I was thinking. Such a cool looking & sounding car Have fun in that

Challenger = Sam Hannah in NCIS LA
Enjoy the trip.
Dick D

Exactly what I was thinking. Such a cool looking & sounding car Have fun in that

Thanks we will have a great time I'm sure.
This was taken a couple of years ago when the wife and I drove some of route 66.

Try looking up Miami on the CBP website that gives you 'average' wait times at the airports
http://awt.cbp.gov/ you can check histories and get a feel for the sort of time you can expect. (then double it )

Thanks for that, I have checked the last five Saturdays around the scheduled arrival time and the average wait is around 18 minutes so being first off it looks like we could be on the road quite quickly barring any issues.

I drove from Orlando to Little Rock in 2005(900 miles) but we stopped just over the border in Georgia the first night around 200 miles) then the bulk the following day boy was I shattered when we got into LR. I would suggest getting as far as Kissimmee/Orlando is your best bet that will only leave you around 600 to do the next day.

Based on what others have said we have booked a room in Orlando for the night then spend the following day driving the coastal road along the Pan Handle to Pensacola.

Many thanks
Dominic

It's a nice drive we did it back in 2005 having stayed at Pensacola for a few days on the way back from Little Rock.

That is almost exactly what we have done in the past and are doing again in September. Two years ago, we flew into Miami and drove up the coast to Jupiter beach before stopping for the night. This was fine but by the time we got there, we were too tired to do anything with what was left of the day. I should say, this was travelling in Y (in the bubble) so I'd be happy to drive further if I'd travelled in UC and had some sleep. My better half doesn't drive and is usually asleep after being in the car 30 minutes!

This time round, we are taking VS005 and travelling UC to Miami but staying in an hotel right outside the airport. We discovered Toms Bar last time and will be more than happy to collect the car (hopefully a Mustang) and drive 10 minutes round the corner to the first hotel and settle in the bar. Also means that if a Mustang isn't available on the Monday night, I can pop back on Tuesday morning and hopefully do a swap! :-)

Our flight landed on time into MIA and we taxied to what must be the furthest gate from the immigration hall (the best part of a twenty minute walk, no joke), through immigration in a breeze and onto the baggage hall where there were some delays in the baggage arriving.

Mrs Hull used this extra time to discover that she had left her iPad in the side pocket below the IFE in 18A, she managed to talk to a ground agent who arranged for someone to go back to the aircraft and check, an hour later Mrs Hull was reunited with her iPad so we went from being first off to being last through customs.

I checked my email several times to see which bay my Hertz rental was in but no joy so I went up to the desk to see what was happening only to be told that the Limited Edition Penske Racing Mustang GT I had reserved had not been returned by the previous customer (in fact it was over a day late) so ended up with my original RT Challenger for a bargain $440 for the week.

We finally set off for our Hotel in Orlando (Hilton Lake Buena Vista) getting there at midnight, a very long day indeed.

Hah, I remember that walk, my wife joked that although we'd landed in Miami, we were walking to Tampa to get through customs!

Congrats on the bargain, always a shame when you don't get your first choice but a decent price almost makes up for it.

Enjoy the rest of your trip :-)

PS - Very jealous, still at work and counting the days until our Florida trip: 87 days, 23 hours!

PS - Very jealous, still at work and counting the days until our Florida trip: 87 days, 23 hours!

Thanks,
I was a bit slow in posting we've been back for a week.

Enjoy your trip.

We had a very long walk when we got into Miami and the travelators weren't working!