Plan with Rovo. Drive with your favorite map.
The Indianapolis to 30A drive is close to 735 miles and takes around 12 hours, which puts it in the same long-haul category as St. Louis to Seaside — plan on splitting it with an overnight or trading off drivers. The upside is that navigation is about as simple as road trips get: it's essentially one interstate almost the entire way.
From Indianapolis, I-65 South runs through Columbus and Seymour, Indiana, down into Louisville and Elizabethtown, Kentucky, then across Tennessee to Nashville before continuing through Athens, Decatur and Birmingham, Alabama. Past Montgomery, you'll leave I-65 for AL-55 and then US-331 South for the final leg into the Panhandle.
Because Indianapolis to 30A is basically the Louisville route with another two hours tacked onto the front, the same rule applies twice over: the interstate miles are easy, but the last stretch on AL-55 and US-331 south of Montgomery has real gaps between towns. Top off in the Montgomery area before you leave I-65, since options get sparse until you're closer to DeFuniak Springs.
Plan This Route with Rovo →No tolls anywhere on this route. I-65 is free through Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, and the AL-55/US-331 stretch at the end doesn't carry tolls either.
Technically yes at 12 hours, but it's a stretch — this is one of the longer drives on this list, and most people traveling with kids split it with an overnight around Nashville or Birmingham.
Getting through downtown Indianapolis and Louisville before their morning rushes matters most early on; a 6-7am departure usually clears both, plus gets you through Nashville's interchange before its midday buildup.