Driving down 95S from NJ on Thanksgiving Eve??

[LEXAVE]

Has anyone ever done this? I am trying to talk my husband into a last minute trip for Thanksgiving. He feels that leaving on Wednesday would be crazy and we would sit in traffic until Christmas.

We would leave the North Jersey area at 2:45pm, Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and we would want to stop for the night. Under normal conditions we would drive until 1am or so and then finish the next day.

Is this crazy?

Oh, one more thing...we would be returning on Sunday, straight through. We have done that several times, so we are used to it. He feels traffic coming home would be a killer as well.

Thanks for your help.

 

[CarolAnnB]

I would have to agree with your husband. That Wednesday is the busiest travel day of the year. And most of those people will be driving back Sunday.

 

[disfan07]

I would have to agree with your husband also. I have always honestly thought that anyone who drives 95 on thanksgiving eve is nuts.

You're going to have to go through the DC area and with most people not having that day off they will be trying to get out of town and home from from work about when you're going to be getting there. I didnt even like driving locally in teh DC suburbs before thanksgiving.

I would say it's not worth it at all.

 

[GranddadTom]

I'm with the two previous posters. By leaving at 2:45 pm on Wednesday you will only get youself right into the thick of things. Rt. 95 will be brutal until well into the night. If you have to go, I'd advice you to go home at 2:45 pm, get some sleep, and then get on the road around 10:00 pm. By driving through the night you should be able to get to WDW by mid afternoon on Thursday. As far as the trip home - oh my!!

 

[downsouth]

We drove home from WDW on Thanksgiving sunday one time up 95 3/4 of the way and it made a 10 hour trip into 16 hours. I couldn't imagine driving on that Wed.

 

[Darcy03231]

I'm with your husband on this one too. One year I had to travel the Sunday after Thanksgiving. What is normally a 6 hour drive took almost 13 hours.

 

[Missytara]

My stepbrother and sister-in-law have lived up and down the east coast, as he was stationed in the Coast Guard.

To come home for T-giving, they have always traveled T-giving day and they always leave the following Monday.

My grandparents lived in CT when I was growing up and we always traveled up there for T-giving. Again, along the east coast. Our normally 7-1/2 hour trips would turn into 11 or 12 hours the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week.

 

[Missytara]

Honestly, if you live in NJ, I could imagine you even being able to get on the Turnpike from your house on Wednesday night. People going home from work, people traveling to airports, their destinations, etc.

 

[sue1013]

By 2:30 the turnpike will be a parking lot. I work near the GWB take the turnpike to and from work. Unless you leave by 12 you will hit horrible traffic. I go into the office a couple days a week work from home the rest, I NEVER go in the day before a holiday. Unless you leave about 8 pm and drive through the night forget it.

 

[Green Tea]

I did a long drive on the Thanksgiving days once (Sunday) Never again. It was horrific.

 

[rwdavis2]

Your husband is correct. There is going to be horrendous traffic the whole way south. You will hit major, huge traffic (and I mean very slow to stop and go) from the Deleware Memorial bridge the entire way to at least south of Richmond, VA. You could not pay me enought to make that drive at that time.
BD

 

[DVC_Princess]

I'm another one who agrees with your DH. We've done the drive from Boston to NJ on Thanksgiving Eve twice. The first time, we left Boston at 3pm, arrived in northern NJ at midnight. The second time, we left Boston at 9pm, arrived in northern NJ at 1AM. I would imagine the travel from NYC/NJ to DC is pretty similar. Leaving at 2:45 is prob the worst possible time.

Oh and Sunday traffic used to be pretty bad too, but not nearly as bad as Wednesday. It would turn a 4 hr trip into about 5 1/2 - 6 hours.