Driving from Harrisburg, PA. 81 to 77 to 26 to 95 or 15 to 95?

[Mikeb1892]

Leaving on Saturday morning. Which would you recommend? Avoid Washington at all costs? I don't mind using EZPass and paying for the limited access lanes when available around DC. Anything else I should be worried about?

 

[PlutoPony]

81 may be busier than usual in VA - JMU and Redford start school the following Monday so will likely add traffic. At least VaTech started today so that helps.

A lot of public schools in Northern VA start school next Monday as well, so that should cut down beach traffic going to Outer Banks area down 95.

I dunno, it's kind of a tossup imho. Is one way a lot further than the other?

 

[Mikeb1892]

95 shows as being 30 minutes faster than 81, but it seems like every time I take 81 I cannot maintain my speed with all the hills and trucks. Drives me crazy! I'm just worried about getting clobbered in traffic in DC.

 

[Momof3WDW]

We always leave after dinner or early morning (3-4 AM) from the Reading, PA area. We usually take 83 to 95. But because of the times we leave we hit the lighter traffic. We also leave on a Thursday night or Friday morning. DC is always a bust and we always hit traffic, but the earlier the better. Good luck!
I believe 81 will take you to completely miss DC, and only adds 50+miles. So might be worth it, but I have never tried it.

 

[Mikeb1892]

We drove down in June, took 81 to 77 to 26, and back we took 95 to Philly (staying in Horsham one night). I preferred 95 and we used the express lanes in DC, but DC to Baltimore was crazy busy. Yes, 81 will avoid DC completely, but I just don't know if I can put up with people that can't maintain their speed and constantly having to cancel cruise, slow down, wait for them to pass the trucks (going 60 in a 65 no less!), then resume speed just to have them speed up once they pass the trucks. Then do it all over again in 5 minutes. ARRRGG!

 

[Alexle2007]

When we went to VA Beach on a Sat morning in July, the EZ pass lanes going south were not open. so I am not sure they would be an option.

 

[Ladcassidy]

The I-95 EZ Pass lanes were open southbound from DC Saturday morning August 22. We breezed along them, but still got smacked with heavy traffic once they ended and we merged back onto the main lanes. For comparison purposes, we left Alexandria, VA at 8:30 am Saturday morning. It took us almost 2 hours to get to Kings Dominion, about 80 miles south. The traffic was also very heavy when we drove back to Alexandria at the end of the day. Lots of out-of-state license plates, so I'm guessing lots of people heading to and from end-of-summer vacations.

 

[EPCOTgrl1]

Saturday shouldn't be bad because you are not dealing with work traffic. We leave near Baltimore so we always take 95. We try and leave early enough to get through DC before rush hour, so by 5am. What will be worse is, if you are doing the trip in one day, will be the traffic on I4 before you get to Orlando. That is always worse then DC.

 

[Mikeb1892]

Saturday shouldn't be bad because you are not dealing with work traffic. We leave near Baltimore so we always take 95. We try and leave early enough to get through DC before rush hour, so by 5am. What will be worse is, if you are doing the trip in one day, will be the traffic on I4 before you get to Orlando. That is always worse then DC.

We are going to spend the night in Savannah and continue to DW on Sunday morning, hoping to arrive before noon. Is there a better time to hit Orlando on I4 than another on a Sunday?

 

[bluezy]

We are going to spend the night in Savannah and continue to DW on Sunday morning, hoping to arrive before noon. Is there a better time to hit Orlando on I4 than another on a Sunday?

We also drive from PA; leave on a Saturday; and spend the night in Savannah. We're near Philly so we take the I-95 route the whole way (DC is always a hit-or-miss thing for us -- we usually hit it around 8:00 a.m. Sometimes we breeze right through with no real problems and other times we crawl through. No rhyme or reason.) We leave Savannah by 7:30 or so on a Sunday morning and even with a Walmart stop along the way, we're usually at Disney by noon. We haven't really run into any bad traffic on I-4 on Sunday mornings -- except for our trip this past June when an accident happened about 1/2 mile in front of us and we were parked on I-4 for an hour. There is a major construction project happening on I-4 just north of Orlando though so you might want to check their website to see if there are any major lane closures. When we went in June, all of closures were happening during the night so we didn't feel the need to take an alternate route.

 

[peg110]

Coming from Wilkes-Barre area, we wrestle with this question each time. We typically leave in the evening after work (Wednesday or Thursday) so we are hitting DC around 11 PM (or so). We are towing our 27' Travel Trailer too, so I really do hear what you are saying about the whole cruise control thing on 81.

I think It really depends on the time of day you are hitting DC beltway area. Coming back the one time we thought hitting it on a Sunday Morning (8 - 9ish) wouldn't be bad. WRONG! It was horrible. I think unless you are hitting DC in the LATE evening or EARLY Morning (Before 3-4AM), that you are better off going around.

 

[momto2js]

We go Charleston SC to Woodward PA a couple of times a summer I ALWAYS go 81-77-26. I tried going over to 95 once and it took a lot longer. I don't think we could make it any further in one day than that.

 

[laura3773]

I live in Fredericksburg, which is halfway between Richmond and DC and I say stay off of 95. It is a disaster all the time, but on a Saturday before beach season is over forget it. Some schools in VA start before Labor Day, but some do not go back until after Labor Day (most of the districts around me go back on 9/8), so you will still see beach traffic. We live right off of 95 but chose to take back roads out to 81 to go down to Asheville this summer just to avoid dealing with 95 traffic.

 

[smga1]

I live in Frederick, MD. 95 is awful. Stay away. I would go 81.

 

[rrehman]

We are from central PA. Since its on a Saturday, you should be fine on 95.

 

[EPCOTgrl1]

We are going to spend the night in Savannah and continue to DW on Sunday morning, hoping to arrive before noon. Is there a better time to hit Orlando on I4 than another on a Sunday?

You should be fine. I know it is always the worse going on a week day with rush hour traffic. The only think you want to check is to make sure there isn't a race in Daytona that day. That will cause some backup on your way down.

 

[jnamadison]

We live 25 min west of Baltimore and we're planning to take 81-77-26 instead of 95. Of course, we're also leaving Labor Day Weekend Friday Afternoon. I'd personally avoid 95 unless you were planning to be through VA by 8am. The constant speed up, slow down of 95 in VA drives me nuts. I am definitely interested in your experience with I-4, given we're thinking we will hit that 8-10am Sat.

 

[Mikeb1892]

Thinking we're leaning to 81-77-26. If I remember, isn't there an area on 77 where there is always really heavy fog?

 

[peg110]

isn't there an area on 77 where there is always really heavy fog?

I don't know about 77 but I know there is a section of I81 near Frackville area that can get SOOOOO foggy, that you really need to be going 10 MPH. I have been caught in it a couple of times. It was so thick, that you could barely see the tail lights of the car in front of you unless they were less than 20 feet away (which in the context of driving, is VERY dangerous).

(Heavy) Fog is the one thing I abhor driving in.