Driving I-95 From Massachusetts

[wedindis'00]

We will be leaving under the cover of darknes either late tues(11/25) or early wed(11/26) and would REALLY like to avoid New York and Washington D.C. areas during busy traffic times.

any advice or suggestions?
thanks

 

[crcormier]

I know there are better ways around the cities, but some take longer if there is no traffic. I think if you go for the late Tuesday departure so you are travelling through NYC and DC overnight then you will be golden, between 4-7PM and 6-10AM is when you want to avoid any major city on a working day.

Since you're travelling right before Thanksgiving as well, I'd consider doing the overnight thing as well. I don't like the drive straight through to Florida option, I think it's dangerous, but if you travel overnight down to NC/SC area, and get some sleep before you leave I think that would be your best bet. Anyone else?

 

[jlkmn]

we are also driving weare leaving on a thursday early mornig around 3-4am hoping to make it thru nyc by 7am it is safe to try to make it to south carolina or south of the border the first night and sleepover instead of driving straight thru we drove downonce 22 hours straight thru and it took two days to recover.
hth

 

[wedindis'00]

jlkmn, where are you leaving from?
where are you planning on stopping?
We are thinking of savannah ga. or hilton head??

 

[tinksgirl]

we have made this trip many times because i hate to
fly.our first time a hundred moons ago we left in the
a.m. drove all day into the evening and only got as far
as north carolina wilson i think.now we go comando style
we leave home at 6:00 p.m drive all night no big city traffic
at all!!! only thing we can run into is overnight construction
but never as bad as day time traffic in the north east.we
arrive around 2:30 p.m. at exit 3 in georgia cant think of
the name of the town.when we wake up refreshed in the morn it is only a 3 hour drive to disney.one other thing to keep in mind,
it seemed like we always ended up driving through all of the northern states on a sunday which was hours of traffic thruogh every state,now we make sure it is a week day.also the tapanzee
bridge is much easier than the g.w.

 

[anne60]

We left Central mass the friday b4 Thanksgiving around 2:30 in the afternoon. We cound not leave any earlier because my oldest had an exam during the final period of the day. Got stuck in NYC big time.

The worst part of our drive was coming home the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It took us 7 hours to get through New Jersey.

 

[kylara]

If the driver is able to sleep Tues. during the afternoon, I would suggest leaving around 7 or 8pm at night. This way you hit NYC around 11pm to midnight and are through Washington by around 5am, before the rush hour traffic hits. Then you can drive a couple of more hours to get a little further south of the traffic and stop the remainder of the day and that night. When you stop, take a couple of hour nap, get up for a few hours and then go to bed the "regular" time. When you wake up the next day, you finish the trip. I have found that this works well when I take my trips up to MA.

 

[Straughn]

I live in the Northern Virginia area and can tell you that I-95 South and the Capital Beltway (495/I-95) will be very crowded on the day before Thanksgiving. I would suggest that you try to get onto I-95 South of DC as early in the day as possible. The major interchange at Springfield, VA (where the Beltway and I-95 South meet) known as the Mixing Bowl, is undergoing a huge improvement project and is difficult to maneuver on an uncrowded day. If you would like a suggestion for an alternative route which bypasses that intersection, I will be happy to tell you the way we go to avoid it.

 

[tardin1964]

tinksgirl

I just made this trip leaving on 10/31 around 8:30p.m. We made it to exit 3 in GA which is Kingsland. This worked out perfect for us. We got there a little before noon on Saturday. We stayed at the Country Inn & Suites which was great. Our room was ready so my wife and I took naps while the kids watched TV. They have a small indoor pool so my wife took the kids there for a few hours when she woke up and I slept some more. There is an Applebees right across the street so it was an easy walk to dinner. We left Sunday morning at 8:00 and we were pulling up to WDW a little before 11:00.