Stops in NJ, NY, or CT

[Jaylie]

We are driving back from Disney in July and want to stop once in Fayetteville, NC, and then again around the Tappan Zee Bridge area. Any suggestions for good hotels/motels in safe areas? We'll be continuing our drive on I-95 to Mass.
Thanks for any suggestions. Jaylie

 

[artesian]

If your heading towards the Tappan Zee I would suggest coming up the Garden State Parkway. It's slighty shorter than looping around down to the GWB. I would reccomend http://www.hiltonwoodclifflake.com/. This hotel is at the very tip of the parkway just before the NYS thruway. Feel free to PM me if you"d like some more opinions..
Coming out of Mass you coming down 91 to the Merrit?
I can also give you suggestions on avoiding high traffic areas depending on time of day.

 

[dgaston]

Depending on where you're headed to in MA, after the Tappanzee, you might consider 684 to 84 to the Mass Pike. It's a lot easier drive than 95, more scenic and you could stop anywhere you saw a familiar hotel.

 

[bicker]

To be honest, the closer you are to NYC itself, the more you're paying for getting less. You may be better off stopping before you get to the NYC area, such as in Central New Jersey.

 

[Jaylie]

Can you suggest a hotel that would be pretty close to the highway (NJ Tpk, or Gar. State Pkwy). Thanks

 

[bicker]

Unfortunately, I lived in Central New Jersey, rather than visited there, so I don't know of any hotels in particular, that far north.

A bit further down (closer to Philadelphia) there are a couple of nice places (three star hotels) I've stayed on business while working in Swedesboro, NJ, eight or nine years ago. They are the Holiday Inn Select and the Hampton Inn. They're right next to each other, and both run $100-$120 per night. One or both have a really nice, indoor pool, if I remember correctly.

Swedesboro is right off I-95.

However, that leaves you about six hours from home, instead of five or four hours from home. By the same token, that cuts those hours off the second leg of your trip, and overall evens out the three days of driving: From Fayetteville to Swedesboro is only seven and a half hours. So that would mean breaking the trip up into eight hours, seven and a half hours, and then six hours (instead of eight hours, nine hours, four and a half hours).