What time to leave from NJ?

[thlarock]

Hi all,

So booked a studio at Hilton Head in South Carolina in May 23. Will be driving from South Jersey ( near Philly). Will be leaving on a Saturday. What time would be best to leave in the morning? I know others have said DC traffic is bad on the weekdays, is it the same on a Saturday?

 

[DisneyHaru]

I'm from South Jersey as well, but it's been a while since I drove south through DC. I think there is always traffic at that point regardless of day. If time allows, I would take the Cape May Ferry, earliest is at 7am I believe, and allows you to bypass that whole area. Otherwise we leave at 1 or 2am to get through it before it starts.

 

[barb969]

Before our last trip to central Va. from Baltimore I watched Google maps traffic for a few weeks before the trip and found the best time to leave. It was on a Monday so it won’t help you. We made it pulling a boat without any slow downs. The best ever trip.
Start studying the maps on Saturdays. A shift of an hour can make a big difference. Since there’s no rush hour I would guess the earlier the better. In Va. there are HOV toll lanes available during certain hours which takes some kind of EZ pass. Check to see if you have the right one. If you have a trailer you can’t use them. They start after the Wilson Bridge over the Potomac and continue down 95.
Have a good trip.

 

[rwdavis2]

DC traffic can be heavy any day of the week with weekends being slightly better. You want to be south of DC before 3pm.

 

[Threehearts]

Totally agree with rwdavis2. barb969 makes excellent points. I live one mile from the DC line and am on the beltway(495) all the time for work.

My experience is that normally Saturday travel is lighter if you don't count summer travel. In the summer, vacationers going north make it almost like a weekday except that rush hour is ALL day. traveling south is somewhat better.

For travelers during weekdays-

Rush hour in the morning as well as in the evening is lengthy. The beltway is quite busy at 6am and quiets down by 9. The evening rush starts at 3:30 with shift workers getting off and then is markedly improved by 6:30 pm.

Of course all bets are off if there is a march, a trucker convoy, construction or accidents.

My suggestion for a Saturday would be to try and time it quite early if you can. For weekdays, travel between 10 and 2 if you can.

Wishing you a lovely vacation!

 

[snikki]

I’m in South Jersey near Philly too. When driving to Florida or anywhere south of DC we leave at 4 am to beat the horrific DC traffic.

We are actually going to DC next month for a long weekend and will be leaving at 9 am. Hoping to be at our hotel in National Harbor by noon.

 

[ncc1701]

Another South Jersey resident here. At that time of year you can also run into traffic on I-95 in Delaware ( & maybe Maryland ) heading to the beach. Early AM would be my vote.

 

[artesian]

6am would be my drop dead time to leave. If I could swing it and do 4-5 start you'd be better off although weekends are a but weird and never know what you might hit. I agree that earlier the better

 

[figmentdream]

I've made the trip from NY to Florida my entire life. I've gone at all times...all days of the week. We've hit that DC traffic at every hour of the day (even in the middle of the night), every day of the week. It's the worst.

 

[amcnj]

My goal was always to leave by 2:30 AM. From where I departed that meant I was passing through the DC area at 5:30 am. This began mainly to avoid weekday morning rush, but I continued to leave then even for weekend day departures. Aside from overnight road construction once or twice, there weren’t any traffic issues.

 

[sticker231]

Another NJ driver. We prefer to drive through the night. We usually leave around 8 pm. You are well past the DC traffic and well on your way before everyone is hitting the roads. That being said, we drove in April and it was pretty much horrendous the entire journey both ways. You never know.

 

[thlarock]

Bumping this up as my trip gets closer

 

[ncc1701]

Bumping this up as my trip gets closer

What part of New Jersey are you coming from?

 

[thlarock]

What part of New Jersey are you coming from?

South Jersey about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia.

 

[Leigh L]

Bumping this up as my trip gets closer

It's really a crap shoot with DC. I live just west of DC and do the drive to NJ and NY fairly often. I normally aim to leave before 6 am going north on a Saturday.

Going south, the problem area we typically run into is around Quantico to just past Fredericksburg on 95. We rarely have good luck there at anytime north or south, but I'd imagine earlier the better going south on a weekend.

Checking traffic patterns on Google Maps is a great suggestion!

(We drove to WDW in June and did end up using toll lanes part of the way, but we had to leave late afternoon....awful time.)

 

[shafke]

I always try to time it so I hit DC around 10am. We are coming from NY and usually leave between 4am-5am and stop for breakfast in MD. We have never had a problem getting through Baltimore or DC. Northern VA however seems to always be slow at almost any time of day.

 

[Kim&Chris]

I'm from the Philly area of Jersey too, and when we drove to Hilton Head, we left our house at around 4:30 am. The beltway can be a major challenge, but we did pretty well. If memory serves, it took about about 12-13 hours, with a few bathroom stops.