I live in the MD burbs of DC and had one son in college in Boston and family in Augusta and Atlanta. I take 95- 295- NJTP-Garden State-287-84-MassPike going north. I left once at 6:30 am and was in Somerville by 2:30. Nothing short of a miracle. It’s usually closer to 9-10 hours.
100% agree with recommendations to take 81. Note: Georgia does NOT use EZPass, so unless you buy a Peach Pass, you will not be able to use HOV Lanes in GA.
You might consider 81, 77 thru NC, pick up 20 in Columbia, SC and cut across Georgia. I find I-20 in ATL less odious than coming down 85 or doing the 285 perimeter.
I refuse to drive 95 south of DC. Took me four hours to get home from Richmond – 110 miles. It’s NEVER a good trip.
Mine was on Rt 66. Got reduced. But I had to travel back to Va for court. I think anyone driving thru Va needs a heads up on how they charge different tiers of speeding. I was lucky.
Some of it is luck. I have come straight up or down 95 from Boston to NJ with no traffic. Usually on a weekend morning. Similarly, lots of trips to Baltimore and DC with little to no traffic, even on a Friday afternoon. But other times not so lucky. So don’t be too concerned. If you have friends in Baltimore, go see them and then turn on your GPS. As you said, you have time to go around any tough spots,.
I would not advise going down through the Eastern Shore unless there is some kind of big backup on 95. The roads are small and slow.
We have been doing Philly to NC for 8 years (college and now S lives in Winston-Salem), and have family in Alabama so we have done NC to Birmingham 2X, once through Atlanta (got stuck in awful traffic) and once through Knoxville (81/75). Agree with suggestions to avoid the coast and take 81. It’s a pretty drive and you will avoid DC, NOVA and Atlanta. Our Alabama aunt always does 81 when coming to/from Philly. If you do go 95 to DC, you can avoid NOVA by heading west on 64 and then south through Virginia on 29, then pick up 85 south in NC. Agree with suggestion about Greenville, SC being a nice place to spend a night if you do 95/85. But seriously consider the western route. Or at least strategically time your schedule around all the major cities including Philly, Baltimore, and DC. NOVA going south is bad on any given day after noon and gets worse every hour. After hitting too many traffic snarls no matter how well we planned, we finally wised up and now always do 64/29 no matter what time of day. Still we often hit the Maryland/Beltway crawl. Also consider beach traffic on week-ends which is considerable from Philly to Richmond through Labor Day. Sundays going north on 95 in the summer is a nightmare.
@Mom2and, I’m not sure how recently you have driven on the Eastern Shore but there is a bypass around Middleton, DE now. It is a 2 lane highway with only an occasional car or truck in sight. I have driven it multiple times recently from MD to NJ/NY. It’s a breeze compared to 95.
However, given her end destination, I agree that the more pleasurable trip would be heading west then south and avoid the NJ/DE/MD/VA corridor altogether.
We drove from N. Va. to southern MA yesterday. Ugh. Accident on I-95 pushed half the traffic onto the Merritt Parkway which we had decided to try anyway this year. That made both routes parking lots. Honest to Pete. Our trip year before last I-95 was a parking lot through CT, last year we had smooth sailing. This year not. While I sure hope the accident victims are okay, I’d still like to slap them silly.
The inland route DH took added two or three hours to his north-of-Boston to DC trip. Google Maps says nine hours and twenty minutes via I-95. I think it’s cute the way software believes in fairy tales.
@VaBluebird You really struck a chord – that combination of “Oh deity I hope everyone’s all right!” and “Oh come ON!!!”
We went to DC a couple of weeks ago from north-eastern NJ. It’s estimated a 3-4 hour trip, but that never happens. We used GSP & I-95.
The drive home took us over seven hours! We somehow ended up behind Philly (the first drive we didn’t enter PA). At night, extreme flooding and subjected cars on GSP…the highway was shut down for two hours! The exits near the Oranges are always a mess.
@HouseChatte, cutting north to Albany would add close to an hour to the trip so I think we’ll just take the Mass Pike (90) to 84. Avoiding 95 will add miles to the trip but I’d rather spend a little more time on the road than be stuck in that infuriating Southern CT traffic.
