Hello all - D’s and I will be heading up to UVM (from Long Island) this Friday, and was hoping there might be some parents here with direction suggestions. I often try to avoid GW Bridge traffic and head North via the Tappan Zee, but not sure if that would make sense for Burlington. Sometime in the future I might try for a slow/scenic route, but for this trip, shorter and faster would be much preferred. Will check in again here later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks!
We took our son to Burlington for several years for a summer music festival there. We used the Thruway upstate and I seem to recall the route took us off of exit 20 of the Adirondack Northway to route 149, to US 4 in vermont, to route 22a to route 7 into Burlington. That is probably the most direct route, though a lot of that is 2 lane highways through some pretty rural areas (though you do get to see a lot of cows, my wife was in 7th heaven…funniest thing was the traffic jam caused by cows being moved from one pasture to the other).
One note, you may want to make sure to bring food and drink stuff with you, once you get out of the touristy areas like Lake George, you won’t really see many places to stop until you hit Burlington, and what is available isn’t going to be that great and rest areas, well…
The more direct route might appear to be 95 to 91 to 89 (all interstates) to 2 west to Burlington, but the traffic on 95 makes that to me a not great way to go, normally traffic in the Bronx, westchester and connecticut is dicey, always construction and such and I think the 87 route is much more sane personally, and is under good conditions only a little slower than the 95 route.
Our son graduated from Champlain College in Burlington a year ago so we made that trip several times from our area of PA. We took this route:
I-78 E, I-287 N and I-87 N to NY-149 E/U.S. 9 N in Queensbury. Take exit 20 from I-87 N
3 h 51 min (263 mi)
Continue on NY-149 E. Take US-4 E, VT-22A N and US-7 N to Main St in Burlington For the most part it was a really nice drive.
Thanks Musicprnt and Walkinghome. I’m going to log onto Google Maps and check out those routes. I think I’ll actually enjoy the drive - once we get out of the miserable NYC-area bottlenecks.
I lived in VT for 33 years. I traveled this route a bunch given my kid lives in NYC and also family is from Philly. The way that @musicprnt (1st way) and @walkinghome describe is the route we always took.
Yes that is the preferred way to go although my DH who goes up every year for golf/cards with friends prefers to drive the Taconic and then pick up the Thruway in Albany. You take the Mass Pike 1-90 heading west to pick up the Thruway. It doesn’t have any truck traffic but it also doesn’t have any rest areas so there are pros and cons.
Years ago we once did a slow leisurely drive and took Rt 7 all the way home from visiting our friends who live in Shelburne. We also once did a slow drive around Lake George and crossed into VT at the base of Lake Champlain.