For many years we drove from the northern NY suburbs to DC without traffic it’s a four hour drive. Wednesday before Thanksgiving it was 6 to 7, though that usually included stops for coffee and dinner. Leaving Sunday am is not that bad. The earlier the better.
Many years ago, we drove from CT to Bethesda MD on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I swore I would never drive that trip, on that day again. It was awful. We left our house at NOON, and arrived in MD at 4 a.m. Thanksgiving morning. We saw car fires, bumper to bumper and stopped traffic, car breakdowns, accidents…you name it. We stopped once for gas…and that was awful too…crowded, and nuts.
The drive back on Sunday was so horrible that we actually went onto Brooklyn for dinner…and left there about 10 p.m. It was smooth sailing from there.
If you go in Thursday early morning, I think you will be OK…certainly better than Wednesday…unless you leave at 10 p.m. Wednesdsy night.
But plan on a long trip back on Sunday.
Ok - definitely not going Wed. Thursday it is – will try to leave earlier than 10 am, though we’ll see. I’m not the type of person who can get out of bed and drive at 5 am.
I’ll get a full tank of gas on Wed. I try not to stop if I don’t need to even on regular weekends - this long weekend, I’ll really plan on filling up before hitting the road.
Kind of scared of Sunday now. From yrs of traveling (though not by car) on this weekend, I always thought Wed was worse than Sunday bc everyone “has to” get where they’re going in time for the holiday, yet you don’t necessarily “have to” stay the whole weekend. People going to friends’ or distant relatives’ may only stay a day or two. Whereas others like me may want to stay the whole 4 days.
You may want to consider leaving very late on Sunday night, around 9pm.
Thursday is definitely the day to go and here’s another vote for going through PA instead of Delaware. My daughter recently moved from DC and she only took 95 a couple of times. She found a route going west on the beltways and then North into PA and then East. She cut the corner with some road so she didn’t have to deal with traffic around Harrisburg. Looking at a map, I think she took 83 and then 222 to 78. The Sunday traffic is not nearly as bad as Wednesday because people don’t all go home on Sunday - some leave Friday, some Saturday etc. My company is leaving Sunday - Tuesday! Safe travels to you!
Depending on where you are in NOVA - we often take 15N to Harrisburg then 81 to 78 E. SO much better than 95. Again - that said - it depends where your starting point is. Not worth it if it takes you an hour to get to 15. Good luck!
OP is going to south Jersey. That route would take him/her WAY out of the way. 15 to 76 would be a better alternative but traffic on 76 is awful at the best of times so travelling it this week would likely be even worse, and it’s still going to come out north of where this person wants to go.
Our usual suburban DC-north NJ trip takes a little over four hours. On Wed. of TG week, it’s seven hours, assuming we leave st noon. We are hoping that we can get away with 5.5 if we leave at 7:30 tomorrow, not counting a stop in south Jersey for a diner stop around lunch. We generally come back on Friday and it’s clear sailing except near the malls.
safe and speedy travels to all.
D and SIL will be making the opposite trip - driving from Brooklyn to NoVA tomorrow afternoon.
kac425, I remember that storm because I had company driving here to south Jersey that day. We picked our daughter up last night in Towson and the traffic was pretty rough already.
OP here - drove on Thanksgiving day leaving at 9:30 am. Made it from NOVA to South Jersey in 3 hrs 10 min, which was actually 20 min shorter than usual! Was on 95 from Baltimore thru Del Memorial and most of that was slow - like 40 mph. But 295 in Maryland and 295 in NJ were so empty that I made up a lot of time.
We’ll see on Sunday. Also expecting rain - ugh.
@aj725 - Glad to see you had an easy trip yesterday!
Re: Routes through PA
Go around Harrisburg on the WEST (11/581) to avoid that perpetual backups and sharp corners on I-83 in the East side of Harrisburg.
Good job. Be careful coming home.
I can say the drive home (on Saturday) is far worse than the drive on Thursday morning. It took us a little over 3 hours from Maryland to northern New Jersey. The return trip is four hours…and counting.
@SlackerMomMD Saturday…yep, you are with local shopping traffic as well as people like you who are making the longer trip home.
That eastern seaboard driving on Thanksgiving (and Easter too) weekend is the pits.
You’re right @thumper1 - the only consolation is the other side (northbound) is as bad or worse.
3.5 hrs from South Jersey to NOVA today, leaving around 11 am. Not bad considering. 95 from Delaware Memorial to Baltimore was congested and according to the radio traffic reports, supposedly getting worse all afternoon/evening. Got off 95 wherever I could and found the local highways to be MUCH better.
I think the periodic drizzle isn’t helping.
My nephew coming down from Boston and sil coming up from DC both ended up coming on Wednesday and made surprisingly good time. Not more than an hour over normal driving time for either of them. Amusingly they arrived within five minutes of each other.
Oops! Somehow I missed the Southern part… 