So, being a surgical resident doesn’t offer a whole lot of opportunity to take vacations. This means I haven’t done much traveling in the past 4 years. Finally, we have a real vacation coming up, heading from New Hampshire down to Myrtle Beach for a week via car.
We have some friends who live just outside of Baltimore, and they are our first stop to break the drive up for the kids. Any suggestions on the best route to take? Google Maps just has me head down I-91, then through New York via 15, then over to I-95. Is this the best way or is going through New York going to kill us? I anticipate we will be leaving home around 1-1:30 pm, which means we will be hitting NY at about 5-5:30. That just doesn’t seem smart to me. Would the extra distance to circumvent NY be worth it?
15 is mostly highway now, and it has a lot less traffic than 95. If you want to avoid the BOS-NY-NJ craziness, take 15. Take the pike / NYS thruway (90) to 88, then decide on 81 or 15.
Where is this 15, I’m not familiar with it? Circumventing NY is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t proposition. I think it would be difficult to gauge what would be best until the day of as any path has a high degree of screwing you over. A minor feather in your cap taking 95 through NY is that there aren’t any tolls and creates most of the delays on the bridge.
It sounds like you don’t get a lot of time off so you may be pressed, but I’d try leaving earlier or later.
Taking 95 through the city isn’t too bad. I actually prefer that route when going from where I live in PA to Cape Cod/Boston. I see what Google Maps is suggesting by punching in Manchester -> Baltimore, and I’ve never been on 15 so I can’t help you there.
I just punched that in too. Honestly, I think CT. is the bigger issue than NY going that way. My brother lives near New Haven and 95 through CT is a bear. I’ve had more issue with that than the GWB going south/west. The Merritt is usually better, but can get slow in Westchester.
Pretty much everywhere there’s going to be traffic.
Yeah, you just can’t win on that whole corridor IMO. I just plan to be stuck every now and then and deal with it. We’ve been to Cape Cod the last two years and the drive didn’t bother me too much either time because I just kind of smiled and drove.
My brother lives in New Hampshire (Goffstown), so I’ve done that drive a number of times and we usually avoid the city entirely by using 287, but that’s a good way to get to Reading, PA, not necessarily to Baltimore, MD from NH.
That said, You could potentially come around the city on 287 and then take 78 to PA222 through Reading down to Lancaster and make your way to York, PA where you get on 83 heading toward MD. That might take a similar amount of time to the route Google is suggesting.
We are coming from Lebanon, NH, so North and West of Manchester. As such, after talking to some friends as well, I think our best bet will be to head West on 4 then get on 87 and head south on 87, then 287, then get on to 95 once past NY. A little farther, but seems like a better route. We’ll see! Thanks for the suggestions.
I agree with this but have a better work around. 91S to Hartford, then take 84W to 687S which will take you to 287. I believe this is considerably faster than going West to 87 and then heading South.
84 can be a bear at times but if you leave at 1:30 you’ll be through all of the bad spots before rush hour.
I grew up in Avon and West Hartford. For getting beyond NYC 84 and 684 to 287 and then down the GSP to the NJT is almost always a winner. Option B is to pick up the Saw Mill at the end of 684 and shoot down the Henry Hudson and get the GW bridge and the NJT there.
