Washington, DC

[Tys Nanny]

We’ll be driving from NJ to DW with our DD and her family for the first time this summer. When DD was young, we would leave at 11:00 p.m. and drive through the night. This accomplished two things: we got a chunk of driving out of the way while DD slept and also got past Washington while traffic was light.

DSIL prefers not to drive through the night. I’m trying to find a way to either avoid DC entirely without adding too much time to the drive or drive through when traffic is not horrendous.

Any suggestions?

 

[Capt_BJ]

From turnpike end near Wilmington, take 13 south eventually crossing Chesapeake Bay Bridge and heading thru Norfolk, then 58 west will take you back to 95 near the south VA state line

The distance via the map program I'm using is THIRTY MILES more and a couple of hours due to slower speeds in places . . .

you stay FAR away from DC

I've driven this route .... a nice change from 95

 

[Euby]

I don't have any personal experience with it, but have you looked into the Amtrak Auto Train?

https://www.amtrak.com/auto-train

 

[NH-to-FL]

We had moderate success timing our trip around DC for midday. We left southern NJ just before 9am. We took the western loop around DC and while the traffic was heavy it was moving 50-55 mph. We did hit some stop and go traffic heading into Richmond. Overall I thought it was a tolerable time to travel through the area.

I decided on the time by checking goggle traffic at various times across a couple of weekdays.

 

[Capt_BJ]

Auto-train doesn't help bypass DC given the Lorton station is just outside the District on 95

 

[kandb]

We drove to WDW numerous times from northern NJ. Our best time to leave was at 3am. We all went to sleep at around 9-10pm, got up at 3am, had the car already packed, used the bathroom and straight into the car. After 5 hours sleep my husband and I had enough sleep to drive and no traffic at all going thru DC. By 12 noon we had driven for 9 hours already. It was a great trip.

 

[tguz]

We’ll be driving from NJ to DW with our DD and her family for the first time this summer. When DD was young, we would leave at 11:00 p.m. and drive through the night. This accomplished two things: we got a chunk of driving out of the way while DD slept and also got past Washington while traffic was light.

DSIL prefers not to drive through the night. I’m trying to find a way to either avoid DC entirely without adding too much time to the drive or drive through when traffic is not horrendous.

Any suggestions?

I hope you find your solution. We are trying to do the same thing but figuring out how to get thru Atlanta. The previous two years, on the way down and on the way back, we have tried different times of the day and it's always jammed. This year we are starting our drive later in the morning which will put us at Atlanta around 11pm. I hope that works better.

 

[amcnj]

I usually leave around 2:30 AM and am passing DC around 5:30 AM, and in the Orlando area by say 7:30 PM.

Since those hours might still not be to your liking, if you live in northern NJ, some take 78 to 81 to 77 to 26 and get back on 95 in SC.

There is a thread on the this board about 2000+ mile drives that mentions this route and experiences driving it.

 

[Christine]

We’ll be driving from NJ to DW with our DD and her family for the first time this summer. When DD was young, we would leave at 11:00 p.m. and drive through the night. This accomplished two things: we got a chunk of driving out of the way while DD slept and also got past Washington while traffic was light.

DSIL prefers not to drive through the night. I’m trying to find a way to either avoid DC entirely without adding too much time to the drive or drive through when traffic is not horrendous.

Any suggestions?

I live just south of DC and the worst part of the traffic is where I live and it starts south of DC once you get off the Beltway. Not sure what day you are leaving. In the summer, Saturday is the worst. If you leave during the week, I agree with others that leaving at 3:30am. is a good bet.

Also, if can, get an EZ-Pass. You can use it on the Virginia side of the Beltway all the way to the I95 interchange. If you time it right, you can then use the EZ Pass all the way south to almost Fredericksburg Virginia. No matter what the cost--it will be WORTH it.

The EZ Pass lanes on the Virginia Beltway will be in your direction at all hours. When you get to I95 South, those lanes only run southbound M-F from about 11AM to midnight. On Saturday, they are southbound all morning and then up until 2PM at which time they switch over to northbound from late Saturday afternoon through to Monday morning.

I would probably not do the route through Cheasapeake. That gets very heavy through Norfolk.

I don't know where you live in N.J. but if you can work your way west and come down through I-81 in Virginia to NC that totally gets you around DC.

 

[echamp404]

I'll piggyback on what Christine says with regard to the toll lanes. If you don't already have an EZ Pass and wanted to try that route, you could get the Flex pass which then lets you use the variable toll lanes for free if you have three or more people in the car. Once the toll lanes dump you back out on 95 it inevitably backs up some around Fredericksburg, but isn't too awful (relative to 95 standards up and down the mid-Atlantic IMO).

You can also take 301 around DC and hop back on 95 south of Fredericksburg. I would do that or take the western detour others are mentioning before taking the eastern route – there are lots of opportunities for heavy congestion with the tunnels, 64 construction, etc.

 

[Tys Nanny]

Thanks to all of you for some great suggestions. I had been thinking about leaving around 3:00 a.m. and it’s helpful to hear that it’s worked well for others. When DD was in college in SC (go, Tigers) we drove the 78-81-77 route and usually made good time on it. And we do have EZ Pass.

 

[mjmyers10]

Figure out how much time it takes to drive to DC then subtract that time from 6 am. Our goal when driving from PA was always to get to DC by 6 am, then we miss the traffic. It really depends on where in Jersey you are.