help me plan my drive to Boston

[Anonymous]

I hate the GWB on the northbound trip. It’s usually fine for the southbound trip. Cuomo is more miles but usually the same elapsed time. I put in Cuomo as a stop in google maps and then my final destination.

If you take the Merritt the rest stops are lame. NJ is better. Not sure if Gandolfini is open yet. It was still closed in January when I drove to
MA.

I’d go Friday and if you are past NY by 1 pm you should be okay.

[Anonymous]

On the way to MA, stop for refueling at Rein's Deli, off 84 after Hartford in an otherwise bleak stretch of CT.

[Anonymous]

Get a storage locker, leave most of her crap in it. She only needs MEDICINES, toiletries and clothes she will wear in DC SUMMER. PUT IN DUFFEL BAGS.
Take Amtrak home or fly.
She can go up herself in fall.
Thousands of kids do just this.

[Anonymous]

on a weekday, Leave between 5:30 and 6:00am and use Google to see if you need to take Cuomo (replaced Tapanzee) or George Washington bridge over Hudson in New York. Otherwise wait until 9am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once you hit New York, Hutchinson Parkway to Merritt Parkway (non-commerical traffic only).
Avoid I-95 after New York. It's not well maintained, gross & crowded.

Yes, and generally I like taking the Garden State Parkway up to the Tappan Zee, then 287 to the Hutchinson Parkway. It's slightly longer than taking the GWB, but I really dislike the GWB/Cross Bronx. I'd only go GWB if there was a major traffic jam on the Tappan Zee route.

Same here, but don’t get lost looking for Tappan Zee signs or GPS routes. It’s called the Mario Cuomo Bridge now. Waze always tries to reroute me to the GWB even if I select the Cuomo route. Learn the route ahead of time so you don’t get off course. I have learned to set my GPS to the James Gandolfini Rest Stop and it helps prevent Waze from freaking out. We almost always stop there anyway before/after crossing the bridge.

When my son makes the drive, we always have him put in the Palisades Mall as a stop — that will ensure he takes the Mario Cuomo Bridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get a storage locker, leave most of her crap in it. She only needs MEDICINES, toiletries and clothes she will wear in DC SUMMER. PUT IN DUFFEL BAGS.
Take Amtrak home or fly.
She can go up herself in fall.
Thousands of kids do just this.

It sounds like her DD is moving in top an apartment, in Boston.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get a storage locker, leave most of her crap in it. She only needs MEDICINES, toiletries and clothes she will wear in DC SUMMER. PUT IN DUFFEL BAGS.
Take Amtrak home or fly.
She can go up herself in fall.
Thousands of kids do just this.

Some people actually like a road trip and enjoy helping their kids get set up in apartments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate the GWB on the northbound trip. It’s usually fine for the southbound trip. Cuomo is more miles but usually the same elapsed time. I put in Cuomo as a stop in google maps and then my final destination.

If you take the Merritt the rest stops are lame. NJ is better. Not sure if Gandolfini is open yet. It was still closed in January when I drove to
MA.

I’d go Friday and if you are past NY by 1 pm you should be okay.

Can confirm, Gandolfini is open. Stopped there earlier this week.

[Anonymous]

Question for you experts:

I’m doing the same drive, for basically the same reason, in mid May. On the drive home (Boston to DC), I need to drop someone off as close as possible to midtown NYC, but I do not plan to drive into the city (since I’ll be taking the Tappan Zee), I want to drop off this passenger someplace easy for me outside of NYC, but also easy for her to take a train into midtown.

Where do you suggest I do this? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question for you experts:

I’m doing the same drive, for basically the same reason, in mid May. On the drive home (Boston to DC), I need to drop someone off as close as possible to midtown NYC, but I do not plan to drive into the city (since I’ll be taking the Tappan Zee), I want to drop off this passenger someplace easy for me outside of NYC, but also easy for her to take a train into midtown.

Where do you suggest I do this? Thanks!

White Plains station is a good option. It's right off 287 (the east-west freeway which feeds to the Tappan Zee/Cuomo Bridge. And lots of trains through there including express options to Grand Central. Around 40 minutes to Grand Central on the train, very fast and easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for you experts:

I’m doing the same drive, for basically the same reason, in mid May. On the drive home (Boston to DC), I need to drop someone off as close as possible to midtown NYC, but I do not plan to drive into the city (since I’ll be taking the Tappan Zee), I want to drop off this passenger someplace easy for me outside of NYC, but also easy for her to take a train into midtown.

Where do you suggest I do this? Thanks!

White Plains station is a good option. It's right off 287 (the east-west freeway which feeds to the Tappan Zee/Cuomo Bridge. And lots of trains through there including express options to Grand Central. Around 40 minutes to Grand Central on the train, very fast and easy.

There's an app they can download to buy the Metro North ticket so don't have to stop at a machine or anything at the station, can go straight to the platform. It's called "MTA TrainTime". Works great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Flights to Boston from DC are pretty cheap…

Tough to bring everything home from a dorm room that way though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for you experts:

I’m doing the same drive, for basically the same reason, in mid May. On the drive home (Boston to DC), I need to drop someone off as close as possible to midtown NYC, but I do not plan to drive into the city (since I’ll be taking the Tappan Zee), I want to drop off this passenger someplace easy for me outside of NYC, but also easy for her to take a train into midtown.

Where do you suggest I do this? Thanks!

White Plains station is a good option. It's right off 287 (the east-west freeway which feeds to the Tappan Zee/Cuomo Bridge. And lots of trains through there including express options to Grand Central. Around 40 minutes to Grand Central on the train, very fast and easy.

Perfect, thanks!

[Anonymous]

For the person returning from Boston wanting to drop off in NYC Midtown, you can take the same route back on 84 in CT to 684. Just before you get on 684S right by the New York State line, about five minutes in NY, there’s a town called Brewster with a train station. They can take the train from Brewster to into Midtown.

Totally agree this is the way we always go to New England from DC:

Leave before 7:30 AM
Take 95 all the way up to exit 11 on the NJTP to Garden State North. You can either stop at the Whitney Houston rest stop, or the James Gandolfini 50 miles further north in Montvale, New Jersey.
Follow signs for the formally known as Tapanzee bridge but now Mario Cuomo Bridge to 287 N. to 684 north to 84n, and 84 should go cut through Connecticut north of 95 and all the way up to Boston.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question for you experts:

I’m doing the same drive, for basically the same reason, in mid May. On the drive home (Boston to DC), I need to drop someone off as close as possible to midtown NYC, but I do not plan to drive into the city (since I’ll be taking the Tappan Zee), I want to drop off this passenger someplace easy for me outside of NYC, but also easy for her to take a train into midtown.

Where do you suggest I do this? Thanks!

The most convenient places to drop someone off to catch a train into NYC along that route are the Goldens Bridge or Purdys Metro North stations. Both are right off of 684.