Ugh. Did that drive for 15 years until my in-laws retired down here. Don’t miss it one bit.

I live in NY - grew up on Long Island and my parents still live there - and no one call tell you this. Evening of Christmas Eve is probably going to be fine since most people will already be where they want to go, but earlier than that and you’re probably going to hit traffic from people driving to visits and airports.

We are driving to Boston on Monday. I am hoping many travelers left over the weekend...or will drive Tuesday. Hope we are right!

Anonymous wrote:My rule of thumb is that 6am departure is safe any day.

This is true. But, yes, you already know that no day beats Christmas. We used to do Christmas day travel every year.

My rule of thumb is that 6am departure is safe any day.

Traffic might be slightly worse than regular bad. There will be fewer commuters, and since Christmas Eve is on a Tuesday, many will have already taken Monday off. When you say leaving in the morning, how early? I would leave at 5AM.

Last year we travelled on Christmas day and hit no traffic, even when we hit NYC. It was glorious. But this year, I'm thinking of going up on Christmas E[ve (leaving in the morning). Will the traffic be horrific or just regular bad (i.e. traffic mostly when we get outside and through the city)? Are there other best days/times to drive? (I'd take the train but we have a bunch of stuff and two young kids so it's just not going to happen this year).