Personally, I would leave on Sunday afternoon to maximize your beach time or leave Monday at 5-6 am. We drive to NC often, and have found that leaving early in the day is key because traffic jams haven't had time to accumulate. It makes a difference of at least 2-3 hours on most trips.

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Thanks to all for your suggestions! Looks like there's no consensus on the best choice. Third option would be to leave early on Monday (5-6 a.m) from Silver Spring but then we'd probably hit rush hour traffic going around the Beltway, eh?

Any further thoughts would be much appreciated.

No, you'd be fine leaving at 5-6 am. Traffic will be much lighter because of spring break any way. Leave then.

This is OP. Thanks to all for your suggestions! Looks like there's no consensus on the best choice. Third option would be to leave early on Monday (5-6 a.m) from Silver Spring but then we'd probably hit rush hour traffic going around the Beltway, eh?

Any further thoughts would be much appreciated.

My parents live in Southport, which isnt far from Holden beach. I always try to do the trip in the evenings, right after rush hour. Traffic in this area is hit or miss, no matter what day/time/hour you leave. I leave home (alexandria) around 7:30/8 at night and I stop around exit 97 in NC (Selma/Smithfield area). I get a room, we go to sleep, then travel into Wilmington (about 2-2.5 hours) and see some of the sights, ride the ferry boat over to Southport from Ft Fisher. We make a fun trip out of it!!

This time, I am leaving at noon with my preschooler as soon as he is out of school. We'll see how it goes as I am trying to drive straight through (roughly 7-8 hour trip depending how many potty breaks!! )

This is a tough one.

I don't think there will be a lot of commute traffic next week due to spring break. That's typically how it goes. I think more people will be likely to leave DC on Saturday or Sunday, and not Monday.

I've been going to NC a lot (to that general area, OP... I'm SOOO familiar with every inch of I-95) and leaving on Thursday mornings works pretty well. I return on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Of course, you don't have that option.

Honestly, I don't see one time being clearly better than the other. If you are fine to drive at night (including sunset), then maybe Sunday. But if night driving isn't your thing, leave Monday. I can't deal with sun directly in my eyes, so I'd be opting for Monday. My husband has no issues with sun bothering him, so we'd probably leave Sunday night.

Oh, enjoy some Haley's ice cream for me. I grew up going to Holden but hadn't been back for about 30 years until a few years ago when we were at Sunset Beach and hitting up restaurants at the other beaches. When we stepped in, it was like I had teleported back to my childhood.

And if ice cream isn't your thing, then there's always the organized chaos of Provision Company.

Sunday evening. Spring break starts for lots of areas next week. Monday you could hit morning commuter traffic. You also won't be spending a vacation day in the car.

We make the trip to nc frequently. My personal preference would be to leave Sunday evening in order to maximize time at the beach, but I think that your best chance to avoid awful traffic would be your Monday morning option.

What we sometimes do when driving to ocean isle (close to Holden) is start out in the late afternoon/evening with a plan to stop for the night halfway through the drive to break things up; usually someplace south of the va/nc border. If traffic turns out to be relatively light we sometimes end up plowing through the entire way.

We are driving to an in-law's house at the very southernmost part of North Carolina (Holden Beach) next week. It's at least a seven hour drive but the last time we did this it took us NINE hours-- ugh. We have two choices of when to hit the road. I know I-95 South is ALWAYS awful, but which time do you think gives us a better chance of hitting minimal traffic? Sunday evening, departing Silver Spring around 4:30, or Monday morning, departing Silver Spring around 9:30-10?