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Thanks everyone!! Google is saying ~1:50 from Orient to Garden City. 4:30 from Plymouth to the ferry in CT, and then another 1:30 for the ferry and we are about 8 hours.
I don't mind driving a few hours. I've driven straight from Utah to NY, and we routinely drive 5 hours across CO to visit family.
I'm thinking perhaps a 10pm departure from Plymouth would yield the fastest, and cheapest ( no ferry to deal with ). Might be a bit more stressful, but I'm the type that just likes to "get there".
I do it several times a year and mom does it a few times a year the reverse way. I routinely make it from Wilmot/New London to Westbury in 5.5 flat, with a quick stop.
Use your head re:traffic -- you know not be near NYC on a Friday between 4-7pm; hit Boston or Hartford before 3pm or after 6pm
Driving-wise, my best luck to/from LI is consistently the Merritt to the Hutch and over the Throgs Neck bridge.
The ferry is nice -- we do that sometimes, too, but you need to consider the ferry an "experience/entertainment" because it is slower and more expensive. That said, we love it from about April-October. It is freaking COLD in the winter. Winds whipping on the docks, on the ferry, etc.
I like the Orient Point ferry better because I don't have to go through Bridgeport (hell hole, traffic-y, and if I'm in Bridgeport I might as well drive the last 90 minutes to my mom's) but driving in from Out East in the summer, even if you think you are on the "reverse commute" path, can SUCK. That one-lane Rt 25 can really get you. But if you get stuck, hit Briermere farms and pay $20 for a pie.:-D
Also -- in the nice weather, especially on weekends in summer, you NEED a ferry reservation. It is jammed with prepsters going to/from Shelter Island and the the north fork.
I felt compelled to chime in here as I probably make this trip more than anyone on this earth.
I'm from Suffolk county and we bought a house in Tuftonboro NH which is in the vicinity of where Plymouth is (other side of the lake) although you are probably much better off being so close to 93. We have to take Rte 16 south for an hour before we can even get up to speed on 95.
Anyway, for the last 2 years I basically make this drive every other weekend. Today I made it back to Long Island in 5 1/2 hours. We stopped for gas and a coffee. Friday Morning I made it up to NH in 5 Hours 15 min.
In the past, when I have our trailer it has been anywhere from 6-7 hrs depending on time of day and traffic. Never has this 350 mile trip taken me longer than 7hrs. Remember you are only going to Garden City, not all the way out to suffolk like me, so I think you could shave an easy half hour off the times. I average between 70-80 mph.
Regarding the ferry....... To garden city...... I would drive around. You aren't going to set any speed records taking the ferry. The time you waste sitting at New London or vice versa just isn't worth it.
Also, during busier times of the year 95 can be rough, especially heading back to NY on a summer sunday afternoon. 15 is the merrit pkwy and has been good to take. It runs parallel with 95.
The trip into NY definitely isn't as bad from the north as it can be from PA or Jersey.
If you have any other questions about routes or times let me know.
A lot depends on the day of the week, time of day, and which direction you're going. My BIL lives in Westbury, and we've driven from here in Manchester to Westbury and back several times. He's also made the trip in the opposite direction several times. One time he made the trip here in three and a half hours, but that was during the middle of the day on a weekday. When we came home on Sunday night on Thanksgiving weekend, though, it took us about five and a half hours. The traffic is horrific around the holidays and on Sunday afternoon/evening, so be sure to allow plenty of extra time for that. It takes forever to get off the island. Once you get through Connecticut, though, the going seems to be a lot easier. Be sure to get a transponder (to pay the tolls) for your car! It'll save you a lot of time.
Thanks a bunch everyone for the estimates. Best case scenario is we're looking at 5:30. Worst 7+ We can deal with both, and it's a small price to pay to A. See our family more and B. Retaining some of our rights & freedoms.
Where we live boils down to whether we want my wife working, and living further south, or staying home and raising our first child, and living further north ( Plymouth ) and keeping our living expenses low.
We're giving this relocation one last serious push. It seems like I'm getting conflicting estimates in terms of the trip.
According to Google, I'm looking at 307 miles and 5hr and 20 minutes of driving.
Do you folks think this is accurate ( given we catch rush hour traffic in any of the cities ), or is it underestimated?
I'm hearing 7-9+ hours from Plymouth to Long Island?
Definitely should not take that long. In fact, that is a big "hell no," because I've made the trip many times.
I am a reasonably slow driver, and use to make it in roughly 6'ish hours from around Riverhead way out in Suffolk County, LI up to Jefferson/Lancaster, NH. I forget the exact time offhand, but as an average... I'd say it was usually between 6.0 - 6.5 hrs.
As Plymouth is a ways south of Lancaster, I figure take maybe an hour to an hour less off what I said above.... which should bring you in at maybe 5.0 - 5.5 hours.... driving at a reasonable pace around the speed limit.
I used to take the Cross-Sound ferry across to CT, but that gets expensive. Depending on how you time it, it may save shave a bit of time off your trip.... but I didn't really do it for the time reduction, mainly just because I fall asleep while driving on long distances, and didn't want to do the extra miles 120'ish+ miles having to drive all the way out to the city, and then all the way back east on I-95 through CT to Rhode Island.
I used to take I-95 all the way up through CT, to RI, then Mass to Boston, then into NH.......... but then I got wise and started taking a shortcut straight up through CT to Vermont on I-91.... Seems a much more direct route, and simpler, though for whatever odd reason, it didn't substantially reduce my trip time... but still, it was easier, I thought. The tricky part, though, is getting from I-91 in Vermont across to where you want to be in Plymouth. I don't have the map in front of me offhand, but you probably will have to take a number of backroads to connect the two, and that will be extremely scenic, though slow-going.
* Note: I always made that trip in the middle of the week, leaving early in the morning.. and hitting Hartford maybe around 10 in the morning. Never on weekends. Never had any traffic problems.
** I usually experience more traffic problems on the way back, somewhere in Connecticut (I think between Hartford and New Haven, going down I-91), because I usually hit that in the early evening.... I think the last time I came back on a Sunday... so I don't know why it had so much traffic on a weekend.
*** I usually do at least 3 rest stops for food and stretching, totaling about forty or fifty minutes worth of rest-stop time. Sometimes that pushes me to the 6.5 - 7.0 hour mark, so figure an hour for breaks, unless you are the kind of driver that can do six hours easy.
Last edited by FreedomThroughAnarchism; 02-26-2011 at 03:10 AM..
A lot of good advice, but if it was up to me, I would ask Mapquest or plug it into my Garmin GPS.
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