Driving from Boston to SC Advice please (Springfield, Florida: where to stay, motel)

[Sportygal21]

I am planning on driving down to SC from Boston.

Is it a lot easier to do it on the weekend, less traffic OR if you go at a certain weekday time I can pass by the major cities with not much hassle?
What is the best day and time to leave?

Best Route?

Do you think a doing it in a day is fine, etc or staying over night after DC?
Any and all advice appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Sportygal21]

anyone , give me some advice

[CaseyB]

Where are you going? The coast or the upstate? When my daughter drives back and forth, she usually leaves mid morning, stopping overnight in Virginia. She drove straight through once, but I wouldn't recommend it.

[thechappells]

when my family and i moved from MA (lexington) to SC (lexington) we avoided 95 like the plague. we drove thru CT, NY, PA, MD,WV, VA, NC, & finally SC. we stayed overnight in hagerstown, MD. i'll hit this up later for the exact route.

[CityGirl52]

Sportygal21,

About 3 years ago I think it was, a very good friend of mine and her husband moved down to Columbia, SC for good with their 2 cats. I drove them down in their rented van and they flew me home, so it worked out all around. We left the Boston area on a Monday night around 7:00 or so. We drove straight thru from our 495 and the Mass Pike out that way to Middletown, NY. Get your mapquest out with this one or if you have a map, check it out, it's a great way to go from New England! There's a LOT of Hampton Inns and all those motels along the road, so don't worry about where to stay. We stayed over night a few exits up from the sign of Middletown. It was right along the highway, like a Hampton Inn or something like that. They were clean, affordable and everywhere you looked all the way. Like I said, we left on Monday night around 7 PM, we didn't want to drive in the dark, but we figured we would do it the first night and get a good start by getting up to Middletown, NY first. It only took us I think 3 or may be 4 hours that night. We got up there around 10:30 or 11 I think it was.

We got up the next morning in Middletown, NY bright and early and the reason why I'm telling you to GO this way is because you want to avoid the dreaded TOLLS and the crazy heavy traffic that comes with these cities. We were determined to avoid all the big cities" like NYC & DC and Jersey so we wouldn't have to deal with that nonsense, SO we cut ALL that out going this way, it's WELL worth it and it worked out GREAT all around. ALSO, my mailman had told us to go this way and kept highly recommending it to us because he does this drive every year, only he goes further to Florida. It was WELL worth it. He called it the "scenic" route to the south and believe me, it really was nice.

We left Middletown, NY on Tuesday AM from there after breakfast and the next thing was, in no time we were in Pennsylvania, we drove all the way thru that day, right thru the whole state of PA and then the next thing was we were going thru Virginia & I remember it was the Shenandoah county, it was BEAUTIFUL going this way, I'm not kidding you, I just loved it. There was one area in Virginia where we were told to NOT drive it at night because of the mountainous cliff type narrow roads, well we listened to that advise, because we got thru it during the day, so remember that when you're driving thru Virginia, it's on the way to North Carolina. We strictly drove about 8 hours a day, so in around 5 PM we wanted to be OFF the roads completely, so it really worked out good not driving at night at all. So we again got a motel that Tuesday night right in Virginia and that was IT AND we lucked out here too because those Clarion Inn's, the Days Inn and Comfort Inns are all lined up along the highway and there's also signs that tell you where they are, so remember that. The very next morning, same thing we got up, had a quick breakfast and you wouldn't believe it but by noon time on Wednesday we were in Columbia, SC before we knew it. We only had to drive a few hours that morning once we hit NC & SC because the day before we did around 9 hours or a little more, we wanted to get most of it done that 2nd day before. SO that's all we had to do with that drive down there. We more or less paced it due to the cats in the car too, and we only stayed at places that allowed pets, which was like the Days Inn I think. Most of the Hampton Inn's were really good too and those other ones you see every where, they're clean, affordable and you don't get the creeps staying at them at night! The one in Virginia was SO nice, they had a restaurant right across the parking lot from the Motel to grab dinner. It was great because the next morning we flew over there for a quick breakfast.

Go to MAPQUEST and put in your home address and Days Inn in Middletown, NY for your trip to start off. By going this way up thru Middletown, NY you're avoiding the tolls believe me, we didn't hit ONE single toll going this way, JUST the one near Boston on the Masspike and that's IT, and that was no big deal and then from that point on we didn't have one toll all that way, it was great going this way. You can really rack it up if you hit the ones in NYC and DC. So we completely avoided them all together going this way. PA was a quick shot thru the state, we were there so quick from Middletown, like a few hours or so and the next thing we knew we were in Virginia. That state seemed to take a long time, then North Carolina too, but I'll tell you, there speed limit is SO much faster than ours! It was SOOOO weird to me seeing people fly on that highway. You really really have to be careful of the Staties thru each state too. I kept hearing stories about them from my mailman, so now I'm telling you. Pay attention to each states laws about that stuff, it's brutal down thru the southern states, more than up here.

My friends that I drove down were living there for good and found out the hard way about their car not having the right registration on it. They had to pay like you wouldn't believe, it was a ridiculous amount and also they had to appear in court over it too, it was assinine.... So be very careful of that stuff once you hit those particular states, they're strict or they have it out for us northerners or something.

Good luck, if there's anything else you need to know, just ask. I can always get the exact route with the route numbers if you need it...

A good source is AAA too!

[CityGirl52]

We also avoided I-95 the whole way. I only had to go on it to get to 495 for the Mass Pike at the beginning of the whole trip and that's IT. OH and we drove from Mass thru Connecticut to get to Middletown, it's mostly the Mass Pike, you'd start out going as if you were going to Springfield/Albany. Follow I84W via Exit 9 toward US-20 yet you go in thru the state of CT. quite a bit heading toward Waterbury/Danbury, then merge toward Binghamton and then Exit 120Rte 211 is Middletown...it's a good point to stop along the way any way.

If you end up going to Middletown first, from there just look at a map when you're planning this whole trip and look for Hickory, NC., from Middletown, NY and it's roughly 10 hours and 42 minutes; OR 656.46 miles according to our trusty Mapquest online. That's exactly how we did this drive. From Hickory, NC it was nothing to get to Columbia, SC.

That's why staying over night in Virginia will work out perfect. It's a good time to chill out and just get up the next morning and before you know it you'll be in SC...

Good luck and if there's any more questions, just PM me and I'll get my friends to assist us even further if you have any more thoughts on it!