Need help: Best route from Atlanta to Jacksonville?

[jsimms3]

I go to school in Atlanta and have made the drive propably more than anyone else on this board. 75-10 is the fastest, generally. Problems that may arise: horrible speed traps in GA on 75, especially between miles 230 and 190 and 150 and 120. Also, if you are leaving Atlanta on a weekday, especially Friday, be OTP (anyone from Atl knows what that means) heading on your way by 3:00 p.m. or you will be stuck in a 2 hour parking lot from 285 to McDonough. People don't think the southside gets bad, but IMHO it is at least as bad as 75 or 85 N in the afternoon.

If you want to avoid speed traps galore and do not need to make many pits stops, take 75S to 16 across to 95S. This adds up to an hour.

There is a lot of construction on 75 at Cordele and south of Tifton right now which usually brings traffic to a standstill. To avoid this, get off and look at the Road Atlas, you will notice a 2 lane road on the East side of 75 that goes through tiny towns for the majority of the way. Take this to avoid that section if traffic is still bad.

Once on 10, someone told me there are cops hidden in the medians when there are trees, but I have never noticed them. If you are not paranoid you can easily fly at 90 mph and make the most boring segment of the trip take under an hour. 10 is only 2 lanes on each side though, but little traffic so you should not get stuck. Oh yea, 75S on the Florida side is a great stretch to fly down, too, and everyone does. I followed a MAserati owned by one of the Tampa Bay Bucs going about 110 on the entire stretch except for the weigh station and agricultural station about 20 miles in. Other cars were going a slooww 90 LOL.

The rural route that people refer to is called the Woodpecker Trail, and my family summers in NC, so we have taken that before. It is Highway 121 mainly east of Atlanta. It is full of southern towns and rolling hills. It is mostly 2 lane and is very scenic. Speeds will range from slow in the towns to 50-60 MPH depending. It will most definitely take much longer. You would have to take 20 over to the Augusta area and it starts around there in GA.

[SuperDHaley]

I used to live in Jacksonville and made the trip quit frequently since my family lived in Atlanta. In the beginning I took the I-10/I-75 route. If you don't mind a boring ride with little scenery then this is your best bet; 51/2 to 6 hour ride plus pitstops and traffic on I-75 N.

If you rather take an interstate route with less traffic and don't mind riding a little further ride, than I-95/I-16/I-75 is your best bet; 6 to 61/2 hour ride.

I personally like a little scenery on my ride, especially if I'm not in a huge hurry. So I always favored the "Old Trucker's Hwy" which starts out as US-1 N. (Jacksonville Hwy) when you leave Jacksonville. This route starts out as a four lane hwy with a grass median until you get to the north side of Waycross, Ga. and then turns into mostly two a lane hwy. This section takes you through a lot of rural N. Flordia and S. Georgia farm land as wll as the OkefenoKee Swamp. By the way, that is a cool place to stop and hang out for a while. Tons of gators and other wild life. And if you have time you can take a guided boat ride through the swamp.

Once you make Waycross the route changes to US-23. This hwy is mostly two lane but is a great scenic route that takes you through a lot of smaller S. Georgia towns like Alma, Hazelhurst, McRae and Eastman among other small towns. US-23 eventually crosses I-16 just outside the Macon city limits. I always hopped on I-16, rode 6 or 7 miles to I-75 N. to Atlanta.

The cons about this route are, don't take if you are in a hurry, you have tons of small town police looking to pad their towns pockets with speeding fines. It will also take you a little longer to travel this route, 6 to 7 hours tops plus pitstops. The pros are lots and lots of scenery on this route that takes you through a part of S. Georgia most people never see. There are mile after mile of woods, farm land, rolling hills and a ton of cool places you may find interesting enough to stop stay a while.

Either way you choose, "Be Safe"!!!

[vigo]

This is a three-year-old thread. I think the OP got there already.

[jwolfer]

if there is lots of construction on 75 traffic can get backed up. I think most of the constuction is done and most of the route is at least 6 lanes... You can take US1/23 to Waycross and then take 82 west to Tifton or take 23 to 341 and either hit 75 just south of Macon or via US 23a and hit 16 just east of Macon. It is less miles if you are resticted in mileage like with a rental truck. You do go through some small towns, however much of the route is divided rural highway with 65 MPH speed limit. It can be a nice change of pace. But 10 to 75 is the quickest barring accidents/construction