jfk to niagara

[lester]

fastest route between jfk and niagara falls, departing jfk at 1700hrs

[Lifemagician]

Hi Lester, and Welcome to the RTA Forums.

The fastest and shortest route from JFK to Niagara Falls appears to be I-80 W; I-380; I-81 N; I-90 W. However, you will have NYC and surrounds evening rush hour traffic to contend with, to get to I-80.

Where will you be coming from, and what time does the plane land? If it is off an international flight, it could be another hour or more, before you are out of the airport. The other question is, do you have to leave that late in the day?

It will take you around 8 - 9 hours to drive to Niagara, so it can be driven in one full day. If you were to leave NYC the following morning, it would not only be after a good night's sleep, but you would be going the opposite direction to most of the morning rush hour traffic.

Lifey

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA forum!

For a route, I'd probably take the same route I used when I traveled from near Syracuse to Queens last year:

I-678 (Van Wick) North to the Whitestone Bridge then take the Hutcinson River Parkway to I-684 to I-84 back across the Hudson. From There you can hop on the NY State Thruway (I-87/I-90) all the way to Niagara.

However, having said that, you are very much looking at a full day drive that will take at least 8-9 hours. Leaving at 5pm will put you in the peak of rush hour traffic and it will likely take you at least another 1-2 hours on top of that! So best case, you'd be getting into Niagara around 3am

Obviously, if you are coming in off any flight, that's not a good idea and you'll have to stop somewhere for the night anyway, so I'd seriously consider spending the night around JFK and just depart in the morning.

[glc]

Better yet - wait till about 1900 and drive a couple hours to get out of the NYC area and spend the night. Hotels around JFK are expensive, and trying to get out of there through and/or past NYC in morning rush hour is brutal.

I'd take the Belt Parkway to the Verrazano Bridge (I-278) to the Pearl Harbor Expressway (NY-440) to the Outerbridge Crossing. Take I-287 to I-78 to PA-33 to I-80 and then as Lifey suggested. I'd spend the night somewhere in NJ or in eastern PA. It should take you about 2.5 to 3 hours to get to the NJ/PA state line if you don't hit unusual traffic delays.