FL to NY with an 3hr drive/day in DEC

[vsbravo]

Hello everyone, me an my wife are planning a roadtrip to the East coast in Dec. We already done the roadtrip on the West coast. The main idea is to fly to Miami, rent a car an drive all the way up to NYC and spend the Christmas holiday over there, driving an average of 3 hours per day. We plan to complete roadtrip in 8 days, tops.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one to plan this kind of trip, so I tried to search similar trips here on the forum, but nothing that I saw really fits on what we want. If anyone knows a thread that could help, I would appreciate.

I need help setting the sleep points so I can meet the 3hr/day average. Washington is a must.
I'm very concerned with the weather and snow storms, so not planning to get too exited driving off the Interstate.

[glc]

Welcome!

Miami to NYC is 1300 miles via I-95, and my software calculates that driving 3 hours a day, this will take you 7 days. Are you planning on doing some sightseeing to fill in the rest of each day?

Reasonably divided overnight stops would be:

Orlando FL
Brunswick GA
Charleston SC
Fayetteville NC
Richmond VA
Baltimore MD

Note that DC is between Richmond and Baltimore.

[vsbravo]

Yes, the 3hr/day is just an average, this is to make the 7 days useful, considering 8hrs of sleep and 3hrs to eat/check-in we would have 10hrs to do some sightseeing. We will spent 3 days in Orlando, 2 days in Washington and 2-3 days in NYC, completing 14 days of the trip.

Should I worry about the snow? Guessing not on the Interstate at least...

Also, how much time would cost us to visit Atlantic city? Does it worth it?

[AZBuck]

For a couple of reasons, I would think that the coastal route would work best for you on this trip. First, there is quite a lot to see, even or especially if you only want to cover a couple of hundred miles a day and spend most of your time enjoying the venues along the way. Secondly, you are less likely to experience snow while staying near the warmth of the ocean. Even in December, you should not have to worry about snow until you reach southern Virginia at worst. So while you get to enjoy some more leisurely and scenic roads up the southern coast, at Norfolk you would tie back into the Interstate system to continue on to Washington and New York. You should leave a day of leeway for that final stretch of your drive (DC to NY) just in case of untoward weather. I would not recommend a detour to Atlantic City both because of the added miles and because its 'pleasures' can now be found so many other places closer to your route and in a better state of repair.

AZBuck

[glc]

Atlantic City in December is not a very enjoyable place to be unless all you want to do is stay inside and gamble. The weather is pretty raw and a large portion of the attractions are shut down for the winter. In my opinion, the only part of Atlantic City that's really suitable for tourism is along the Boardwalk itself. The rest of the city is a depressed area.