Best time to leave

[Kolmtny]

I'm driving from long island to Buford, GA. I would like to leave sometime Sunday to arrive in GA Monday morning. I'm planning on driving straight through. What is the best time to leave? Best route?
Later that week I'm driving to Odessa FL. I'm planning on leaving either Monday night (the following week) or Tuesday morning. (Or anytime in between) what is the best time to drive from Odessa to Long Island? And best route? Thanks!

[DonnaR57]

Welcome to RTA!

Honestly, you won't get much support here for a plan to drive 850 miles straight through, without stopping overnight. Here at RTA, we regulars know that's not safe. Once you get to about your 10th or 11th hour of driving, you get tired even when you don't know it. The more tired you are, the more you resemble a drunk driver.

That said, here's what I'd recommend: Get yourself on the road early on Sunday morning -- 6 or 7 am or so. Drive for roughly 550 miles. Get off the road, take a motel and relax, sleep. The next morning, get up, leave about the same hour, and drive the other 300 miles.

Buford to Odessa isn't a big problem -- at 485 miles, it's doable in about 9 hours.

I'll let someone else chime in about routes.

Donna

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

At 850 miles, along the busiest highways in North America no less, Long Island to Buford, GA is simply too far to safely drive without an overnight stop. Despite what online mapping programs will tell you, this is a drive that you should expect to take at least 15 hours, which is way more than any human being can safely do, and professional drivers are forbidden by law from attempting such a drive. It sounds like you hope to drive through the night, which will only increase the odds of you being involved a crash that injures you or someone who happens to be in your path.

In other words, if you want to be in Buford early on Monday Morning, then you should plan to leave Long Island on Saturday. If you don't need to be there until noon or so, you could probably leave early Sunday Morning, spend the night around Statesville, NC, and finish your trip the next day.

Odessa to Long Island is two full days on the road (at the very upper limit of what professional drivers are allowed to do) to make the trip safely. Once Again, Stateville, NC would be the logical place to spend the night.

[Kolmtny]

Thank you. Was planning on a stop for a quick nap (about 3 to 4 hours)along the route. Was mostly looking for best time to leave to avoid most traffic. Will take all advice into account.
Does anyone have a "best route"

[Lifemagician]

Was planning on a stop for a quick nap (about 3 to 4 hours)along the route.

Three to four hours won't do it. After a days' driving, and having to get back behind the wheel the next day, you need a full 8 hours sleep. You need to plan for a full nights' rest both going and coming..

Lifey

[DonnaR57]

Was planning on a stop for a quick nap (about 3 to 4 hours)along the route. Was mostly looking for best time to leave to avoid most traffic.

Then the best time to leave is when the plane leaves from the airport. You need to give this a full day and a half day on the road, not a straight through. Three to four hours nap is not going to do it, especially if you are still in your vehicle while you are napping.

I've had this experience before, of driving straight through. Don't do it. If you won't take your own life into consideration, then please consider the others that must share the road with an exhausted driver. Exhausted drivers kill, just like drunken drivers do.


Donna

[landmariner]

You didn't say where on Long Island you are leaving from... Montauk or JFK...

If you are leaving during the summer before Labor Day Weekend on a Fri/Sat/Sun, then expect to encounter beach traffic all along I-95, at least to Fredericksburg, VA, and you probably want to be clearing through Fredericksburg, VA, by 830am at the latest. September is still very busy on Saturday mornings heading south due to heavy travel to the Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina beaches, not quite as heavy southward on Sundays in Sept, but you probably don't want to roll the dice. Bumber to bumper traffic is no way to start a long trip.

Tons of tolls between NY and Virginia on the bridges, turnpikes. Some Baltimore and DC/Virginia toll roads are tricky... with HOT, HOV, etc.