Hello Christie,

If I'm following your plans correctly, you're leaving JFK some time shortly after 5pm on a Friday headed for Philly and will then leave DC, bound for the Boston area, at mid-day on Sunday. I can be rightly accused of complaining too much about traffic in the Northeast corridor, and I admittedly don't get up that way often, but every time I do I return home absolutely crushed by the traffic volume and the resulting very slow and painstaking travel.

I really can't offer suggestions as to routes to avoid traffic, particularly on Friday the 11th. I strongly suspect there are none. Perhaps on the return trip you could look at venturing north from Baltimore into Pennsylvania and New York enroute to the Boston area. I surely would, as a Sunday return through northern NJ and right through the NYC area would be far more than I'd undertake following what is very likely to be a slow and arduous exit from JFK less than 48 hours before. In that vein I took the Baltimore/Harrisburg, PA/Scranton, PA route to Newburgh, NY back in 2007 simply to avoid NJ/NYC on a rush hour weekday afternoon. It was some 70-80 miles farther, but we ran 80 mph all the way, so I suspect we "won" in terms of time.

I really wonder if perhaps you're overreaching to include such short stays in Philly, DC, and Boston. If it's sightseeing which brings you to the three, I suspect your ratio of sightseeing to slugging it out in traffic will be < 1:4 or 5. Add the fact that those are among the shortest days of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere and that you're arriving from 1/2 way around the world and I have great difficulty imagining the fun of such an undertaking, quite frankly. If it were me, I'd look at staying overnight on Friday somewhere close to JFK, then launch early the 12th for either the southern or the northern leg of your present plans, jettisoning the other entirely.

Perhaps others with more local experience up there can provide greater hope and better suggestions regarding your itinerary.

Best of luck planning and taking your RoadTrip!

Foy