We just drove down last week with great results, from central mass. We have done several different routes, as well as straight through twice. The western route (77, 81) is longer and avoids DC and NY, but has fewer three lane miles, which is key to making good time with lots of trucks. In wintertime, the western route has more of a chance of higher elevation weather. Its easy to avoid 95 through NYC with the Mario Cuomo bridge to the palisades or garden state parkways back to NJ turnpike, as the turnpike has many lanes, though narrows to two near the Delaware memorial bridge.
We avoid most of Baltimore/DC traffic by going 301 through Delaware, which has very little traffic but very few services, to Cheasapeake Bay bridge to 495 back to 95 South. The section of 95 South from 495, DC, to Fredericksburg VA has construction, and can be extremely slow with traffic, and this time in december is the only time the slow was about 5 miles. The Cheasapeake bridge / tunnel is fun, but the route from norfolk back to 95 has too many lights.
We try to leave as early in the morning as possible. 4AM for us works as we can be early morning people and prefer to drive in sunlight near the end of the day's drive when driving can get monotonous, and we get tired A good first days' drive gets us to Florence SC by 6 pm though we have family exactly 1/2 down on the VA/NC border so we visit with them for an evening.
Leaving on a Friday when most people who can work from home are working from home is best weekday, Monday through Thursday not so much for the weekday meetings which the WFH crowd has to attend. . . Weekends are better in winter, not so much in the summer when everyone has the same idea for that one+ week vacation starting with a rental on Sunday and returning home on a Saturday.
Get an EZ pass and you will be saving money on tolls, and not have to slow down for them. Use Waze or Google maps for local suggestions, and remember, one idiot driver can make a mess of your time and plans. We lost an hour going north last july for a class 1 camper into the woods, lost an hour south this time looking for on highway diesel in Delaware (also idiot driver), which is why we don't book a room until we are fairly certain of our arrival time, like within 2 hours of ending for the day.
Good luck,
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