Mid-Atlantic by car · Mid-Atlantic by car
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Mid-Atlantic by car
Mid-Atlantic by car
When in Rome, do as the Romans do; drive in the USA. Driving is the only practical way to tour the Mid-Atlantic, if you intend to visit anything beyond the major cities. That said, the Mid-Atlantic is the least pleasant place to drive in the entire country. Traffic, both inter-city and intra-city, can be horrendous?the D.C. area regularly tops the lists of the nation's most congested cities, and Metro New York is never far behind. But above all, Mid-Atlantic drivers are rude. Aggressive and often puzzling driving is commonplace along the interstates and in more populous areas.
I-95 is the coastal super highway, at times encompassing a whopping eighteen lanes, and connects D.C. to New York through Baltimore, Philadelphia (optional), and pretty much everything in between in New Jersey and Delaware. It is the fastest way to drive between these cities, but it is unpleasant and ridden with expensive tolls (especially in Delaware!) and very bad traffic on weekends and around local rush hours. Avoiding I-95 requires a bit of creativity and slightly longer trips through Pennsylvania west of Philadelphia, but such trips can be rewarding in terms of scenery, no tolls, little traffic, and just easier traveling generally.
Finally, a direct warning is in order: Driving into D.C. and New York is really not advisable. Doable, certainly; fun, not likely. Washington D.C.'s street layout was designed to confuse invading armies. New York is extremely congested, and its drivers are the most aggressive in all of North America (though Bostonians may dispute that claim). Philadelphia is also filled with extremely reckless and fast-drivers, but at least the city is laid out in a grid. If you are driving into D.C., get good directions and don't do it anywhere around rush hour. If driving into New York, save yourself by parking in a less congested borough (like Queens or Brooklyn), where you might actually find free on-street parking, and take a subway line from there into Manhattan. Driving in Mid-Atlantic cities is really not recommended however because it is not necessary; Mid-Atlantic cities have the best mass transit systems in North America. It is almost always better to take a train in and use mass transit than to drive in and pay astronomical parking expenses.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Mid-Atlantic
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Mid-Atlantic - updated Apr 2024
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WHERE TO TRAVEL NEXT IN 2020
Mid-Atlantic Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.