I will deal with the northern part of the route, although I have made a trip several times/year from Boston north to near Raleigh, NC. We used to make the trip (with 2 drivers) in 1 1/2 days, stopping overnight but last couple of years have timed it to avoid as much traffic as possible and done it in one brutal day.

First - Tappan Zee Bridge - no question.

Second - the trick is to time the trip to reduce rush hour traffic in the NE metro areas of Boston, NYC, Balt/DC. This is difficult, since they are roughly 4 hours apart. Since daughter and I are both morning people, we leave Boston area very early - like 5 AM. This puts is ahead of Boston rush hour, at end of NYC rush hour (which is reduced anyway by using Tappan Zee Bridge) and ahead of DC traffic - hopefully.

There is always some problem in NJ - on Garden State Parkway or Turnpike. When there is not, this route and schedule works great. If not, it delays you such that you hit DC at rush hour. When unlucky, it has taken us as long as 11 hours just to get to DC - when things go well, 8 hours. This does not allow for stopping for much other than really fast coffee, bathroom, gas, fast food breaks. If you need longer stops, take 2 days for the trip. We liked to stop around Fredericksburg - got us thru DC on Day 1 and lots of inexpensive chain hotels.

An unpredictable and really annoying part can be south of DC until Fredericksburg or even Richmond. Just when you think you are free of major metro areas, you can hit unexpected traffic jams.

Guaranteed you are going to get all sorts of recommendations for a more western route thru PA, exotic ways around DC. We have tried most of them and in the end it is pure luck - on any given day one can be better than the other, but we still find that balanced out a route of MassPike to 84 to TappanZee Bridge to GS Parkway to NJ Turnpike (at Woodbridge) and then right down I95 is as good as any other route.

Have made this trip 2-4 RTs/year for 9 years (kids in college in the south) and happily this ends in May. There are just a lot of people who want to travel this route - and sometimes the roads just can't accomodate them.

I will suggest a more easterly route instead of west.
Start very early (4AM?). Go through Trenton NJ Newark DE and all the way down the Delmarva through Virginia Beach.
Two or three drivers would get you there in less than 16 hours.

I second the above suggestion to take the route down the DelMarVa peninsula.

>>We'veheard recently that the bridge leading to OBX is a bit of a bottleneck.<<

Yes, summer Saturday's can be a monster getting onto (and off of) the OBX. Timing helps. Prior to 10 or 11 am will be fine and after 7 or 8 pm. Presumably you're staying a week? What is your check in day?

>>and then right down I95 is as good as any other route.<<

Except that in going to the OBX, the latter third of the trip isn't on I95. They can go east and avoid the I95 Baltimore/DC and south mess altogether as well as the bottlenecks on I64 until Va Beach. Not exotic. The view from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is beautiful.

I like the combination of the above, do as gail suggests, then get on the garden state pkwy and go to Cape May take the ferry to Lewes DE then as obxgirl and tomfuller suggest down the DelMarVa to the bay bridge and over and down 17 through NC if you want to avoid most of the traffic. Going back to 95 on 64 might be faster depending on which part you are going to, but not as laid back. If you want to stop for the night, consider going to Chincoteague and seeing the ponies along the way.

In the old days we frequently visited DS in Wilmington, NC and the drive on 95 is brutal.

Thanks All-
Gail- Have you ever left the Boston area in the late afternoon (assuming you've missed the local rush-hour traffic), and driven through the night? A friend had suggested this timing as it would (hopefully) avoid the various congestion points and get us to OBX before the am traffic at the bridge..
Either way, I'm not looking forward to this drive and really hope that OBX is as beautiful and relaxing as we've heard!

The Wright Bridge across to the island itself WILL BE congested as was mentioned above late morning on check-in days, especially on a Saturday. I've seen it backed up for as much as 20+ miles and no matter which route above that you take, you cannot avoid this unless you get there earlier or later OR go down and stay in a motel on a Friday night.

I have never done this as a late afternoon/night drive but imagine it would work. I am a morning person and at serious risk of falling asleep at the wheel late at night - and there is little decent coffee and iced coffee is unheard of south of Richmond, making the situation worse.

We used to make this trip in the middle of the night but my stamina was better in my twenties. The last hour or so of the drive is a four lane highway that will be pretty dark and shut down at that time of night.

If you are visiting friends or staying at hotel where check isn't time critical then rolling into the driveway at the crack of dawn isn't so much of an issue. But if you're renting a home whose turnover day is Saturday and you're driving through Friday night to miss the Saturday bridge traffic, you're still going to have to kill 6-8 hours on very little sleep waiting to check into your beach house, typically 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Doesn't sound like a relaxing start to a vacay to me.

I'd take the DelMarVa peninsula route and spend the night in Va Beach. You'll get a decent night's sleep and if you're on the road by 8 or 9, you'll be on the OBX in fine time. Or if you take I95 to Richmond and I64 east from there, you could stay in Fredericksburg or head further on to Williamsburg for the night. We find leaving Wmburg by 7 or 7:30 on a summer Saturday misses the worst of the traffic.