We are heading from the MD suburbs of DC to White Plains NY over the Memorial Day weekend. Will NJ turnpike traffic a nightmare? Is there a better alternative route between Philly and White Plains?

Depends on when Memorial Day weekend - if you travel the usual Friday-Monday or even Tuesday AM, any route will be a migraine-inducer. I think your major headaches will not be as much on Turnpike as crossing the Hudson River - which you have to do someplace - and the area surrounding that.

My preferred route for that trip is different than many GPS devices and mapping programs suggest.

NJ Turnpike-GS Parkway-Tappan Zee Bridge. I think you can figure out White Plains from there.

This avoids NY City, but you still have all sorts of people escaping the city to head north.

No matter what, get a toll transponder - they are all interchangeable at this point - and at least you can save a little time thru tolls. Pack aspirin.

The EZ Pass can save you more than a little time -esp holiday weekends - when a lot of people are out who don't usually drive far from home. I've had EZ pass save me as much as 15 minutes on a single crossing on a holiday weekend.

And agree that Friday, Mon or Tues will be hellish. Sat and Sun will just be very busy.

I drove from White Plains to Williamsburg, VA the Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend thinking we'd miss the Sunday traffic. The usual six hour trip took 11 hours due to horrendous traffic on the NJ Turnpike and just south of Delaware Memorial Bridge.

Last Sunday I drove from White Plains to Trenton using the Tappan Zee Bridge-Garden State Pkwy - Turnpike route and didn't hit any traffic except for a two mile backup near Trenton because a Trooper's car was parked on the side of the road. Sheesh!

Is the train an option? That's the best way to avoid holiday traffic, which will be a nightmare, with no "shortcuts."

for years we drove from our home in northern new jersey to our weekend home in maryland. the absolute worst traffic was fri night and sun night on a normal summer weekend. holiday weekends were really a breeze comparatively. no one believes me but it is true. i found the same thing when i lived in nyc and spent the summer weekends in the hamptons. people take off at different times since many add vacation days around it or leave later/earlier since they have the extra day.

snarls tend to happen around the bridges. the delaware memorial bridge can get clogged. and the same with the tappan zee or gwb.

ez-pass will really help the trip especially with the express lanes on the turnpike.

From NJ, we always head South on holiday weekends and coming back North on a Sundays or Mondays ending the holiday have noticed horrendous backups for miles coming down the turnpike, especially getting thru the bottleneck of the Del Mem Bridge and thru the 295/95 merge after going thru the toll back up. It's just pure volume. Maybe an early Monday morning departure would be better.

It is a crap shoot.

Sometimes on a holiday weekend, people leave early and traffic moves in NYC.

The Garden State can be a nightmare due to the shore traffic.

It also depends if the Yankees are playing on that Friday night.

Usually the best road north to White Plains is the Hutchinson River but you must get there somehow.

E-Z pass for sure, but it will be bad no matter what you do, and there really isn't another way to go, unless you want to go about 200 miles out of the way. At least you are headed in the better direction, as shore-bound traffic will be a nightmare unless the weather is awful, and the bulk of that is people headed south and then returning north. I'll second the Tappan Zee, as well, as it is less likely to clog.

Thanks for all of the suggestions; we have an E-Z pass (it works down here for the Baltimore bridge and tunnels, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Dulles tollway).

We'll look into the train option.

Coming back, make sure you jump off the NJTP and hop over to I-295. Perhaps at Exit 4, or even earlier.

Like LawrenceJ says, the backup to the toll both just before the Delaware Memorial Bridge on the NJTP can be miles long. Won't help even if you have EZ-Pass.