Will be heading to Florida from SW CT a week from Friday, and due to circumstances beyond my control we won't be leaving until 2:30 - 3:00 pm. So which way would be better, Merritt Parkway to the GWB or I-95 to the Tappan Zee ? I'm sure we will hit traffic, just trying to lessen the intensity!

The GWB is a nightmare almost any time. However, I would check on the traffic for your possible itineraries right before you leave.

A summer Friday - argh.

By all means use the Tappan Zee Bridge. Particularly on Friday afternoons, the traffic crawls across the Bronx. This doesn't mean you aren't going to hit horrendous traffic in NJ, but it's going to save time by not accessing the GWB. You really are traveling at the absolutely worst time of the absolutely worst day to be passing through NJ and this will add at least an hour (probably more) to your trip regardless, but more if you take the GWB.

Agreed.

Also check Yankees schedule. If there is home game the day you are traveling that will make traffic through the Bronx worse in all directions.

From SW CT, I would take Tappan Zee bridge to Garden State Parkway to NJ Turnpike route.

The alternate route, but about 20mi longer, is to take TZB to Exit 15 Suffern, then I-287 through Morristown but you can hit bad NJ traffic through there as well.

If you were headed west on I78 or I80 then that route is ok, but I think TZB to GSP to NJT is the best route.

If you don NOT have an EZ pass, then get one now, before the trip.

You may add another hour to your trip of you do not have one.

Yankee's are in Oakland, so that's a plus, have EZ pass already.

Thank you all for the input.

How about as an alternative take the Throgs Neck or the Whitestone and then to the Outerbridge?

I will look at that.

I can't imagine that going via Staten Island is going to make things faster since you have to pass through Queens and Brooklyn to get there, and it will add almost $20 in tolls.

You wind up much farther south.

I get that, and you save probably 20 miles in westward travel, but you still have to pass through the traffic-choked highways of Queens and Brooklyn (not to mention Staten Island). I can't imagine that's going to save time or money. Avoiding the city entirely by traveling through Westchester to the Tappan Zee Bridge is almost always the best route.