We are going to a resort in Maine (near Yarmouth) on Labor Day weekend this year. We HAVE to drive from Philadelphia on the Friday of that weekend. Normally we would try to get around resultant traffic nightmares by leaving very, very early (trying to get through NYC before rush is really in swing). However, while half the party is able to do that, DH is stuck with an 8-hour shift and will not be out until 3 pm.

We would normally swing up the PIP and cross at Tappan Zee. We're trying to figure if it makes sense to cross the Hudson higher up (Plattsburgh maybe), or if it's just going to take us out of the way. We're hoping that we'll be through Boston metro late enough that traffic is not a major issue, but I have some concerns there too.
Any input? We looked at cutting west to drive North and the swinging back East, but we couldn't find any sane route, and while it might make sense to go an hour out of the way, 4 doesn't.

You will be sitting in traffic very late that night. The friday night is one of the busiest travel days of the year. You have people traveling for the weekend plus people returning to school. Leaving NY at 3 puts you in the middle of it - no matter which direction. I would try to leave later than 3. Yes, you would get to Maine laterbut with less traffic.

Plattsburgh wouldn't make sense - that's near the Canadian border. Perhaps you mean Newburgh.

An option is I-87/NYS Thruway N to exit 17, then East on I-84. Take I-84 Through Hartford, to I-90, then around Boston on I-495. This will add about 30mi or so to the trip, but you avoid I-95 through the worst parts in NY & CT.

I agree with the first part of the previous poster's directions to head for Newburg then take I84 but we try to avoid the Mass pike I90 and Rt 495. Since we live in NH, we find it quickest to take I91 from Hartford CT up thru western MA into VT then get off in Brattleboro for the Keene NH exit. Between Keene and Manchester NH you would be on a numbered state hwy so you wouldn't be able to travel 65+mph. I takes us about 7 hours from the Poconos/Tannersville area to get to the Concord NH area. You can connect with Rt 101 then Rt 3. There will be a toll booth to get thru then Rt 101 again, which at that point is a limited access hwy mostly 65mph to get to the seacoast, connecting with Rt 95N. I think you may be north of the Rt 95 toll booth at that point so would avoid any backup there. By the time you get that far I would think traffic would have eased up. Personally, I don't like Rt 101 from Manchester to the seacoast preferring Rt 4 from Concord to Portsmouth but Rt 4 is slower. When our son made visit from NC to home, he found I91 to Keene was much quicker than the Mass Pike to Rt 495.

I did mean Newburgh, Sorry! Was having a brain moment! That will teach me not to look things up, even when I think I know. Thanks J62 and dfnh. We'd been wondering about what I-87 and I-84 would do for us, but we've never tried to get to New England that way, and sometimes it's hard to tell from a map if something is going to be efficient, or if you have inadvertently dropped yourself into a new and unfamiliar traffic nightmare.

We don't want to leave later, because we are staying in a hotel, not a rental cottage, and the old-fashioned kind where they don't necessarily have someone on the desk all night. The other half of the party will hopefully have checked in, and we're hoping that they'll let DS into the room, if my sister checks in, but we would still like to wake up as few people as possible and not pay for another night on the way if we can avoid it. We have fond hopes of rolling in at midnight, but that may be foolish.