I've got a late morning flight from Philly after a visit to NJ and a long weekend in NYC. I don't want to trust traveling all the way from NYC in the morning to Philly to make my flight, but don't want to leave NY too early the night before either. Any suggestions of a town about 2/3 of the way to Philly that would have a decent but inexpensive hotel? I don't know the area at all.

If you're looking for ease of getting back on and off the New Jersey Turnpike, there are several hotels near New Brunswick (exit 9.)

I can't think of anywhere specifically but there are numerous business parks and possibilites really anywhere from exit 9 down to exit 7A (Mile wise, it's about 60 to 70 miles from New York to exit 7A, which is near Trenton.)

If you wanted to stop somewhere with a town, perhaps Princeton is't a bad option. Although, it's about miles once you're off the turnpike.

I might suggest you think where to stop by figuring how long you'd like the drive to be from your hotel to the Philadelphia airport.

From New Brunswick, figure at least an hour and 20 minutes.

Make that 10 to 14 miles to Princeton once off the NJ turnpike.

BTW, I find mapquest the best option for finding hotels near my destination.

I would recommend staying around the Phila airport. You can get a really reasonable place at a 3* hotel at the airport on priceline.

It's only about a 2-hour drive from New York to Phila.

Im with Budman. The distance isn't so great that it doesn't make sense just to get to an airport hotel late and sleep in. Or if you want some life for the evening, stay in downtown Philly. I guess you're dfiving?

Yes, I'm driving. I mostly wanted to get out of NY. My hotel there is so expensive and I thought it would be better to stay near Philly. I'll look at Mapquest for ideas, thanks for that idea. I'm not used to big city traffic, and didn't want to have to stress about driving a long distance with perchance a slow down and returning the rental etc. Had a baaaad experience at Ohare awhile back literally sprinting through the airport towing my 6 year old and trying to get to the gate before they closed the door, after an accident on the highway tied up traffic.
My husband says I worry too much but it's not fun if I'm stressed. I'll look into a downtown PHL hotel, too.

I have seen your other post and understand that you are planning on driving from Cape May into NYC for a weekend. This is in June after school is out. First of all, be very sure that you want to do this drive on a Friday in the summer. Jersey Shore traffic can be really bad, and even though you are going north and in the opposite direction of a lot of the traffic, I still think you are going to run into a good bit, esp traffic coming from Philadelphia and then going to shore points north of the Atlantic City Expressway. From about Exit 114 on the Garden State Parkway, and then on the NJ Turnpike, you are probably going to encounter traffic at all times, as this part of NJ is just very congested. IF you do this, leave very early Friday morning and do not be on the approach roads to NYC at rush hour.

But what is worse is your return trip. I would not in any way want to be on NJ roads on a Sunday evening in summer trying to drive from NYC to Philadelphia. If that is your plan, I would rethink it. You will run into quite a bit of traffic. It could be bumper to bumper the entire route. The best way to do this would be to leave after 10 pm, but then you are driving in darkness on roads you do not know at all. I don’t even know that I would want to do it on any weekday morning in rush hour traffic, as you will encounter quite a bit in the NYC area.

My very strong suggestion would be that you consider a few options:

1. As mentioned in other posts, drop the car off at a car rental agency on a train line in NJ and take the train into NYC. A logical place would be the Edison, New Jersey area where you could take Amtrak from the Metropark station. This is Exit 131 on the Garden State Parkway, and you will be on this road up from Cape May in any event. Another place is Newark Airport where you could then take the AirTrain to Newark and then a train into NYC. If you tell me what car rental agency you are using I may be able to suggest other drop off points. You will pay drop off fees, but IMO this is better than dealing with the traffic headaches and also paying for parking which in NYC will be about $30 a day at a minimum. You may have some savings from not having to pay for the car for the extra 2-3 days. You can then take the Amtrak train from NYC to Philadelphia on Sunday evening and perhaps see a bit of the city or at least have a good dinner somewhere. You can take a train from the Amtrak station in Philadelphia right to each of the terminals at the airport. Go to http://www.septa.org/ for info.

2. If you don’t want to drop the car off, then consider parking at the Amtrak station in Metropark (Edison) for the two days. They have daily parking for $5, and I believe overnight is not at an issue. Take a look at the Amtrak.com site. Parking here will avoid some of the bad traffic on Friday and Sunday, but not all of it.

3. Drive the car to the Atlantic Highlands area (Exit 105) area on the NJ coast. There is a high-speed ferry service that goes to the South Street Seaport area in lower Manhattan and to 34th Street on the east side in midtown. The fare is about $20 one way for adults, although there are off-peak fares (after 9 am) round trip for about $25. I believe parking at the ferry piers is free, which is a big plus, not sure you can park overnight, you should confirm this by calling or checking the website. Take a look at http://www.seastreak.com or call 732-872-2628. You could then take the ferry back Sunday night and drive to Philadelphia. Keeping the car down here will keep you away from some, but not all, of the traffic, but you will still have a very good chance of bad traffic on the Sunday evening.

4. If you still decide to drive between NYC and Philadelphia on Sunday evening, I agree you probably should stay at the airport area. I don’t know what kind of traffic you may encounter driving to the airport in the morning from any other location. Cherry Hill is probably the closest NJ location with a number of hotels, however I don’t know about driving there in the morning. The airport is south of town, and if you are in NJ you have to cross the Walt Whitman bridge essentially in downtown, don’t know how that would be in morning traffic. If you stay north of Philadelphia or in Philadelphia itself, I just don’t know how much traffic you would encounter on a given morning. (That’s why the train may be better.) There are numerous airport hotels, including a Marriott which is IN the airport terminal complex. Also nearby are a Hilton, Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn (tel: 610 521 2400), a Marriott Courtyard a Renaissance and a Sheraton Four Points.

Sorry, one more idea. You can drive to Atlantic City, return the rental car and take a train to NYC. This would take 2.5 to 3 hours and would require 1 change. (The fastest way is to go to Philadelphia and then change to Amtrak). Go to njtransit.com for schedules for the local trains to Philadelphia. You can also take a bus from Atlantic City to NYC, but this may not help with the traffic issue, although you won’t be driving and they certainly know the roads better than you do.

From Cape May to NYC on a good day without a bit of traffic will take you about 3 hours. That’s before you get to your hotel in NYC (which hopefully is not too hard to find). That’s a longish drive IMO even with the benefit of a totally accident and traffic free road. I have a house at the Jersey shore and I just know what the roads can be like with summer traffic. Don’t forget the entire length of the drive up is a toll road (the Garden State Parkway and then the Turnpike and then the tunnel for NYC).

I can't tell you about the drive from Cape May to NYC, but I sure agree with Cicerone about not driving from NYC to Phil. on a Sunday night. You can take Amtrak train from NYC to Phil. and then a Septa train from the 30th st. station to the airport.

Thank you for all of your ideas, Cicerone. I had wondered about the drive to NY but most people didn't think it would be a trouble. We are actually coming up Saturday AM from Cape May. Hoping the traffic won't be as bad. And wwill be leaving NY on Monday night, hopefully after traffic is lighter. I'll look into the idea of dropping off the car. I'm a little overwhelmed this week, as I'm a teacher and school is ending and I'm moving buildings.
Do you think the Philly drive will be as bad on Monday night?

Saturday AM from Cape May to NYC shouldn't be a bad trip as most of the traffic will becoming from the North to the South on the Garden State Parkway.

The drive from NYC to Philly on a Monday night on the Turnpike shouldn't be that bad either. Even with a little traffic, no more than an extra 1/2 hour.

Well, the Saturday AM drive up from Cape May could be heavy because Saturday is generally the turnover day for people renting houses on a weekly rental, so get an early start. If your trip is at the end of a month, you will also have monthly turnover people as well. Turnover is any time between 10 – 1 pm so people who are leaving the shore after a week/month will be heading home around that time. Even if you get an early start from Cape May, I think you may run into this after Toms River and above. (And I disagree that most shore traffic is only southbound, you will get Philadelphia day trip shore traffic going north after the Atlantic City Expressway; and from about Exit 114 you are in commuting range of NYC and there is just almost always a good bit of traffic as the GS Parkway and Turnpike are essentially local roads for a lot of people living in the area in addition to being through roads for summer travellers. Hard to say what you will find here on a Saturday in June.)

I agree that Monday night traffic going to Philadelphia should not be so bad, certainly much better than Sunday. But don’t go in rush hour out of NYC, either leave early or leave after about 7 pm.