How long to drive to Cape May from Maplewood on a Friday in August

We are going to Cape May this Friday and need to be there by 12 noon. One person tells me it is a 2 hour trip. I am thinking it would be about 3 to 3.5 hours. Another person is telling me that if we leave Maplewood at 8am we won't make it in time because of shore traffic.

Any experience with this?

We did it a few weeks ago on a Friday afternoon and it was closer to 3 hours. That's with the parkway moving well that day

Three hours, even three and a half I can handle. I'm being told that four hours won't be enough time and that we'll be late. This doesn't sound right to me, I thought shore traffic usually started around noon on Friday, not 8am.

No experience with that time of day, but on the Saturday before July 4, I made it in 2.5 hours easy with no traffic, so I think 3 hours already accounts for some amount of traffic. I'm not a speedy driver either.

3 hours. If you leave at 9 you should be there by 12. Doesn't leave much wiggle room. But it also depends on how fast you drive and how many times you need to stop. Leaving between 8 and 9 is no help because rush hour will delay you somewhat. The worst traffic is in Essex and Union Counties. If I had to be there at exactly 12 I would leave at 8 just to make sure. It's 150 miles. At an average of 60 it takes 2.5 hours non stop. 3 hours with a stop or two. I would rather be early than late

I was thinking of leaving at 8, but telling my husband that we are leaving at 7 (that way we can get out the door by 8) so that we can have time to stop for coffee and 27 potty breaks on the way down and make it there by 12. Our thing is actually at 1, so that leaves more wiggle room.

Good thinking spontaneous-that is exactly what I would do.

Friday of Labor Day weekend last year, I made it to Cape May in 2h20m, BUT I left at 6am...

Are you sure 27 potty breaks is enough? Actually, there aren't that many rest stops on the way. If you need that many breaks you'll have to get off the highway and find them. So maybe you should just leave Thursday night or no later than 4am.

spontaneous said:
I was thinking of leaving at 8, but telling my husband that we are leaving at 7 (that way we can get out the door by 8) so that we can have time to stop for coffee and 27 potty breaks on the way down and make it there by 12. Our thing is actually at 1, so that leaves more wiggle room.

Thanks for this thread. You catching the ferry to Lewes, DE? We are, and may need to leave earlier then expected after reading all this since you have to also get to the ferry at least 30 mins prior to departure.

Google Maps, "Leave At" timing for Friday morning at 8am has arrival at 10:40am with typical traffic an no stops.

EDIT- NM, just re-read, you seem to have a local event in Cape May at 1, so ferry thing doesn't apply.

No, we are going on a whale watching trip (we told our son that it is a dolphin watching trip) and the boat leaves away 1.

My husband wanted to leave Thursday night and stay over. The cheapest room I could find in the area was $180. I told him we'd be fine leaving Friday morning. His co-workers have him convinced it will take us at least 6 hours to get there, 5 if we're lucky

Thee is no way it'll take 5 + hrs. The only time it ever took me even close to that was a decade ago when that huge fire broke out and shut the whole GSP down.

You'll hit a summer-light version of normal rush hour at 8am and it will be a bit heavy until after the bridge or maybe until Holmdel area. You won't hit much traffic after that at that hour. I will say 3 hrs drive and that's accounting for the traffic and maybe even a bit of the unexpected.

I've made it in as little as 3 and as long as 6. Depending on traffic

While I've never driven there from Maplewood, we drove down many times from the city at 'realistic times' and I'd say it'd take 3:00 and 3:30. It shouldn't be that bad, noting like driving to the Hamptons on a Saturday afternoon or anything like that. I don't remember there generally being problems once we got off the turnpike. Turnpike you always have a certain potential for something to go wrong.

With the widening south of LBI, the GSP moves much quicker than it used to in the stretch between exit 74 and Atlantic City. You should be fine, as long as there are no big accidents. If you haven't been down this way lately, know that the traffic lights at exits 9, 10 and 11 have been eliminated, but there may be some detours. It was pretty clear when we were there last month, except for an issue NB between Rio Grande and Stone Harbor because the Stone Harbor NB exit is not yet open. Hope you see lots of interesting creatures on the cruise!

Waiting to hear about your experience spontaneous!

Traffic was fine. Good thing too since we ran into a bunch of issues before leaving so we started our trip much later than planned. We are down here now getting a quick lunch before getting on the boat

spontaneous said:
Traffic was fine. Good thing too since we ran into a bunch of issues before leaving so we started our trip much later than planned. We are down here now getting a quick lunch before getting on the boat

What was the drive time including stops?

So glad you made it! Tell us if you saw any "dolphins"-we took that trip many years ago-so much fun!

I don't have an exact drive time, but it was somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hours with one stop. Not bad. The only traffic we hit was on the bridge into Cape May.

We saw dolphins and two humpback whales. Or so I'm told. I was laying down inside with my eyes closed. When I was planning this trip I somehow managed to forget how bad I suffer from motion sickness. I actually had to stop watching the movie Clovefield because I got dizzy. What in the hell was I thinking!?! My son loved it though so there is that. When my boys get older and are more easily managed by one parent we will come down again and my husband will take them out while I sit safely on solid ground where the good Lord intended me to be.

This sounds right.

spontaneous said:
I don't have an exact drive time, but it was somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hours with one stop. Not bad. The only traffic we hit was on the bridge into Cape May.

That sounds not so good. Sorry you couldn't enjoy it.

spontaneous said:
I was laying down inside with my eyes closed. When I was planning this trip I somehow managed to forget how bad I suffer from motion sickness. I actually had to stop watching the movie Clovefield because I got dizzy. What in the hell was I thinking!?! My son loved it though so there is that. When my boys get older and are more easily managed by one parent we will come down again and my husband will take them out while I sit safely on solid ground where the good Lord intended me to be.

So sorry! FYI, I too suffered from seasickness until I recently took a cruise, where I discovered the wonders of, of all things, acupuncture! One session (on the ship in this case), and I felt no further discomfort for the entire week. It was truly amazing.

took us 4 hours, on a recent Saturday morning. 2hrs 45 min to get home Sunday afternoon. You should be fine for sub 3 hours on a Friday morning, especially at that time. Saturday morning you are dealing with shore day-trippers and week-long rental turnovers.

What time did you leave on Saturday morning? In my experience, you've got to be on the road by 7am at the latest to hit little to no traffic. Anything later and it just gets worse and worse

She went on Friday.

But you're right about Saturday traffic.

conandrob240 said:
What time did you leave on Saturday morning? In my experience, you've got to be on the road by 7am at the latest to hit little to no traffic. Anything later and it just gets worse and worse

No, I was asking copyability who says it took her 4 hrs recently on Sat morning. Curious at what time on the Saturday morning she left?

Never try to drive south in the summer from 1pm Friday to 1pm Sunday. Seriously. Just don't do it.

It's actually not that bad Friday afternoons/early evenings believe it or not. And as long as you are on the road by 7am on Saturday, it's isually smooth sailing.

Things must have improved in recent years then. I used to work in Hackensack and dreaded the drive south on Fridays in the summer. One of my co-workers lived in Old Bridge so he had it even worse. He would actually come to work before dawn on Fridays in the hopes of being able to finish up and get on the road before 1pm. The few times he was held until 4pm or so he would end up with a two hour commute.

Of course, this is well over a decade ago

There's a recent thread where we debated the drive time on Fri evening to AC and poster said not too bad. We did a few times last summer expecting it to be awful and it was surprisingly empty. The expansion of the lanes has helped a lot. We're doing it again weekend after next leaving around 4pm on a Friday so we'll see