We're planning a trip to the Outer Banks, leaving from Baltimore.

Haven't been down there in a few years, and I'm a little out of touch with road conditions along the way.

By the map, it appears shorter to take US 17 out of Fredericksburg down to Hampton Roads, compared with continuing on I-95 and around Richmond.

For the life of me, I can't remember if we've ever driven that route, though.

Any thoughts or observations? Is the local traffic on highway 17 bad enough to warrant the extra distance on the super-slab?

Stan M.
Baltimore

We were just there two weeks ago and we took I-95/295/64 down and other than the sporadic construction taking place it was rather smooth sailing, but I did notice more construction taking place northbound and decided on the way home to go 17 and it was longer but not a lot of traffic and was more scenic. The local traffic on 17 doesn't get bad until you cross over the York River and until you merge onto I64...the Hampton/Portsmouth/Norfolk is a mess as usual traffic wise so it's a toss up as to which way you want to go through there...either 664 or 64 are both fairly well congested.

Hope you have a great time!

Ok, this has nothing to do with the route you want to take, but I am planning a trip from WA to CA and back. I used Good Sam's trip routing thingie, and it showed you miles at different check points. I split the checkpoints into 300 mile increments, and picked out recommended RV parks (biased toward the Good Sam parks on that one....), then I came to this site to check out the reviews! I put stars **** next to the ones that got great reviews.

So, using Good Sam's trip routing thingie in conjunction with this site for trip planning is really great!

JJ

Stan> You didn't mention when you were traveling so this may be too late. I lived in the area for awhile and can say that US 17 as well as US 158 will accomandate an RV easily. US 17 is also a scenic drive.

My opinion is if you want to see anything of America stay off the Interstate. We used to live in D.C. and loved to drive down the by-ways...

I live in Gloucester, VA which Rt. 17 is our main artery through the county. We travel that corridor from Frdericksburg to Hampton all the time. It's a beautiful drive but I would suggest picking up I-64 via of York County then Newport News. Take 64 to 664 in Hampton and go across the Monitor Merrimac Tunnel instead of staying on 64 through the Hampton Roads bridge Tunnel. It's a much nicer drive with a lot less traffic and headaches. Happy Travels!

Oh yeah, just a reminder, whether you travel I-64 or I-664 remember you'll have to stop before entering either tunnel to shut down your propane tanks. MANDATORY!