East coast from NY City to Jacksonville florida

Don't disregard US 301 down the west side of the Chesapeake Bay. US 301 and US 17 are the old Florida routes that my grandparents used to snowbird.

The cape may/Lewis ferry is a nice break from driving and this will put you en-route to head south on 1/13 through the Delmarva peninsula. Cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel (it's been a while but I believe it's a $22 toll). Once your on my side of the water skip past Virginia Beach and head south to the Outter Banks, it's sooooo nice down there. Take US 12 south all the way to The ferry to Ocracoke island. Once on the island spend a night or two at the state park... from there you can catch another ferry to Cedar Island, through Moorehead city and onto 17 towards Myrtle Beach... that's as far as I can take you.

Some ideas; NJ native here.

The Jersey Shore is generally pretty built-up residential, but there are two parks that are worth seeing: 1) Sandy Hook, located at the very south of the New York Harbor inlet. This is a Federal National Recreation Area, and 2) Island Beach State Park, on a barrier island about mid-point north-south.

From there, to keep going in the southern direction, either continue to Cape May and do the ferry to Lewes, Delaware, or head back to the NJ Turnpike/295 to cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge. For scenery, I would recommend going down Delaware 1 if not taking the ferry, and do the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. If DC is absolutely a thing, use US301 to US50 and cross the Maryland Bay Bridge.

But it seems driving the coast is the intent here, so I'd say the Chesapeake route would be the thing to do. Follow US17 down into NC, where a detour to the Outer Banks could be done.

I'll leave suggestions on points further south to others familiar with that geography.

avoid baltimore/DC area I-95 till past fredericksburg, va
bumpy