Economical and shortest route from New Jersey to Boston

FYI - as you get into New England today the roads (4/1) are apt to be snowy and/or icy. If I were you I'd give it another day to clear up a bit... Here in South Central NH we had 14" of heavy wet snow last night...

You will not have a fun ride going as suggested.

Ive rode the bike many a times to laconia NH from Howell NJ, and I can tell you cutting across early, such as the tappenzee or going through conneticut is bad.

Do yourself a favor and pay the tolls. Take the GSParway yp and watch the bridges north if your tall. Center lane is 13'5" or there abouts.

Take 287 to 87 and run that north to albany then cut across to rt 90 to boston..

Just my opinion though...

I agree, NY Thruway to I84 and I90. There are tolls but less then the alternative, and a much better drive.

287 - 84- mass pike

IMO the route with the lowest tolls would be to get on I78 near Liberty Harbor to I287 to the NY Thruway north (I87) to I84 all the way to the Mass. Turnpike (I90). There are tolls on I87, on I84 at the Newburgh/Beacon bridge and on I90.

A second route (the one we use) is to take I78 to the Garden State Parkway north to I287 east over the Tappan Zee bridge to I684 north to I84 to I90. There are tolls on the Parkway and the Tappan Zee bridge that I believe are a higher toll cost than the first route. The second route is longer though, so higher fuel cost and more travel time.

FYI, RVs are allowed on the Garden State Parkway in NJ but not on any road with "Parkway" in the name in NY and CT due to low bridges.

I would probably go basically on I287 to I84. The main toll is on the Northway, and it shouldn't be too extreme. There certainly are shorter routes by distance, but I think this would be the least stressful and probably as fast in terms of travel time.

I'm not an expert on getting around the area, though; I try to avoid driving close to NYC if I can reasonably avoid doing so. Obviously when seeing the city it's not practical to avoid the city.

Tough to do. The Megopolis is really good at collecting tolls. If you have anything like an RV or trailer, you must be rich and they want their piece NOW. Fire up Google Maps or Furkot and tell it "Avoid tolls". See what it comes up with. If you don't like going way up the Hudson, put another starting point or a Via on the east side of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Good Luck.

Matt