From DC or VA? Need advice ...

[gillesthegreat]

I'm not familiar with traffic patterns in the area. Help appreciared

I will be landing at BWI at 5AM on a thursday, and must be back at the airport at 4PM. Do I have time to drive to UVa, spend 2 hrs, drive back to GULC, spend another 2 hours, and make it in time at the airport? Yahoo Maps/Driving directions says yes, but it has been known to be full of sh*t.

[Roxy]

While in a perfect world, it might be possible--DC traffic is awful. BWI is a ways away and doing anything that requires you to get into the city (like GULC) will take at least 30 min-1 hr. more than yahoo maps would say.
From DC proper, UVa is at least 2.5 hrs... and that's with no traffic on 66, which almost never happens. I am not exactly sure how you'd get down there from BWI, but I would think it would take quite a while. You are also during rush hour traffic...by 6 am, roads are filling up.
I commute from Vienna to Arlington, it's about 15 miles in the VA suburbs (and about 15 min short of DC), and it takes at least 40 min. each way, just to give you an idea, and I'm not even on major roads. So, IMHO, I really don't think it's possible--it might be if everything worked perfectly, but we all know how the world works! Good luck!

[milkman83]

Wow ... that's tight ... to be conservative:

From BWI heading south on 95, if you can be on the road by 5:30, you should be able to clear the tysons part of the beltway by 6:30 (at which point traffic still isn't as bad ... ), and from there you'll be going west on 66 in the opposite direction of traffic.  I'd put you in Charlottesville by 8:30 (let's say you're at the school by 9).  If you're on the road at 11, you should have no problem getting back into the northern va / dc region by 1 or 1:30, but from there getting to GULC (especially by car) will probably be painful, b/c you'll be catching downtown at the tail end of lunch congestion.  Even assuming you manage to park/get to campus by 2, you're looking at maybe an hour before you should leave if you need to be at BWI by 4.

If I were you, I'd cut UVA down to an hour ... you may not get as good a feel for the surrounding area, but you'll def see enough of the school (actually, you can just spend 30 mins at the law school, and then just drive around for a half hour before heading back).  After that, you should get at least 1 - 1.5 hours at GULC before you need to leave.  Give yourself alot more slack than seems necessary, though, b/c sometimes they use daytime to do light roadwork which can make for some long trips.

Getting brief looks at both schools is doable, but 2 hours each is probably stretching it.  Good luck.

[nukelaw]

This is insane. I think you would need to be flying into Dulles or National to even make such a trip feasible.

[WinnieCooper]

This is insane. I think you would need to be flying into Dulles or National to even make such a trip feasible.

Yes, I second that.  Don't do it.  Don't even try.

[mayorofarlington]

I think if it were part of a game show where if I won a prize for doing so I'd try it...but realistically I think you might have to choose one...you could maybe do UVA by itself, or GULC by itself, but not both...

[The Spanish Teacher]

if you are only going to be able to spend a total of 10hours on the ground, i would choose just one of the schools to visit.  gulc would be easy to get to by hopping on a MARC train that will take you into union station which is two blocks from gulc's campus. 
i'm not familiar with charlottesville or how to get there. so i can't offer any suggestions on that front.
good luck.

[ACK!]

Fourthed! BWI is pretty far from the metro area. It's taken me over an hour sometimes just to do the drive from the north side of the beltway to the airport due to rush-hour traffic. On top of that driving to and from C-Ville, 2 to 3 hours from the other side of the metro?

[gillesthegreat]

I'm glad I asked. Seems like I'll have to chose just one and stick with my choice (I already have tickets ... IAD is not an option).

[justGem]

Impossible......you may make to UVA ok, but you will never make it back to BWI for your return flight.  I think you should have selected IAD as well. They mostly have the same carriers.  If you changed your flight with the carrier they make let you take one out of IAD instead.