Cost of the toll troll?

July 20, 2017 4:12 PM

I'm driving from Baltimore to southern Vermont. First time driving the northeast coast and all I hear about are tolls! Oddly, I have not really dealt with tolls in any of the places I've lived. If anyone has made a similar trip, how much money should I take with me for a round trip in tolls? Can I pay in credit card or just cash? Just quarters??

Bonus, please tell me of good things to see/eat/visit in the Bennington, Arlington, Manchester VT area? (And of good places to take cute couple photos too, if you have any ideas.)

posted by buttonedup to Travel & Transportation (20 answers total)

Best answer: Get an EZ-Pass!
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 4:13 PM on July 20, 2017 [17 favorites]

EZ-Pass is the only (sane) way to do this.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 4:24 PM on July 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Oh! Wait I have heard of this but thought it was just for Maryland. I see on the website that it comes with $25 pre-loaded. Is that enough? Should I pay for more?
posted by buttonedup at 4:26 PM on July 20, 2017

Best answer: When you create an account, you tie your CC to it and it will automatically charge for the tolls that you use. It comes 'pre-loaded' to offset the purchase price.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 4:32 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Link ez pass to your credit card to refill when it gets low then never worry about it
posted by TheAdamist at 4:32 PM on July 20, 2017 [4 favorites]

FYI, stretches of MA and NH (and possibly other states) have done away with their tollbooths altogether and just have cameras capture cars from overhead. You literally cannot pay with cash even if you have it ready to go. If you have an EZ Pass there's a slight reduction on the tolls (if you don't, you'll just get billed in the mail once they trace your car's registration).
posted by TwoStride at 4:35 PM on July 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

EZ Pass is indeed the way to go; it comes as you say with an amount preloaded, it's connected to your credit card and will automatically reload itself and charge that credit card if needed. It will NOT expire, so if you leave an unused EZ Pass laying around for months, the same amount will still be there.

You CANNOT use a credit card directly at any toll booth I've ever seen.
posted by easily confused at 5:20 PM on July 20, 2017

Best answer: The Blue Benn in Bennington is one of the best diners anywhere. Go there for breakfast at least once. It is on North St. (Rt 7) 2-3 blocks from the center of town. Bennington Pottery is practically around the corner if that's your sort of thing.

Pangea, in North Bennington, was pretty good for dinner, fresh, local American fare. I forget if I ate at the restaurant or lounge. There are three covered bridges that cross the Walloomsac River between Bennington and North Bennington.

If you want goofy photo ops there is a funky sculpture of a guy waiting for a train at the former train station in North Bennington and the world's largest ladderback chair is on Main St. in Bennington. There may still be some decorated fiberglass moose sculptures around town. There is also the disturbing Abe Lincoln sculpture at the Bennington Museum.

Old Bennington, on the hill west of the village has the Bennington Monument, the cemetery where Robert Frost is buried and the mysterious, and decaying Walloomsac Inn across the street.

Arlington is tiny, I've mostly just driven through it, and Manchester is too commercial for my tastes so someone else will have to help out with recommendations for those places. Hildene, Robert Lincoln's estate just south of Manchester, is good for a half-day visit.
posted by plastic_animals at 5:22 PM on July 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

I agree that an EZ Pass is a good idea, but if you're willing to add an hour and 20 minutes or so to your trip, you can do it toll-free on some beautiful stretches of highway. Here's the Google Maps route.
posted by brianogilvie at 5:43 PM on July 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

This is not related to tolls, but for the love of God, do not take the Cross-Bronx Expressway (aka 95 east of the George Washington Bridge), not at 3pm, not even at 3am. That way lies much pain and gnashing of teeth.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:52 PM on July 20, 2017 [9 favorites]

Cash is trash, EZ Pass!

Link it to your cc, but know that from B'more to Vermont it will cost you about $35 each way.
posted by AugustWest at 6:28 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Being from Vermont and living in DC, I've done this trip a million times. If you can eat the extra time (it's about an extra hour), I'd highly recommend driving up through Pennsylvania (by way of 83 off 694) and New York state and crossing over to Vermont around Albany. It's a seriously more pleasant drive than the NJ Turnpike and NYC. Nthing everybody else about EZ Pass, but the way I go has very little in the way of tolls.

I tell my friends I know well that if they're in Bennington, they have to check out the statue of Lincoln called The Spirit of America. If you look it up and get my sense of humor and are into that, you should check it out. Otherwise, I guess it's just another statue. plastic_animals is totally right-on, and you should take their advice because it's basically the same advice I'd give.
posted by General Malaise at 7:06 PM on July 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

Just looking at brianogilvie's route, it's close to mine, but I can attest that it's a good one.
posted by General Malaise at 7:09 PM on July 20, 2017

EZPass is great because it can just sit in your car until kingdom come -- I've had mine for like 17 years now, and after about 10 years they sent me a letter in the mail saying to upgrade my transponder but that is literally all the maintenance except for sometimes the website e-mails me to tell me I need to add funds -- and when in five years you take another road trip with toll roads, you are already set! Sometimes I've lived near toll roads, sometimes I haven't and didn't use it at all for a few years; it's been in four different cars; it's really easy! It just sits there waiting to be useful.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:53 PM on July 20, 2017

A little word of advice for brianogilvie's route. I'm not certain if it is still the case, but when I was driving from Penn State back to VT to visit my folks the little bit of I90 between I88 and I87 was free. You still had to get a card when you got op the turnpike and turn it in to someone at the end, but the cost for going those few exits was 0.00. It wouldn't really save anything more than 5 mins or so, but it does mean that you are on the highway without having to go on to secondary roads.
posted by koolkat at 1:06 AM on July 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think the toll question has been answered, but for the record, with any route you take, you shouldn't be paying tolls in MA.

Yes to all of plastic_animals suggestions. Also there's a great pizza/ beer place in Bennington called Ramuntos, I've heard good things about a Mexican place called Cilantro, the most romantic meal (also expensive) is at Publyk House, and there's a good bagel shop called Love a Bagel.

We've only spent a day in Manchester but I liked jts touristy/fancy New England village charm. There's a huge bookstore with attached cafe that's great. We hiked a bit on the Equinox trail which was an easy walk to give a tame flavor of the outdoors. For mountain views you can drive up Mt Equinox.

If either of you really really like modern contemporary art and/or huge restored factory buildings you should probably make the 40 minute scenic drive from Bennington to MassMOCA in North Adams MA.

Have fun!
posted by wannabecounselor at 1:29 AM on July 21, 2017

Seconding you should avoid the George Washington Bridge unless NYC is one of the stops you want to make. If you want to go up the east side of the Hudson for some reason, cross the Tappan Zee bridge and go north on the Taconic (no big trucks!).
posted by SemiSalt at 5:00 AM on July 21, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks all! Gosh, $35 one way?? But some roads I could avoid a toll... I'm quite bad with directions but I'm gonna take some of y'alls advice and try to map out what was recommended. I don't think I can add another 1.5 hours on the way up (unless I wake up at 4 am) but that is good to know! Might do that for the way back.

Thanks all! And thanks for the VT suggestions!!
posted by buttonedup at 7:46 AM on July 21, 2017

Depending on where you live, and how often you plan to use the EZPass, it may be worth buying an EZPass from another state. It looks like Maryland EZPasses get discounted tolls in Maryland, but charge $1.50/mo maintenance fee to non-residents if you don't use it within the state 3 times per month. New York Thruway EZPasses get discounts in New York only, but have no inactivity fee. I'm not sure about other states.

I have a NY EZPass that I bought on a trip to Niagara Falls several years ago, and since I rarely use it more than once a year, the lack of discounts is more than offset by the lack of inactivity fees.
posted by yuwtze at 8:48 AM on July 21, 2017

My Virginia pass doesn't have any monthly fees: I've left it sitting unused for over a year and it had the same amount still on it as the last time it was used.
posted by easily confused at 1:16 PM on July 21, 2017