What is your experience driving I-78E or I-80E and I-287N on a Sunday? Where are the spots traffic typically bogs down? Is I-84E across Porconos and into NY a less traveled route, perhaps?
Six of one, half dozen of the other… As a rule of thumb, I’ll take I-84 whenever there’s any chance of hitting rush hour traffic on I-287. Even then, when I’ve taken I-287 well outside normal rush hour, I’ve hit some pretty significant traffic. It seems that roads are clogged enough that minor accidents or constructions can cause major backups in “light” traffic.
If you’re driving at 3:00 a.m. it won’t make any difference. During normal hours, I’d go with I-84, as you’re less likely to hit NYC-related traffic crowding (and, as **lazybratsche **noted, I-287 can be a stinker, too, depending on the time of day, especially approaching and crossing Westchester County). I-84 can get tight once you are in CT, but should be OK for most of the rest of the ride.
Where in Connecticut are you going? I-84 will bring you closer to Hartford, but I-95 will go directly through Fairfield County (Greenwich, Stamford, Bridgeport) and then New Haven County (New Haven).
78E is better than 80E on a Sunday at the Gap. There are Way too many people heading home from their ‘lake houses’ or from gambling or from shopping… and they are All trying to cross The Water Gap on 80E.
The Delaware Water Gap + bumper-to-bumper NYC drivers = One Bad Drive.
My vote is for crossing the Delaware on 78E and taking 287N. At that point, you’ll have a choice:
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Exit onto 80E in Parsippany & red line it… crossing The Hudson at the GWB.
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Take 287N straight and cross The Hudson at The Tappan Zee Bridge.
Prior posters can tell you which of those two is best and which Westchester highways will speed your trip.
Fill Your Tank In NJ 
Actually it’s not “fill your tank in New Jersey”, it’s “let someone else legally fill your tank in New Jersey”. Really.
We’ve driven to Portland, Maine several times the last few summers and have tried pretty much every option there is. We’re coming from Northern Virginia, not PA, but we always travel up through PA to avoid Baltimore and New Jersey.
So starting from Harrisburg we’ve tried:
- 81 to 84, then up 87 to 90 east to just outside Boston (a bit overkill but I was VERY eager to keep as far away from NYC as possible) - that was on a Thursday during the day
- 81 to 78 then 287 over the Tappan Zee, then something north (Taconic? 87?) to catch 84 east to 90 - that was on a Saturday. Nothing too bad traffic-wise.
- 81 to 78 to 287 then in response to traffic, something local north (87 was JAMMED per Google maps) to cross the Hudson well north of the Tappan Zee - very pretty. At some point we got on 84 again. That was on a Friday.
- Baltimore, New Jersey Turnpike, then CT route 15. Maryland and NJ were fine as was the GW bridge across Manhattan, but sadly i was driving solo - nobody to watch for traffic to tell me to get the hell off 15 immediately, so the first half of Connecticut was a parking lot. If I’d had a copilot I could have known to leave 15 and get on something that mimicked the 287 north to 84 version. That was midday on a Friday.
Coming back, traffic has never been especially bad though there can be backups approaching the Tappan Zee; alternately there can be lesser backups on 84 approaching the Hudson if you go that route. 81 south of Scranton can be pretty vile as well - as a friend of mine said, Pennsylvania has two seasons: winter and construction. Staying on 84 / 80 all the way to 81 is a bit longer distance-wise but it can be a wash when you consider the traffic on the Tappan Zee. The return trips have always been on a Sunday or Monday afternoon.
My personal preference is to go the 81 to 84 route just because it’s less volatile. The time I took the New Jersey Turnpike was supposed to be 2 hours less than the 81 to 84 route. Didn’t quite work out that way -and by the time traffic got that bad, there was no real bailout option.
A correction: the time I took the New Jersey Turnpike, obviously I didn’t go through Pennsylvania at all - I went direct from the DC area.
To be honest on a Sunday as long as it isn’t the evening you should be golden on all those roads (barring an accident or something). Of course my experience is relative since I ride several of those roads during weekly rush hour when they are all nightmares.
Route 80 is probably best I think. No matter which one you pick you will hit some traffic when crossing into NYC and going across to CT but nothing like a weekday (where the delays to get into NYC are 20-30 minutes on a good day).
Mostly on Sunday I am going the opposite direction (from MASS or CONN to western PA) but I was about to say the same thing. But as a rule I avoid 80 when its logical; lots of trucks (even on a Sunday) and some of the areas are pretty sparse on gas and service should you need/want it. Coming across PA I have a habit of dropping down 81 and hitting the turnpike but my end point is Pittsburgh which makes that a fairly good choice. I have done the 90-81 route Mama suggested (I believe it was her) and found that pretty good on that end of the trip.
“At these prices, Who Cares…?” -stolen from an old TV commercial