What would be the quickest route from Sydney to Byron at Xmas, given current roadworks and holiday traffic.

Just tossing up between going coast road up the pacific Hwy or New England. Thinking there may be less traffic on New England Hwy Route through Musswelbrook and Tamworth?

I disagree... I think the coast road is MUCH better. It has lots more sections with dual-lane now... I drive to Sydney every second weekend that way, hardly ever get delays. Driving down next Friday as well and will take the coast road. Plus there is tons more fuel/food stops and its nice to spot a few waves from the hill as you pull through some areas to keep you motivated ;-)

Plus it's AT LEAST 2 hours quicker to go from Bris-Sydney by the coast road than new england. Much less trucks as well...

I just looked it up on google maps... I have no idea how they are calculating the Pacific Hwy!

I have done the drive from Brisbane to Sydney via the Pacific about 60 times in the last 3 years and can tell you it's EXACTLY 11.15 hours drive from my house on the northside of Brisbane to Ramsgate on Botany Bay (with 2 short fuel stops).

Byron is 1.45 hours from Brisbane CBD so I would imagine you could get from Sydney to Byron around 9 hours without stops.

The problem is with the New England is the road from Tenterfield across to Byron is HORRIFIC (windy, single lane; poor road conditions etc).

There are no road closures that I am aware of having done the drive 9 days ago. There is a little bit of roadworks through Ballina with the new bypass but it's all 80km/h so not so slow and the new bypass skips a good 30-50km out of the Ballina leg.

Just be aware that by bypassing Ballina, there is only one fuel station between Grafton and Tweed Coast (north of Byron Bay) on the highway now, so you probably want to time your fuel stops well as there is no on-highway stations within 100km of Byron! Fuel is relatively cheap at Coffs and Grafton for a highway stop....

I do about 10 trips a year from the gold coast to south coast, coast road coast road coast road, only way in my opinion. Just go early, like 5 am

Waiting4wind said...

The coast rd was the go,suprisingly light traffic given it was Xmas. Took about 9hrs excluding a leisurely lunch stop.

Yep lunch a long time too

We travelled up the Pacific Highway on Saturday and it wasn't too bad a drive. The only time there were some slowdowns were on the F3 freeway west of Newcastle when there was very heavy rain and a bit of a slowdown through Kempsey. Neither time did the traffic stop completely.