I'm all for packed lunches but most people came into this question thinking you were aiming to show this person extravagance or to impress them. Packed lunches is the anti thesis of extravagance.

But on the right person it might work if you pack a nice lunch. But not like hey I brought you a bologna sandwich.

You are gonna bring a packed lunch to a date?

At its best, it's $90 a person and $325 for a pickup. At minimum that's $500. Plus when I checked prices right now out 2 months when no one is really traveling and it was $115 a person for coach, so $550.

And that $550 adds another 5 hours to your trip not including the other issues like time it might take to get on the train and situated. Plus of course the train leaves at a specific time so you have to stress about not hitting traffic on the way there and not arriving in time. So instead you arrive early which means you are wasting more time you could be driving.

It has pros obviously which is that you get to relax the whole time and it's more scenic and wear and tear on your vehicle and all that but the pros never overcame the cons of the cost plus time addition for me.

Just follow the GPS but mostly 95 unless traffic and GPS will help navigate around

Only important thing is time you leave. I have done that trip a dozen times. My parents and extended family take that trip multiple times a year. Leave between 6pm and 3am. Try and tackle most of the trip at night when traffic is non-existent. Most important is getting past Washington before 7am when traffic picks up and will add hours to your trip.

I always thought about this on the dozen trips I took to Florida from NJ and back but the cost negated the savings of not flying.

But I guess if you aren't doing it for the cost savings because of stuff you are bringing, it works

Can make a day trip down to Linden sometime. The polish spots are so legit we had the Polish president stop by last year. If he can make the trip from Poland for kielbasa, you can make that trip from Bergen.