Just inside the Ithaca boundary, less than 2 miles from downtown, take a right onto Pine Tree Road at a flashing yellow light. It should be signed for Cornell. Follow this road up the short steep hill, through the horse farm, and past the mall (gas station, Burger King, Collegetown Bagels, chinese food). The Best Western University Inn is at the back of this mall. There's a Subway across the other side of the road. Keep going past the mall, down the hill, underneath the small bridge to a 4-way stop sign. Unlike the rest of the traffic you will want to go straight across the 4-way stop after yielding. This is the entrance to the parking lot for CHESS and the access for the loading dock.
In short: Rt-206 North; I-278 North; I-78 West; PA-33 North; I-80 West; I-380 North; I-81 North; Rt-79 West; Pine Tree Road.
The return trip uses the reverse method: take Rt-79 East out of Ithaca; after 30 miles pass through Whitney Point and take a right at the light, go up the hill, and make a left onto the ramp for I-81 south; I-81 south through Binghamton and Scranton; I-380 south; I-80 east; PA-33 south; I-78 east; I-287 south; Rt-206 south. There's a rest-stop on I-80 eastbound a few miles after you merge off I-380.
It's a total of 230 miles. Something like 4 hours is a good bet. Closer to 5 hours in bad weather (snow is not uncommon in Ithaca during the winter).
Note: directions from Mapquest suggest a route involving the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan, and the MidTown Tunnel out of Manhattan. This route is likely to be the slowest of all possible routes and is particularly not recommended. I have taken this route going back to NJ, but I lived in Manhattan for a decade and so am pretty good at improvising.
BNL has a schematic map of the major highways on Long Island and the location of Brookhaven.
Good AM radio stations with reasonably frequent traffic updates are 1010 and 880. It's worth monitoring these during rush hours to see where the worst backups are, although it doesn't make much difference unless you are willing to improvise.
My directions follow:
Get to the NJ Turnpike going northbound via Route 1 and a combination of back roads. My personal favorite is Turnpike exit 8A using Scudder's Mill Rd, Dey Rd, Rt 130 and Rt 32 but going via exit 9 is simpler - go north on Rt. 1 to New Brunswick and take Rt. 18 south/east to the turnpike entrance.
Take the Turnpike north to exit 13 and then take the Goethals Bridge directly to I-278. If the Goethals Bridge is closed due to construction (often at late nights) an alternative is to take Turnpike exit 10 to the Outerbridge Crossing via Route 440, then follow Route 440 north in Staten Island until it hits I-278. If the Goethals is closed this is usually advertized on a sign over the Turnpike shortly before exit 10 (going north).
Either way, follow I-278 eastbound and go over the Verrazano Bridge (no toll in this direction). I recommend taking the upper level of the bridge, staying to the left to take the left exit off the upper level for the Belt Parkway eastbound. Any road in NYC can be hellish in rush hour, although I seem to have worse luck on the Belt Parkway on weekends than during the week. Going east on the Belt Parkway you'll pass Coney Island, the Van Wyck Expressway and signs for JFK Airport. Ignore them. Just stay on the Belt Parkway.
The Belt Parkway ends/forks at the eastern NYC border with Nassau County. Take the right fork to the Cross Island Parkway northbound for a few miles until it intersects with the Long Island Expressway (I-495). This is the simplest one and the Cross Island usually isn't too bad (I have however been stuck on the Cross Island - drive around NYC often enough and you'll have been stuck on pretty much every single highway at some point or the other).
Alternatives exist if you know the Cross Island Parkway is bad, such as taking the left fork at the end of the Belt Parkway and following the Southern State Parkway eastbound. If you take this route, you follow the Southern past Meadowbrook and Wantagh Parkways, then shortly after the Robert Moses Parkway the road forks for the Sagtikos Parkway. You can take the Sagtikos north to the L.I.E if you want - stay left at the fork. To stay on the Southern (shown as the Heckscher Parkway on some maps), stay right. Start looking for the exit for Rt-27 Eastbound (aka Sunrise Highway). Take Sunrise Highway/Route-27 to the exit for the William Floyd Parkway at Mastic/Shirley. The intersection of the William Floyd with Rt 27 is where all the junk food places and that mediocre diner are. To get the Brookhaven lab go north on the William Floyd a few miles, pass underneath the L.I.E., then make the right at the second light into the lab (signed). But you shouldn't be trying to improvise like this unless you're pretty comfortable reading maps in which case you probably won't be reading these directions. For MapQuest users, Brookhaven lab is in Upton NY.
Back on the original plan (the Belt to the Cross Island to the LIE): Once you reach the Long Island Expressway intersection with the Cross Island Parkway, take the L.I.E. eastbound. Following the Long Island Expressway route is easy - take it eastbound all the way to exit 68, then take William Floyd Parkway north to the second light, when the entrance to Brookhaven National Lab will be on your right. The L.I.E. route has an HOV lane, which is useful much of the time. The L.I.E. is particularly clogged with traffic in both directions during rush hour, especially between exits 40 and 50. There are a fair number of traffic cops, too. The worst of the L.I.E. contruction seems to be winding down, however.
For the reverse trip the route is: south on the William Floyd, west on the Long Island Expressway, south on the Cross Island Parkway (exit 30 from the L.I.E. ?) and west on the Belt Parkway to the Verrazano Bridge. The toll on the outbound Verrazano Bridge is $9. The L.I.E. can be very busy westbound toward NYC during rush hour but the HOV lane may be moving. It may actually worth be waiting an hour or so rather than driving it at 15mph at 8am. Get breakfast or take a nap instead. If the Belt Parkway is known to be really congested, the only other realistic alternative is to go through Manhattan via the Queens Midtown Tunnel onto the east side and navigate cross-town to either the Lincoln Tunnel (~40th Street on the west side) or the Holland Tunnel (Canal Street on the west side down near Ground Zero). Note that getting into Manhattan during morning rush hour is going to be far worse than anything you'll encounter on the Belt Parkway. Avoid, I repeat avoid, any urge you might be experiencing to take the Van Wyck Expressway south from the L.I.E. to the Belt Parkway. This roadway is almost invariably hellish. Except at 3am, when it is merely congested.
Once over the Verrazano Bridge, take the Staten Island Expressway west for the Goethals Bridge (closed some nights due to construction) or the Outerbridge Crossing, which will require you to take 440 south from I-278. Signage for the Turnpike exit off 440 is pretty poor, so pay attention and don't go too fast.
Traffic in NYC and Long Island is an issue. If you're prepared to improvise with your route and have a decent map handy, tune your radio to 1010 on the AM band to listen for bad traffic areas. Other local Long Island stations (e.g. 880) probably also carry traffic info (1010-WINS is more NYC-based).
