Road trip NE USA

rp8049

Taking my beautiful lady wife off to the US East Coast in June for our first anniversary. Starting off in NYC for a couple of nights - hopefully in a nice hotel (gotta treat her on our anniversary!). Then renting a car (pretty much settled on a premium 300C or the like from Thrifty or Dollar for around £500 for 14 days platinum package), and setting off up to Boston.

From there, the plan is to head over to Niagara (canadian side), then on to Ann Arbor on the way to Chicago. Then turn back and head to Washington, and up to NYC for our last night before flying home.

It's still a very vague plan at the moment, and I think I may have to cut down the route slightly as we'll be spending all the time on the road otherwise. So really I was just wondering if anyone has any tips on places to go, good sites to book hotels for NYC and beyond, any wise words in general

Can't wait to go - she's only been on at me to take her to NYC for 8 years!!!!

blindman

rp8049 wrote: »

Can't wait to go - she's only been on at me to take her to NYC for 8 years!!!!

Then why are you going to all the other places?

IMHO you are trying to fit too much in and the driving and the cost of parking will spoil the holiday.

Plan A

Fly into Washington 3-4 days
Train to NYC 4-5 days
Fly\Bus\Train to BOS 3-4 days
Fly home.

None of these cities are car friendly!

rp8049

I do think Chicago may be a stretch too far. I know we could do away with the car and just spend time in the places you mention, but IMHO, you can do the main things to do in NYC in a few days, and we've always wanted to do a bit of a road-trip.

I have been thinking I might cut down the distance to cover, and head up as far as Niagara, taking in more of New England on the way, and then come back down and go to Washington. Gives more time to spend in the places we go to rather than a stopover in each.

deadhac

sorry to crash the thread but i am looking at a similar trip this summer. I would like to fly into either new york or boston, but will also like to see niagra falls, washington and philly. I was planning to get trains in the whole to go from place to place, as i do not like coaches too much. From any experiences what are these trains like and how do they compare to the bus, i think flying will cost too much. I am also looking to go to st louis for a few days. Sorry again for crashing the thread but any opinions will be appreciated.

blindman

rp8049 wrote: »

I do think Chicago may be a stretch too far. I know we could do away with the car and just spend time in the places you mention, but IMHO, you can do the main things to do in NYC in a few days, and we've always wanted to do a bit of a road-trip.

I have been thinking I might cut down the distance to cover, and head up as far as Niagara, taking in more of New England on the way, and then come back down and go to Washington. Gives more time to spend in the places we go to rather than a stopover in each.

So you've been to New York then IMHO you need 4 days minimum just to scracth the surface of the tourist sights.(and that doesn't include time for her shopping!)

East coast doesn't really lend itself to a "road trip" IMHO until you get past Boston.

Parking in Washington can be $30 per night and the sights are easy to get to either by foot or public transport.

The transport links between NYC\BOS\WAS are good.
You'd save £500 by not hiring the car!

Amtrak fares can be cheap and China Bus can be cheaper!

Just my opinion of course, though I do speak from experience.

blindman

deadhac wrote: »

sorry to crash the thread but i am looking at a similar trip this summer. I would like to fly into either new york or boston, but will also like to see niagra falls, washington and philly. I was planning to get trains in the whole to go from place to place, as i do not like coaches too much. From any experiences what are these trains like and how do they compare to the bus, i think flying will cost too much. I am also looking to go to st louis for a few days. Sorry again for crashing the thread but any opinions will be appreciated.

Amtrak trains can be good and if you book early and look for discount codes can be cheap.

China Bus can be very cheap but be a little rough :eek:

I'm flying into New York in March then off to Philly by train ($14 single)
Philly to Was by china bus ($15 single) then WAS to NYC bus ($21 single)

IMHO Niagra is best left alone!

Iwork2shop

I'm thinking of a similar trip this summer. Our thoughts were to fly to toronto and say there for 4 nights. Get train to Niagara for 2 nights and then train to New York for 5 nights. We're planning on being in NY for 4 July. We've been to these places before (but never on the same trip). My only concern is the train trip from Niagara to NY as it seems to take about 9 hours. What are US trains like? Will 9hrs fly by?
Also, what will NY be like on 4 July? Where are the fireworks?

deadhac

Why is niagra not reccommended? im surprised by the train fares, i thought it would be more than that..

Iwork2shop

Niagara is like Blackpool (sorry Blackpool). It's somewhere to say you've been to but not to stay for long.

Pssst

If it helps,my last East coast trip ran something like this,,

Flew to JFK, spent 5 nights in NYC. One of the days was taken up with a daytrip to Niagara falls. There are a few tour companies who do this and its a great trip and only less than an hours flight with jetblue.

After NYC we then went by rail to Boston on the Acela express. Economical and great views along the way.
Stayed in boston 3 nights then picked up hire car and headed north bound on the coast road through typical new england towns such as salem,portsmouth .
Our first stop was in kennebunkport.
Then north to portland,freeport,brunswick and staying in boothbay harbour.
We then pointed toward the inn at jackson (haunted!) passing through franconia,conway and similar places. did the new england in the fall thing etc.

then south toward Brattleboro in Vermont, then east toward Cape Cod. We stayed at Baileys by the sea in falmouth (highly recommended). Then drove to boston,got a short flight to JFK and back home. All in all about 3 and a bit weeks,,brilliant.

HTH

rp8049

I did July 4th in NYC albeit 10 years ago. If I remember right, the fireworks are on or around one of the bridges?

I did look at using the trains previously, but didn't find them to be that cheap - minimum $60 to go from NYC to Boston, so for two of us, that's not really any difference from hiring a car.

I did the whole bus-ing round the east coast 10 years back. It was great fun, but by the same token, I wouldn't do it again. It's cheap, but there's a good reason for that, definitely want to travel with a bit more comfort this time round I'll have a look for some discounts for Amtrak - any recomendations on where to start the search?

As for Niagara, I completely agree, it's a place to go briefly so you can say you've done it, but it doesn't take long to see the falls, and that's all that's worth it there. They do look the best when lit up at night IMHO so worth trying to see that. And I would also say that the Canadian side is nicer than the US side if you're gonna stay over night.

I take the point about Washington and parking, so what we'll try to do I think is either get a car to go up to boston and around New England etc... and then dump it back at new york and take a train down to washington for a couple of days, or possibly train it up to Boston (if I can find a good fare) and then rent a car from there - cheers for the tips there Pssst.