New York/Boston/Washington

portchieboy

Next year, the OH has her eye on a multi centre holiday as above.

Now recently we have been coaching (Archers) and whilst brilliant, want to do our own thing this year. OH has seen the Virgin 3 centre, so flying between the centres, getting transfers and a courier, paying maybe £1600 per each for 10 days. (End May/Early June)

Firstly we want 14 days, second, surely we can do better.

Can anyone give me some tips/experiences? Flights, both over there, and internal. Transfers...easy/hard/cheap/expensive? Hotels....anything you can offer. Excursions/Car hire if we wish?

I am open to suggestions, as it were!

Thanx

Angua2

Hiya.

A couple of things that might help:

travelzoo.co.uk

tripadvisor.co.uk

I find best flight prices in USA on Kayak.com.

As you're thinking about next year, maybe consider contests that give the trips / packages as the prize?

Boston, NYC and Washington are very different cities.... You might get a good flight deal with an Irish airline into Boston and then take the train to NYC and then on to Washington - it's a standard Amtrak corridor.

The TripAdvisor site is excellent for suggestions, recommendations and prices for hotels as well as must-sees.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Angua2

portchieboy wrote: »

Next year, the OH has her eye on a multi centre holiday as above.

Now recently we have been coaching (Archers) and whilst brilliant, want to do our own thing this year. OH has seen the Virgin 3 centre, so flying between the centres, getting transfers and a courier, paying maybe £1600 per each for 10 days. (End May/Early June)

Firstly we want 14 days, second, surely we can do better.

Can anyone give me some tips/experiences? Flights, both over there, and internal. Transfers...easy/hard/cheap/expensive? Hotels....anything you can offer. Excursions/Car hire if we wish?

I am open to suggestions, as it were!

Thanx

nelly_2

lol cant remenber the name of our hotel in washington but it was dead central and had a pool ill try to think

anyway do a 'segway tour' (google it) they are great fun.

unsure

Depending on time of year I'm sure you could do better. US hotels/motels ar emuch cheaper than UK/Europe.
Have you thouhgt about driving?I've always thought and All-american road trip was one of the truly authnetic experiences of the US...and a way of seeing more of the country than just the toursit centres. it's easy to do as the roads are fairly uncluttered (out of cities and rush hours) and the whole country is designed for drivers---except maybe New York!!!...and the cars/mpvs are dewsigned for long journeys in comfort!

unsure

Depending on time of year I'm sure you could do better. US hotels/motels are much cheaper than UK/Europe.

Have you thought about driving?I've always thought an All-American Road Trip was one of the truly authentic experiences of the US! It's the way a lot of Americans take their vacations...and a way of seeing more of the country than just the tourist centres. it's easy to do as the roads are fairly uncluttered (out of cities and rush hours) and the whole country is designed for drivers---except maybe New York!!!...and the cars/mpvs are designed for long journeys in comfort! Car hire and petrol are cheap ( we paid usd 500 for a large mpv for two weeks) and driving is pretty easy..much more so than in mainland Europe. You tend to find that even on the longest journeys just as you think you want a cup of coffee or a break the next truck stop heaves into view! Leave the radio on and listen to the wide choice of local stations for the full effect!
We've driven from New England to Georgia and from Atlanta Georgia to Wash DC on separate occasions with three children and enjoyed it. Maybe think of flying to one destination and doing a combination of train/ car.
Boston to DC is certainly doable in the time you suggest and you could plan some interesting stop offs en route!

maemaesmummy

We did this a couple of years ago all booked individually.. we flew Manchester to NY with Continental stayed at Hotel Lexington in NYC Okay but as with any large city you dont get much for your money.

We flew from NY to Boston with AA and stayed at Boston Park Plaza Really nice hotel near the common and the start of the freedom trail ..huge rooms.. friendly Irish staff and near the theatre district for shows.

Flew from Boston to DC with United and stayed at The Washington Hilton again you know what you get with a Hilton, central location large rooms etc have also stayed in DC at The Barcello (less central but still nice)

From DC to Manchester with BMI

We stayed 16 nights and paid around £1700 for both of us.. bit of a pain booking but saved quite a bit off a brochure package deal.

HTH

jeanna_2

i'm sure you could do better yourself.we did this 2 years ago.driving new york to boston. we flew into newark, got the train to penn staion and stayed at the affinia manhatten across the road[ we have also stayed at the eastgate tower]from there we went to la guardia airport by taxi and picked up our car and drove to boston via cape cod .we stayed at the seacoast inn at hyannis and then went to sturbridge for one night to visit a museum there.in boston we dropped off the car at the airport and got a taxi to the hotel. we stayed at the omni parker[very central]you could look at travelsupermarket for flights and car hire and tripadvisor for reviews on hotels.the roads are easy to use. we never bought a map we just picked up the ones from the garage and printed some out from expedia before we went.checking out distances so that my hubby didn't spend too much time driving each day.hope this helps

duchy

I agree with the posters who say you'll get a better deal doing this yourself and I'd definitely suggest you avoid pre-paying for transfers which are a rip-off.
For example a yellow taxi from New York JFK to Manhatten is $47 plus tolls and tip flat fare-a transfer is likely to be a lot more than that-you could bring the price down even more by getting the airport bus into Manhatten for around $14 each -even if you pick up a cab from there to your hotel it's less money.
Amtrak is not particually cheap -it's worth checking the flight websites as often you can fly for the same money or less than the train.
Hotel deals abound -start with Expedia and Travelzoo-you'll be surprised.
A bit of research could save you a LOT of money !