Eastern America driving holiday

Ant84

Ant84

Ant84

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First up, if any mods think this should be in Motors, please feel free to move it.

So me and a friend are looking into hiring a car in America this summer and taking in quite a few cities over 2-3 weeks. Major cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC and the likes of Niagara Falls/Lake Erie are all on the list of places to visit, but obviously we'd have time to see a fair bit more if we dedicated 2-3 weeks to the trip.

With that in mind and in the hope a few OCUK members have travelled the east coast at some point, we're looking for any input on potential destinations that may be commonly overlooked. My friend has put together a rough list of places for us to see, but this can easily be changed as we haven't booked anything as yet. So far we have:

Boston > Providence > New York > Philadelphia > Atlantic City > West Cape May > Lewes > Virginia Beach > Richmond > Washington DC > Pittsburgh > Cleveland > Erie > Buffalo > Rochester > Boston

Now a few of those places will just be stop offs rather than overnight stays, so we're hoping to get a couple of nights in most of the major destinations. Having never travelled to eastern USA before, neither of us really know which places other than the obvious are worth visiting and which places aren't worth bothering with. We originally wanted to work our way from Boston all the way down to Miami, but one way flight costs appear to be an absolute killer in terms of cost.

Any advice or input is most welcome. Cheers.
 
One problem there for me is that New York is a 5-7 night minimum if you want to experience anything like all it has to offer. Other than that sounds like an amazing trip which I'm sure you'll enjoy.
 
We did a great one that took the following format (some places were just randomly chosen on the fly, bedding down in motels):

New York City (a few days)
Newport, Rhode Island (overnight)
Boston (couple of nights)
Barre, Vermont (hick town in middle of nowhere, overnight)
Burlington, Vermont (college town on the lake, overnight)
Montreal, Quebec (couple of nights)
Kingston, Ontario (overnight)
Toronto, Ontario (a few nights)
Niagra Falls (couple of nights)
Buffalo, New York (stayed for a day)
Eerie, Ohio (overnight)
Cleveland, Ohio (passed through for a few hours)
Napoleon, Ohio (overnight, scary hick town in the middle of nowhere)
Chicago, Illinois (4-5 nights)

There were some pretty long days and it's annoying that you can spend a whole day of your holiday sat in the car, trying just to keep each other awake!

Check your distances when planning and BE REALISTIC. If you're going to be partying a bit, factor this in with the driving, etc. It's a big old place, North America! We had a terrific time.

Enjoy!

Edit: We took 2 weeks to do that and I was glad we awarded extra time to the bigger cities to make the most of it: NYC, Boston, Toronto, Chicago.
 
h00fzilla said:
We did a great one that took the following format (some places were just randomly chosen on the fly, bedding down in motels):

New York City (a few days)
Newport, Rhode Island (overnight)
Boston (couple of nights)
Barre, Vermont (hick town in middle of nowhere, overnight)
Burlington, Vermont (college town on the lake, overnight)
Montreal, Quebec (couple of nights)
Kingston, Ontario (overnight)
Toronto, Ontario (a few nights)
Niagra Falls (couple of nights)
Buffalo, New York (stayed for a day)
Eerie, Ohio (overnight)
Cleveland, Ohio (passed through for a few hours)
Napoleon, Ohio (overnight, scary hick town in the middle of nowhere)
Chicago, Illinois (4-5 nights)

There were some pretty long days and it's annoying that you can spend a whole day of your holiday sat in the car, trying just to keep each other awake!

Check your distances when planning and BE REALISTIC. If you're going to be partying a bit, factor this in with the driving, etc. It's a big old place, North America! We had a terrific time.

Enjoy!

Edit: We took 2 weeks to do that and I was glad we awarded extra time to the bigger cities to make the most of it: NYC, Boston, Toronto, Chicago.
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That is a scary amount of driving in two weeks! I'd need a holiday to recover!
 
Any reason why you're not heading too far south? There's great stuff to see in North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.

The Appalachian Trail is also beautiful if you want to see some more natural beauty.
 
a1ex2001 said:
That is a scary amount of driving in two weeks! I'd need a holiday to recover!
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Good point. I'm thinking it might have been 3 weeks the more I try and remember. There were some long days in the car though which was a bit of a pain, but necessary to get to the places where we had pre-booked accommodation.

If I did it again, I'd be much more modest with the distances and targets!
 
I did Toronto to Niagara to Buffalo. Then new York 2 days in Philadelphia, down to Memphis then Orleans, back up to Chicago then Detroit all on Amtrak on an east coast ticket years ago cost about £100 or so. Oh yea stayed in Washington too. Took 30 odd days without the hassle of having to drive oh yea did Atlanta to.

Was a great trip for sure. Plus cheap youth hostels
 
I wanted to do that this year but the gf is making me go to Florida instead, but am going to fly up to DC and drive to NYC that way :(
 
[TW]Fox;18531179 said:
I wanted to do that this year but the gf is making me go to Florida instead, but am going to fly up to DC and drive to NYC that way :(
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She had to have her way eventually after two years of your choice of driving holidays! :D

Slight aside, I looked into doing this sort of trip and was struggling with cars, really wanted a Mustang after having one in Vegas but they seem much harder to come by on the East coast, there were other options but not knowing a huge amount about American cars there is a serious risk of a dud. There is after all no point in going to the states and renting a focus.
 
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[TW]Fox;18531459 said:
Its her fault I went, doesnt mean I couldnt put my own spin on it :D
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So I'm betting this years trip to Florida will be a mix of convertibles and coast roads as well then!
 
I've down a clockwise tour of the states, but paid particular attention to the East Coast - so much in fact that I'm hopefully taking the old man (footman on ocuk) with me when I do it again in a couple of months.

Places I'd recommend:

- When coming down from Mass. try to take in some of the places on the coast like New Haven (for Yale uni) and Newport, RI - nowt much going on, but it really picks up over the summer months

- Nowt to do on Long Island, but I recommend a boozey weekend in Atlantic City (although it's a hell of a lot cheaper to go during the week, it's really quiet compared to the weeked).

- Once you've gone through Washington, try to head out towards Shenandoah National Park - we holed ourselves up in a cabin for a night. It was amazing, good food, superb view, a morning of hiking around. real highlight of our whole US trip - we stayed here: http://www.nationalparkreservations.com/shenandoah_skyland.php?gclid=CKXQzLLVnqcCFUtC4Qod4QsrXg

- Depends on how much it interests you, but as you'll likely never have a chance to see it again I'd recommend going to the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA.

- Lastly, and I'd recommend this more than anything else, go to the Carolinas. NC is ok (Wilmington Beach should be pretty busy during the summer) but Charleston, SC was one of my favourite places throughout the whole trip. Great place. Also, if you want to experience a bit more Southern flavor (see what I did there?) I'd head down towards Beaufort and then to Savannah, GA

My personal recommendation (if it's affordable for you) would not be to loop round by road and head back to Boston, but to continue down the coast and then catch a connecting flight back up to NY or somewhere. The East Coast (Carolinas, etc.) has so much more to offer than Cleveland, Buffalo, etc.

Good luck!
 
Our plan for this year is:

Washington
Blue Ridge Parkway
Asheville
Smoky Mountains (Staying in a cabin in the mountains)
Jack Daniels Distillery
Chattanooga
Atlanta
Charleston
Savannah
Orlando
Fly back to Washington

The problem with the US is too much choice.
 
Where in the Smoky Mountains are you staying? We stayed up at Tim's Ford Park when we were up in TN. Savannah is brilliant, and was perfect in August.
 
One way fees can be cronic, we are doing ours the wrong way. Car Hire companies want cars out of Florida in the Spring not heading in. It's about £230 one way drop for ours, but because we need the car for less time, won't have to be in possesion of it in washington (most hotels charge for parking) and the time it saves us it's worth it.

I am normally all up for the drives, but Orlando to Atlanta is 8 hours with nothing of major intrest and Washington to Charleston or Myrtle Beach is similar (although a bit more intresting) I think I would rather spend more time in the mountains.

As for where in the Smoky mountains we are staying I haven't decided on where yet, I am trying to work that one out. There are so many to choose from, I have been looking in the Cherokee and Bryson City area, some with absoloutley stunning views there. Will probably be for 3 nights.
 
toshj said:
- Nowt to do on Long Island, but I recommend a boozey weekend in Atlantic City (although it's a hell of a lot cheaper to go during the week, it's really quiet compared to the weeked).

!
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yep, the room prices go up by 100-200% on Friday and Saturday nights
 
Yeah it's ridiculous, we went from staying someone really basic on the saturday night for a fortune to a massive double room at the Trump Taj Mahal for about half the price for sunday, monday and tuesday. It really does quieten down throughout the week though!
 
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