Boston to New York in 1 day

Hi all


This is my first post here, but you all look so helpful I thought I would sign up!

Three of us are travelling from Australia in May next year and part of our trek will be a drive from Boston through Connecticut to New York on the 27th May.

We will be staying a few days in Boston, and a week in New York, but will just have the afternoon in Connecticut.

My main interest is seeing the neighbourhoods and houses and scenery around that area. Are there any "must sees" we should look into?

At the moment we are aiming for Mystic area, but we may need to make a stop in Stamford too.

I hope I haven't been too vague, thanks in advance!

Shelley

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

You're probably looking at 5-6 hours of driving to make the trip from Boston to New York by way of Mystic, and while that does leave you some time to walk downtown Mystic and visit Mystic Seaport, it doesn't leave you a lot of time for much else. So my recommendation would be that you stick to the major highway, I-95, tour the Seaport if you have time, and otherwise stroll Mystic. There is a home-made ice cream shop on the north side of US-1 at the west end of the bridge across the Mystic River that has a small deck where you can sit by the river to enjoy your purchase. But if you plan to spend much time in Stamford as well, and if your destination there is away from the highway, you'll have to curtail your time in Mystic.

AZBuck

The congestion on I-95 can be severe as you get close to NYC - you may want to look at jumping over to CT-15 (Merritt Parkway) at Milford (Exit 38). This is also a lot more scenic - I-95 west of New Haven is pretty much all urban and industrial where the Merritt Parkway is wooded with rolling hills. There are exits to Stamford from the Merritt.

I don't envy you traveling that corridor on a weekday, but at least you will be making a "reverse commute" into the city, provided you are heading into NYC in the afternoon. Still, from Stamford, CT to New York is always quite busy. Plan ahead and check for road construction that is planned in the area (seems like it's always under construction) so that you might be able to pick one or two alternate routes.

You don't have a lot of time in Connecticut, unfortunately, to spend much time checking out the towns. Will you be sticking to I-95 from Boston to Connecticut, or taking I-90 to I-395? Providence (on I-95) has some oddball traffic patterns in places and if you aren't heading there for anything, I'd suggest avoiding it.

395 is kinda out of the way if you want to go through Mystic - but you should be able to get around Providence okay on I-295.