East Coast Honeymoon road trip - please help

Hi all

My fiance and I (both Brits) are having our honeymoon on the East Coast in April next year - on a serious budget. We want to visit DC, NYC and Boston for definite.

So far, I had thought about stops in Philadelphia, maybe Baltimore (?), Atlantic City (?), Coney Island - though I think it might not open til Easter.

We'll probably train it between NYC and Boston as Cape Cod seems to be pretty much closed until May.

Any thoughts? Are we doing it the right way round? Best bits to drive?

The other half used to be a lorry driver so he's looking forward to the roadtrip bit the best!

Thanks so much all.
K

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Being on a serious budget and planning to use two separate transportation modes (cars and trains) are going to work against each other. Basically, unless you plan to stay put in a given city for several days and make use of local mass transit (subways and busses), then simply renting a car for the duration of your trip probably makes economic sense. Cars cost less to rent by the week than by the day and typically come with unlimited mileage. Also they carry as many people as you can fit in them for (almost) no additional charge. So although you should really price it all out - looking at the train fares and checking some search engines such as Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz or others for car hare rates. I think that just getting a car for the duration of your trip makes sense, with a few caveats.

First. you should plan on a loop trip where you begin and end in the same city. This saves you the drop-off fee of a one-way rental. For example you could start in Boston, visit New York on your way down to the Baltimore/Washington area, and visit Philadelphia on your way back to Boston. You can make the drive between Boston and Washington in a full, not to say hard, day's drive. You can also delay picking up the car until after you've spent a few days in Boston and only use it for the RoadTrip portion of your journey, returning it as soon as you get back to Boston. This could also save you some taxes and fees associated with renting a car from an airport location.

Also, as with anywhere, what makes a country unique is far more often found in the land between the major cities rather than in the cosmopolitan but oddly similar urban areas. I think you'd both greatly appreciate driving some of the back roads (non-motorways) between the destinations on your itinerary.

So, you've got a bit of homework to do on pricing things out, I hope this has been of some help.

AZBuck