Miami to Boston in about 30 days

We are a "mature" English couple, who would like to spend about 30 days travelling from Miami to Boston, and viewing some of the historical, cultural, and scenic gems of the east coast. As part of the trip, we are thinking of doing the Knoxville marathon, which takes place at the beginning of April. Otherwise, we are very open to ideas, but would really like to get to the area of Washington DC, and possibly to the Niagra Falls. We can skip New York City, as I suspect that it would be better to do NYC without a car.

Is there anyone out there who can suggest the outline of an intinerary that I could use as aq starting point?

Thanks

Hi, and Welcome to the The Great American RoadTrip Forum.

Whereas I will leave any help with itenirary for others to address, I can answer a couple of your questions. This is a trip which I will be doing several times this year, though it will be in four or five days, each time.

And yes, I heartily agree that you will not want a car in NYC. (The last time I visited NYC, I left the car at a railway station in rural New Jersey.) But I would say the same about DC. DC is a place where you will definitely want to spend a few days. With the Smithsonian Institute musea - all of which are free - together with all the great monuments of the city, no matter how long you plan to be there, you'll always wish it was longer.

Both DC and NYC are places which have excellent public transport, where parking is hard to find and quite expensive. I would not want to have a car in either. If I were doing this trip, in 30 days, I think I would start in DC or NYC, take the commuter train between the two. Then pick up a car, head up to Boston (and maybe beyond), and over to Niagara (including the Canadian side) before heading south.

By far the best thing you can start with is a good wall sized map of the USA (or eastern USA), to get a good overview. See where the places you definitely want to visit are. Note what places and attractions are along the route. Use these as keywords in the search function (above right) for historical information, etc.

Enjoy the planning.

Lifey

Edit: Ooops! I just realised I had this trip going in the opposite direction.

Lifemagician,

Thanks for some excellent advice. Hadn't thought of the idea of doing NYC, train to DC, and then picking up car.

Thanks!

There are, of course, a ton of things to do between Miami and the BosWash Corridor, and 30 days is enough to see and do quite a lot, but not all, of them. So your first job will be to pare down from all those possibilities. I would also note that if you are going to spend the better part of a week between Washington and New York, then you should certainly consider turning in your car when you get to Washington and then doing DC and NYC (and Philadelphia for that matter) by public transport - train, subways, busses and cabs. I would then suggest that you also continue by train to very compact Boston and see that city on foot (e.g. the Freedom Trail) before renting another car for any final RoadTripping you want to do. That might include a few days out to Niagara and back, or just up to Cape Ann and/or the Maine Coast. In any event, this second car hire would be a 'local' rental in Boston and considerably cheaper with no one way drop-off fee.

AZBuck

Funny, one of the trips my husband and I were just discussing not long ago, was up the East Coast. Things that interested US along the way from FL up to NYC included Cape Canaveral and some of the things in the Orlando area (notably Harry Potter World inside Universal Studios). Cape Hatteras National Seashore and, in particular, Kitty Hawk. Washington DC, depending on when this particular trip ever gets made. Philadelphia, since we had to skip that last summer. Then we want to head inland: my mother reminded me that I have never been to New Hampshire (though I've been through Vermont).

Just thought I'd throw those out there, for what it's worth!


Donna