DC/Baltimore area to Toronto

[debs1234]

I'm driving from DC/Baltimore area to Toronto. It looks like an 8 hr drive. Any good places to stop and visit and stay overnight instead of doing a straight drive there? I'm even open to taking an alternate route to get in something interesting. I've seen people recommend the Corning glass place to stop, but I'm not sure that's worth stopping for a day trip.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

In order to be of any real help to you, we're going to know a bit more about you (but nothing personal!) For example, while I could easily list a dozen things that would interest me on a drive between BWI (I Still think of it as Friendship) and Toronto, those would be things that interest me and could just as easily be totally boring to you. So, are you interested in outdoor activities (parks, hiking, scenery, etc.), museums, sports, night life, what? And what sort of overnight accomodations are you thinking about? Camping, simple motel, resort, B&B?

The one thing I can tell you is that Laurel (My guess as to 'DC/Baltimore area') to Toronto is 8+ hours of driving, NOT an 8 hour drive. The difference is that no one can simply sit behind the wheel for 8 straight hours. Once you add in the time needed for stops to eat, gas-up, go to the bathroom, get through customs, and deal with traffic, you're looking at far closer to 10 total hours to make the drive than 8. So I applaud your decision to take an overnight break. Not only will it make your trip safer by not forcing push harder than you might be used to, but it gives you a significant amount of time to stop at a couple of interesting places along the way. We just have to figure out, as noted above, what interests you. For what it's worth, I went to high school outside Baltimore (Catonsville) and lived in the Finger Lakes region of New York for 7 years, so I'm moderately familiar with the areas you'll be driving through.

AZBuck

[debs1234]

Good points! I have two teenagers, so that's definitely a factor to make sure it's not too boooring :) Interests include, outdoor activities, scenery, some museums (not art), unique little stops. ie. I saw there was the summer house of Mark Twain which I thought sounds good, but maybe it's just not worth the stop? I'm not even opposed to stopping at the Corning Museum if that's been a notable good stop. Overnight, just looking for a simple hotel/motel. No camping.

[AZBuck]

Actually, there are quite a few places worth visiting on the more-or-less direct route to Toronto. It's not clear from your posts whether or not this is a one-way or round-trip drive, but I'm assuming it's round-trip. In that case, if you can take two days one way and three the other, you can build a very nice RoadTrip. I say three days in one direction because, besides taking your time to make the drive and enjoy a few sites en route, I'm going to suggest that you spend an entire day in the Elmira/Corning area of New York.

Elmira/Corning has a number of attractions, besides the two that you mentioned, the Corning Glass Museum and Mark Twain's summer home in Elmira. There's also the National Soaring Museum. And just slightly out of your way would be Watkins Glen State Park. If you decide to go this way on one of your legs, then your main route north would basically use US-15 through Gettysburg and along the Susquehanna River. Now while there are no national or state parks along that river, the route is fairly scenic and there are a number of state game lands for short outdoor nature breaks. And, of course, there's Niagara Falls as you cross into Canada. On this route overnight stops would be roughly Lewisburg PA and two nights in the Elmira/Corning area.

Then, if this is a round trip, the other leg could be a bit farther west using (from the north) US-62/US-6/PA-98/US-219/PA-153/I-80/US-322/PA-350/I-99/US-30/I-70/I-270. Taking an alternate route means that you and your kids will always be discovering something new and not just covering the same ground twice. There aren't quite as many attractions along this western route but worth looking into are the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum in Jamestown NY, Allegheny National Forest, Fort Frederick State Park in Maryland, and (with a slight detour) Harpers Ferry. Your overnight stop on this route would be somewhere near Clearfield PA (I-80).

AZBuck