Micro Roadtrip New York - Niagara Falls

[Asbjorn]

Hi all

This summer I am going on a short 8-days roadtrip from New York City and back again.

I know that this trip barely qualifies as a roadtrip, but even though I have some questions:

1) What sights between New York City and Niagara Falls should we see?

2) I've heard it is ilegal to camp outside designated campgrounds etc.; is this true, and if so: Does anyone know nice places to camp between NYC and Niagara Falls.

3) Regarding car-rental: What company is the cheapest?

Asbjorn (from Denmark)

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Any trip made by road qualifies as a RoadTrip!

1) Between New York City and Niagara Falls, you are going to be passing through three distinctly different and beautiful regions, the Catskills, the Finger Lakes, and the Niagara Frontier, so there will be plenty to see and do. Personally, my favorites are Watkins Glen, Letchworth State Park, and the Erie Canal, now more prosaically known as the New York State Barge Canal.

2) It is permissible to camp anywhere in most national forests. This is known as 'distributed camping'. But it is always best to check with the particular unit first. In any case, there are no national forests along your route. State parks provide a lots of camp grounds, but typically do not allow distributed camping. Outside of parks, you are almost guaranteed to be trespassing if you just wander off to camp on your own,

3) Car rental costs vary from company to company, from region to region, and from day to day. Your best bet is to use a search engine (we even offer one and let it sort through all the competing rates for you.

AZBuck

[Mark Sedenquist]

This summer I am going on a short 8-days roadtrip from New York City and back again.

Welcome to the Great American RoadTrip Forum!

I know that this trip barely qualifies as a roadtrip, but even though I have some questions:

Not so, my favorite form of of a road trip is only twenty hours long. RoadTrips "live in the brain" not on the asphalt....

1) What sights between New York City and Niagara Falls should we see?

It would help us if we knew what kinds of sights interest you. But for starters the famous Catskill Mountains with their old-time lodges are on a possible route and there are some more ideas here. There are a few ideas in this thread about Niagra Falls and here

3) Regarding car-rental: What company is the cheapest?

Every company runs deals all of the time -- you have to do your own checking. Yahoo Travel is one of the firms we use.

Mark

[DCwom]

We make the trip across the "southern tier" of NY when visiting family way out in west NY.

From NYC you could head across NJ on I80 into PA, and then up I81 in the Pocono mountains, here you will find the city of Scranton, where there is Steamtown National park (lots of steamtrains), and the Lakawana coal mine tour. From 81 you can connect to NY 17 in Binghamton which will take you along the southern boarder of NY where you can visit Corning glass, and the soaring capital of the US in Elmira (sail planes, or gliders). After corning you can shoot up to Rochester and see the Kodak muesaum.

Depending on how big you want to make your "loop" on your return, you could swing down to Pittsberg PA, and come across PA hitting Hershey, and the Lancaster area with it's many Amish communities.