Having thoroughly enjoyed our West Coast adventure we are tackling the East Coast with a family of 7 (Ma, Pa, 25, 22, 20, 16, 16 years old) for 11 nights at the end of July. The outline for the road trip is to fly into JFK, stay NYC for 3 nights, Washington DC for 2 nights and then...help needed but would like to then visit Niagara, Boston and Cape Cod (ish).

I want to see the Niagara Falls but I'm not sure which route or where to split the journey (one night). Thoughts were either go via Pittsburgh and stay in Erie (long first day but looks like Erie is worth it) or to go via Williamsport.

After Niagara I would like to head to Cape Cod/Newport stopping off for a night near the Finger Lake (but this would be a short first day and long drive second).

Most of the relevant posts appear to be from several years ago so any top tips on places to stop, routes to take, would be very very much appreciated.