Baltimore, MD to Canada Niagara Falls

[JJHMD]

My husband, two kids (7 & 4) and I are thinking about road tripping from Baltimore, Md up to Niagara falls. We are thinking to leave from Baltimore and head up through PA then NY and cross over to Canada, on the way back we wanted to go through Toronto, Ottawa and through New England. We were planning on a Saturday to Saturday trip. Would we be able to complete the trip in that time period? And would it give us enough time to enjoy each location we go to or would we be rushed? Any suggestions on good places to see or must see attractions? Our route is not set in stone so if anyone has any good suggestions on a different route plan I would be happy to hear them.
This will be our first major road trip with the kids(we have drove to Ohio and NC before) and we want them to have a great time and enjoy the trip just as much as we will.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Would you have enough time to complete your proposed route? Sure - you're looking at needing about three full days on the road in order to drive to all the places you've listed and get home again. Would you have time to enjoy each of those locations (and stuff in between)? No, not really. You'd only have four or five days left to spend at your destinations, and Niagara/Buffalo, Toronto, Ottawa, and New England could each use at least that much time to explore and enjoy at a leisurely pace. The problem, as I see it, isn't so much the amount of driving as the number of places you're trying to visit. I think you and the kids would enjoy something a bit more sedate with only two or three 'destinations'. To that end, may I suggest that you look at a drive up to Niagara, over the top of Lake Ontario with a brief visit to one venue in Toronto (They have an excellent zoo), through the Thousand Islands Region, then back south along the western shore of Lake Champlain and down the Hudson River to around Newburgh, and finally using roads like I-84/I-81/I-83 to get home. While that's only about five hours less of actual driving, there are simply fewer places to try to cram into your non-driving time. You could also build such a trip around a couple of 'themes', history, scenery, waterways, etc., whatever you or your kids might be interested in.

AZBuck

[glc]

Note that if you wish to go to Canada and back, you and your husband must have passports, and the children either need passports or birth certificates.

[JJHMD]

Thank you for the advice AZBuck. Looking at the route you suggest sounds pretty good. But I think we will do it in reverse so we can be at Niagara Falls on the 4th of July. I guess we were being a little over ambitious for our first major road trip. So glad I found this website. I will different be looking more to plan out our trip.

[JJHMD]

Thank you for the information glc about the passports but we all already have passports. We have all traveled international before.