First Time to East Coast

Hi all

Please be nice as this is my first attempt using the forum.

We(family of 4) are arriving into NewYork September 09 and will be staying in New York for 5 nights. We then plan to pick up a rental car and travel up to Boston for 3 nights. From there we plan to travel down to Philly for 1 night and then on to DC for 3 nights. After that we will have to drive back to JFK(Friday) for our flight back to L.A. We have to fly in and out of New York. Does anyone see a problem with this. My biggest worry is travelling back from Washington DC to JFK to make the plane by 6PM. What time should we leave Washington DC to make our flight. Our other alternative is to drop the car in DC and fly back to JFK instead.

Any help or sugestions would be greatly appreciated.

First Time to East Coast

zeusBrisbane,

Have you compared costs of rental car, parking and tolls with taking the train? The east coast has a decent train system from NYC to Boston, and back to Philly and DC. It might be a more relaxing vacation.

The key advantage to the train is that the NYC-Philly-DC part is faster by train than by car, even if you don%26#39;t take the Acela %26#39;high speed-higher cost'; trains.

Driving does let you stop along the way and see things, if you want to. If you need to be at JFK airport by 6, you need to leave

DC by noon as you will be hitting rush hour traffic in the NY metro area. If your flight leaves at 6, you need to leave DC at 10 am .

First Time to East Coast

Long Island Family

Thanks so much for your quick response.Cost of rental car if we book before we go is about $450.00 USD. This is for 8 days car hire. I guess I thought it might be nice to see things on the way up to Boston and also we might need the car if we want to get out of the city for the afternoon. The other thought was to pick up the car from NY and drive to Boston. Then fly to DC, probably wont need the car for a couple of days. Then hire a car to go to Mt Vernon etc for the day.We could then travel to Philly, stay the night,do a bit of sightseeing and then travel up to JFK in the afternoon. This would mean a shorter drive on the Friday.My only worry is missing our flight if we get caught in traffic.

As there are 4 of us and we will have plenty of lugguge.(I have a 21 and 14 year old) I thought the car would be more convienient.

What do you think.

If you%26#39;re committed to go with your driving plan, it would make the most sense to plan to be in NYC on Thursday night rather than trying to beat the traffic on Friday to make a 6:00 pm flight!

Your idea to fly back to NYC from DC is not a bad idea at all; just fly out of DC early enough in the day on Friday.(but after the %26#39;commuter%26#39; flights in the morning).

What%26#39;s your route from NYC to Boston?

Hi Zeus,

This is a good map and driving web site,

http://www.mapquest.com/classic

and you can check on one way car drop off fees here

http://www.orbitz.com/App/SubmitQuickSearch?OSC=Kf9TsBbGwC!941601706!183184470!7001!-1%26amp;z=1ad9%26amp;r=j

You might be able to go to Boston by public transportation, drive to DC and then return to your flight by public transportation as well, and there is no backtracking with the car. Have a great time.

If you do decide to take the train from NYC to Boston, consider the Acela Express:

www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer鈥?/a>

(the Boston leg of your trip is a bit out of the way, right?)

From Boston, you can take the ferry to Provincetown on Cape Cod for the day (it isn%26#39;t cheap, but it%26#39;s a great day out).

I%26#39;m not sure there%26#39;s one ';right'; way to do this, but you should know in addition to train and plane, there%26#39;s also very inexpensive bus service from

megabus.com

boltbus.com

between these cities.

That sounds like a lot of driving and I don%26#39;t know how confident you are driving on the right. Parking in the cities is expensive. I agree you should NOT drive from Washington to NYC on your last day.

Make sure that the car rental quote you have includes all insurance you%26#39;ll need and a car that%26#39;s comfortable enough for all of you AND will have a large enough trunk (boot) so your luggage is out of sight. If you have a lot of luggage and intend on making stops along the way (to take advantage of the car) you don%26#39;t want a hatchback (imo).

Unless you%26#39;re really planning on stopping b/w NYC and Boston, you should consider using train or bus for that leg. The train ride north out of Manhattan hugs the Hudson River and is very pretty. There%26#39;s a discount of 20% you can get by phoning. I found this

'; If you%26#39;re heading from anywhere in the Northeast to any city in Massachusetts, make a reservation by phone (not online!) and ask for discount code V221. That will give you 20% off each ticket, though Dec. 15.';

Read more: frommers.com/articles/鈥

You might check the travelzoo.com special on Amtrak to compare prices:

www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer鈥?/a>

Is it possible to fly out of Newark airport rather than JFK? It is a lot easier and closer to get to from DC/PA, etc. Rentals cars are also cheaper from there.

If you can%26#39;t, I would take a full day for the drive. In good conditions, DC - NY is 4-5 hours, but who knows about traffic, etc. and you really have a deadline. I would leave DC by 8 am latest. Or even, leave DC late evening and sleep somewhere en route, perhaps near Philly of NJ turnpike, so you are already partly there, no worries. Compare these ideas to the plane route.

While the train DC-NY is generally a good it doesn%26#39;t seem like you have reason to return to Manhattan, and that will only complicate your trip. I do think driving is good, as long as you give yourself plenty of time. Better too early than too late.

Hi again. Your question keeps nagging me.

It really seems that there is no reason whatsoever to return to Manhattan after DC. It seems you want the airport (I assume JFK, l though I proposed Newark as a much better choice if possible).

So I wouldn%26#39;t get involved with any form of transport that brings you to Manhattan since you will still have the hassle of getting back to the airport.

The question is, where to rent the car.

Or I do agree that flying DC to NYC is a good option, saving all that driving, traffic, etc and landing you obviously directly at the airport where you want to be anyway.

I think that some travellers may think the airports here are quite accessible to Manhattan, because in many cities, airports are accessible. Due to the density of NYC any airport venture (or in general, staying at an airport) is usually an hour or so travel and a cost. I don%26#39;t mean to say it is all that difficult, and for most travellers, they have to do it to get into NYC, but I would avoid it if not necessary.

Can%26#39;t you just fly out from DC rather than returning to NYC?