USA holiday 2020 - where to start?

[ErikaJayne]

Firstly, I know there’s a MN travel section, but I wanted to capture as many opinions as possible.

We’ve decided that we want to visit the US next summer for about 2 weeks to travel around the east coast. We know that we want to fly to Boston and visit New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

Where do we begin? We’ve traveled a fair bit, but only really Europe. I’ve looked at BA’s website, but flights next year are currently only available to mid-May.

Questions:

• Would it be much cheaper to go at Spring break in April? Flights in April 2020 currently work out at about £450 return each (very reasonable, I thought). Don’t know what they’d be late July?

• Hotels - which website to use? Any particular brand recommendations?

• Budget - it’s most massive, so we’d like to do a mixture of spending conservatively on some things, and splashing out on some of the ‘must do’ treats. Is America as cheap as people used to say?

Recommendations - fire away, please!

Oh, there’ll be 4 of us - me, DH and 2 teenage DC. We like shopping, eating, sports, site seeing....the usual.

I think 15% is fine, 10% isn't for tipping.
Why do you want to go to New Jersey?
USA isn't cheap because of the significant drop in UK currency value. If you eat out they will ask if you want a box, we often get three meals out of any meal we eat out.

Really, I've worked in the restaurant industry and have lots of friends who are wait staff/ own restaurants. 15% is a bit of an insult.

Just wanted to reiterate what others have said, don’t bother with NJ or Connecticut and definitely consider Maine.
We did Toronto to Boston last year and the Maine coastline/ Acadia National Park was a highlight.
Air b&b in the cities. We have done NYC with kids and recommend staying in Brooklyn near a metro station.
Same in Boston- lots of good air b&bs in the university districts.
If you are just stopping for a night or two then use a motel such as Comfort Inn. They are universally fine and you know what you’re getting. Booking.com is the best site for hotels. Usually you can get free cancellation up until a few days before so you can book a couple of options and then make a decision closer to the time.
We use skyscanner for flights but you need to be prepared to play around with different dates and times to get the best deals.

I tip 15% in expensive restaurants and 20% in cheap restaurants FWIW.

Just FYI, in Maine the serving staff get paid at least minimum wage ($11 an hour) no matter what they made in tips. I don't know about other states.

I still choose to tip for good service, and I very rarely get bad service.

Eh. I don't know one person who would tip less than 20% unless they were annoyed at the service.

I have a friend who works in possibly Maine's best restaurant. Just asked her and she said she's insulted to get less than 20%.

I guess if you're on holiday and not going back it wouldn't be as much of a big deal though.

Annoyingly a lot of holiday type towns (especially near us) have had new laws prohibiting anything less than a one week stay. Infuriating, it makes air bnbing more difficult.

I used Norwegian air last year got really cheap flights, also we used air BnB which was nice as meet real Americans.

Where we are in the Midwest there are a lot of card readers that add tips of your choice 15 % is always one of the options.

So is 5 and 10 lol but I wouldn't do those either!

Do you think two weeks is enough for NY, Boston and cape cod is enough and would be suitable for a 12 and 9 year old? Total pipe dream stuff at the mo.

NY or NYC? It's doable! Honestly though, two big cities may be too much. Personally I'd rather do one city and take the other time to do something else. And NYC is like London, you could be there a month and not do everything.

A 12 and 9 year old would love it. From Boston you can do a whale watching trip if that's your thing.

bumblenut yes, I would think that is doable providing you flew in to one and out of the other with a one way car rental.

We’re going to Portland for a day! En route to Sebago Harbour for a night,really wish we were staying longer than a night there but dh wanted longer in Acadia. Would love to do Popham but think we’re then going on to Bar Harbour( yikes)via Camden. See what I mean about fitting it all in.

Re cost with staying longer I think after paying £££ for the flights we wanted to get our money’s worth.

We’ve used Lonely Planet for recommendations and booked direct. Have found all sorts of cabins and motels. Only booked two chains, interestingly the most expensive and boring.

Honestly when you add on cars and NYC hotel BA site came out much cheaper.

@GreySk1es if you like Thai food one of the best Thais (fusion) in the States is in Camden. If you're there to eat I'd absolutely advise you go there. I'd take more time in Acadia than Portland any day.

How early would you book sea kayaking?

My fiancé and I did NYC and all the New England states in 2 weeks last year. We didn’t stay long in each place (5 days in NYC was our longest) and only popped into Maine for about 5 minutes just to say we’d been there, but we didn’t feel rushed. We stayed in a mixture of hostels, AirBnBs and a basic cabin on a campground in New Hampshire. That was actually our favourite bit!

NYC, not ny state!

I was thinking 3-4 nights NYC, 2-3 nights NYC and then the rest in cape cod (not necessarily in that order).

What sort of ball park figure do you think it would be as I’ll gave to save up for it (ulp). Would be looking to stay in modest but safe places (lone female parent).

Sorry, 2-3 nights Boston.

There are loads of places to stay in Cspe Cod for all budgets. You’d want somewhere in the middle near say Chatham or Brewster. Look on We Need a Vacstion or HomeAway. We’ve got a cottage for 6 in Brewster for £1400. It’s nice with character and a lovely garden near a beach. Took hours of research. Gave up on Chatham as too expensive. Radio City in NYC is cheap with kitchenettes. Think it’s on the BA site. We couldn’t get in there as only 1 room for 5 adults/teens.

Ring BA and they’ll price it all up for you.

@GreySk1es I'm not too sure but I'd do it as early as you can. Stuff here gets crazy busy.

@Bumblenut oh it's so hard to say. Airbnb or motels are much cheaper.

I'm actually in the harbour now so can pop and ask.

For accommodation VRBO or booking.com. Set up an account for the latter - it sometimes gives you better deals and sometimes free nights.
Flights - Skyscanner has great filters - length of total trip, number of stopovers etc. Unless you can fly direct from your hometown consider connecting through Dublin - preclearance means less time on the other end.
Car insurance - check your travel insurance or credit cards to see if it's really necessary for the additional insurances they try to sell you.
Remember different states have different tax rates on shopping, accommodation etc. Some cuties will also have tourist taxes so it's worth a check.
Hope that helps.