Philly is fab. We lived there pre-children but it's a great city to wander around.

It depends on how long you want to add on to your business trip but I would stay put and do small things. Maybe hire a car and explore the Amish countryside, go to some of the swish towns just outside Philly, go further afield in PA, explore the art musuem, etc. rather than go on another flight.

I've been to Boston a couple of times - first time with dd age about 5 months and then again with both dds. It's ok but I personally didn;t find it that great - it's probably a great place to live but I didn;t find it that great a place as a tourist. It's almost odd - not modern and zipping like I'm sure NY is, but - having lived in Oxford for several years neither does it rate that highly as a university/historical town. New England, however is lovely. And I would happily potter about in the New Hampshire country-side or Maine. We have friends near Boston and I think without them we wouldn;t have gone back.

Boston's lovely and close to all that beautiful New Hampshire/Massachusetts countryside. Chicago is very very humid in the summer so would suggest you avoid that one. If you wanted to take another flight come here to Colorado and head up into the Rockies - internal flights are cheap in the US. Overwise, suggest your hire and RV and head off into Vermont which I hear is wonderful. Imagine Austria/Switzerland and that's Vermont. Trivia for you, where the Van Trapp Family(Sound of Music) ended up. All these states have great websites with all the info that you need - lodging, travel etc. You'll have a great time.

RuthT if you want any research doing let me know as I'm in Colorado (expat moved from UK last October) more than happy to trawl the web for you as I'm a SAHM. Let me know. My best friend here says Vermont is the business and great especially if you like the great outdoors, depends really I guess what you want to do and how long you want to stay. New York State is great too and you could always plan a day trip to NY City.

I went to school just outside of Philadelphia, and lived in Philly for several years. I loved it, and I'm very envious of you!

As to where to go after that, it really depends upon what you're looking for. If you're looking for very American experiences, then, as Gem13 says, going to see the Amish would be very good. If wanting to do the city thing, then I would say by all means, take the Amtrak to NYC (a little over an hour away), or down to Washington, DC (both places will be very hot, though). If you're looking for the seashore, you could rent a car and drive to Cape May, NJ. Or, as you say, you could go to Martha's Vineyard, but it will be quite booked by now, I would think.

I would avoid NY in August - really hot, sticky and oppressive! That's why everyone heads for the beach. Cape May is meant to be lovely and you could also head down to Virginia (Walton territory) for the mountains (Blue Ridge) and the sea. The Adirondacks in NY state are also meant to be beautiful.

I'm afraid I don't know about hotels in Philly as we were in an apartment. The nicest area is around Society Hill/Old City for wandering around and being close to the shops in center city. Steer clear of South Street for accommodation as that is where the 'young' hang out - bars, record stores, tattoo parlours, etc. Fun to wander around during the day but noisy at night.

I LOVE boston.
And think it is a great place with kids. Have been there 2ce in the summer (once with 1.5 and 4 yo, and last summer with 1.5, 4.5 and 7 yo and one in utero). Both times combined it with a couple of weeks on the Cape (also highly recommended).

Your daughter won't much care where she is, so if you want to go to boston, then go! It does get v hot in august, but Boston common is lovely, lots of shade and a fantastic big shallow pond (which they iceskate on in the winter) which in the summer is full of water and sprinklers and fun things. About 5" deep so great for sitting a little one in to splash. It also has the swan boats and a really nice shaded playground with slides and things. You can also take her to the aquarium by the waterfront to look at fish penguins etc (11 months not too young), otherwise just bring her along in a buggy while you explore. I would also go to Cape Cod rather than Marthas vineyard, just because it is easier to get to, bigger and therefore more likely to find good accomodation at this late stage. Stay on the bay side (not the ocean side) and build sandcastles and eat lobster.
If you need a very highly recommended babysitter while you are there, let me know. She lives in Boston but also babysits on the Cape on weekends and I've known her for 4 years or so. Early 20s post grad student with lots of nannying experience.

Sorry this was so long!

Personally I hate philly and find it a threatening place. Boston is a walkable city like NY - Philly just isn't.

Liked Philly very much and never felt threatened there on my visits there.

If its a few days (say five or more) I would suggest Boston as there's lots to do both in the city and surrounding areas. The Acela Express that Amtrak runs between Philly and Boston may be an option for you and may well turn out to be far less stressful than flying within the US.

www.amtrak.com

I'm sticking up for Philly too. I spent 6 months walking around there while DH worked and I never felt threatened. There's a lot to it.

Check out this restaurant too - we loved it . Good food, great atmosphere and fab ethical principles. They employ local unemployed stuggling kids (20 years before Jamie) and have 'take a senior to lunch' meals where both the seniors meal and yours are half price!

Can I come?

Oh, and Reading Terminal Market is fantastic. Ice cream, Amish food, sushi, baked goods, Chinese, Philly cheese steaks, etc. I used to spend hours there!

details here

We loved Boston (our honeymoon, so doubtless saw it through rose-tinted glasses ). One of the most amazing things we did there was to go on a whale-watching boat trip. Riding the Duck tour was also fun, and I got to steer it while in the river. The Duck tours are 2nd World War amphibious vehicles painted bright yellow and converted into amphibious tour buses. Lobsters were absolutely brilliant to eat at Legal Seafoods. You can visit Danvers by car or by metro - it's the place where the story told in The Crucible actually took place, quite chilling and sad. Don't bother with Salem though - totally touristified and fake as a result of the same play/film.

Have fun!

This is a real coincidence! We (a couple with DS who will be 11-12 m.o. at time of travel) also happen to be planning a 2.5 week trip to New England in September flying in and out of Boston. We are hoping to go to Cape Cod/Martha's vineyard, Newport then followed by some time up in Vermont/New Hampshire then a couple of days in Boston before flying back to London.

I am trying to work out distances and what is do-able. We don't want to have a rushed holiday and we also want to stay at self-catering accommodation a few days at a time - less disruptive for DS - and then explore areas from a base. So far, the accommodation in general seems rather pricey and a lot of the self-catering places require a week stay min (Sat to Sat) which obviously doesn't suit us.

Does anyone have any advice/tips on:
a) where to go
b) good cities/towns to use as a base
c) websites for self-catering accomm (I've already looked up Vermont and Massachussetts govt sites).

Thank you!!!

I have heard Cape May mentioned a couple of times. Friends of ours owned a guest house there that my parents used to visit (they are not very old parents, and extremely well-travelled!!) they loved the small-town ambience and real East-coast feel to it. You could combine it with a cursory look at the Big Apple, although I felt New York was like walking through a maze - all the tall buildings mean you can only really see the sky above you and it would be pretty claustrophobic in the muggy summer heat. We went a few times as kids, and I don't remember it fondly.

Philadelphia is basically a day - the independence trail, US Mint, Star Spangled Banner museum, Philly Cheesesteaks.

Not too far away is Washington DC - you can take the train or drive, and you can easily spend a few days there. New York City is even closer in the other direction.

If you are interested in the beach, you can head to the Jersey Shore or Maryland shore (eg Atlantic City area and Ocean City area).

If you haven't got your hotel booked yet, I'd recommend that you consider the Embassy Suites. It is probably the most child friendly chain.

The other places you have mentioned are actually quite far from Philly. You can stick around the area and get everything you want. Washington DC is, IMO, the best city tourist destination.

It will all be oppressively hot in August though.

Chicago in the summer is fab!! (but them I'm biased being a Windy City gal myself) I've never been to Boston, but it's definately on my list of US cities to visit. Yeah yeah, I'm American and I've never been to Boston.

What are you on about, Uwila, Chicago in the summer is BRUTAL!!! I s'ppose less brutal than the winter, but c'mon: it's a furnace punctuated by scary thunderstorms. . .or at least that was my experience. But I'm not a native, so I defer to your experience.

Cape Cod or its islands (Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket) would be my choice for August. I love the Capeplaces like Wellfleet and Truromore than the islands, actually. . .so do look into that. It might be hard to find accommodation, though, as it's where the Boston folk flee during summer weekends and holidays. Boston is great, too, and will be slightly (but slightly) cooler than NYC and Philly. So I'd say go NORTH, but stay on the east coast. Maine is quite lovely too--but an epic drive from Philly.

Just read through the rest of the thread.

We did a trip a few years ago that involved spending a 24h in Philadelphia - BIL lives there and he was our tourist guide. We did the things I mentioned earlier.

The next day, we drove up to NYC, which was about an hour and a half away. We had a place booked for the night, and the main challenge was finding secure parking.

We spent basically 36 hours in NYC, and then headed north towards Boston, as we were having a family reunion on Cape Cod. We spent the night at Mystic, CT, stopping at a HoJo's or something similar.

DH took the boys to an aquarium and I took the girls to Mystic village (a shopping plaza). Then we got in the car and stopped in Newport RI for lunch (very busy - we ended up eating at Subway, which was not the experience I was after). We arrived in Falmouth, Cape Cod around 4pm and stayed a week. We were in a motel, where weekly lets was the norm, that had a pool and beach/dock. We didn't really feel there was an awful lot to do at that part of the Cape. I think that kind of holiday would be disappointing if you were coming from the UK.

One of the things to consider is where Americans go on holiday. Most of my acquaintances drive to the Outer Banks of North Carolina (400 miles from Philly), and rent beach houses.