Suggestions needed for a week in the US

[SorrelForbes]

I'm planning a three week trip to the US this summer. Most of it is sorted (meeting friends, train journey etc.) but I still have the first eight days to sort out.

We're flying into JFK on a Saturday afternoon and fly on from Buffalo to meet friends the following Saturday. Can anyone suggest a route that would take in some interesting and lovely spots in Mass. RI. Maine etc. ending up at Niagara Falls. We're happy to do a lot of driving!

Boston! Is bloody lovely! I spent a week in an airbnb with my two sons and we're desperate to get back and see more of New England. We also went to Plymouth which was glorious.

It really depends what kind of thing you’re into and how long you want to spend in NYC. Cape Cod and Boston are great (Cape Cod takes about 5 hours from NYC). But those 3 places could easily fill a week and that doesn’t include the very long and monotonous drive from Boston to Niagara. Incidentally, Niagara doesn’t need more than a day. The falls are breathtaking, the town is awful.

Thanks for the replies. Yes, we're not really bothered about spending much time at the falls but DH wants to see them as we didn't manage it on our last trip!

We like history, culture, architecture, anything to do with the sea. Not massive countryside people (and I think we're going to get a lot of that when we meet our friends in Aspen!).

We're OK with drives of up to 7 hrs each time. On our last three week trip to the US, we drove 4444 miles

I second Boston- amazing! And whale watching and taking the boat to Cape Cod, and Martha's Vineyard.

Also, take the train from NYC to Boston rather than fly. If you sit on the right hand side you go along the Connecticut coastline and see all the lovely houses with their own jetty- like in Dawson's Creek!

Very envious of your trip! Lucky you!

Newport, RI is lovely, lively shops, bars and restaurants (the lobster shack on the pier is very nice). Visit the mansions and/or Fort Adams (the tunnel tour is fun) depending on what you are interested in.

Boston is great, loads of things to do in a relatively small city. We live there so ask anything.

The train from NYC is worth doing, as PP said sit on the right. It doesn’t seeto be possible to book seats on Amtrak so get on as early as you can. Trains are very slow, get the express.

I LOVE the Maine Coast. I would just drive all the way up to Bar Harbor stopping at various seaside towns and then cut across to Buffalo

If you love the sea and history, Boston and Cape Cod are perfect. So much history, culture and sea! We had a great holiday there last year and can't recommend it highly enough.

Thank you all so much for replying. Loads of helpful tips which have confirmed that we probably will regret not being able to spend longer in that region!

I've looked at the map (many times!) and also at the Amtrak site and as we're going to be doing a long train journey later in our trip, I think we'll probably drive from NYC (straight after landing as we've been there a few times and aren't planning to hang around on this trip) to Boston, stopping at a few places en route.

I'm thinking, Newport, then on to Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, then to Boston and then drive up as far as we can before schlepping over to Niagara. DH might well change his mind about visiting the latter once he sees how much there is to do on the East coast

Sounds great. Quick FYI, if you want to take your car to Martha’s, you should book the ferry now. It’s gets sold out in the summer really early. And you HAVE to jump off the Jaws bridge!