New York and somewhere else..

[AParentofBoys]

I’d like to plan a trip to New York next year and then on to somewhere else for a few days but not sure where. This would be an after exam trip for my husband and I and 2 boys aged 15 and 18.

We fancy New York for 5-6 days and then drive somewhere else to see a bit more of the area - any suggestions? Cape Cod? Lake Placid? Toronto seems prohibitive because of the car hire drop off fees.

Any experience or suggestions greatly appreciated xx

Well it depends what you want to see, how far you're prepared to travel, whether you'd take a flight, your budget, your preferred accommodation, what time of year...

Boston

Happy to take a flight but thought a little road trip might be fun too. Timing would be end of June / July next year and around 10-14 days I’d say.

I’ll have a look at Boston too - thanks

Washington DC. It’s fabulous

There are lots of things you could do OP, so you'll need to decide whether you want to do cities (with 10-14 days you could do Boston, New York and/or Washington DC), or whether you prefer to do one city + something more bucolic. You could go to Cape Cod, but it will be busy in June/July because all the US school kids have finished for the summer by then. Lake Placid or the Finger Lakes in upstate NY are lovely in the summer. You could go via the Hudson River Valley, which is really pretty and has some cute towns you could explore en route. You could go up to Vermont or New Hampshire - again there are really pretty towns up there, lakes, hiking trails, cute hotels. So what do you want your trip to look like?

So that'll be when local school are on summer holidays, which means local tourist destinations will be more busy and expensive. You could go to DC for the museums and food; Long Island for some Hamptons action; make your way up through New England ending somewhere like Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard, or go all the way up to Maine. You could go south towards Virginia and the Carolinas.

With that much time, though, you could go anwyere: any of the national parks, California, up to the Rockies, down to New Mexico.

It really depends. The country is vast. I'd just stay clear of the most southern states because it will be HOT.

I second Boston. It's top of my list of places to take DS when he reaches his teens!

We did NY, Newport Rhode Island, Cape Cod and Boston with our DDs at that age. It was a combo of train and road trip and was a huge success with the whole family, any combo of the places would be great.

Boston/Cape Cod

or

Washington DC (smithsonian etc) and roadtrip it to Philadelphia/Amish country

Washington DC is amazing. We did that last year for a few days and then got the train to NY.

Or drive up through NY state to Niagara Falls and fly back from Toronto?

Sorry, saw you had looked at that - drop hire car on the US side of the Falls or in Buffalo?

Unless you want to spend a day driving I'd stick to Boston or Washington DC. What time of year?

I'm thinking about this too and the best options I've found are Cape Cod, or Finger Lakes. Spend 5 or 6 nights in New York City, then get the train out to somewhere to hire a car.

I was coming to say DC as well. You can also take the train instead of driving or flying.

Some great ideas thank you all. The train somewhere seems like a nice idea too. I’ll investigate a bit more. Watching Perfect Couple on Netflix has highlighted Nantucket / New England!