Planning trip East Coast USA. Tips needed!

[Gabbina]

Hello ladies. So, here's the thing.

I'm planning my trip over the USA (East Coast) for this August.

It will be me and my bf. 10 days, maybe if we find good deals could be 11-12. We're builidng an itinerary, and maybe you could give me some tips, about place I need to see o things I need to do?? Thing to avoid... :P
We need to get plane tickets soon, so I'm working on that this week...

What we like: Historical sights, yes, but even love to just walk around in non-conventional places, (not really into fancy places), fashion stuff and shopping (we'll do some minimum shopping, but not like spending hours for that). We're not scary to wake up at 5am to catch a bus.

What we want to see FOR SURE: NY, Washington, maybe Philadelphia and Boston? I've looked int books and they're naming places like Cape Cod, Salem... are they worthy? Not sure about anything else.

We may fly to NY and then move by bus/train and leave from another place, or just take plane froma bigger place to another.

Any tips are apreciated!!!

[NeverendingJen]

If you want to see any of the south, I recommend Savannah. Right on the coast near the beach, beautiful historical district, fun shop and restaurants all in the same area. It's a gorgeous town and you can easily see everything in 2 days down here

[lauren grier]

:] Well, I live in the northeast.. it's pretty fabulous here :] lol The Cape/Salem/Etc arent really that far from Boston (I mean especially considering you're ocming from far away ) So you might as well see them My family and I use to drive to the cape in the summer sometimes (its not a far drive for us) just because it's lovely.
I'm not being very helpful LOL... I'm 45-60 minutes from boston.. so this area is just my normal.. I never know what to suggest ^_^

[ColleenSwerb]

I would fly into Boston, then you can take a train the rest of the way to NY, then Philly, then Washington DC. The Northeast is pretty much the only area that sort of thing would work, lol. Flights inside the US are nowhere near as cheap as it is to fly within Europe. Then again I've never taken the train to/from any of those cities, so I don't know how expensive it is. (Although the Boston/NY train can't be that bad, my brother had to take it a bunch of times for work.)

Cape Cod is nice to just relax, but I don't know that I'd call it a tourist destination (just me personally - I LOVE Cape Cod, used to vacation there every year with my grandparents as a kid). Salem would be interesting though.

NY and DC I think you'll need to kinda prioritize. There's SO MUCH to do in those cities.

I don't know much about Philly. I know I'm not a huge fan, but other than that, I got nothing. LOL!

[digideb]

Originally Posted by NeverendingJen

If you want to see any of the south, I recommend Savannah. Right on the coast near the beach, beautiful historical district, fun shop and restaurants all in the same area. It's a gorgeous town and you can easily see everything in 2 days down here

Savannah is my recommendation as well! It's AMAZING!! One of my favorite places to go!

[MamaBee]

It has been a long time since I was on the east coast - if you are going to cape cod... you can catch a tour bus in Boston that will take you out there and drop you off at points of interests to explore... there are some awesome outlet shopping in the NorthEast, too.

If going more south - my hubby would totally recommend Savannah, too.... I haven't been, but I have been to Charleston a number of times and LOVE it there...

[neeceebee]

I live in DC and there are a million things to do here.

And the best part about it ... is that it's all FREE!

Everywhere else you go...you will be paying to get into the museums and other sites.

But in DC, not so.

Also...with lots of notice you can contact your senator or congressman and they can arrange private tours of the Capitol, and other sites in DC. Contact them early and they will work with you to get you in places.

Plus...there are all the monuments, museums, etc.

You could spend a week here and not see it all.

If you are limited, I would plan on visiting the monuments -- they can all be walked. And the American History museum -- it's my favorite.

[emilyscout]

If you go to the cape I would avoid travelling there on the weeksends. The weekend traffic is brutal. Seriously, you could spend 3 hrs in bumper to bumper traffic at that time of year. Go midweek. Boston is awesome though. Lots of historical things to do and really great places to eat. Not sure that Salem would be worth it. But that may just be me.

[Gabbina]

Aww thanks girls for the tips!! I've looked into Savannah... Due to the lack of time, 10-12 days as I've told you, we may have to choose to pick New York-DC Plus the southern part or stick with the northern. Hard decision.

The too-busy-place part may be a reason to pick one or the other...
You think places like Savannah are less busy in mid August than Cape-Cod/Boston?
Or you think it would be TOTALLY crazy doing somehthing like NY-DC-Philadelphia-Boston and then fly down to Savannah and maybe explore that part?

I've been checking the Megabus , and if we buy the tickets very much in advance we may travel very cheap...
Aww... indecision indecision

[NeverendingJen]

Actually, Savannah in August is not so crowded, because its very humid then and most the kids are back in school, so tourist traffic is down, at least during the week. I live about 2 miles from Savannah, our busy tourist season just started and literally ends the first week or so of August, with a bit of a pickup for labor day, but most of the business is gone by the end of july.

[Gabbina]

Originally Posted by NeverendingJen

Actually, Savannah in August is not so crowded, because its very humid then and most the kids are back in school, so tourist traffic is down, at least during the week. I live about 2 miles from Savannah, our busy tourist season just started and literally ends the first week or so of August, with a bit of a pickup for labor day, but most of the business is gone by the end of july.

That's good to know, thanks.

[ColleenSwerb]

Having planned 1 big trip, and being in the process of planning another, you have to decide what your priorities are on the trip. Do you want to go to a lot museums and take in a lot of history? Or do you want something a little more relaxed?
Do a little research and see what sites in the cities catch your interest. If nothing in Philly catches your eye, it would be a waste of time, you know?

I've never been to Savannah, and was only in the South to drive through to FL so I can't really speak on that. I'd probably stick to the NE if it were me because of that. You could easily spend 5 days in NY and DC alone and have an amazing time.

[KateD]

If I had to choose Boston or Philly, I'd definitely choose Boston. I'd pick Boston over NYC, but I may be biased because I grew up in the Boston area. There's a lot of history in Boston - I'd definitely walk the Freedom Trail and visit Faneuil Hall Marketplace (which is on the Freedom Trail). Cape Cod is beautiful, but I'd probably skip it because there's so much else to do . I visited Salem as a child, but I don't remember much about it, so I'm not much help there.

We live just outside of DC now and it would definitely be a great place to visit! Denise had some great advice about DC - the only thing I'll add is there's some interesting history just outside of DC, too. Manassas was the site of the first battle of the American Civil War - it's close enough to DC that folks rode out to watch the fight.

[Gabbina]

Thanks for the info about Boston, I'm checking out the Freedom Trail right now..

[4noisyboys]

The first few times we did DC, we took this trolley tour bus

http://www.trolleytours.com/washington-dc/

It drops you off at some of the main sites, you can walk around, and then hop back on.
Maybe a day to walk down the mall (not a shopping mall) and see a few of the Smithsonians. You can choose the ones that interest you.
Another favorite of mine in DC is the Holocaust Museum. All my boys will tell you it's a must see. Get your tickets online for that one though or you won't be able to get tickets. We always try to go first thing in the morning.

If you can, stay near Times Square in New York.

These were favorites of my niece and nephew
http://www.yelp.com/biz/lombardis-pi...famous%20pizza
http://www.serendipity3.com/main.htm
We wish we'd gotten here:
http://www.katzdeli.com/

Take the Staten Island Ferry out to Long Island. It's a free ride, you can get a nice view of the Statue of Liberty on the ride and of Manhatten. It's just nice and relaxing. Also, visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

I think there is a musuem or something at the 9-11 site now...it was all still under construction when I was there.

I kind of liked planning Manhatten in sections. Upper East side, Lower East side....try to find things you want to do in those sections and then do maybe one a day (or two if you're taking taxi's and not walking).

Have fun. There are a lot of great travel books out there. I think when you start planning your trip and seeing things that sound interesting to you, come back and ask peoples opinions of those places. Sometimes the books make them sound a lot more interesting than they really are!!

[LenaGardner]

Another vote for Savannah, or CHARLESTON. It's the best! Seeing some of the North and some of the South would be ideal

[scrap2day]

Ok, I guess I'm going to have to give a shout out for Philly. Full Disclosure: I use to live there.

Talk about historical places to visit: The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Betsy Ross House. Philadelphia is where the Declaration of Independence was written. It is where the US Constitution was adopted. Congress met here. The first Bank in the US was created in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin left his mark all over this city. There are also many museums to visit. There is The Franklin Institute, The National Constitution Center, The Philadelphia Museum of Art (with the famous steps where they filmed the movie Rocky), and The Academy of Natural Sciences to name a few.

Please consider Philadelphia when making your decision. Philadelphia is an easy train ride from NYC. It is also located between NYC and Washington D.C.

Here is a link to a map for teachers taking field trips to the National Historical Parks there.

[jessica31876]

If you come as far as FLorida you have to go to St. Augustine! The oldest city in the United States.

http://www.oldcity.com/index.cfm

It is gorgeous there!! Lots of beaches and plenty of really historial sites. Castillo De San marcos is over 330 years old by itself. There is shopping. There are performers. There is a really cool ghost tour at dusk to show the "haunted" sites there if you belive in that sort of thing. Anyhow it is amazing there. Once of my favorite places to go in Florida

[lauren grier]

Personally, i'd stick to the NE... going south in august sounds miserable to me the humidity would probably kill me (and it's h umid enough up here )

that's just my opinion You know, I had to add another super useful post to this thread lol

[color of my heart]

YAY FOR BOSTON! (sorry, very homesick at the moment)

boston is like, historical central. and cape cod is beautiful. maine is pretty too, in the summer.

[DawnMarch]

Here's my humble opinion -- no offense meant to anyone! If I only had 10 days, I would do Boston, NY and DC and some of the areas surrounding those cities (I thought Salem was fascinating, and another wonderful small city is Newport, Rhode Island which is about an hour from Boston).

I wouldn't try to do any big city further south than DC or to do Philly. Here's my thinking:
It will be quite hot in the south in August -- I lived in DC for 10 years and even it is fairly uncomfortably hot and humid in August -- but with Smithsonian and everything else, it's worth it. Savannah is a great city but way south and really quite far from DC -- not sure how long by train, but it's ovr a 9 hour drive by car, which really wastes a whole day just driving.

I am also in the camp who would skip Philly given the other places you are going to -- I know it has a lot of US history stuff, but I think you'll get enough of that in DC and Boston. I find Philly just not as accessible or "tourist-friendly" as Boston. The weather in Boston really nice that time of year (I also lived there for a few years) and it's got a very user-friendly metro that makes it a great city to tour.

You could easily spend days and days in either NY or DC, there's so much to see, so that's where I'd focus my time. In NY, you can see a broadway play and explore some of the funky neighborhoods (chinatown, soho, 5th ave, times square), eat at amazing restaurants, all the shopping you could want, boat tours around the island of Manhatten and or to the Statue of Libery, etc, etc. In DC, there's all the free museums, monuments, the National Zoo, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving (where they make US paper currency), the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, the FBI Spy Museum, Pentagon, and on and on. Plus, the DC metro is great.