Campus Ivy Tours

JHS
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:19:38 +0000

Cornell is gorgeous and worth a visit. But 4 hours from Princeton (or Penn – basically the same distance) is a best-case, no-traffic, don’t-mind-speeding time estimate. And it’s farther from the New England colleges.

Penn and Princeton are 45 minutes apart by car. You can easily see them both in a day if you want to, especially since Princeton is relatively compact and does not have a long tour.

I would suggest doing the following (or reversing it):

Day 1 - Fly into Philadelphia, visit Penn, spend night
Day 2 - Rent car, drive to Princeton, visit Princeton, drive to Ithaca (~4-5 hours)
Day 3 - Visit Cornell, drive to Hanover NH (~5-6 hours)
Day 4 - Visit Dartmouth, drive to Providence (~ 3 hours)
Day 5 - Visit Brown, fly home from Providence

If you are really into trains, you could fly into Manchester NH, rent a car there, see Dartmouth, then Cornell, return the car in Philadelphia, see Penn, Amtrak or commuter train to Princeton, Amtrak train to Providence (Brown), and fly home from Providence. Penn and Princeton are very convenient to trains (Princeton has its own little shuttle from the Amtrak/commuter line). Brown a little less so, but it’s only about a mile from the station.