<p>Planning to spend a week in the East Coast. Would like you to share your ideas about visiting some interesting locations ex- NYC. Whole of the week, starting from the 14th. of October, is at our disposal. Mode of travel could be rail/air. Yes, can’t be too extravagant! All ideas are most welcome.</p>
<p>This is too broad a question to answer. For one thing, the East Coast ranges from Florida to Maine! :)</p>
<p>What kinds of things do you like? Art museums and galleries? Theater, dance, music? Hiking? Shopping, and if so what kind? Do you like sightseeing in historic places? give us some idea.</p>
<p>Plan to arrive AFTER October 14 if New England is your destination. October 14 is Columbus Day, and the a busy fall foliage weekend. If you don’t already have a lodging reservation for that time, it will be very hard to get one.</p>
<p>If you do not plan to rent a car at all, you probably will want to concentrate your trip in one of the east cost metro areas. If you fly onto Boston, there is plenty to do in and around Boston itself. You could take the train to Providence for a day, or even NYC.</p>
<p>OR go to Washington DC. There is plenty to do on the greater DC area for a week.</p>
<p>Both Boston and DC have excellent public transportation.</p>
<p>However, if it were me, I would consider renting a car for part of the week. If you went to Boston, you then could easily drive to southern coastal Maine or Cape Cod for a day or two. Or drive to Newport and see a mansion or two.</p>
<p>If you go to the DC area, you could rent a car and drive to some of the sites in Virginia, or go to Williamsburg for a day or two.</p>
<p>DC!!!</p>
<p>Extra letters…</p>
<p>I’m going to be in Chicago for a week and DC eight days, from late Oct to early Nov. would also love suggestions. Did get hotels for under $200/nite near Chicago Art Institute and DC’s Union Station. I thought those rates were reasonable.</p>
<p>For our honeymoon, I wanted to see, “the East Coast.” We ended up taking many weeks to do so–NYC, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Montreal, Freeport ME, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, DC, and Williamsburg. Spent several days (to a week) at each place and had a lovely time. We flew into NYC, took the train to Buffalo and rented a car that we eventually returned to DC.</p>
<p>HImom, I would far rather spend three weeks in Hawaii than driving anywhere on the east coast between Boston and DC. That 95 corridor is not my idea of a fun drive. But this OP says travel will be plane/train…and really that does put some limits on the destinations unless they are quite wealthy (e.g. You CAN fly to Martha’s Vineyard…but it is hugely expensive to do so).</p>
<p>So to the OP…could you narrow your destination on the east coast a bit? We east coasters will have good suggestions…but they will be very different for Charleston SC than for Kennebunk ME.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the recommendation and ideas. We have about 4 to 5 days to spare. We will be visiting DC later. In case, we decide in favor of visiting the Niagara Falls(we haven’t been there before) and on our way back, intend to cover a couple of sites of historical importance (Art museums and galleries are of definite interest) what would be your recommendation?</p>
<p>Rintu…Niagara Falls is NOT on the east coast. It is at the far western border of NY state. </p>
<p>In your original post, you said travel was by train and plane. Where exactly are you coming FROM? Where will you be “on the way back” to? Where else will you be? Will you have a car? </p>
<p>For four or five days…how about basing out of Cleveland. You could go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They have a first class art museum there too. Then drive to Niagara Falls (assuming you have a car). My understanding is there are some nice museums and historic sites in buffalo as well.</p>
<p>Unless you are planning on flying to one of the east coast cities from Niagara Falls (NYC/Boston are at least an 8 hour drive,) I’d go to Niagara On The Lake, tour some of the ice wine vineyards and then head to Toronto for a few days.</p>
<p>In the absence of better information, I’d fly into Boston and spend the 4 days there. Great art museums, lots of history, lots of great food, music, and just plain walking around. Public transportation is great. </p>
<p>IMHO, Niagra Falls is not worth a special trip. If you happen to be in the area, fine. (And Buffalo is really more midwestern than eastern.)</p>
<p>I would make Boston your home base and if you have time, go to Cape Cod or to Ogunquit Maine.</p>
<p>Provincetown is on the tip of Cape Cod. It would be about a 2.5 hour drive from Boston. There are lovely art galleries and restaurants there.</p>
<p>In Boston, you could visit Newbury St. where there are many galleries, restaurants and shops, go to the Museum of Fine Arts or the Institute of Contemporary Art.</p>
<p>I agree … Boston. YOu could do three days in Boston, then Amtrak it down to New York and spend some time there. There are some interesting places to stop between the two – Providence, Mystic, Mohegan Sun casino, New Haven – depending on what you like.</p>
<p>Yep…I put Boston in post 3. So many places to go that are close enough to Boston…southern Maine coast, Cape Cod, Providence, Newport. At that time of the year you could also enjoy the frenzy in Salem. Going to the north shore…Newburyport, Gloucester, etc is also a nice option. Head a bit west and go to Lexington and Concord. Go a bit farther and go to Sturbridge. If you head towards the Cape. There is also Plymouth.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot. I sincerely appreciate your inputs.</p>
<p>thumper 1, We will make New York City as our base. We will have the benefit of a car, but we thought, we would rather not tire ourselves out in driving from one place to another. However, we liked your idea of basing out of Cleveland and then cover as you suggested. </p>
<p>Boston was our initial choice! But my wife has too many friends there and I would rather prefer to visit places of interest than spending time on wining and dining :)</p>
<p>Any more ideas? Once the plan is finalized I shall let you know about it!</p>
<p>Buffalo is 8 hours of driving from NYC. It’s closer to Detroit. </p>
<p>I’ve seen Niagara many times. I’d stay in Toronto and make a day trip; Toronto is much closer than any large US city. But to each his own.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t spend more than a half-day at Niagara Falls and I wouldn’t even do that if you were making a special trip to see it. IMHO there are other places/sites that are much more interesting to visit.</p>
<p>Rintu, just don’t stay in Boston the whole time. We went to Boston for a couple of days, then to Cape Cod for a few days in the fall several years ago. It was a great trip.</p>
<p>Fly into Portland Me. A foodie destination, lots of galleries, shopping (including all of the outlets in Freeport), good art museum, music scene, historic buildings, etc. Rent a car and drive up the coast if you wish, or down to Portsmouth NH for Strawbery Banke, a great place for history/architecture buffs…</p>
<p>If you are going to base out of NYC, have a car and you still want to drive up to Niagara falls, I might recommend that you spend a day or two in the Finger lakes area. We usually like to break up long drives by spending a day or two at an interesting place on the way. This time of the year, the drive is beautiful given the foliage. Not sure when peak is but last year we drove to Ithaca around the same time and it was still really colorful with great weather. The really nice Mirbeau Inn and Spa, is in Skaneateles, if you enjoy spa inns. Also, the New York Wine and Culinary Center is in Canandaigua.in the area as well. There are also some bed and breakfast’s in the area that you can find on Tripadvisor. I would not recommend hotels in the area as my experience is that they are just basic and nothing exciting. If you like to hike, you might find Watkins Glen interesting and I think Treman state park might work as well. </p>
<p>Not as far away as the Finger Lakes but generally in that direction is the Mohonk Mountain house in New Paltz. A nice place to probably overnight midweek, maybe on the return and explore the area.</p>
<p>Once you get to Canada, I would also recommend Niagara on the Lake. It is so much nicer than the Niagara Falls area, which has basically turned into an amusement park. In Niagara falls, I have stayed at the Sheraton on the falls. If you get a room with falls view, you can enjoy them at night when they change colors. However, the place itself is a zoo. It is extremely busy.</p>
<p>Just remember distances are great driving into Upstate and Western New York,so take a look at the map and see what you are willing to drive. Be prepared to have passport handy and wait a bit at the border crossing.</p>