<p>How about a fresh water lake? If you have never swam in a fresh water lake it is well worth it. Lake George is a beautiful large lake located north of NYC. It is a mountain area. Beautiful scenery. <a href=“http://www.lakegeorge-vacations.com/lake_george_resorts.htm[/url]”>http://www.lakegeorge-vacations.com/lake_george_resorts.htm</a></p>
<p>I grew up in NJ, live in the Washington area now, and can’t think of a better place for a family in August than the NJ shore. Here’s my favorite place for out-of-towners: BayHead/Pt. Pleasant Beach. No need to rent a car. Train and bus service to Manhattan. You can walk to almost everything. Clean beaches, swimming in the ocean or the Barnegat Bay, warm water, boardwalk, fishing, boating, shopping, amusement parks, great food, something for everybody in the family. Good luck!</p>
<p>Oh NO. So many choices. It is going to be a hard decision.
We have traveled as a family in the western US and Canada and a bit out of the US but we have never gone east as a family and probably will not do it again in the near future. It will actually be my son’s first time in NYC.
Can anyone suggest a good guide to the area.
I think I will start at the auto club and pick up some maps of the northeast so I can get a general idea of the areas each of you are mentioning.</p>
<p>If you are a member of AAA (you mentioned autoclub), in addition to maps, they have guidebooks with siteseeing, lodging and food info. for New York, PA/NJ, and New England. </p>
<p>They’re not the best…but they’re a good place to start.</p>
<p>Also…if you like printed materials…e-mail or write to the Tourism offices for New York, NJ, PA and any of the New England states you’re interested in. Most send out stuff right away, and give a good visual and descriptive overview of the different areas of the state. Most of these states have “official” online sites, too. Most of the major cities also have online sites, and their own tourism bureau. I usually like to use the gov’t info, as a starting point and then I’m a little better able to evaluate the overload of travel and tourism info. on the internet.</p>
<p>I have purchased a lot of travel books and planned a lot of vactiosn, but, in my opinion, the AAA books are as good or better than any of the commercial books, at least for specific sights or attractions, as well as for finding hotels.</p>
<p>You can drive to cape cod & stay at Chattam Barrs Inn(on the water,beach, activities, pool,golfing and shopping)!</p>
<p>mom60,
Depending on your kids ages and interests, I would also like to recommend both Ocean City, NJ (very kid-friendly and family-oriented) and Cape May, NJ (Victorian charm, lots of B & B’s, plus nice motels, etc.) - both are located south of Atlantic City, and if you’re in Cape May, there is a ferry which takes passengers and cars to Rehoboth, DE (another lovely beach community). Also, the ferry is convenient for travel to Ocean City, MD (another great family-oriented beach community with lots of activities for kids) - and the beach is really nice and the water is usually warmer that time of year in comparison with the Jersey shore.</p>
<p>Hmm…I’ll have to respectfully disagree with a few of the posts above. Having lived in the Philly area for 4 years, I would always recommend Philadelphia (and if your kids have never been to DC, it really is an amazing place). I’d stay far, far away from the Jersey shore. WAY, WAY too many people, and not nearly as scenic as California beaches. And not nearly as interesting of people as you find on SoCal beaches… </p>
<p>If you want to do the city thing, how about a few days in NYC, then down to Philly and then down to DC? If you don’t want to do the city thing, then I’d head north from NYC. </p>
<p>I’ve always liked Frommer’s guides. They tend to be pretty comprehensive, and do offer opinions. The Fodor’s guides and many of the other ones just have listings, which are hard to sift through. Frommer’s people write about what they like (or don’t like) about an area. They also have “budget” versions of their guides, which I’ve found caters to the kinds of places we generally frequent on vacations. They also have a web site.</p>
<p>Good luck!!!</p>
<p>Be sure to visit New York City. TIMES SQUARE is BEAUTIFUL! I loved that moment when I saw how ads could be brighter then the sun. =D</p>
<p>The first week of August can be oppressive in the cities; If you must do the city scene…keep it to a few days and then get to where there will be breezes - either the shore or the mountains. If your girls are teenagers, they may not be in to lovely Vermont and Maine…but NJ and the shore, may be more appealing. What are the ages of the girls? Does your family enjoy the usual tourist travel, or are you interested in hiking and beautiful scenery. Do the kids have the patience for car rides or do they want to “do stuff.” All of these are important questions to answer…since the choices are many. </p>
<p>I will NEVER summer vacation in NYC, Washington DC, Philadelphia or Boston again because of the heat and humidity. I am also from So Cal and if you are not used to east coast summer heat, like I am not, it can be awful. Teenagers will whine like crazy when they are hot and miserable.</p>
<p>If you’ve never seen the White Mountains, I would agree with that suggestion. If you have two weeks, you have plenty of time to puddle your way there and then back down to Boston to fly back west. Most areas are crowded in the summer, but North Conway is nice, or that area anyway. You might also want to see the coast of Maine. You could drive north from Boston and end up in one of the coastal Maine towns (water is COLD). Then continue north to Portland Maine which is nice and look at towns like Kennebunkport, Rockport. If you’re driving north from NYC, a good place to stop would be Boston for a day or two…another place where there is a lot to do. Gee…for the shopping gals, go to Filenes Basement. You have to have some FUN on the trip. And there are also outlet malls all over the place. There is a huge outlet place in southern Maine…the name of the town escapes me right now…but if you’re driving to Maine from Boston, you can’t miss it!! And you can always go to Freeport…home of LLBean and a ton more outlets. But a neat town.</p>
<p>My girls are great whiners. My husband is cringing at the thought of going anywhere with them. They are 12 and 19. My son is 17.
My husband’s idea of any vacation is chartering a sailboat somewhere in the world. So he isn’t the most helpful when I bring him any ideas. Unfortunately August is the only time all the kids have free and that is not great sailing time for the carribean.
I am not asking any of them for opinions. They can’t agree on what to have for dinner let alone spend two weeks.
Thumper- my husband and I did the trip you describe 17 yrs ago without any children. It was beautiful.</p>
<p>If your husband loves sailing, then go to Maine and keep him as close as possible to the coast! There are lots of opportunities for day sailing as well as overnight charters (including schooners). Rockland and Rockport are good places to begin a search.</p>
<p>If driving north from NYC, your family might like a stops in Mystic, CT and Newport, RI on the way to the Cape. Lots of sailing, shops, places to eat, the Cliff Walk and mansion tours. There is enough to do for 1-3 days in each place.</p>
<p>August you say? Drive all the way to Mistassini and get Trappist-made chocolate-covered blueberries.</p>
<p>/just trying to be original
//it’s only about a 13 hours drive from NYC, not including border crossing
///OK, you can get them in Montreal but they’re way more expensive there…</p>
<p>A couple of years ago, we rented a house on Cape Cod. Used it as our home base, went up and down the cape, to Salem, to Providence, to New Bedford (old whaling town) and to Boston. It was our BEST vacation, and between the history, the city, the beaches, and fishing/sailing, etc. - it meets almost anyone’s approval. Renting a house was MUCH cheaper than staying in a hotel on the cape.</p>
<p>Also, wear good insect repellent. My daughter got deathly ill (read my other posts) from Babesia (a form of Lyme)from a tick bite she got on Martha’s Vineyard. We didn’t know it until we’d returned home, so it didn’t tarnish our good time while there. She’s a hiker, and ventured into tall grasses w/o protection.</p>