RafatHala

Hi,

I, my wife & our two daughters (11 Years and 7 Years) coming to USA for a Holiday and road trip in July 2016, I will arrive New York City to stay for somedays and then I need to be in Toronto after 8 days from my arrival and then we have to get back to New York to flight home.

So, it’s come to my mind to do kindly of driving trip starting from New York City, with the following details:

From New York, NY, USA …. To Boston, MA, USA …. Then to … Montreal, QC, Canada … then to … Ottawa, ON, Canada … then to …. Toronto, ON, Canada … then to …Buffalo, NY, USA …. Then to …. Washington, DC, USA … then to … Philadelphia, PA, USA … then finally to New York, NY.

I will arrive New York on 3rd of July … and flight back home on 24th of July.

I don’t specify how many days I need to stay in each city, I need your help on that, but in Toronto I have to be there from 9th of July to 15th of July for a business requirement.

I would like to kindly asking your help to tell me what do you think about the route I suggest above? Do I need to add cities? Or drop cities? What’s the time that I have to spend in each city?
Also, I would like to ask if the rental cars companies afford renting a car and drive between the two countries.

Note: we don’t have a specific interest, we are okay to see as much as we can, mountain, seas, history … etc, it’s all welcome.


Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Raf

nytraveler

Once you take out the week you wil be in Toronto for business you will have oly 14 days left and want to see 7 different cities (travel between 8 including Toronto). This is way too many if you want to actually see anything.

I fear you don;t have a good fell for how far apart things are or how long it will take you to get from place to place. So you will end up taking a day to trael between each 2 cities and thus end up wth 1 day in each city.

Not bad for Buffalo (which I assume means actually Niagara Falls) and possible Ottawa. But for your other cities this is pitifully small.

I think you need:

NYC - at least 4 days
DC - at least 4 days
Boston - at least 3 days
Niagara Falls - 1 day

With time in between that takes up your 14 days.

If you really want to see Montreal and Ottawa and spend 1 or 2 vacation days (versus working days) in Toronto and Niagara Falls that would take up your 14 days.

So you really have 2 14 days trips there - plus the week work in Toronto - and need to decide which to do.

As for car rentals yuo can usually arrange to take a US car into Canada and vice versa you can;t leave them there but have to return to the home country.

So for trip 1 you could take a car fromToronto to Niagara Falls and leave it in Canada - flying from there to DC or boston - and then take the train between the 3 coast cities.

For the 2nd trip you would keep the car in Canada for the whole time.

Suggest you start laying out this trip day by day including the approximate driving times (for instance, from the Canadian side of the Falls to NYC is at least an 8 hour drive - plus fuel and bio breaks - not stopping to see anything.

One you lay thinngs out with times I think you will see why you plan as is will just be a very long frustrating and expensive drive with little time to see/do anything and will end up a blur of miles upon miles of highways.

Ozarksbill

Yes, a bit too much sightseeing/travel. So much to see/do in NYC and Boston. I question DC added to this or maybe Boston instead. Also along the I-90 route Boston-Niagra Falls much to see if time permits. And then there's Toronto itself.

doug_stallings

Once you set your itinerary, be sure to double-check to see if you can get lodging at your price point for the period you're interested in. This is high season for most of these places, so rates will be high and availability at such a late date low.

RafatHala

Thanks All for the advise, from what you mentioned, I change the trip dramatically trying to avoid any losing time, the new plan like the following:


New York (3/4 July) ..... 5/July Move to (156 km) ..... Philadelphia

Philadelphia (5/6 July) ..... 7/July Move to (631 km) ..... Niagra Falls

Niagra Falls (7 July) ..... 8/July Move to (203 km) ..... London, ON

London (stay 8/July day time) ..... 8/July Move to (192 km) ..... Toronto

Toronto (9-15 July) ..... 16/July Move to (541 km) ..... Montreal

Montreal (17/18 July) ..... 19/July Move to (495 km) ..... Boston

Boston (19/20/21 July) ..... 22/July Move to (329 km) ..... New York

Stay in New York 22/23 and then 24/July flight back home.





So, what do you think about this change? does it make since? did i chose the correct cities? or i need to do some change?

Please Advise.

Thanks
Raf

nytraveler

You don't really have time for Niagara Falls. You will arrive late in the day and leave at the crack of dawn to get to London, see London and then got on to Toronto. So I would definitely drop london and spend that day on the activities at the Falls - Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds and just checking out the beauties of the area.

Toronto is VERY close to the Falls - so that way you would have the bulk of the day there and then just hop in the car at 4 pm or whatever to get to Toronto.

With so few days you are better in Philly than DC - but I still think you are short changing NYC - you have only 2 full days and 2 half days there - so will be very limited in what you can see. Remember how much larger NYC is than any of the other places - (NYC is 6 times bigger than Philly, more than 10 times bigger than Boston and almost 4 times as big as Toronto).

garyt22

I think most visitors just visit Manhattan when they say NYC... Two days will be enough on the holiday and two at the end of the trip... I agree to skip London... It's a long drive for little payoff... Consider Quebec City along with Montreal as a change...
Have fun...

nytraveler

If they had 4 days in NYC it wouldn't be bad and they list it as 4 days - but it's not. It's 2 full days. Then a half or less than 2 other days.

Suggest you make a list of what yu want to see/do in NYC and lay it out day by day - so you can see how few things you will actually get to, esp with a 7 year old - who can get tired of the Concrete Jungle very fast - esp in the July heat.

tomfuller

Save yourself a lot of driving. Take the Amtrak Northeast Regional from New York (Penn station) to Philadelphia (30th St station). See what you want to see in Philadelphia.
Take the early morning train out of PHL (#190 5:15AM) back to NYP with a half hour layover to get on the Maple Leaf (#63 7:15AM) to Niagara Falls NY at about 4:45PM. (or get off in Niagara Falls Ontario a bit later.)
Rent and return your rental car in Canada.
There is Amtrak service between Montreal and New York.
You can also take a train from New York up to Boston and then return to New York for your flight home. IMO there are too many problems with rental cars going across the border and then coming back to the US.

RafatHala

Thanks All for your valuable info, I changing my plan based on provided info.

Dear Tomfuller, could you please tell me what's the problems of renting cars going across the border?

nytraveler

There is not problem taking a car across the border as long as you bring it back. You can;t rent on one side and drop off on the other side. You just need to tell the agency you will cross the border so you have the proper documents to show immigration agents.

tomfuller

Many rental car contracts have a "loss of use" clause that can become very expensive if you have an accident and the car is not drivable. This applies on either side of the border. Different insurance rules apply in Canada.
One US dollar is worth about 1.40 Canadian.
If you don't like the train idea, try flying to Buffalo or Toronto.

nytraveler

Why would you think the OP is going to have an accident?