Hi. I'm new to this site, so please don't bash me like another member did in my first post, if I should make a mistake.

Whew, now with that out of the way ...

I have a fairly open schedule with open travel arrangements and am considering taking an east coast road trip with my 12 and 14 year old sons. I think we'll likely take ten days, including one to fly in from the west coast.

My husband works for the airlines, so we fly standby. My FIL lives just outside Boston, so we'll definitely go there. Both of my boys want to go to Florida (the youngest to go to Harry Potter World - yep, we know it's crowded ... the oldest "just to see Florida" - I'm betting he's hoping for alligators), and we all love New York.
I would like to see Washington DC, but we have a bigger trip planned for that in the future, so we'll just go see the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and check out the sights - anything else while in DC that is a must for a short visit?

We would like to go to the beach for a day, but don't need oceanfront accommodations.

I know there is Amtrak as one option, and that may be what we end up doing, but I would like to be even more free with our time, so I'm planning on a car rental.

Considering all of that (or disregarding it completely ;-) what would you do if this were your trip?

Thanks for whatever constructive advice you have! ;-)

To make it easy, I would fly in and out of New York City on the first part of your trip...Rent a Car in New York and drive up to Boston returning the car back at JFK or LaGuardia....then I would fly out of New York to Washington DC...Rent-A-Car see the capital and then drive down to Florida

Between Washington DC and Florida you can stop along the way in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Charleston, Savannah, or the northern beaches on the East Coast of Florida. Then continue on to Orlando and either fly home from Orlando or to avoid car rental drop charges, return up the coast on the west side of Florida through Atlanta and back to Washington...it's a lot of driving but at least your break the trip up with a few flights in-between.

All of this is under the assumption that those flights you are getting are free from your husband working at the airline. Have fun...

I disagree with having a car in either Boston or DC - a car is a poor transportation option to see either city. The drive from DC to Florida will not easily fit into your schedule, although a car in these areas might be more useful. Your 10 days minus 1 or 2 travel from West Coast does not make this practical.

Try this as a plan - or do it in reverse. Fly into Boston. Spend 2 days seeing FIL and Boston (where outside of Boston does he live - that matters). Fly to DC from Boston - notice I am saying to skip NYC, but you all say you love NY, so assuming you have been there. Spend 2 days in DC area. (or alternatively, take Amtrak to NYC and skip DC since you have it planned for future trip).

You have now spent, with inter-city travel 5 days, plus 1 day from West Coast. So you have 3-4 days left.

Fly to Florida. I am assuming Harry Potter World is in Orlando area, but I do not know. Rent a car in Florida; one-way car rentals are common in Florida and there is usually not a huge premium to pay. Spend 1-2 days in Orlando area and then drive to a beach - either east or Gulf coast of Florida has a number of options within a short drive from Orlando. Fly home.

You do not have enough time to spend much of it in car driving north-south or taking Amtrak. I know my plan involves several flights, but you indicate you can fly cheap/free stand-by.

Or, since Boston is essential, you could easily spend half the trip in Boston area and then fly to Florida and spend the other half there. That is actually what I would do to limit time spent on travel.

If you are looking for a bit of variety but have been/will be in NY and DC for a longer time at another point, how about combining Boston with Philadelphia? Fly into Boston and use transportation there, train to Philadelphia, maybe rent a car for a day to go to the Jersey shore (Ocean City has a classic boardwalk), and then fly into Florida.

I love the train, but I would fly from Boston to Phila if I were not going to NYC. I had a llong time client in Philadelphia, tried the train a couple of times but it is such a short flight that it made no sense to take the train. You can take public transportation to/from the center of each city, then the train from 30th Street Station to DC.

I would fly into Boston, visit FIL,take Amtrak to NYC, then to dc and rent a car to head to FL (where you will need one anyway.)

But I really don;t think you have the time to do all of these places and see much of anything. If you already have a longer trip planned for DC I would focus on Boston and NYC - so you have time to do more than just rush past the top 3 or 4 sights and then fly directly from NYC to FL to spend a few days there.