szhjcn

We are looking at doing a road trip this summer July/Aug with our 7 year old boy. Traveling over from Switzerland (Central Europe). Starting from friends in Stamford or NY. Either looking to rent a car or an RV (have to play round with some figures to see what the costs would be for both options, then weigh up the benefits...). Maybe camping (plus some Hotels/Motels/B&B and a log cabin or two ) would be another option which would reduce costs and give us more time....

The route up would probably follow the coast towards Boston, stopping along the way, upto the White Mountain national Park then onto Montreal (I lived in Dollard-des-Ormeaux as a kid and have never been back yet). Coming back, we'd probably drive back along the lakes visiting Niagra Falls before heading back to Stamford/NY.

Duration, looking at at least a week, but probably around 10 days (or maybe longer).

There is sooooo much territory in-between that the route and stopping locations look endless.

Therefore any suggestions on routes, places to stop, also mode of transport & accommodation would be gratefully received. I have also started looking at some of the other threads on this website and I'm sure I'll find many more sites with suggestions.

nytraveler

First of all, renting a car or RV and taking it across the border may not be that simple - you need to check with the agencies and see what they allow.

Second, that is a huge amount of territory to cover in only a week -you would be driving almost constantly.

Third, I thin you will find that a car and basic motels will be WAY cheaper than renting an RV, paying for the huge amount of gas used and also the charges for the camping sights (which can be booked solid well in advance in the summer).

Ackislander

RV's work well in the West, not so well in New England. I think your route sounds fine, but it will be a drive with stops rather the opportunity to become at home in a number of places.

See what you think of this:
Day 1 -- Stamford, Mystic Seaport, Boston
Day 2 -- Boston
Day 3 -- AM Boston, PM Portsmouth, NH
Day 4 -- Crawford Notch (White Mountains) with a stop and perhaps a ride on the Cog Railway (steam powered and the first and oldest in the world) night at St Johnsbury, VT
Day 5-6 Montreal
Day 7 -- AM Montreal, PM Burlington, VT (pedestrian town center)
Day 8 -- Burlington area, Green Mountains or Shelburne Farm (Museum of early American life) or a trip across the lake on the ferry
Day 9 -- a slow drive through rural Vermont (perhaps State Highway 100 as a focus) to the Berkshires Hills of Massachusetts; overnight in Stockbridge and attend an outdoor concert at Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony
Day 10 -- Northwestern Connecticut to Stamford

szhjcn

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. I think the RV is not the solution, so will be looking at a reasonable size car or SUV which will cost around 300-400 a week rather than 280 per day (RV cost). Plus as mentioned the gas costs will be huge for that sort of trip.

Also the trip will need to be at least 10 days. We are planning 3-4 weeks over there so we have time. Main thing will be to sort out the flights ASAP then can start planning the trip, car hire would be the next thing to book asap.

What's it like finding Hotels/Motels along the route? A couple of nights in a campsite could also be fun so will look into where we might want to do this and book something, I assume they have sites with caravans or tents you can rent? We have tents here but not something to haul over with us.... but maybe my friends have something.

Out of curiosity, I used a website to show the distances between places for a rough route, (I could not use the exact route as it was major towns only i.e. white mountain not available as a destination). Unfortunately Google maps was hanging, but will do a more detailed plan using something like this.

Day1
Stamford up towards Boston

Day2 - Boston
Stamford, US-73.5392
41.0533 Boston, US-71.0603
42.3583 Miles:156.34 Kilometers:251.60 Bearing:NE

Day 3 & 4
Actually headed to the White Mountains, maybe do a couple of nights there at a campsite?
Boston, US-71.0603 (could not find white mountains in the distance calculator)
42.3583 Berlin, US-71.6370
42.3812 Miles:29.46 Kilometers:47.41 Bearing:NW

Day 5
Head Towards Montreal

Day 6 - Montreal
Berlin, US-71.6370
42.3812 Montreal, CA-73.5833
45.5000 Miles:236.06 Kilometers:379.89 Bearing:NW

Day 7 - Somewhere towards Niagara
Day 8 - Getting closer to Niagara
Montreal, CA-73.5833
45.5000 Niagara Falls, CA-79.0500
43.1000 Miles:316.80 Kilometers:509.83 BearingW

Day 9 - Niagara
Niagara Falls, CA-79.0500
43.1000 Binghamton, US-75.9183
42.0986 Miles:173.52 Kilometers:279.25 BearingE

Day 10 stop on the way back to Stamford.
Binghamton, US-75.9183
42.0986 Stamford, US-73.5392
41.0533 Miles:142.50 Kilometers:229.33 BearingE

We could easily add an extra 2-4 days onto the trip to make some more stops along the way, or to stay in one place longer... So we could end up making this a two weeks trip. This will depend on what our friends plans are....

We could also make a few more stops up to Montreal (i.e. in Vermont), then the final part of journey drive from Niagara back to Stamford ion one hit (as I am not sure if there is much to see in between). Or do the route the other way round so we end more leisurely. Will probably look at renting the car for a longer period that the trip is planned for giving up the opportunity to extend it if necessary.

Ackislander, will check out your suggestions.

It would be nice to try and limit the total driving time to around 2hours a day (may 4hours). Maybe some days will be lots of little stops on the way somewhere.

szhjcn

Sorry about the smilies, these should be ':' Sx for South East/West

Ackislander

You can't do my route in two hours a day of driving, much less get to Niagara. That is why I tried to give you half days in some places and whole days in others. Most other days like Portsmouth to St Johnsbury allow for and encourage stops to get out of the car.

Niagara Falls is 7+ hours from Montreal and 7+ hours from Stamford without any stops at all, probably 9 hours with fuel and food stops and to allow for traffic around Toronto and New York City at the wrong time of day. You are correct in thinking that there is little to see; it is in fact there, but it is not on the autoroute that you will need to take.

I don't quite get your coordinates, but I am concerned that you are thinking of a route through Berlin, NH. That is an interesting route, but it will be very slow, particularly after you cross the Canadian border.

As a Swiss, you will not have language problems in Quebec especially as far as signs and so forth are concerned, but I know that French Canadian television programs and films and films shown in France have subtitles since the dialect and the pronunciation is so different from Parisian French. It may take a bit to make yourselves understood and to understand.

I am happy to continue this dialog as you refine your plans and hope others like dhfrostnh will enter the discussion. She is a camper and very knowledgeable about New Hampshire.

Campsites in the US do not generally have tents or caravans to rent, and campsites in the National Forests absolutely will not.

emalloy

Finding motels/hotels near major hwys or cities should not be a problem, but in some of the rural areas they may be hard to find. If you want to camp, you could pick up a small tent and some sleeping bags and blow up mattresses at a discount store or sport shop for the cost of a couple of nights in a hotel. Donate them to Goodwill or Salvation Army or Boy/Girl Scouts if you don't want to take them back home.

J62

Each of the states in the NE US has very good camping facilities, and any WalMart will have camping supplies.

In NY State a typical state campground consists of a raised, wooden tent platform, picnic table, and above ground or on the ground grill or fire pit. The campground will have shared bathroom facilities. Sometimes but not always with hot showers.

Popular campgrounds (near nice lakes) can fill up on weekends, but can be very quiet on weekdays.

Some of your distances don't look quite right. From the coordinates it looks like you plotted Berlin, MA, not Berlin, NH. The distance to the latter, which is in the White Mountains, is about a 3 to 3.5 hr drive.

dfrostnh

You might try KOA campgrounds. They tend to have similiar facilities, are located near major highways and have camping cabins you can rent if you don't have camping gear. I'm glad you've decided not to rent an RV because it is too bulky for city streets and parking areas. We pull a travel trailer with a pickup truck.

I think you would be happier with a minivan which is roomier than a lot of SUVs. You don't need 4-wheel drive but you will need luggage space. With two adults and a child, however, a smaller car would be fine.

Berlin NH is on the east side of the White Mountains north of the popular N Conway area. N Conway is beautiful but flooded with tourists. I93 is on the west side of the White Mountains and closer to getting to Montreal. I think there are also more tourist attractions on that side of the mountains. You shouldn't have any problem finding motels. If you are on a budget I would suggest you stay away from popular areas like N Conway and look at less popular but still lovely towns along your route.

You can reduce your meal costs if your choose budget motels/hotels with free breakfasts. Some are quite good with fresh fruit,hard boiled eggs, waffles, cereals. When we camp, we eat lunch in a restaurant but cook dinner at the campsite. You can do something similar by getting meals to go for dinner. Many large supermarkets sells hot roast chicken, have salad bars, and a good variety of food that doesn't require cooking. Or, buy lunch items for picnics and choose a scenic spot.

For example, the DeLorme company publishes a gazeteer and atlas for each Ne England state. This oversize, detailed set of maps shows the location of covered bridges, waterfalls, etc. Sometimes we just find a spot thru luck. A few years ago we noticed a lot of cars parked near a rocky river in VT. The river was so shallow you could walk across (but rocky so you needed wading shoes) but upstream there was a small waterfall with a deep pool for swimming. Older kids were jumping off the ledges into the pool. We returned the next day with a picnic lunch to watch the activity and try some wading. There is a website that lists "best swimming holes in Vermont".

I'm not sure if you want a camping experience because of budget or because you also want a rural experience. There are many events going on during July and August that might interest your family. You might look at some of the events on Yankee magazine's website (specializes in New England). An inexpensive dinner on a Saturday night would be a church or grange fund-raising supper. Some charities have public all you can eat breakfasts. Some of the farmers markets have vendors who sell lunches.

I hope I've answered some of your questions.

szhjcn

Thanks for the feedback. Some interesting things to take a closer look at and useful information.

One reason for wanting to visit Montreal is because I lived there as a kid for 7 year:- Dollard-des-Ormeaux (age 2-9)

Yes I know Berlin (also maybe I selected the wrong one) is not where we want to head was the nearest place I could find using a site a found which quickly calculates the distances between two cities. I did this just to get an idea of the distances. I need to spend a lot more time and plan the route properly probably with Google maps and a list of all possible stops and overnight destinations.

Montreal to Niagara yes would be a full days drive (7-8 hours) that is why I'd probably split this with two overnight stops in-between. We have some distant relatives who are in Toronto so maybe we could make a pit stop there.

Again Niagara-Stamford again is a full days drive. So we could either:

a) skip this altogether and focus on a returning via a route through Vermont, then back along the coast.

b) do this in one hit without stops. We could also start the trip the other way around heading up to Niagara first.

I've never been to Niagara falls so this could be a good opportunity to do this, but realise this makes the distance for the trip longer.

A mini-van was one of the vehicles I was considering, especially if we do some camping (where we'll have extra stuff to carry). Otherwise a full size car.

It's good to get some feedback and ideas now so we can have some good ideas before we start the serious planning. Hope to talk to my friends who are over there at the weekend to discuss this with them as well.

szhjcn

Btw we were thinking of doing a road trip, initially up the coast towards Canada (love the sea & seafood), then I thought well why not try and go upto Montreal (to visit my old neighborhood) as this is not that far across the border (and I'd been up as far as the border on one of my business trips to MA). We'll be starting off and finishing in Stamford CT.

Whole US trip will be 3-4 weeks where we could do 10-14 days driving up to Montreal and back.

szhjcn

The swimming holes sounds great. Our son loves swimming and water. He can even entertain himself for hours in a large jacuzzi pool. So will have to investigate this further.

Depending on our friends plans, we may drop Niagara and even Montreal and just do some shorter trips, maybe during the week when they are at work. Will depend on them to be honest as the main reason we are heading over there is to spend time with them.