My parents and I are taking a trip to Boston, DC and NY in November. We are thinking of flying in to Boston from LA, taking the train from Boston to DC, taking the train from Boston to DC, taking the train from DC to NY and flying back from NY to LA. Is this the most cost and time efficient or should we rearrange our trip to save some time? Is there a better option?

If you want to begin in Boston and end in NYC, then I'd look into flying from Boston to Reagan National in DC. Then take the train or bus from DC to NYC. If you want to fly back from DC, then I think it's fine to take the train both legs and make NYC your interim stop, but Boston to DC is a very long, time-wasting trip. It will take a whole day out of your vacation.

Agree not to train Boston to DC - will take too long. If need to do that based on flights and putting NYC last flying B to DC is a better choice. This shuttle runs multiple times a day and is a very quick flight into Reagan.

How many days do you have for the trip and what are your interests?

Have you started looking at hotels yet? You should get the NYC hotel ASAP since this is high season/expensive rates and decent rates will be gone quickly.

Also if you want to do the following reserve in advance:

Statue of Liberty (go to web site of the National Park Service)

Broadway shows (get tickets for hits now and for other shows check broadwaybox.com about 60 days out for discounts).

Is this the same 6 day trip you were asking about yesterday where you mentioned that you did not want to feel rushed?

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...and-boston.cfm

As Doug noted, your idea is absolutely not time efficient and I doubt it's cost efficient either. Best choice: 2 cities, fly into one and out of the other.

You've started to0 many posts with basically the same title, which is confusing people. In the post below, you said you are adding days to be able to see Boston, too.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...and-boston.cfm

I just went to get the title of one of you other threads . . .and elberko and obxgirl beat me to it . . . http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...and-boston.cfm

Thanks for all the responses. Sorry for confusing people because of the same title. Based on the responses that I got yesterday that 6 days is not enough to see the 3 cities, we have decided to extend our trip to 12 days since my parents really want to see Boston as well. My question on this thread is how is the most efficient way to travel from one city to the next. We dont really have a preference on the order of the cities to visit. We just want to make sure that we are using the most time efficient transportation. Thanks again for all the responses.

the most efficient is to go in a straight line....
Washington-NY-Boston or
Boston-NY-Washington

Doesn't matter which direction. If you check the Amtrak schedules/fares and a map, this should be relatively obvious.

Agree most efficient is a straight line in either direction. I would pick based on the convenience of flights for you - which we don;t know. 12 days is better for the 3 cities.

I would train between them - but do get your tickets in advance - since the cost is MUCH lower. Do not bother with Acela. While the train can go much faster than regular Amtrak the tracks in most places do not allow it - so you really save little time in any case.

Your parents may qualify for rhe senior rate on Amtrak, a real cost saver.