Boston to New York
 

Hi, travelling from Australia. We are spending a few nights in New York before driving to Lenox Massachusetts to stay the night with friends, then we have 3 days to drive to Boston and down the coast back to JFK airport to catch our plane back home. Any tips on where to visit and how long we will need to see some great sites would be very appreciated. I know we don't have long so would rather skip Boston if there are better places to visit down the coast ? ID like to visit Newport and Mystic perhaps but don't know where else ? Also which towns to stay in ? we need to be as close as possible to NY on the last night as we need to leave early in the morning to fly out at 3.30pm . worried we will be pushing it if there is bad traffic etc ? Do you think it wise to be driving on the day we fly out ?

Without knowing who's travelling, when, tastes and interests it's hard to advise. 3 days is not much time to both drive and have time to tour. I think Mystic is not terribly interesting. With limited time,if you're not interested in Boston, why go? There's loads to see in the Berkhires near Lennox and between there and JFK including music festivala and theate if it's over the summer. Hudsonvalley.org

Whether to be driving on your departure day depends on what day of the week it is and when. Fridays and Sundays are not good for traffic, especially in summer and you do need to allow extra time to return the rental car.

I-95 is notoriously bad for traffic. This is the route you'd have to take from Newport back toward JFK. If you have your heart set on visiting Newport, I would then take the the ferry from New London Ct. to Orient Point on Long Island and make your way back toward JFK through Long Island assuming it's not on a Sunday. You could make a stop on the North Fork of Long Island.

I would either skip the loop of Lenox/Boston/I95 to NYC completely and stay in the Berkshires - or

Skip spending time between Boston and NYC and stay in Boston for 2 days and then get to NYC. "Driving down the coast" may not be what you imagine - since that area is the most densely populated in the US and while there are some nice things to see, most of it is small city and industry. Not really scenic coastal views.

Or if you are set on seeing Mystic Seaport, spend 1 1/2 days in Boston, drive to Mystic, stay there for a night. I would feel comfortable leaving from Mystic the day I was flying out.

I would also stay in the Berkshires, particularly if your trip is in the summer when the season there is in full swing and you have friends to show you the area.

Mystic is fun with small kids, but not worth organizing a trip around.

Boston merits a few days and is not a good place to have a car.

From Lenox to JFK it is a bit less than 3 hours without traffic, so easily doable to get to JFK three hours ahead of your flight.

IMHO Newport is better for adults than is Mystic - but is too far from NYC to stay the night before flying out of JFK. (For a 3:30 flight you may be advised to be at the airport by 12:30, meaning dropping off your car around noon. Check with your airline.)

If it were me I would head for Boston, which is a wonderful city, but if you don't want to do that, then Newport is a reasonable alternative - touring the "cottages" is fun and you are on the coast.

And do want to repeat what was said above about the coast - there are lovely individual beaches in some towns - but this area is very heavily built and the coastline tends to be small cities and somewhat industrial - driving up I-95 had basically NO views and is quite unpleasant. I would take the Hutch/Merritt parkways up instead - inland but the drive is much prettier (although more challenging since the roads are originally form the 1920s and tend to be narrow, winding and hilly).

If you do go to Newport I would drive back to Westchester (Rye) or the CT border with NYC and stay there the night before. There are a couple of hotels near the water, although I don't have any experience with them.

If you like maritime history, then visit Mystic Seaport and also Stonington Borough, about 3 miles east. The Borough is where the seamen lived and is still a working harbor.

From there it is about 15 miles to New London and the ferry to Orient Point on Long Island NY. You could head over there on the ferry the night before you fly out and drive down to JFK and avoid the dreadful I-95.

Not sure that the dreaded Long Island Expressway is really any better than I-95. Depending on the day either can be a major PIA with very heavy traffic.

I have driven a lot on both (but prefer parallel parkways in both cases to avoid truck traffic) and don;t see much difference between them.

<i>Do you think it wise to be driving on the day we fly out ?</i>

I don't see why not. 3:30 isn't that early. From Boston it will probably be about a 4 hour drive. About 3 hours from Mystic. And somewhere in the middle from Newport.

<i>I know we don't have long so would rather skip Boston if there are better places to visit down the coast ?</i>

That depends entirely upon what you like to do, but I would certainly not consider Mystic "better" than Boston. I wouldn't say Newport is better either, but I'd choose Newport over Mystic without hesitation.

I would too, unless I was with small kids.

A little unclear do you have 3 days that you can spend in Boston completely or 3 days from Lenox to get to NYC to travel back to Australia? In any case I agree with the people who posted above 3 days to travel by car to Mass. and then to tour Boston to drive back means you will be really pressed for time.

Driving from NYC to Lenox will probably be about 3 hours without traffic. And from there to Boston would take about another 2 hours or so without traffic. If you don't mind spending all that time driving then Boston is a rich city filled with a lot of history without knowing what you like it is hard to recommend anything.
I would suggest the MFA but that alone could take half a day or more if you are into arts. There is also the Boston Public Garden which is nice to walk around in.There is also lots of great restaurants again without knowing your taste hard to suggest anything.

I would also say that if you did not need to travel to LENOX, then hudson valley and long island can offer some smaller quieter old town feel as well. and I would skip boston as with the driving time and short time doesn't seem enough to experience all that Boston has to offer.

I also want to say that whenever I drive up to boston I always face traffic.

For me, as a tourist with a very shallow knowledge of the place, Newport consists of two major activities: touring the mansions built as beach "cottages" by the wealthy of the Gilded Age, and touring central Newport, which contains a surprising number of intact colonial buildings. And I guess I should add that because it's on the coast, you can do the Cliff Walk that runs behind the mansions (beautiful), or check out the port, or otherwise enjoy being near the sea.

If none of this sounds particularly to your liking, perhaps Newport isn't the right choice.

Catherine hasn't been back for a bit...would love to know what your thinking is? I want to agree with some others who suggest spending more time in Lenox. Perhaps you don't know how much there is to see and do in the Berkshires? There is hiking, fine dining, antique stores, historic homes, several really fine art museums, scenery, incredibly rich cultural attractions such as the summer home of the Boston Symphony....there is a lot to see and do. Plus the drive to New York is generally a lot less trafficky than driving down the coast to the airport. And you could spend a night somewhere on the Hudson if you wanted, to see Hyde Park and some of the other great mansions.

I like Newport just fine, but it can be expensive and crowded in-season, and I'm not sure you wouldn't do just as well with the Berks and Hudson Valley. Unless you feel really strongly about heading towards the coast.