suewarren

My wife and I are returning on our second trip to New York from Australia in August . We would really love to do a day trip to Philadelphia (including seeing the Amish) and to Boston. We have seen reviews for bus trips on various sites. They all seem to be by the same operator and some of the reviews have been really bad.

Any suggestions?

panecott

I can't give you any advice on the bus tours, but Boston is 4 hours away by train. It's really a long trip for one day and you'd hardly see much while you're there. You should at least stay overnight.

Philly can be reached by Amtrak in about 2 hours.

GBC

I would encourage you to visit historic Philadelphia but I think you will have a very long daytrip from NYC. You will have to plan on three hours travel time each way from NYC to centercity Philadelphia. To visit the Amish areas around Lancaster you will need to add 1.5 hours each way to the above. This is a rural setting so a rental car will be needed. I'm guessing that you are connecting through Los Angeles. Would you consider LA to PHL, overnight there and then on to NYC? Then NYC to Boston and return to LA from there?

yk

As mentioned above, NYC-Boston is at least 4 hours each way. If you really want to visit Boston, at least stay overnight. I looked at a couple of these "package tours" which state that the day trip is 13 hours. So basically you will spend 5 hours on the ground and 8 hours on the bus.

Philadelphia is more doable, about 90 minutes by car. There's plenty to see there to take up an entire day. I would not recommend short-changing Philadelphia by adding Amish Country to that day trip.

It is super easy to visit Philadelphia from NYC on your own, and can be done for much less than $149 per person (which is what these package tours charge).

yk

Traveling from NYC to Philadelphia will not take 3 hours, unless there is major traffic jam (if traveling by bus) or train service disruption.

Regular bus takes 2 hours to get to 30th Street Station. Amtrak takes 1hr 20 mins on regular trains to 30th Street Station.

suewarren

Thanks all for your help.
We are unable to change our accommodation arrangements having locked them in when we first booked our bargain airfare a couple of months ago. From what you have said, however, we will not attempt Boston on this trip but, rather, spend the ten days of our second trip to NYC getting to know that great city better and not rushing around the usual tourist sites.
If we get a chance we might attempt a trip up to Philadelphia either by train or car (probably too old now to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road though).
Again, thanks for your help.

nelsonian

Take the Amtrak to Philadelphia suewarren, We took it from Washington DC to New York a couple of years ago. We are from New Zealand and didn't want to attempt driving on the wrong side of the road either. We booked our train ticket online and thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Centralparkgirl

I did a weekend trip to Philadelphia recently (you can click on my name to see report), but I also did a day trip back in the spring by bus. On the day trip, all I got to see was a couple of exhibits at the PMA and I was restricted to the time frame of the group I traveled with, but if you are willing to spend a very long day - travel early and return to NY late, I think it is worth it. My suggestion would be to organize your trip very well, know where you want to go, have all the details prepared before, map, etc. and do it. My other suggestion would be to plan a very light schedule for the next day in NY because you will be tired. Philadelphia is a very walkable city and there are also plenty of taxis (NY prices) available. One more thing - there are a few museums that have timed ticket admissions. If you're interested in any of those, plan and purchase those in advance.

debsnj

A day trip to Philly is very doable, I've done it twice. Depending on the crowds, you can see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and Betsey Ross' House (my favorite), the Print Shop where Ben Franklin worked. The lines may be long though in August, when I went in February (it was an unusually warm day) we walked right into the Liberty Bell because it was very off season.

Aduchamp1

I used to take day business trips to Boston both by air and Amtrak and that was not a lot of fun. Boston is 250 miles from NYC but Philly is around 100.

bspielman

If budget is an issue, you can use regional rail lines instead of Amtrak to make the NYC-to-Philly round-trip. It will lengthen the roughly 1-1/2 hour Amtrak one-way trip to about 2-1/2 hours, but the savings can be very significant.

The lowest one-way per-person Amtrak fare is $90 (about $77 for age 62+; bring your passports as proof, if applicable). However, Amtrak is running a $34 per person one-way promotion through August 20 (for travel until early September); it requires a 14-day advance purchase.

Using regional rail (NJTransit's Northeast Corridor line from NY Penn Station to Trenton, NJ, connecting with SEPTA's R7 line from Trenton to 30th Street Station, Philadelphia) costs about $20 per person one-way (about $10 for age 62+; again, passports needed). To clarify, that's $12.50 for NJTransit and $8 for SEPTA; half that on both lines for seniors. There is a $1 or less premium for buying tickets on board instead of at the stations.

Here are some helpful links:
www.amtrak.com
www.njtransit.com
www.septa.com

yk

I used to take the NJT/SEPTA combo to go between Philadelphia & NYC - probably have done that dozens of times.

However, nowadays with bus companies like BoltBus and Megabus which run that route, I think bus is a much better option than the NJT/SEPTA combo. The bus takes less time (2 hrs) and no change is invovled. Plus, if you buy your tickets a few weeks in advance, you can even get your ticket for just $1. Yes, $1, it's not a typo. I just randomly looked up the Megabus schedule for later this month - eg, July 22,2009 - there are 3 buses with $1 seats, and another 5 buses with $5 seats.

suewarren

Thankyou to all who have provided their assistance. We feel somewhat overwhelmed by the willingness of each of you to give some of your precious time to help.
I think the way that we will go is to abandon the idea of Boston (just too far for this trip) and use Amtrak to go to Philadelphia. The $34 special identified by bspielman is a great option. We have travelled on a few trains in different places and do enjoy that means of travel.
While we have you here, some more advice please - we will be in NYC for 10 days from 23 August. We have seen most of the major tourist sites during a work visit last year. This trip is purely for vacation - any suggestions for less obvious adventures in this wonderful city (or surrounds). We have already decided on a picnic in central park as we love that area and last time did walk the perimeter. We were jealous of the families we saw there enjoying that great location with a picnic so will do it ourselves this time.

Aduchamp1

SueWarren-

I suggest you purchase a NYC Fodor's or other guide book and see what may be of interest. There are many lesser known museums, interesting architecture, unique shopping, reataurants, historical sites, cultural sites and events, etc. that may appeal to you.

Also if you click to the box at the top which reads "view by state" and click on new York, you will see numerous discussions on this topic.

Centralparkgirl

Or post a new thread and tag it NY.

Danielcjr

There used to be a really cheap bus that went from Chinatown NYC to Chinatown Philly. Not sure if it still exists but I'm sure you can google it. I really like Philly and think it's a doable day trip and worth the effort.

mclaurie

There are loads of daytrips you can do from NYC. Metro North has these: http://www.mta.info/mnr/html/outbound.htm The Rockefeller Estate, Kykuit, is very worthwhile as is a trip to Beacon NY to see the art at DIA Beacon. There are also daytrips you can do to Long Island but many of these are specific to a certain date(s). http://www.mta.info/lirr/getaways/LongIsland/

Spend some time in some of the other boroughs of NYC (Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island). When in August are you here?

bachslunch

The Chinatown buses (Lucky Star and Fung Wah) are indeed cheap, but do not have the best safety reputations. If you're looking to take a bus from New York to either Boston or Philadelphia, Megabus, Bolt Bus, and Greyhound are all perfectly fine and cheap -- check online. AMTRAK works well here, too.

If you're considering a day trip to Philadelphia and want to see Independence Hall, note that you need a timed ticket for this. If they're available for the day you want, you'll be able to get them online ahead of time. Otherwise, you'll have to get in line and take your chances. Much of the Old City attractions are close by each other and don't require a timed ticket.

It's wise to skip Amish Country this time around, as it's really a day trip at least in its own right from Philadelphia. It's possible to see some of this area without a car by taking Lancaster local buses, but a car is very helpful here and will take you to some places you can't reach otherwise.

And yes, Boston merits more than a day trip. It's possible to reach via early bus out/late bus back in the same day, but you won't see much in ca. 5-6 hours.

There are a ton of worthy small museums in Manhattan alone that can keep you busy for days, even weeks. I'd check out Fodor's or Frommer's guidebooks for more details. Or let us know what you've already seen in NYC and what your interests are, so we could make some suggestions.

suewarren

Thanks again for all your help. I am new to Fodor's and only stumbled across the site, although I have seen the guidebooks.

Mclaurie, we arrive in the early evening of 23 August and are in New York for 10 days.

bachslunch, when we were there last year, I was working but did manage to see ground zero, the Staten Island ferry, the Empire State Building, walked Times Square, walked the perimeter of Central Park, Strawberry Fields, rode the yellow water taxi, walked Battery (one of my favourite spots), ugh lots of shopping with my wife, Grand Central Station, the open top bus trip both during the day and night, Dumbo, the Tenement Museum. As to interests, as well as seeing the usual sites, I think our real passion is seeing how ordinary people live their lives and absorbing the "feel" of the city, feeling how others in our big wide world live, away from the usual tourist traps. Probably sounds corny, I know.

mclaurie

With a 10 day trip, if you're not locked into a hotel booking you might consider going to Boston for an overnight or 2. Definitely spend some time in one or more of the outer boroughs (Queens and/or Brooklyn) where you will get a good idea of the different ways/areas people live.

foodsofny.com does some popular walking/eating tours. There's a pizza tour that covers Manhattan and Brooklyn http://www.scottspizzatours.com/p/tourdescriptions/