Driving from NY to Cape Cod
 

We are planning a trip to the USA and will be traveling from NY, via Cape Cod (3 nights), to Boston. We're thinking of taking a train (Amtrak) from NY and picking up a car en route to drive to the Cape, and then drive from the Cape to Boston.

We'd welcome any thoughts on the best place to pick up the rental car. We want to get the best use of time (i.e. not too long a drive) and the most cost effective method.

Thanks

It depends on what your plans are after Boston and price of one-way car rental. I would rent car in NY, drive to Cape Cod, then drive to Boston and return car - you do not need or want a car in Boston.

As far as drive times - depends on time of year and where on Cape Cod. NY to beginning of Cape Cod is about 3 hours; beginning of Cape Cod to Boston a little over an hour - but the length of Cape Cod can take another hour or many times that if on weekend in the summer or if it is raining.

If you took the train to Providence, RI, you could reduce the nasty part of the drive to the Cape and do some touring on the cape then return the car to Providence and take the train to Boston. The drive from NY to Providence can have lots of traffic and you can get tie ups that last for more than an hour.

As gail said you do not need to have a car in Boston.

Check the difference in cost between renting a car in NY and returning in Boston with drop off charges vs. train fare and renting in Providence with no drop off charge. If it is close, use the train/Providence route.

It really depends on if you want to see anything on the way or not. If you want to tour on the way (Mystic Seaport or Newport) you're better off picking up a car in NYC and then dropping it off as soon as you hit Boston.

Also - you don;t say how many "we" are. For 2 people the train may not be much more than renting a car. The more people the cheaper the car option will be.

We have used a one-way rental, dropping off the car on Cape Cod at the airport in Hyannis and taking a the bus to Boston, and found that to be a good economical alternative to driving to Boston and dropping the car there. The transportation center in Hyannis, where you would catch the bus, is fairly close to the airport. I can't recall if we used Hertz or Enterprise, but I do recall that they provided us with a ride to the bus stop once we dripped the car.

Also, I would like to comment on the times given to get from Providence RI and Boston to Cape Cod. While it will only take you about one hour to drive from either Boston or Providence to Cape Cod, if you want to actually get from the bridge to the National Seashore areas from Eastham to Provincetown you should add another hour or so, depending on the day, time and season. We always stay in Eastham, at the beginning of the outer cape, and plan 2 hours for traveling to/from Boston or Providence RI.