East Coast Drive from New York to Miami
 

Hey

Me and my friend are coming to USA from Finland for 2 weeks in July. We're planning to drive all the way down from New York to Miami in less than 10 days. The 1st draft of our travel plan is pretty much the following: http://tinyurl.com/bxysyw

Any tips or considerations that we should take into account?
Places that we should definitely see, roads that we should definitely drive on, hotels that we should definitely use..

All help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks
J&P

Your URL didn't work.

This is an easy trip in ten days with plenty of time for visiting attractions along the way.

Thanks, that's what we thought. The original url:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...e=UTF8&t=h&z=6

Not sure what to point out without knowing your interests. I love road trips and this sounds like fun. It'll be plenty hot, so be sure to bring extra water for you and your car to prevent both from overheating.

You'll be passing by plenty of beaches in Virginia and South Carolina, so I'm not sure if you want to detour west to Tampa in Florida. I'd drive straight to Miami and spend more time there or before Miami, take a look at the Everglades, but again, it all depends what you're looking for. While you're in Miami, you might want to visit the Keys.

Oh, and your original link worked for me - I was using Google's browser so that may have something to do with it.

Have you arranged your car rental yet? Picking up in NYC and dropping off in Miami can be a major fee. Also the rental itself will be expensive since European credit cards typically don't cover car rentals - so you will have to buy full insurance - which can double the quoted price.

If you rent in advance from Finland you may be able to get a better price (inclusive of tax and insurance), and be sure the credit card you rent with has enough funds to cover any deductible in the insurance - often $500 - since they may put a hold on tht much until you return the car.

10 days is plenty of time for the trip (NYC college students typically drive straight through on spring break with a couple of drivers) but you will have very limited time to stop at each of the places you have listed.

It's kinda hard to state our interests explicitly. We just want to go, see and experience as much as possible, whatever that may be :)
We're gonna stay 2 days in New York catching all those traditional spots, like empire state building, central park, ground zero etc. Same thing in Washington. The whole long way from Washington to Cape Canaveral is somewhat unknown territory to us. I heard the rt. 17 would be the best route to take going down south?

I guess our biggest concern is that we miss something "important". I know we can't see everything but I wouldn't like to learn back home that we missed some nice spot by 3 miles just because we didn't know about it.

Yep, I'm already starting to think that maybe we shouldn't detour west to Tampa but instead spend that time in Miami or before that. The Keys and Everglades are both good suggestions, thanks.

We haven't arranged our car rental yet, but spent numerous hours looking for possible options with various rental companies. We came up with the same conclusion that the car needs to be rented in advance. There are actually some companies that will handle everything in advance from Finland as long as you're ready to pay some portion of the total fee when the reservation is made. The price ranges where somewhere between 500 and 700 euros. We just need to take a further and deeper look into that. Thanks for the help.

Thanks again for your advices.

I normally take 95 South, but it's not exactly scenic but it's fast. You can literally not use a map and just stay on 95 all the way down to Miami. Sites of interest are more likely to be off the big highways.

I'm not sure if you can just rent directly - you probably might want to call Hertz or Avis. I think you just need an international driver's license and a credit card.

Charleston is a city with lots of charm and history.

Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill - not sure how much there is to see there - you might want to consider going along the Carolina coast and visit the Outer Banks. Kitty Hawk, site of the airplane pioneers, the Wright Brothers is there, as well as beautiful beaches and scenery. It might add to your drive even though you're going straight south because there are no big highways.

That detour to Raleigh was actually one of the things that we weren't sure about. There are no specific reason why we would want to go there. It just popped into mind when planning the route. Again, good suggestion to visit the Outer Banks instead. We are both enthusiastic photographers and I think that route is definitely better for us.

Yeah, we need to take a deeper look into that whole car rental thing. Luckily for us, there's still some time before the trip. Can't hardly wait for July though.

If you go down the Garden State Parkway instead of 95, you can stop in Atlantic City, continue on to Cape May, take the ferry to Lewes Deleware then continue down to Chincoteague Island, see ponies, go to the beach then take the Bay Bridge/Tunnel to Norfolk, Virginia. From there you could go to Williamsburg for some colonial history or Busch Gardens for some rollercoasters. You could continue south along the coast from Norfolk and visit North Carolina's outer banks then hit Myrtle Beach and Charlston, South Carolina and go on to Savannah, Georgia then back to 95 and on to Miami with a stop in Saint Augustine. This would be slower than using just 95 but 95 is brutal and you have 10 days.

There are so many things to see on the way that's it's not really possible to list them. NYC and DC each deserve more than 2 days just to see the basics. And for NYC do Top of the Rock versus Empire State and what was the World Trade Center is now a major construction site - not a tourist sight (although you can visit the church that sheltered the rescue workers).

You're really going to have to do a lot more reading and decide what YOU want - since even the basics for that distance could take 5 to 6 weeks. (The US is a BIG country, with tons to see/do - the area you're covering has not only the longest history in the US but a population of more than 100 million people.)

The Lewes ferry is a nice ride, scenic and it gets you out of the car. If you're amateur photographers, check out photo.net. I remember it had good articles on traveling & photography.

For sure, stop and see Charleston and Savannah. Both beautiful.

Thanks again to all of you. We've already picked up some really good advices and tips, and that's pretty much what we were and are looking for.

@JayValkyr

My girlfriend and I are planning the same trip for this august!

Any chance you could tell me a bit about how your trip went?

Im especially interested in the car rental you went for in terms of costs - especially the one way cost that seems to keep popping up in my searches!

Would really appreciate your response and any advice you could give

vmh Please start a new thread with your own questions. This thread is 3 years old and the OP probably does not visit often.
To avoid drop off fees, consider taking the train to Florida with a stop or 2 in between NYC and Florida. Rent a car where you need wherever there is not good public transport.

Hi i am planning the same trip and have the doubt if from Was take all the coast to florida or take the appalachian / blue ridge parkway way first , visting cities like charlottesville/roanoke/asheville/charlotte , and then take the coast to myrtle beach/charleston/savannah/jacksonville/daytona/orlando.

Please recomendations.

I am travel with my wife and 3 kids , beach and theme parks we are going to do in florida.

an other option is to fly straigth from was to orlando? that the 2000km trip is really interesting? or we can died not visiting nc/sc and georgia.

does anyone have a solid itinerary for the drive from NYC to miami with detailed information on where to stop, stay, eat, see.
Thanks

Include Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg, an easy stop with three places of interest close together in Jamestown virginia.