Bowsprit

Another option that eliminates a long driving leg: Fly into Maine, rent a car there and make your way back to KY through various means.

See the towns gail has suggested, or head to Acadia and see the other towns on the drive south. You can do a whale watch in Maine out of Bar Harbor.

Instead of driving to Salem next, consider driving to Boston. It's also historic, wonderful and if you're going to be nearby anyway, you might as well visit. For a real treat, take the ferry out of Boston to Provincetown on the Cape for the day (not cheap!).

From there, head to R.I. If you decide to spend a few days in the Charlestown R.I. area you'll be able to visit Newport and the CT casinos from there.

See if you can make your way to New Haven CT and get on the metro North train into New York City. If you haven't been to NYC yet, this would be a great time to go for a few days. See if you can leave your rental car in New Haven for pickup.

From New York City: Fly home to KY or look at your time frame. Maybe you have enough time to take the train to Washington, DC for a few days. You can fly or drive home from there.

Have I just pushed your budget outside your limits? (maybe not). And although you'd be splitting the cost of the car, lodging, etc. you'd be increasing individual costs with plane, train and ferry travel. It might balance out though, you'll have to play with the numbers.

If you fly to Somewhere on the East Coast from KY, it'll change the entire tone of your trip.

jewels_02

Bowsprit - We considered what you were suggesting and actually the flight isn't the cost prohibitive factor there, the car rental jumps from $486.00 to around $1,300.00. So it's just cheaper to rent the car for round trip. Also, my Aunt said we may take one of her vehicles, so it may not cost us anything but gas and the split of an oil change upon return from the trip.

tchoiniere

What about doing a variation of it? Fly to Boston and rent a car, do the New England portion. Then either return the car in Boston and take Amtrak / fly to NYC or return the car in NYC. Then spend whatever time you want in NYC (not that you have a lot) then Amtrak it to DC to pick up a rental car there or someplace along the Amtrak route and to the circuit that want and drive it home. Not sure if this is more cost-effective but may buy you time / sanity.

Obviously, this goes out the window if you use your Aunt's car.

Bowsprit

I'D go out the window if I were in the car all that time! I know I'd be looking at some variation of fly, drive, sleep for this trip but that's simply my opinion based on what I know about myself.

jewels_02

The longest drive will be getting there because coming home will be broken up by the stops and overnights we'll be doing. We are not afraid to stop and take a break. We also plan on taking turns driving especially on the way there. Those of us not driving will be sleeping mostly. All of us have done some form of a road trip before so we do know what we are in for in regards to the car ride. While I would love to fly it really isn't economically feasible with the one-way rental.