East Coast Road Trip
 

Hertz is offering really cheap 1way car rentals from Florida to the Northeast. I am talking $90 US from Orlando to Burlington I found a cheap $95 cdn fare from Ottawa down to Orlando. Can someone detail or link a "Road Tour" back up to the Northeast.

Do you want fast or scenic? Are there specific places at which you want to stop? Places you want to avoid?

Curious why any company would want cars to head south at this time of year - can understand why they would have a surplus in Florida to ship north.

I am demonstrating my usual computer dysfunction:

What I meant to say was that I can get a really cheap flight down to Orlando. And then grab one of these cars at a ridiculous price and drive back slowly. I am thinking around 10 days.

I did this in 1998. I flew ValueJet from Albany to Orlando, picked up my Hertz car at 10pm and proceeded northward immediately, with no plans for Orlando. While you won't find rates as cheap now, I had the use of a Taurus for 8 days for under $90 including all the taxes. I spent a few days at St Augustine, then Savannah, Charleston, WilmingtonNC, VirginiaBeach, AssateagueMD, & slept overnight in the car in NJ at a reststop on the Turnpike.

Unfortunately, Hertz didn't need cars brought back to Albany ... my closest choices were NYC airports, Syracuse, Hartford ... I chose Hartford, took PeterPan bus to SpringfieldMA, Amtrak to Schenectady. I don't like driving all that much, but I did enjoy making a long one-way trip of it.

You can go to a lot of places in 10 days. The main question is where have you been already? Have you been to Washington? Do you want to go there? [I wouldn't recommend NYC, as parking fees for your rental car for a few days will exceed your rental rate.]

And do you want to see Disney World and the other attractions in Orlando? Because that would eat up your time.

Anyways, from the south, you should go see Savannah, GA, and Charleston, SC. Both interesting cities with plenty of history. Then you can make a choice - you can stay on the coast, or head inland to the mountains. If you go inland, you can go to Asheville, then up along the Blue Ridge and Shanandoah Valley in Virginia up to Gettysburg, PA and other sites along I-81.

If you stay on the coast, then you can go the "standard" route through Richmond, VA (another nice city), Washington, Baltimore, Philly, etc. Or you can go the tidewater area of Virginia, over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel and up the Delmarva peninsula, and bypassing Richmond/DC/Balitmore. That's a more rural and leisurely drive.

I drove my parents down to West Palm and flew back for about 15 years. My brother flew down and drove them back every year. When I drove down, it drove me nuts because my parents went nuts if I took any kind of a i95 detour. I managed to see St Augustine, Charleston, Savannah, with angst from them. These are places I want to see again.

I would see Savannah and/or Charleston; Washington/Baltimore; obviously NYC is on route - but if you are trying to save money, that is not a great idea; instead, some places along Hudson River are scenic and have some historic significance if you are into that sort of thing. I live in Boston area so am partial to seeing things around here - but also expensive. My personal preferences are for seeing things from Washington, DC and south - but that is only because I live in northeast and have seen much of what is around here - depends on your interests, budget and prior experiences.