Help with visiting Niagara Falls, NYC and Washington D.C.
 

Hello fellow travellers! My wife and I are planning a trip to the Canadian Rockies and an Alaskan Inside Passage cruise from once we have arrived in Toronto. However, our plan is to firstly fly into the US and visit Washington D.C, NYC and then Niagra Falls on the way to Toronto. We plan to make the trip next May/June (unless a better time of year is suggested).

We have posted a thread on the Canada Forum for help with that leg of the trip, but we are hoping for some suggestions with regard to getting to Toronto and the best itinerary as far as our arrival into the US and the order of visiting NYC and Washington D.C.

Although we are planning on hiring a car in Western Canada, we are hoping to use public transport (trains and buses) for the US leg of the trip.

Any suggestions for must-sees, accommodation, transport and length of stay in each place will be greatly appreciated. We plan to spend a total of 6 weeks for the trip with possibly 2 weeks for the East Coast leg.

Thank you all in advance!

My advice would be to fly to a Washington DC area airport (Reagan National, Dulles or BWI) to start the trip. National has the advantage of having its own Metro stop. BWI has an Amtrak stop.
See Washington first and then take an Amtrak NE Regional to NYC. You could also visit Baltimore and or Philadelphia on the way.
Once you are done seeing NYC, get on the Amtrak Maple Leaf to Niagara Falls (NY or ONT) up to you. There are several transport options to get from Niagara Falls to Toronto including the Maple Leaf.
You can either take the ViaRail Canadian from Toronto to western Canada (Jasper then Vancouver) or come back from Toronto to Buffalo and then take the Amtrak Lake Shore Limited to Chicago.
From Chicago take the Empire Builder (daily train) all the way to Seattle (or Portland). There are daily trains and buses between Seattle and Vancouver.
The problem with the ViaRail Canadian is that it only runs 2 or 3 days per week. If you did go to Vancouver you could rent a car and drive to see Jasper/Banff etc.

I agree that you will not want a car in DC or NYcity and taking the train from DC to NYC makes sense. I would fly from NYC to Niagra Falls and perhaps rent a car to explore the area, then return it and fly to Toronto etc. That way you will not have parking fees in the cities, tolls between them and a drop fee for retuning the car in a different city from which you rented it. Both DC and NYC have good transportation options.

Agree that you don't want a car in NYC or DC, and the train would be the best between them.

What about flying to Toronto and driving to Niagara Falls? I would suggest that you stay in Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario rather than the Falls proper, which is rather tacky.

Train from DC to NYC makes sense, both time and pricewise. Frequent service, and stations are right in the cities.

The train from NYC to Niagara Falls take ~9hrs. If time is important to you then consider flying from NYC (from any of the 3 NYC airport (EWR, LGA, or JFK) to Buffalo. Another option is to rent a car and explore some of NY state between the City and Buffalo.

From Chicago to Seattle it's ~48hrs on the train. I haven't looked at flight schedules but I'd expect that flying across the continent will be faster. If you plan to stop at multiple locations across the US then a train may make sense, if you want to spend the time. Amtrak is not known for running an on time operation. The the main issue with passenger rail in the US is that the tracks are owned by the freight co's for most routes, and thus freight traffic can disrupt passenger train schedules, sometime significantly.

Niagara Falls is a bit over rated and 1/2 day there is sufficient. The amount of time dedicated to getting there will be more than your stay. If you do decide to visit, stay on the Canadian side.

Additionally, I have taken AMTRAK to Syracuse on a number of occasions and rarely does it run on time.

I agree with staying in Niagara on the Lake. It is just a 15 minute drive to see the falls and the chaos of the city.

When I visited Niagra Falls in the way back when, the Canadian side was better maintained.

Wow! Fantastic response from you all - thank you very much for your helpful suggestions. I agree that 9 hours may be a little long for the NYC to Niagara Falls transit - we will probably fly. As far as everything else it seems everyone is in agreement which makes our decision very easy. Thank you all so much once again.

Other options would be to fly to Chicago and take the overnight train to Buffalo or just fly to Buffalo to make your visit to Niagara Falls. 9:36 on the Maple Leaf from NYP only gets you to Niagara Falls NY. Amtrak schedules 1:16 to clear the border and then nearly 2 hours to get to Toronto. The total trip from New York to Toronto is scheduled for nearly 13 hours.

Geez tom, let this "take the train" nonsense take a rest. Do you seriously think flying to Chicago, then overnight train to Buffalo is really a good idea in any book? Sometimes I think you'd recommend taking the train to Hawaii if you could.

Washington DC--You could easily spend 5-6 days here but it's a question of what else you want to see. Here are some highlights we saw.

Some amazing museums there. Look at the Smithsonian website to see how many days you would want to spend--Air and Space, American History, Natural History, art, what are your interests?
And I would recommend at least a couple of hours at Arlington Cemetery. Walking on the Mall and seeing all the Memorials is incredible as well. I strongly urge that you go in the early evening before sunset. That was a trip highlight for me.
A lot of our government tours you have to get tickets through your congress person. One that you should be able to get is tickets to the Library of Congress.

I think a day getting outside the city is always good. We really enjoyed our daytrip to Mount Vernon. We went on to a Civil War Battlefield called Manassas. You can also see Alexandria while at nearby Mount Vernon.
As a second day (or an overnight) you also could take a further trip to Williamsburg which is a colonial American re-enactment type place. I haven't gone, but it is supposed to great.

It's time to lay off criticism of Niagara Falls... it's a world class attraction worthy of at least two days of effort... those who downplay the beauty and power of nature are just lazy or spoiled...

like saying the Grand Canyon is a hole or the California coast is just water...

How about considering flying into NYC from Australia? The flights are probably more plentiful. You could do two days in NYC to catch up and recover, then train to DC. Give yourself enough time to see all the monuments. Be aware that the US Parks Service gives many wonderful, free talks at the monuments. There is a calendar you can view--I think the site is US parks service National Mall. We live in DC and we learn so much after attending these talks. Even the granite at the Martin Luther King, Jr. monument has meaning (who knew?). Then train back to NYC and see a few more sights--perhaps two more days. Then use Porter Airlines from NYC to Toronto. My daughter who lives in NYC and attended uni in Toronto uses them and always has good things to say. From Toronto, consider a day-long charter bus trip to Niagara Falls. The expressway out of Toronto can be crowded and it's always nice to have someone else do the driving. IMO, one day at the Canadian side of the falls is plenty. Then back to TO for some more sightseeing and a flight out of Pearson Airport to Western Canada. I'm suggesting this idea because you will be using larger airports with more options and also the most reliable train in the Northeast corridor. See above for Amtrak information but be aware that there can be significant delays at times. If you book amtrak tickets early, they can be a pretty good deal. The closer to your travel dates, the more expensive. And don't miss the train! We did last year and had to buy a ticket that was far more expensive than the one we missed. (credit was given for the unused ticket) Keep in mind that the Northeast U.S. can be very crowded and traffic can be slow so give yourself more than enough time to get to airports, train stations, etc. Enjoy planning your trip!

"downplay the beauty and power of nature just lazy or spoiled..." I don't believe anyone downplayed the beauty of the falls, gary. And you shouldn't name call. [-X

And you should mind your own p's and q's..

#-O huh?

<<Geez tom, let this "take the train" nonsense take a rest. Do you seriously think flying to Chicago, then overnight train to Buffalo is really a good idea in any book? Sometimes I think you'd recommend taking the train to Hawaii if you could.>>

lol, J62, talking as brit who uses trains a lot, I really enjoyed the two trains I took on my trip to North America last year - the first was the train from Toronto to Montreal, and the second the Amtrak Adirondack line that goes all the way to NYC; I got off at the tiny station of Port Kent so I could catch a ferry across Lake Champlain so I could get to Burlington, VT. A weird route but it worked fine and i must preferred it to any plane travel I've done.

steve_Australia - your itinerary in the US is not unlike mine for September and last year I was in Toronto too, so perhaps I can help a bit. I remember you mentioning Montreal on a previous thread and I'd suggest you think about going there as it was one of the highlights of my trip. Such a vibrant great city, and it would fit in with your itinerary. You could even get a train there! If you want to use trains a bit, it would make sense to fly into DC then get the train to NYC which is what I'm doing. In DC as well as the Smithsonian my list includes the National Museum of the American indian, The National Gallery, a tour of Congress [you book through their website, no need for any senators to be involved] and an evening trolley ride round the monuments. if I manage ½ of that in the 3 days I've got I think I'll be doing well.

In NYC I have 5 nights so I've only time for the obvious sights which I won't list here. Of course you could fly to Toronto but that means yet more time in airports which IMHO are the most soulless places on the planet so you could get the Amtrak train all the way to Montreal. it's quite long, but you will see a lot of the countryside on the way and Montreal, one you get there is a great place. I had 3 nights in the old town and I could easily have managed another one. Then you could get a train to Toronto, which I also enjoyed.

And please don't miss Niagara. it's tacky an crowded but also magnificent.

>>>National Museum of the American Indian,<<<

Not to be missed.