N/E US in September: rail & weather questions
 

Hi fellow Fodorites, I have two questions I'm hoping you can help with. First one is about rail trips. Is it difficult to get inter-city tickets a few days prior to travel and more expensive? Will be travelling NY to Philadelphia for example.

Re weather, my travelling pal is a tennis fan and said she noticed (from TV) the weather during US Open is usually hot. But we will be in the States until the end of September, and travelling further north to Boston. Just wondering if we will need coats or if a jacket would suffice. Will it be t-shirt weather, or long-sleeved shirt weather. I'll probably have jeans on most days whatever the temperature is :)

Appreciate all suggestions.

In Boston area, in September jacket will be fine. Could be t-shirt weather, maybe long sleeves. Who knows. This so-called summer has been about 15 degrees below normal and it rained on all but 4 days in June. In prior years it has been 85 degrees.

Some Septembers tend to be rainy, especially if tropical storm tracks take wet weather near Boston, so in any event, bring some sort of raingear. Layers rule - so bring the t-shirts, long sleeves and a jacket.

Amtrak sometimes have discounts for train tickets if you buy in advance. Check their website.

For NY/Philadelphia, if you want to save some $, you can consider taking MegaBus or BoltBus. They are a lot cheaper than Amtrak.

Definitely a jacket for Boston. Even if it's hot during the day, as soon as the sun sets, it cools off significantly. Evenings can get down to the 50s, layering (as gail said) will be your best option. If you are female, a light scarf will be handy too.

Thanks very much gail and yk. Sounds like a light wet weather jacket is the go. I'll see if I can find websites for the bus companies.

It's been an unseasonably cool spring/summer so far, so it's hard to tell what Sept. will bring. Websites like wunderground.com have trip planners that give you historic temperatures by location for specific dates.

It's easy to buy train tickets (or bus tickets) to other cities a few days in advance, but that's usually not the cheapest way. Some Amtrak.com (train) discounts must be booked 1-2 weeks or more in advance and the bus services megabus.com and boltbus.com have cheapest prices the further in advance you book. There's another thread active right now with train and bus details. http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...ew-york.cfm?16

Amtrak may also have higher prices for Friday-Sunday travel, although you will be visiting after the busier summer travel season.

For NYC-Philadelphia, some would suggest that you save money by taking NJ Transit to Trenton and then SEPTA to Philadelphia from there. This would be cheaper than Amtrak, but I think the cheap bus options would be much more convenient.

Jacket should work even in Boston in late September.

I would never take the bus in the US. Amtrak or even the NJ Transit/SEPTA deal is better. At least the trains are fairly timely in the northeastern corridor that spans Boston to DC.

That said, the Bolt Bus seems to suck less than Greyhound. I'd google it or check tripadvisor for reviews too.

Thanks for the tips mclaurie, ellenem and BigRuss - much appreciated!

Hello-
Any thoughts on renting a car and driving?
The weather in September can be as warm as summer or like autumn.. tough to call ahead of time