Traveling with my husband and 2 teenage girls to spend 10 days in the States. We have to stay in Boston for 3 days, where I have been many times before. I have been to the Cape, to D.C, and to New York . Any ideas where we can explore this time, somewhere we can reach by train preferably from Boston. We love sightseeing, history, beaches( in good weather).
Thank you.

When are you traveling? - It could have a bearing on where you'll find good weather.

Do you have to be near a beach?

How long are you willing to travel to reach your intended destination?

Is the train the only way you'd be willing to travel or would you consider flying or driving?

What specific type of activities interest you and your family? - you can find "history" and do sightseeing almost everywhere.

For "history" consider visiting Colonial Williamsburg - you could probably get fairly close to there by train.

If willing to fly consider going to Charleston, South Carolina - lots of "civil war history" and some very nice nearby beaches so you get the best of both worlds.

Agree that time of year makes a big difference - as do the specific interests of you and your DDs.

Are you willing to fly to the West Coast - 10 days is long enough for it to make sense.

If you could fly to Charleston, I think 7 days divided between there and Savannah would tick all of your boxes.

Thank you for your prompt reply!!!!

Traveling the 25th pf July, we have to stay for 4 days in Boston.

I thought traveling by train would be less expensive. The budget is an issue.
Art history, to be more accurate, is more interesting to us.

Thank you again for your help.

Portland, Maine?

Take a Northeast Regional from Boston South to Philadelphia 30th St. See Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and a few other things. For sure get a Philly Cheesesteak from a street vendor.
Take New Jersey Transit train from 30th St. station to Atlantic City. Don't gamble too much but do walk the boardwalk.

So, you have a week to travel and prefer not to drive.

Southerly and Westerly

Train to Mystic. Tour Seaport Museum and Aquarium

Train to New Haven. Visit University Museum, Yale Center for British Art, eat pizza

Train to Philadelphia. Historic sites, Philadelphia Museum of Art, reading Terminal Market

Train to Wilmington. Taxi to Longwood Gardens (remind me of RHS Wisley) and nearby Winterthur. If you had a car, you could visit both the Brandywine Valley (N) and historic New Castle (S).

Train to Baltimore. Waterfront, historic fort McHenry, Art Museum with large collection of Impressionists and post-impressionists.

If the budget is an issue, you will find that it's much cheaper in most cases to rent a car and drive than to pay train fare for four. And this will vastly improve your options.

If you are unwilling to drive, then I think Charleston and Savannah would be your best choices to get a change of scenery from the northeast. But I think you'd still be better off flying. Look at flights on JetBlue, which flies nonstop to Charleston from Boston and has been offering fairly good deals.

Ackislander has good ideas if you are set on train travel, but Doug Stallings has a good point about renting a car.

If I was you, I would rent a car and drive places in the Northeast. There is so much to do up there and you would spend more of your time experiencing things rather than driving. I bet you and your girls would love the Berkshires (beautiful mountains and small New England towns), and you could stop by Northampton, MA on the way. Northampton is a hopping college town (home of Smith College, with several other colleges nearby), with lots of great restaurants, shops that are fun for teenagers, and culture. In the Berkshires, you will find several nice art museums, including Mass Moca (contemporary art).

If you want to have some beach time, you could try Block Island (Atlantic Ocean), off the coast of Rhode Island (get a ferry from New London, CT), which is a quaint beach community, or even try some towns on the CT shoreline (these would have beaches on Long Island Sound, so the waves are not as big as the ocean but there are sandy beaches). You will find great art museums in Lyme, CT (Florence Griswold Museum) as well as New Haven, as described in a previous post. I think every small town along the coast in Connecticut has historical features and small museums that are interesting, and are just nice, quaint places to visit.

You could also drive up to Maine for more ocean options, and might be interested in Acadia National Park. Note that the water is colder up there, though.

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Second Doug: drive. This isn't even a close call.

Yes, and if I wasn't clear, I agree with BigRuss and naturetraveller. Drive around the northeast, not all the way to Charleston (that might take longer than the train).

Yes, driving would definitely be the least expensive way for 4 people to travel. I agree that Philadelphia would be wonderful for you. The Barnes Collection in particular is a goldmine for any art lover--it's a must-see, unique in the world.
http://www.barnesfoundation.org

In the US trains are frequently as expensive as discount flights and except for the NE corridor (Boston down to DC) they run rarely (once or twice a day) and are very often later - very late.

Driving will be much less expensive and allow you to see countryside as well as cities - if you pick someplace within a reasonable distance.

If you do Philly you might combine it with the Gettysburg battlefield and also might stop at Newport and or Mystic on the way down from Boston.

Given that the OP seems not to be from the US, their interest in American history may be limited. She did specify "art history" as their particular interest.

Wonderful suggestions!!! We will definitely rent a car, and will try to visit as many beautiful places as we can.

Thank you again for your great help.