New York, Boston, Niagara Falls and Washington DC – Drive or Fly?
 

We are planning a family trip to the US (2adults + a 14 year old and a 12 year old). We would like to visit New York, Boston and Cape Cod, Niagara Falls and Washington DC.
What I would like to know is if it is better to drive, fly or try to find an organized tour that will take us to these places?

Boston to Buffalo is about an 8-hour drive, Buffalo to Washington is about an 8-hour drive. DC to New York is about a 4-5 hour drive. New York to Boston is about a 4 hour drive (these are all times without stopping to see anything on the way).

How long is your entire trip?

In New York, DC, and Boston, having a car is probably more of a hassle than it's worth, so if you see the three of them in order, I wouldn't bother driving, especially since the drive between DC and Boston can often be a pain. Personally between those three since there is good rail service I'd do a train, but flying would also work. For Cape Cod you definitely need a car. You probably want a car for Niagara Falls too, and keep in mind you'll want to go to the Canadian side of the falls. The drive across upstate NY is generally not bad, but as stated above it is pretty long so unless you were going to stop along the way for a night I'd probably fly to Buffalo. (There are also trains to Niagara Falls, but even driving is much faster so unless you're into trains I'd drive or fly.)

We were thinking about around 10 days.

Where are you coming from, and how long do you have? What time of year?

Organized tour - no.

Flying - my opinion - for those distances, the hassle of getting to an airport may not be worth it.

You might consider a combination of driving and the train, if you have time to spread the driving out. There is some nice scenery between Boston and Buffalo, as well as between Buffalo and Washington, for that matter. If you really wanted to fly, JetBlue flies between all those cities and might have some ticketing options that would let you avoid a round-trip ticket purchase. The train would be an option in between Boston, New York, and Washington (I am assuming you mean New York City).

IMO the best way to see Cape Cod would be to have a car, but there are also day tours you can take out of Boston (by bus).

Sorry but >><i>New York, Boston and Cape Cod, Niagara Falls and Washington DC.</i><< is not a 10 day trip

Just Boston/NYC/DC by train in 10 days would only give you 3 days in each place.

Ten days to see those three cities, plus Cape Cod, plus Niagara Falls, is really pushing it. I have taken some whirlwind trips myself, but I think it would be hard to enjoy any one of those stops if you're trying to fit them all in.

Is Niagara Falls a "must"? I mean, it's spectacular, and we've had a great time taking our kids there a couple of times, but it will eat up three days of your trip no matter how you get there unless you fly in one day and out the next. Which you COULD do. It's all a question of what you want most.

Thanks! this is very helpfull. So now I will check trains.
Maybe a train for Ney York to Boston and then rent a car for Cape Cod to Niagra Falls. Then maybe fly to Washington DC.

I read that the area around Albany may be a good place for a stop for the night or a day. South is atmospheric small towns and North is Nature reserves with lakes.
I also read that Ithica is nice but it seems to far from Cape cod for a stop.

What are your opinions?

Just read the messages that 10 days is pushing it.
I will rethink.

To maximize your time if you want to include so many destinations, I'd look into flying directly into Boston (depending on where you're coming from ... it's been significantly cheaper to fly into Boston from Europe this summer than to JFK). Then I'd fly from Boston to Washington DC, and take the train back up to NYC (take an evening train after a full day of sight-seeing to maximize your time, arriving in NYC no later than 10 so you can be rested for your first day in NYC). Do Niagara Falls at the very end only if you insist. (If you want to do a day-trip from Boston, go to Plymouth or Lexington/Concord rather than Cape Cod, which is really too far for a comfortable day-trip.)

As everyone else has said, you must cut at least 1 (and preferably 2) of your destinations out. I'd cut both Cape Cod and Niagara Falls, but every European and Australian seems to think that Niagara Falls is one of the best sights in the world ... I'd make a special trip for Iguasu or Victoria, but not Niagara, Falls).

You do NOT want to spend a full day driving in any case. With so little time, you really need more than 3 days in each city just to see the major sights. So if you do Niagara Falls, you really need to do what many foreign tourists do: fly there on the afternoon of one day, spend the night, see stuff the next morning, and then connect to your international flight in the afternoon. You will find the best air connections from JetBlue via JFK to Buffalo.

If you're in Boston before the middle of October you can take the ferry from Boston into Provincetown on Cape Cod for a day trip. At least you'd be able to have a little taste of the Cape (some of the best restaurants on Cape Cod are in Provincetown)and you'd be able to see the National Seashore beaches in Provincetown. You could also experience a whale watch. You won't need a car in Provincetown.

You can fly into Boston, ferry to Cape Cod (or off season, rent a car near Logan and visit Falmouth for a short trip); from Boston take the Bolt Bus to NYC, fly r/t from NYC into Buffalo and see the Falls (if you must), then take the train from NYC into D.C.

Driving from Cape Cod to Buffalo just doesn't make logistical sense....

After re-reading your posts I now have the impression that Cape Cod is a priority for you. Am I correct?

There is no way you can see those place in 10 days. The visit you have proposed is similar to seeing London, Paris, Rome, Switzerlnd and the Amalfi Coast in 10 days. It's physically possible - but you would spend by far the bulk of your time just getting from one place to another.

DC and NY in 10 days will work. Or NY and Boston - with a couple of days on the Cape - will work.

Niagara Falls is the outlier. I notice that a large number of Europeans want to see it - but, frankly, it's just a lot of water falling over a cliff. Not worth it unless you are going to the area anyway - as in visiting Toronto. Also - to really see anything you need to visit the Canadian side - and I don;t know what that means in terms of visas (you might need a multiple entry visa for the US - dont' know the regs for UK citizens).

And Alban is the lst place you want to stop. And to keep to your schedule you don't have time to stop - you need to drive straight through from Boston or the Cape to Niagara Falls. (We're used to riving longer distances - 8 to 10 hours a day - since things are farher apart.) But you really just don;t have time to see all of this.

The op wrote re. the trip length: "We were thinking about around 10 days."

They do need more time. If they add on 3-5 days more it will merely be the trip from he!! rather than impossible. ;)

IF they had 15 days instead of 10,

Day 1: Int'l flight to Boston
Days 2-5: Boston including a day trip (?) via ferry to the Cape
Days 6-7 fly to Buffalo and spend 2 days at Niagara Falls
Day 8 (early morning) fly to DC, and spend days 8-11 in DC
Night of Day 11 Train to NY
Days 12-15 Manhattan. Fly home on either the night of the 15th day or the next day.

Hmmmm, still difficult to do.

But do-able. They can probably hit the high points with one less day at the Falls and one less day in one of the cities.

In my opinion: definitely skip Niagara Falls. That's a no-brainer. It's impressive, but I think it's worth about a half-day to a full day, plus enough time after dark to see it lit up. It wouldn't make any sense to try to fit it into a ten-day trip.

Personally, with ten days, I would skip Boston and Cape Cod too, and just concentrate on DC and New York. When I'm traveling internationally, I often like to see some natural scenery too, in addition to the big cities. But MiaMom, if you feel similarly, I would suggest maybe driving somewhere out of DC, rather than going to Cape Cod.

I agree that in Boston, New York, or DC, it will be better not to have a car than to have one. But to go to Cape Cod or some scenic place near DC, you'd want a car.

In terms of going between cities: for the trip between Boston and New York, the train would be slower and more expensive than renting a car and driving (for a group of 4). If you take the right route, it can be a somewhat scenic drive, too. Between New York and DC, the drive will take longer than the train, and will not be so scenic, but it will still be less expensive.

Just a thought based on what hawksbill said - if you want some scenery in addition to visiting cities, you could go to New York and Washington, but take a day and maybe one night to drive out to Monticello and the surrounding area. It's lovely out there and not too far from DC. That's if you're sticking with 10 days.

When figuring out the cost of car vs. train you need to take into account what you will do with the car while you are in different places. That is, if you rent a car in Boston and drive it to New York, it might be cheaper for that day than train tickets for four people would be; but then you also need to figure out how much it will cost to park it somewhere while you're in New York (many hotels don't have free parking).

This board is wonderfull! Such great help!
Okay, so Niagra falls is off.
One of the reasons we want to go to Cape Cod is to see the wales.
We are planning this trip for October or next spring if we cannot make it for October.
If we go in October we would like to see some of the autumn colors of the trees. Is there anywhere not far out of the cities to see them? Maybe go out to a nice small town to get the feeling of being out of the city. We can probobly rent a car for a day or two for that.
By the way, my husband is very happy about your advice not to drive. He would rather rest on the train while on vacation.

Whale-watching tours are offered through the end of October, and Provincetown is definitely the place to see them. So if you really want to do that, take the ferry there and make it your day-trip. But ferries don't always run after mid-October, so you really need to do some research to make sure it's possible.