Philadelphia to Boston in May
 

Hello,

Thinking of taking a road trip from Philadelphia to Boston via New York in May next year.

We'd probably hire a car to get in and out of New York, but obviously not have one there. I'm aware of the issues re dropping a car in a different state than its hired - we've dealt with that in the past.

We'd have two weeks - we'd probably spend 2 days or so in Philadelphia, 5 in New York and 2 in Boston. That leaves another 5 to play with to explore en route. Does this seem fair enough?

We're a couple in our early 30's who don't mind hiking/walking at a moderately strenuous level. We're looking for ideas of the best route to take and places to stop on the way. Any/all advice gratefully received!

Check options of train and bus and compare prices with car-rental option.
Considering that these cities are very close (couple of hours of driving only), there isn't really much "en route" to see. If you still want to spend remaining 5 days somewhere in between - check out poconos, jersey shores, bear mountain, casinos in CT, etc.

Just some preliminary thoughts. Are you sightseeing between Philadelphia and NYC, and NYC and Boston? If not, you could take Amtrak between the cities.

May is a busy time for hotels in Boston because of all the graduations. Here is a link to the graduation dates: http://www.bostonzest.com/2014/09/bo...ring-2015.html

If you can work around those dates, you'll have a better and cheaper choice of hotels.

The weather will be coolish, but you might consider driving to Maine or to Cape Cod from Boston to see the coast and take beach walks. Or go further inland to hike in New Hampshire or Vermont. Portland, Maine, on the coast is scenic and has a great restaurant scene.

Thanks for the advice so far! We've driven in the US before and loved that way of traveling, and I had imagined stopping off at some quaint places between Philly & NYC and NYC & Boston but perhaps we should look at exploring further beyond Boston for that. It would be good for us to end in Boston for flight purposes, so perhaps train/bus between Philly and NYC is a better idea as it's such a short trip, then we can explore for a longer period before ending in Boston.

One option would be to spend longer in Philadelphia and take some time to explore the surrounding areas such as Lancaster, New Hope, Brandywine, and so forth. Of course, you could easily fill a week just in Philadelphia, but there is some lovely countryside for day trips. You definitely won't need a car in Philadelphia itself, and Philadelphia to NYC is a very quick bus or train trip.

You could do the same thing in Boston, with trips to Salem, Concord, and the like. My recent New England trip report is here if you'd like to see; there's a picture link as well:
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...-and-maine.cfm

I would check out the areas between Philly and NYC and NYC and Boston - and rent a car for one - not both. Then you can do the other cities by train. Depending on when you come in May you can have cool weather - esp in Maine - or very warm - esp in Philly and NYC at the end of the month.