TimTom

Hi there,

We need some good advice for a car trip in Quebec and New York City for 3 days, at beginning of October.

We are going to spend 5 days - Rent a car in Toronto, and then go through Quebec (and/or Montreal), NYC, Woodbury Common outlet mall, Niagara falls and back to Toronto.
We have already decided to spend the last 2 days in the outlets and Niagara, but don't know what to do the rest.. 3 hours for the Metropolitan museum is preferable.
What kind of route do you recommend for this itinerary?

Additionally, we are welcoming any other information of weather, accomodations, and (cheap) restaurants.

Many thanks!

Butler

As you are going to be at Woodbury Common, suggest you include a visit to U.S. Military Academy at West Point just a short drive. Only 3 miles south is restored Fort Montgomery Battle Site with new Visitor's Center.

mclaurie

I'm sorry I don't understand how many days you will have in total and for NYC. Have you checked the distances of these locations and how long it will take to drive?? Go to maps.google.com From Niagara Falls to NYC is over a 7 hr. drive and that doesn't include the time to make the border crossing. Some rental car cos. won't allow you to take a car over the border and you need to make sure you don't need a visa to go back and forth over the border.

There's only one hotel in Manhattan that has free parking, the Travel Inn. Early October is a very expensive time for hotels in NYC. You may be better staying just outside Manhattan and using train or driving to get in for sightseeing. Weather information can be found by using the trip planner on wunderground.com Restaurant information on menupages.com For accomodation, you need to provide a budget for more ideas.

ellenem

The trip sounds like this:
Day 1: depart Toronto; head to Montreal (5.75 hours drive)
Day 2: depart Montreal; head to New York City (about 6.5 hours drive)
Day 3: New York City
Day 4: depart NYC; stop in Woodbury Commons; head to Niagara Falls (about 8 hours drive)
Day 5: depart Niagara Falls; drive home to Toronto (about 1.5 hours)

I suppose the time in each place could be allotted slightly differently and the driving broken up differently, but to me it still comes out to too little time in any one place considering all the hours spent in the car.

nytraveler

Agree that I don;t understand your itinerary at all. If it's as ellenem describes - there's now way you can pull this off and actually see anything. It would just be one gigantic ciruclar drive sitting in a car.

TimTom

Thank you all for your responses. Sorry, actually I intended to be vague to see how many possible plans there are, but I should have been clearer.

Well, as everybody pointed out, this itinerary seems like nothing but just a long circular driving trip, but this is my first time travel to Canada and we are really excited about visiting the Outlet.

We have checked all the distances and durations of the main route we might go on the websites which mclaurie provided, and decided not to stop by the central NYC. Below is what we figured out so far:

Day 1: Toronto to Montreal
Day 2: Montreal to Quebec
Day 3: Quebec to Woodbury Commons
Day 4: Woodbury Commons, depart at evening, head to Niagara
Day 5: Niagara, back to Toronto

I believe this looks good to you though.

- Here are ideas we need -
a) For the route of the Day 3: Quebec to Woodbury Commons
Since we are driving for 6 - 7 hrs, we want some rest in the middle. We found a National Park, but would you recommend stopping by there for 2 hrs or less? If there are any other locations like park, please give us the names.

2) Accommodations in Montreal, Quebec and Niagara
I will be working on restaurants, but need some advices on hotels. We could stay in motels and hope to choose as much as nice. Budget for each place is around $60 - $130 for 2 people. Found some cute and clean ones, but we trust people recommendations more than the rates which company websites make.

Thanks a lot for your help!

TimTom

just leave the Q2 - this must be not appropriate for this topic.
Thanks

mclaurie

This trip makes NO sense. You'll spend most of your time driving and little to no time seeing anything. What's the point? You can either see some of Canada and Niagara Falls or you can go shopping at Woodbury Commons and perhaps see NYC. You can't do both without flying in the time you have allotted.

nytraveler

I cannot believe you wil do 2 longdays f driving to visit a MALL. It's just buying stuff. Why waste your time that way. In the time you have Montreal and Niagara Falls are too much - never mind anythng else.

michelleNYC

Sorry Tim but this doesn't make any sense at all (seriously). Do you realize that the drive from Quebec to the Woodbury Commons (which is insane to do in the first place)will take you AT LEAST 8.5 to 9 hours and that's without counting traffic or border crossing. This drive could *easily* take you 10-11 hours. Plus the drive from the Commons to the Falls is *easily* 7 to 8 hours, *also* not taking into account traffic and border. This is probably one of the more bizarre understakings I've seen on Fodor's.

Ryan

According to the below link, there is an outlet center in Niagara Falls. I agree, the idea of driving that far for a shopping mall would seem to make little sense.

http://www.outletbound.com/usa50.html#New%20York

As an aside, I have quite a bit of experience with retail stores, especially department stores. If you're looking for true "deals" you're there in the wrong season for those real rock bottom prices unless it's summer clothes you want.

Someone like a Saks is still carrying fall clothes in their stores, though they are likely starting to discount on items that aren't moving to create room ahead of Christmas. What you may find is an overweight of summer clothes at these locations.

More likely, these stores will be filled with items specifically purchased for their outlet channels and the deals tend to be more optics of a deal then reality of a deal.

You are also hitting these locations at the end of a year where they have ALL cut their inventory levels by somewhere between 25 and 35% versus a year ago. A manufacturer, like Polo might have had an abudance of inventory from cancelled orders earlier this year. But, by now most of the industry has worked down their inventory.

If you're looking for high end stuff, you can't get really good deals buying from Saks or Neiman website

capxxx

The drive from Toronto to Montreal is very boring -- how about starting in Montreal/Quebec and working your way to Montreal and then down through New York state, rather than trying to make the whole loop?

Does it have to be that particular outlet mall? What about finding outlet mall that is closer to your route, like Waterloo Premium Outlets Mall in Waterloo NY? It is just off of I-90 between Syracuse and Rochester. Or there is a big outlet mall (Fashion OUtlets) in Niagara Falls itself.

You could do:
Day 1 Montreal all day.
Day 2 Scenic loop drive around Quebec, return to Montreal.
Day 3 Drive to Waterloo. Spend the night and next morning shopping your little hearts out.
Day 4 Niagara, all day. See the falls, shop some more.
Day 5 Toronto

TimTom

Thank you so much for your suggestions.

You guys' advices made me more realistic about this trip.. I might have been sticking too much to the Woodbury Commons, which has the only one outlet store of CHANEL that I am crazy about. Yeah I really think that if we can eliminate the Woodbury and take the Niagara one, we can spend more time for each place and less for a boring drive.
I like the cap's idea for after Day 2, as we are landing into Toronto at 4pm that day.

Well would you guys believe that we drove thru LA, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Anaheim (spent whole day) in 3 and half days?
My B said he can do the same this time again..