East Coast USA

Hi, I would like to take my family to the East Coast to visit places like the Tower of Liberty, Niagara Falls, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone Park, Florida disney etc. We plan to fly direct to New York and self-drive, have 3 weeks:

1. Could you help to suggest driving routes and stopovers e.g. which is the next bst stopover after New York....so that the route would finally leads us to the next state e.g. Toronto, where Singapore Airlines operates a return flight

2. Is Dec or June a better period to go to see all these places?

3. I heard maid-of-the-mist does not operate in Dec?

4. Is there any other wonders/highlights of the world that we should not miss in the East Coast?

Thank you in advance!

East Coast USA

There are so many options and that largely depends on what you are interested in. Also Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone are out west so I%26#39;m not quite sure what you want. Here is a possible east coast itinerary and perhaps you can start in Florida.

Florida - Disney World - 3 days

Drive to Savannah, Georgia - 1 day

Savannah, Ga - Historic District and other attractions - 1 day

Stop at Hilton Head, SC on the way to

Charleston, SC - 2 days

DC - 2 days

Gettysburg, Pa - 1 day

Lancaster, Pa (Amish country) - 2 days

NYC - 4 days - to many attractions to mention

Ithaca, NY, Keuka Lake Wineries, Letchworth State Park - a few days

Niagara Falls onto Toronto

Let me know if you want more ideas. There are some things here you may want to skip or spend extra time than what I have listed.

Have a nice trip. The south will be hot in June but I would not recommend New York in December.

East Coast USA

Hi Travelus, thank you for your comprehensive suggestions, i will study them in further detail to see what attractions there are in each of the stops and how long the drive from one to another...

God bless!

As Travelus said, Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore are a LONG WAY from the east coast, much too far for you to include in the trip that you have outlined in three weeks. An itinerary similar to the one that Travelus gave you would offer the best opportunity for seeing the highlights on the east coast and ending up in Toronto.

As for the better time of year for your visit, yes Florida will be hot in June, but as you travel north you will find much nicer weather than you would find in December. From around North Carolina north it can get pretty nasty in December, and a lot of things will be closed for the season. The Maid of the Mist at Niagra Falls only runs from April through the end of October.

Hope this helps, and enjoy your trip!

Hi Hawkeye,

Thanks for your input. Our family did a 4 states (california, nevada, utah and arizona) in 4 weeks last Dec and covered lots of interesting places. We are hoping to do the same in the East. Our children are not into history and arts, hence museums and monuments will be a bore. But they love the Bryce, Grand Canyons, Lake Tahoe stuff besides theme parks and factory outlets.

Hi TrueSingaporean (comrade),

My family and I are travelling to East Coast USA end of this year and will also be spending 21 days in total.

My itinerary covers

3-day at NYC

Drive to Niagara Falls and stay for 2 nights (plan to stay at Niagara Falls on Friday as they have fireworks display on Friday nights)

Fly to Miami and drive down to Key West for 2 nights(if you are familiar with bridge featured on Arnold Schwarzenegger show True Lies, it should be a very nice drive)

4-day cruise to Bahamas with day trip to Atlantis resort

From Miami we are drive up to Orlando and stay 5 days at Orlando

Last 2 days are shopping back in NYC.

Originally my plan was to drive down to Florida then back to NYC and on the way to sightsee Carolina state but since my trip covers a 4-day cruise I%26#39;ve decided to save some time by flyng instead.

As you notice from my itinerary above I didn%26#39;t have time to cover Washington DC! There are so many places to go in the East Coast I actually took 4 months (I started plannng since April) and after many many versions to finalise my itinerary. :)

The above is just a guide and really depends on what other sights you want to cover. If you like to drive to Orlando from NYC do take note that each way each way will take 16-17 hours (2 days including stopover) to cover about 1000miles.

I suggest you check out the various official websites of the different states you wish to go and they provide free travel brochures which they will send to you. That%26#39;s what I did to plan my trip.

FYI - my family would love to see Mt Rushmore and Yellowstone too but we wlll make use of another trip to West Coast next time to cover it when we drive up from Las Vegas. It%26#39;s not impossible to drive from East Coast but you%26#39;ll need an extra (at least) 1-2 more weeks to have a relaxing tour.

Hope that helps.

Happy Holidays!

Hi Halo2,

Wow, you have a 3-in-1 fly-drive-cruise all in! I thought bahamas and orlando are more for beaches, casino and theme parks? wouldn%26#39;t dec be too cold to do these?

Knowing Singaporeans, I believe you are well researched! For me, the problem is I do not know well enough where are all the excellent attractions except those featured prominently like the 7 wonders. I should have visitied Mt Rushmore and Yellowstone when we were at west coast....hmmm

Can you highlight some great places of interests along west coast please? what%26#39;s there in key west for instance?

Ahhh looks like your travel interests is very very similiar to mine (7 wonders and self-drive are must-haves) :)

Key West is actually the southernmost point of USA and I was attracted by the beautiful sunset sceneries and the ocean. Personally I love to include diffences in my itinerary to keep it interesting so I have Niagara falls, theme parks, beautiful beaches and blue oceans, cities, shopping and also casinos. Hee...

I believe Florida%26#39;s weather is very nice at the end of the year since it%26#39;s southern part of USA and will not as cold as the north. In fact I was just joking with my family members that we need to pack from our swimming gear to winter clothings for this trip! :P

Also to add, if you really want to add Mt Rushmore and Yellowstone to your East Coast itineary, perhaps you can check out Northwest airlines to allow you to fly from Singapore into Florida, and fly back to Singapore from western part of USA.

My colleague is also going to USA this year end and he%26#39;s covering Florida and San Francisco. He%26#39;ll be taking NWA to fly into Florida and stay for a few days, take a domestic flight from Orlando to San Francisco, and fly back from SF to SIN.

There are really lots and lots of great places to visit on East Coast and I really wish I have more time! But then again, it%26#39;ll give me an excuse to be back for more next time.

cheers

Halo2 and all,

I checked the flights schedules of SQ and it seems tedious having to fly via Frankfurt (direct flight only has business class) to JFK and then back track from wherever we are.

To get to Florida, SQ only goes as far as Houston, then we%26#39;d have to find our own domestic flight to Florida, JFK etc. etc.

Are you or your friends using NWA all the way or SQ in between? We are trying to use our miles and it seems so messy with all these alliance airlines schemes....

What is the best route if we were to cover NY, Florida, Niagara Falls in 3 weeks?