Travelling to the USA and bits of Canada

Bubble181

Bubble181

Canadians might remember my posting in the Canadian thread a while back that my girlfriend and I would be going on a vacation to DC and Western Canada. Since I wanted to go to Canada, and she wanted to go to DC, the plans have undergone some slight changes. Because of course.
Anyway, in May, we'll be doing a tour including New York, Washington DC, Niagara falls, and...well, probably a bit of Quebec/Montréal/Ottawa/Boston/Philadelphia.

Her suggestion was:
3N NY
1N Boston
3N Quebec
2N Ottawa
2N Niagara Falls
3N Washington DC.

Now, I already know I'd prefer at least one more day in Washington (she has friends living there, which is why we need to go there, and I want to be able to spend at least one full day in the Smithsonian). I also don't think we need 2 nights at Niagara...and I'm not sure Quebec is worth the detour - going only as far north as Montréal would cut a few hours of driving out.Oh, and since she isn't familiar with how transatlantic flights go, she has one night too many for the time we have :p
Anyway, there's plenty of you out there, so I was wondering if there were any tips to be had. Mind that I've visited NY and Washington before, but she hasn't. And while I might be able to persuade her for one rendez-vous with some stranger from the internet, I probably can't convincr her to do that every day :p
Since we'll be doing mostly city stuff in NY and DC, I'm hoping to add in more nature sights/hike thingies for the rest; this doesn't mean I'm not willing to go to the center of the other cities to see something worth seeing, of course :)
 
Dei

Dei

There are different things to see in Niagara Falls in the sense that you could do one day on the American side and one day on the Canadian side, but you could also potentially do those things in one day. Also, make sure you aren't underestimating your driving time, because it's a pretty long drive if you are doing DC last.
 
Emrys

Emrys

Come to Saskatchewan! You can be attacked by visit the doomweasels and recuperate sleep in the barn.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

You have to go on Maid of the Mist when you do Niagara falls. Its a boat that takes you right up to the falls. They have it on both sides so it won't matter which country your'e in.
 
Dei

Dei

Do the walking tour where you can go under the falls on the American side, the Canadian side is lame for that.
 
Jay

Jay

Quebec City? I guess it's OK but you're from Europe right? Nothing to see there. Hope you speak French. :)

Montreal though? It's worth a visit at most 3 days... though 2 days is enough as it is.

If you need anything, I'd be glad to host and entertain the better places for sightseeing and of course... food.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

I can give some suggestions for NYC and Philly, both for big touristy stuff and smaller, not-going-to-break-the-bank stuff, like food and such.

And *ahem* New Jersey can be quite lovely, but we will probably be your pass-through from NY to Philly or NY to DC, because that's who we are: a highway between major cities. :(
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

LittleSin said:
Hm...flying from Belgium, correct?

Will you be stopping over in Iceland or Newfoundland for refuelling? :D
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Amongst the routes I looked at, there were stop-overs in Helsinki, Kopenhagen, Reykjavik and Miami (yeah, don't ask me - some operators make seriously fucked up routes) - but none in the Frozen Wastes, no.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Bubble181 said:
Amongst the routes I looked at, there were stop-overs in Helsinki, Kopenhagen, Reykjavik and Miami (yeah, don't ask me - some operators make seriously fucked up routes) - but none in the Frozen Wastes, no.
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Yes... come through Florida! We have... umm... mosquitoes?
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

LittleSin said:
WTF. Miami?

And awww. :(
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I know, even further out of the way than Kopenhagen was :p It also took 24 hours, but hey.


Other question: we'll be doing most of this by car. Now, obviously, a car in NY is completely useless. As far as I remember, a car in DC is pretty much unnecessary as well. But car rental places are, of course, at or near the airport. Does anyone have experience, price- and practicality-wise, if it'd be a good idea to only rent a car from the moment we leave NY to the moment we get to DC (or vice versa, whatever), going to and from by taxi, or will it be more economical/practical to just take the car from the moment we arrive to the moment we leave, even if it's just standing still for 3 or 4 days?
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

Are you factoring in driving time to your schedule? Because you will spend an awful lot of it in the car for this trip, almost 30 hours of pure driving.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

That's something many Euros don't quite get about the US. Even though we do have all these wonderful highways, it takes a long ass time to get from one point to another in some parts of our country.

Driving from Maine to Florida takes a good three to four days, mostly due to the congestion around the Boston-New York-Philly-Washington area.

I often complain to my relatives that I am a WINO - Wisconsinite In Name Only - because I don't live in the "inhabited" part of the state. It takes me a half-hour to get to something resembling civilization in Wausau, and another three-four hours to get to my old stomping grounds in the southeastern part of the state.

And realistically? Wisconsin is just a tad bigger than Germany in terms of size, with fewer mountainous regions* and a huge inland sea that we call a "lake" on the one side. To add to that, Wisconsin is 23rd in ranking among area of states. There's 22 states that are larger - in a few cases, much larger - than us.

So keep that in mind.



* - Okay, practically no mountainous regions. I mean, for cryin' out loud, the highest point in the state is only 595m (1,951.5 ft). The highest point above surrounding terrain is Rib Mountain - and that's only 230m above the Rib River valley.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

We've had to rent cars/ trucks before, so you're better off waiting to get the car when you're ready to drive. There is non-paid parking in both cities, but it's a fight to get it, and then you have to worry about alternate side of the street parking, etc., and parking garages will cost more than they're worth. You're not going to save any money or aggravation by getting them early. And while I'm not sure about DC, depending on which rental chain you use, not all their locations in NYC are right next to the airport. (Although the ones nearest the airport will be the best price-wise.)
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

jwhouk said:
That's something many Euros don't quite get about the US. Even though we do have all these wonderful highways, it takes a long ass time to get from one point to another in some parts of our country.
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I've had to explain this to foreign relatives. They were like "Oh, let's drive to New York City and Washington DC!" And I'm like, "That's going to take AT LEAST 8 hours by car." When they asked about LA or Hollywood, I had to break out a fucking map to drive the point home.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

A gal who's a moderator on another comic forum I frequent visited the states from the UK. She is now all too aware of how far away things are from each other in the US. She actually came up to visit with me (albeit in the Wausau area) from her "base" in Indiana. It's a good thing she had a fellow forumite who could drive the eight hours up here.
 
Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

If you ever go to Atlantic city, do not stress on what to eat on the boardwalk as pretty much all the food tastes the same. Also the boardwalk and the casionos are the only real interesting part of Atlantic city, not much to explore.

Now Philadelphia- THAT is a city. Its impossible not to find somewhere to do something. Go to a museum, look at amazing architecture, spend all your money in South street and wonder if it was worth it, plenty of options.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Eh. This trip is 2.200 km of driving over 14 days. My last vacation in tiny little Europe was 5.600 km of driving over 17 days. I think I'll manage just fine. It's why we'll probably cut Quebec in favour of Montréal - takes some 400 km off the total. Yes, the USA is big, but if you go all over Europe, it's easy to drive just as long. I admit many people do have that blindness here, though - many Belgians think I drive "long distances" because my parents and parents-in-law live on opposite sides of the country...220 km apart. Heh.

For endless drives, I think South Africa was the worst. I think we did 5.000 km in 9 days - that pretty much turned into "sightseeing from the car". Of course, that was the intention for part of that trip, too.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

I think the only place where it would be worse to drive is Australia, but that's because of everything that can go wrong out there.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Bubble181 said:
many Belgians think I drive "long distances" because my parents and parents-in-law live on opposite sides of the country...220 km apart. Heh.
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There are those who think I'm crazy just because I drive 112km every day to go to work.
Please...I have much better explanations.

--Patrick
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

jwhouk said:
Meh. That's what, the equivalent of driving from Milwaukee to Chicago every day?
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Nah. My round trip is 70mi, that round trip is 185mi, so about a third of that.
Though I will admit that I want to inflict unpleasantness whenever someone whines, "You want me to drive there? But that'll take me twenty minutes!*"

--Patrick
*All drawn out like "TWENNNN-tee MIINNNNNNN-əts."
 
Dei

Dei

It takes me *at least* 20 minutes to go anywhere that isn't the grocery store just because of the way Colorado likes to sprawl and keep open space between every town.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

PatrThom said:
Nah. My round trip is 70mi, that round trip is 185mi, so about a third of that.
Though I will admit that I want to inflict unpleasantness whenever someone whines, "You want me to drive there? But that'll take me twenty minutes!*"

--Patrick
*All drawn out like "TWENNNN-tee MIINNNNNNN-əts."
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Someone legitimately commented on how great it was that I could handle doing a long distance relationship with my girlfriend. Its a 25 minute drive between our houses at most.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

blotsfan said:
Someone legitimately commented on how great it was that I could handle doing a long distance relationship with my girlfriend. Its a 25 minute drive between our houses at most.
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Yah. I handled a long-distance relationship for two years that was 300mi/480km round trip every two weeks, and there were times I might forget something at home, so I would just drive back home to get it (another 300mi). Seriously, a 4-5hr drive for me now is a minor inconvenience, at best.

--Patrick
 
Jax

Jax

Bubble181 said:
Eh. This trip is 2.200 km of driving over 14 days. My last vacation in tiny little Europe was 5.600 km of driving over 17 days. I think I'll manage just fine. It's why we'll probably cut Quebec in favour of Montréal - takes some 400 km off the total. Yes, the USA is big, but if you go all over Europe, it's easy to drive just as long. I admit many people do have that blindness here, though - many Belgians think I drive "long distances" because my parents and parents-in-law live on opposite sides of the country...220 km apart. Heh.

For endless drives, I think South Africa was the worst. I think we did 5.000 km in 9 days - that pretty much turned into "sightseeing from the car". Of course, that was the intention for part of that trip, too.
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Distance isn't everything, don't forget the difference in speed limits though.. From what I can see, most of your trip you'll be able to go 105 or 110 km/h. It might not seem much of a difference (unless you compare it to Germany :p), but with such a large total distance to cover, it'll count.
 
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