East Coast USA Trip

riveratom

Hi guys,

Thinking of taking a 3 week trip in mid June / early July to the east coast of the States, starting in NYC and working my way down the east coast, preferably by train. Just wondering if anyone has any tips / advice / experience to share. I'd be travelling solo most likely, would be looking to meet up with new and interesting folks along the way!

I'd be thinking of something like NY > Philadelphia > Virginia > North and South Carolina, and maybe southwards towards Georgia and Florida. I'd be spending around 5-6 days in NY starting off.

Also would be good to know about costs - I'm thinking of no more than 40-50 euro a night for accommodation...

wolfyboy555

I will be interest to hear replies as I am doing a similar trip myself except starting in Miami and working my way up

rossie1977

trains are expensive in the states for the service they provide, there are a number of bus companies offering really cheap services from new york to philly, its cheaper to fly between cities in most cases than travel by train

as far as accommodation goes you won't get a cardboard box in new york for $40 a night, philly is expensive as well if staying downtown

cities like new york, miami etc are exhilarating, short journeys such as 3 weeks should be spent exploring as much as possible not spending the majority of the time travelling, flying from miami to anywhere is much more scenic than going by train/bus

Art_Wolf

Fully agree with Rossie, trains are simply too expensive. In terms of accommodation check out hostelworld.com if you are going solo.

Being in Boston I would highly recommend starting from like Portland, Maine hitting up Nantucket (especially in the summer) before going down to NYC.

InTheTrees

I'm a huge fan of trains.

If you've never spent a couple of days on a long distance train with your own cabin, you havent lived.

Think of it as a destination in itself, food is free, you save on a hotel and it may be more expensive than flying but who cares.

CollardGreens

Another train fan here and I agree with InTheTrees about the place to stay and food all in one. I saw a youtube about a man and his son traveling from Miami to Canada on train and it looked wonderful! I'd much rather travel on train than fly but don't know the cost. The person that said NYC is expensive is spot on, however, you don't want to come to the states without visiting NYC ~ no place on earth like IMO.

Have you thought about traveling by sailboat (large, several bedroom sailing yacht)? Not sure how you go about getting on one, but there are a lot that go from up north to the keys then back from summer to winter, it would be worth looking into if you like boats. I worked on boats back in the 90's and know some of them are more beautiful than any hotel I've seen. If you know how to "crew" you could probably get a deal. That pretty much is washing/cleaning and tying up a yacht, not hard to do if your young and healthy. [NOTE: If you can't swim this idea is out of the question].

I wish you the best, if you get to South Carolina make sure you visit Charleston (on the water) ~ loads of history there and it's just beautiful! Wilmington is the port city in North Carolina, another beautiful place but I'm partial, was born there

clairefontaine

Trains are pricey. You can take megabus, usually cheaper or renting a car might be the best because you can choose your own pace.

I'd skip Philly personally.

DC is amazing.

NYC is amazing.

Charleston is nice as CG said already.

You can forget about 50 a night accommodation in NYC or DC. That's a fantasy budget.

feargale

clairefontaine wrote: »

I'd skip Philly personally.

Why?

clairefontaine

feargale wrote: »

Why?

Because on a schedule like that, and not knowing the city I'd skip it. If you had a lot more time might be worth it.

pgmcpq

clairefontaine wrote: »

Because on a schedule like that, and not knowing the city I'd skip it. If you had a lot more time might be worth it.

Actually Philly is a pretty nice city. It's come a long, long way back since the early 90s. It's also just over an hour from NYC by train so it's.

For staying in NYC take a look at the YMCA - expecially the one on the West Side (in the high 50s iirc). Clean/safe and as cheap as it gets if you want a room of your own.

For cheaper travel look at a company called Megabus. They offer really cheap fares if you book early enough and cover most of the east coast from Boston to DC.

Nelly 21

Might be cheap enough for car hire, look into hiring a car from newark, (maybe fly into newark). works out cheaper than New York. We drove from Ny to Orlando and back again last year.I think it works out at an 18 hour drive. I found that hotels in NY and washington were soooo dear.

Orlando is def worth a visit. We also went to tampa, beautiful. You will get hotels/motels along the way for $50 that are quite nice eg comfort suites and so on. Sign up with hotels.com and from time to time they will send you discount codes. They also have some good sales.