Update: East Coast Trip Recommendations Please!

bmo88 · April 2016

DH and I have decided to check off another bucket list trip this summer: East Coast Road Trip!

We are going to:

New York City
Boston
Philadelphia
Washington, DC
Baltimore

Most of the trip is planned around his love for baseball, so we are going to 5 baseball games/stadiums throughout the trip. The rest of the time, we will be sightseeing. We are going June 25-July 11, so a 16 day trip.

We are planning on seeing most of the standard landmarks (i.e., Statue of Liberty, Smithsonian, etc), but any suggestions for places to visit, things/places to eat or must dos would be appreciated!

hoffse · April 2016

Have you been to any of these places before? DC and Boston are my favorites from your list.

Will you be in DC for July 4? I've done that before, and it's AMAZING (but packed). You have to get there pretty early if you want a space on the national mall for fireworks, but there is so much to do there, I think it's worth braving the crowds. It feels very patriotic! If you do that, just know you probably won't be able to park close, and the metro will be mobbed after the fireworks are over.

Since you guys will have a car, I highly recommend the air and space museum's hangar. It's a little outside the city, but it's amazing. It has all the full-sized planes, helicopters, space stuff, etc. that doesn't fit into the regular air and space museum on the mall. They have some extremely famous planes, like the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bombs in Japan. It's also free to enter since it's part of the Smithsonian complex, and it's a lot less crowded than the one on the mall. I also recommend Mt. Vernon. Again, outside the city a little but really cool to see where Washington lived.

Inside DC one of my favorite spots is the Library of Congress. It's beautiful, and you can actually go to the building across the street and get a library card so you can go into the main reading room. Other visitors can only see it from the balcony. The botanical gardens next door are very cool too. They have a bunch of microclimates in their greenhouses. The national cathedral is amazing. I love visiting Georgetown and Embassy Row to see the neat houses and try to identify the flags. And then there are the museums and monuments on the national mall... my favorite monument is Jefferson's, and my favorite museum is the national gallery, with the American history museum a close second. The best food is at the Native American museum (get lunch there!).

For Boston, my favorite things are outside of the city. I once spent a day doing a Transcendentalist circuit. We visited Walden, Emerson's house, and Lousia May Alcott's house. They are all in/near Lexington & Concord, which are beautiful places. With nice weather, it's a really great day out.

When you are driving from NYC to Boston, I highly suggest making a very small detour and stopping at Mark Twain's house outside of Hartford, CT. It's a good halfway point for a break, and it's probably the best famous-person's-house-tour I've ever been on. He's a fascinating person. Their bookstore also has publications of every book or short story he ever wrote, even the ones that are really hard to find.

I'll leave it to the locals to recommend restaurants, etc. Although in Philadelphia you obviously have to get a cheesesteak. After a long search, we found a shop that only sold cheesesteak, fries, and drinks. It was a greasy/cheap place, and the food was absolutely amazing. Order your cheesesteak with whiz

smerka · April 2016

We are doing a trip this summer to Boston and Maine so I can knock four states off my list (also RI and CT). We've been told to do the Freedom Walk in Boston and I would like to check out the aquarium. In NYC, I like MOMA and the Natural History Museum.

Xstatic3333 · April 2016

If you like museums, Boston has some great ones. The Museum of Fine Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art, and Science Museum are all world class. The MFA is my favorite. Whale watching is also amazing in the summer, and can be purchased on a duo ticket with the Aquarium. Boats leave right from downtown. Do you know where you'll be staying in Boston? Most of my favorite restaurants are in the bordering towns of Cambridge and Somerville. Look up Highland Kitchen, Grendel's Den, East Coast Grill (currently closed but reopening soon under new ownership). For a beer or two, the Druid and Sunset Grille can't be beat. For a fancy dinner, try Craigie on Main. I may think of more later!

Xstatic3333 · April 2016

For reasonable food near Fenway, my go-to is Boston Beer Works. Decent and reasonably priced food with healthy options. You don't want to need to buy food in the park!

MommyLiberty5013 · April 2016

I think the Holocaust Museum is worth visiting in D.C. as well as the Ford Theatre.

bmo88 · April 2016

Thanks for the recommendations so far everyone!

I have been Washington, D.C. before for a few days. I went to the Holocaust Museum, Smithsonian, Library of Congress and the Lincoln Memorial. DH has not been to D.C. though, so we will likely repeat some of those.

DH grew up outside Philadelphia, but hasn't been back since he was 12 years old, so we will have quite a few things to do together.

jtmh2012 · April 2016

If you're willing to do a little upfront planning, go to the website of your Senator or House representative and you can request tours of the Capitol building, the White House, and/or a few others things depending on your preferences.

Erikan73 · April 2016

In Boston, check out the Duck tours, it's a land and water tour of the city. I did one out in the Cape & it was fun and I have heard good things about the one in Boston too. In Baltimore, try to leave some time to check out the harbor area. Lot of great places to eat in that area, especially seafood. For Washington DC, book yourself on a guided bus tour. You'll see a lot more in a faster period of time because you don't have to worry about driving around, parking & staying in line. They give you enough time to get a quick overview of each location. Also the bus tours sometimes get priority of getting into locations over regular visitors.

cbee817 · April 2016

NYC - MOMA, Guggenheim, Met (if you have an entire day to spend there.. it's overwhelming), Bryant Park, Central Park, NY Public Library and Grand Central are beautiful. If you want to see a show, go to the TKTS booth in Time Square. You can get tickets for shows that day at a decent price. I took DH up the Empire State Building his first time there- it's pretty neat, just have to wait in line. We love just walking around in all honestly- down Broadway, Union Square, South St Seaport is nice.. there are a lot of little neighborhoods, shops, restaurants off the large streets.

DC- I haven't been there since I was younger, but I loved the Natural History museum, Air & Space, Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial.

Boston- Harvard area was my favorite place to walk around, Boston Common, South End was nice too.

I haven't been to Baltimore or Philadelphia, so I'm not much help there. Have fun- sounds like an awesome trip!

short+sassy · April 2016

I went to NYC last May and two of both mine and my H's favorite things we did was take the Staten Island Ferry across the Bay and back. You'll go right past the Statue of Liberty. But it's also just beautiful views all around.

We also liked going to the Top of the Rock, ie top of Rockefeller Center. It's a panoramic view of NYC from all sides. Just AH-mazing!!! What we didn't know was there are tours only every 30 minutes and it's better to get your specific day/time ticket ahead of time. We ended up getting there...but the next couple tours were filled up...so we had to wait about an hour before our ticket's time slot came up.

emily1004 · April 2016

NYC- MOMA, try TKTS for discount Broadway, off-Broadway tickets.

Boston-Fenway

Philly-Independence Hall

Washington DC- Everything! It's all free, except the Newsseum, which is totally worth it. Spend a few days here if possible. There is just so much to see.

Baltimore-Camden Yards

I know it sounds a little touristy and baseball-ish but all great places to see if you've never been.

csuave · April 2016

For Philly:

The traditional tourist activities are great (Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Betsy Ross House, South Street, etc).

The Ritz Carlton is $$$$ but is my favorite hotel there. It is gorgeous. Worth going to the lobby for a happy hour drink even if you are not staying there.

Center city is very easy to get around. Very walkable and there is a limited subway. The subway might be good for going to the ball game if the game is where I think it is. A good way to see the tourist attractions and have built in transportation is one of the hop on and off buses.

This is a great "tourist" place to eat http://www.citytavern.com/ and of course there are a lot of really good restaurants in PHL. In my day I liked this place http://www.tequilasphilly.com/

beetee123 · April 2016

there is so much to do in Philly. Center city is a lot of fun. There are museums, all of the iconic sites as well as lots of great restaurants. If you venture out of the city you can visit the King of Prussia mall which is the largest on the east coast. That's right near me!

jtmh2012 · April 2016

beetee123 said:

If you venture out of the city you can visit the King of Prussia mall which is the largest on the east coast. That's right near me!

We're heading up to Philadelphia in June for a travel visa appointment. I think we just found our something to do while we're up there.

LibbyL123 · April 2016

You can come up north near me to the baseball hall of fame!!! About 3 hours from the GW bridge. It a great museum in a beautiful lake town. Just another option if you go north of NYC

bmo88 · July 2016

--------------------------Update--------------------------

Thank you to everyone who gave recommendations and tips for our trip! We are actually leaving NY tonight and going back home. After 17 days, we had a great time, but we are exhausted and ready to get back to our house (and our pups).

Overall, I am not 100% sure how much we spent yet because we will need to check totals back home, but we definitely got a lot of great deals and money savings along the way. We earned 2 free nights on hotels.com (valued at $110 each), about $150 in credit card rewards and got the following savings:

We saw two Broadway shows in NYC and found major savings:

Finding Neverland--found a discount code via ticket master that saved us $65 per ticket ($130 total). Show was awesome and magical, seats were great too.

The Lion King--we actually sat in separate rows, directly in front of each other in order to get orchestra level seats for $99 each (regular $199) from the box office. They sell "single" seat tickets that are oddly located throughout the theater for a discount. There were such great seats, the show was amazing, and the costumes and stage design were fantastic. So glad we figured out how to save $200 on those tickets.
Tours--by booking in advance, we were able to save about $180 on all the tours we took in DC, Philadelphia, NYC and Boston. We know the tours cost more in the end, but it was a great way overall to see the cities, learn about history and visit historical sites.
Baseball Games--we went to 6 baseball games at different stadiums throughout the trip (DH loves baseball). My favorite was signing up to be a Designated Driver via the Budweiser booth (I never drink anyway). By doing so, they gave me a comp ticket to get a free fountain drink at each game valued at $7. So I got $35 in free drinks!
Free Activities--we also saved a ton of money by doing free things for quite a few days. We spent very little money on entertainment in DC because of all the museum and national monument tours. We also went to the public library in NYC, walked neighborhoods, free fireworks in Philadelphia on the 4th of July (which was awesome), outdoor music concerts and a lot more.

Luckily there weren't too many unexpected expenses. We did have to buy a few items (sunblock, aloe vera, medicine, umbrella) and paid more than back home, but it wasn't too much.

Overall, we had a great time and got to do some really fun stuff. The weather was hot and muggy, but not too bad (we are used to dry Colorado weather). I don't know that we will go back to the East Coast any time soon, but we really enjoyed the trip and were glad we were able to make it happen.

short+sassy · July 2016

Your trip sounds great! I'm glad you all had such a good time.

I love all the little things you did to save a bunch of money! It just goes to show, when people take a little extra time to look for deals, they can often be found.

When I went to NYC, I was so excited to find a Groupon for the very restaurant in our hotel! You just can't get more convenient.

Update: East Coast Trip Recommendations Please!

Re: Update: East Coast Trip Recommendations Please!

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