I was toying with the idea of visiting the US either next year or 2026, and not only is the northeast the cheapest destination to fly to, but to my limited knowledge offers the most things to see. (unless you can persuade me in favor of, idk, the midwest, the south, whatever)
What I was thinking of visiting:
The Empire's HQ (D.C.) - obvious choice. Imperial architecture, containing probably one of the most famous museum complexes in the world.
Annapolis, Maryland - looks like a quaint seaside town (or maybe Baltimore, MD, with its antique ships in the harbor. Though I hear it's a bit rough)
Harper's Ferry, West Virginia - John Brown! Plus, it's in West Virginia - an excuse to cross one more border.
Philadelphia and Boston have old colonizer architecture and legacy stuff... but to my understanding, basically nothing is left. No idea if there's anything on indigenous culture in that part of the country.
New York City - One of the cities, for good or ill.
I'm definitely also going to New Haven, CT. I have no idea what's there, but I have something to prove to a comrade (or get owned) 
Also I'll probably have around a week, and I should have my license by then, so was thinking of renting a car. Seemingly, the car brain is strong enough that rental fees are surprisingly low.
I think the best thing about the northeast is the nature and especially the coast. If you're going to drive, you should visit the white mountains in NH and maybe do some camping. It's legal to just camp in the woods for free there.
Coastal Maine is very touristy but nice, Portland is a little city with a surprising amount of stuff, and all the little towns to the north of it are pretty. Acadia National Park is nice solely on the off season when the crowds are less.
I like the Champlain region on Vermont and NY. In a car it's fun to take the ferry across the lake to Burlington. Also, you can visit John Brown's original farm house in the Adirondacks nearby, which is imo more interesting than Harper's ferry.
You could also ditch the car and take the train between cities. The Amtrak goes all the way up to Maine. But this does make it harder to really get into nature.
Distances between stuff tend to bloat around that area, don't they?
Actually the Northeast is like the most condensed part of the country I think. To cross the whole thing it's like an 8 hour drive, vs way, way more if you go out west. But ya Americans drive a lot and are conditioned to think that it's normal.
Its dense but can be hard to travel. Dc and N\C are notorious for being miserable if you're trying to get in or out with a car.
Yeah, I am aware. I meant Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont vs like, Maryland, New Jersey and lower New England.
You’re just panicking because you saw a mooninite lite-brite sticking out of Gosplan’s bag, didn’t you
I actually had someone from there say to me not to go lol
I'm going to read everything you post in the thickest bostonian accent I can imagine from now on, and I guess youre entitled to read this as if i were crocodile dundee or something
There's plenty of places to visit in the US northeast/mid-atlantic, but all those locations is a lot of ground to cover. You'll be driving for hours upon hours, and it might eat pretty hard into your sight-seeing time if you're only spending a week. For example, New Haven to DC would be a 7 hour drive! And that's in pretty nasty/aggressive traffic. If you're just getting your license, you do not want to be driving in NYC (or Boston).
For example, you could spend a week in D.C. alone: it would take days to experience the Smithsonian fully, and then you have all the other landmarks and museums and other attractions. Alternatively, New York City and Connecticut/New Haven would also fill a week.
The other thing to note is that if you're vacationing in the northeast, you may be able to avoid renting a car if you'd prefer. This is the only region of the country with decent inter-city train travel (Amtrak), and D.C. and NYC have well-developed subway metros.
go somewhere out west with natural beauty, best aspect of the usa
if you're renting a car do a fuckin road trip and drive to the southwest if it's winter or the northern rockies if it's summer or the west coast if it's either
there are only two small regions in the entire world that have all 3 of lions, bears and wolves. one of them is in the usa. go there
Oh... You're not from america. Locally “the northeast would be like maine and massachusetts. DC is part of tje east coast region. Uhh... How many weeks are you staying because any of those cities is several days by themselves. You're likely not doing virginia and ct in the same trip. Its an eight hour drive or 7 hours by train one way. If you want to do philly i can ask some folks the best way to do the colonial america tour these days.
Its an eight hour drive or 7 hours by train one way
I know. That's why it makes sense to visit stuff on the way.
Ya so as others have pointed out a week is not enough time to visit all these places. It would be like trying to see all of europe in a week. It would be a more enjoyable experience to focus on a specific area. NYC can be fun and has a lot to do but its very expensive. Expect to spend like 500-800 USD per day and thats with a cheap hotel and not eating at any fancy places. If your like dead set on it you could fit max like 2 or 3 cities into a week but your gonna be missing out on a lot, and spending hours traveling you could be having fun during.
If you really wanna do it tho this is what id suggest as someone who has seen a good bit of the east coast myself.
Fly in to the nothern most city you want to see, probably Boston it sounds like? Spend maybe 1 or 2 days there, take a BUS to NYC(you can arrange to have a couple hour layover in philly to get a cheesesteak if u want). Buses are THE budget travel option in the US. Greyhound, flexibus, etc. Way cheaper than a train and faster usually too. Spend a few days in NYC, then BUS to DC. Youll arrive at union station. Its massive and beautiful. Big marble work, and vaulted ceilings. Awesome architecture. The national mall and museums are the only thing really all that worth seeing in DC imo. You can hit up the ones you want to see in a day or so.
To burst your bubble a bit you mentioned getting your drivers license so i assume your young. In the US you have to be 21 to rent a car. So if you arent yet then thats a no go regardless of if you can drive. Uber and rideshare is probably gonna be your fallback in that case.
Id try to spend the most time in NYC as its the place with the most to see and do altho if your really into historical stuff maybe DC will be more your thing. Or Boston ive never been to Boston so idk how historical it is. You can find lists of attractions for each city online and choose ones you like.
Honestly tho you didnt mention it but if i was gonna see the US for the only time and had a week id go for the natural wonders of north america not the man made stuff since that u can find anywhere. But stuff like the grand canyon, yellowstone, the redwoods, etc are pretty unique.
800 Km is not that much, especially if you divide the route between several days, unless you travel on rural roads with low speed limits. But yeah, it's probably wise to shorten the amount of driving necessary, as a passenger or not.
Also, I'm gonna be 26 next autumn. I didn't get my license earlier because it was not really necessary and I didn't have my shit together anyway. Now I am employed and have a long commute, so driving would take around an hour and a half daily off it.
How feasible would it be to stay in say Newark and take public transportation to NYC? To my understanding, the surroundings of NYC are cheaper.
How feasible would it be to stay in say Newark and take public transportation to NYC?
Very doable, I've done it before (but not recently, so can't comment on prices) However be aware that the traffic chaos surrounding New York is probably even worse than in the city proper.
800km is kinda simplifying it. For example if you hit traffic, if roads don't go the way you want them to. The region has a mountain range right there, and youd have to cross it to get into west virginia. Especially around major cities you could get stuck in traffic for HOURS going in and out of a city like DC if you are doing it at the wrong time. Its not gonna be as simple as driving down a street 800km. Now can you do it? Sure. Im just trying to make sure you know what your in for here lol. And hopefully if you do decide to go that route you can avoid some of those pitfalls. By doing things like parking at the outskirts of a city and using public transit to get around inside it. Altho i will say i've used DC transit before and its kind of a nightmare compared to somewhere like NYC. I tended to just use Uber there.
The main reason tho im saying a week isnt enough doesnt have anything to do with the travel distances between these places. Its that your just not gonna be able to fully experience each place you go before you have to leave. These are MASSIVE cities mostly, and your gonna be very time limited and miss out on some cool stuff in each city. If you think maybe youd want to ever do a trip like this again i would just do 1 city this time really see it in detail, and then do another spot the next time.
A good example of this is the statue of liberty. If you wanted to see just the statue of liberty it takes legit HOURS the ferries only leave at certain times of day, and your on the island for like awhile too. Just doing thats gonna take up an entire morning and probably well into the afternoon. That is just 1 thing to do in NYC. They have museums, cool stores you wont find elsewhere, parks, restaurants, etc. You could spend a month in NYC and still be seeing new stuff everyday.
If you're looking for nature, go around and avoid NYC, hike hudson valley or the delaware water gap
Honestly not the best time of year for it but I do have a soft spot for the turn of the century holiday architecture on the Jersey Shore, especially the twin lights lighthouse
If you have a student ID for museums, you can also save a lot there
If you have a student ID for museums, you can also save a lot there
unfortunately I've already been taken by Capital... but I do have to go to vocational school twice a week for three years. I wonder if that's good enough
I'd do Amtrak between the major NE cities to Philly, DC, and split. Maybe rent a car and head to Shenandoah if you're curious about the nature, or up to Maine from Boston. Don't really need to do tourism elsewhere it's all highways and corn fields even if the weather is nice, and some national parks that are cool but not worth the added cost I'm sure.
Good chance there's something to do in NYC if you look but there's a good local music scene in Philly, we also have a football club but no idea on schedules. I'm not sure if I recommend tourism in the US.
Skip Annapolis, or at least you only need like half a day there. Philly is really cool these days and has a great food scene. I also recommend stopping in Princeton, NJ on your way to NY since that's a train stop and has great history too. In New Haven get pizza. There's not much else there but you'll be happy you did that.
In New Haven get pizza.
Yeah, honestly that's the core of our argument lol
Conte's in Princeton is very good pie too if you end up there
You can't do all of those in a week; at least, not in any kind of meaningful way.
Boston and NYC are kind of cool. D.C. is definitely a city, but has some cool museums.
Try the crabcakes if you find yourself in Maryland.
Everywhere has good food though.
You can use Amtrak to get between Boston and DC, (Including New Haven, and NYC). D.C has a metro, NYC has an expansive subway. New Haven (and CT in general) have only just started focusing on public transportation.
What do you want to prove in New Haven?
If you want something totally different, the Fall foliage is always really pretty in New England, and October is the best time to see it.
OLD IRON SIDES, or, THE USS CONSTITUTION. Probably one of the coolest walkthroughs I’ve ever done. It’s in Boston.
Wait: you don’t even have your license and are planning on trying to rent a car? I hope you know what renting a car entails and requires. Just a heads up, homie. ❤️
I would actually push back a little against renting a car, pretty much all of the big cities on the east coast have usable transit systems, some are actually pretty great (like New York and DC). Harpers Ferry is a little out of the way, but it's served by Amtrak (one train a day), so maybe do an overnight stay or just rent a car for that day.
Yeah, a one day rental for a day trip to eastern WV or something like that sounds cheaper.
