Hey reddit. I (from Europe) are going on a holiday down the east coast of America in late August. I have only 2 weeks due to work commitment and I haven’t got my driving license yet
What are some of the best tourist places to visit? I like sightseeing (both city and nature), enjoying the local cuisine/food/culture, and pretty much everything else (although I’m not a huge fan of museum but I’ll go to Smithsonian).
The itinerary in my head looks something like this: Boston -> New York -> Washington -> Miami. The main difficulty is I haven’t got my license yet,. Where are some of the places I can take public transport/train/airplane to go there?
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I think you will be okay without a driver’s license for the most part in those cities. You can try using Megabus or Amtrak to go from city to city. Those cities themselves are big enough to have some public transportation options.
You can take trains Boston > NYC > DC, but you’re going to need to fly to Miami unless you’re cool with spending like 20 hours on a Greyhound bus.
Step 1: Get a valid Drivers’ License. You are an adult.
NYC, Boston and DC have public transit systems (subways) that are easy to navigate, safe and generally reliable. You do not need a car to explore these cities. As well, there are commuter rails and ferries to get you to other parts of the greater area.
Miami has public transit, and a neat “people mover” in the downtown core. But outside of a few very walkable tourist neighborhoods, a lot of the greater metro is heavily car dependent.
Seeing nature will be challenging without a car. While there are lovely city and suburban parks – the best stuff requires drive 45m outside of these cities. Unless you’re willing to shell out for an Uber, might be something to avoid.
In terms of specifics (food, cultural sights, etc) – search the city’s subreddits for suggestions.
You will probably need to fly to Miami, the rest are accessible via train.
Miami to Boston is roughly the same distance as Porto to Rome, so it would be a very long train ride.
Four cities in two weeks is a busy travel itinerary. You’re going to spend a lot of your time travelling between cities. You can take trains pretty easily between NYC, Boston and Washington DC (https://www.amtrak.com/acela-train) but the journey south to Miami will take a long time. A quick internet search tells me “Traveling by train from Washington DC to Miami usually takes around 51 hours, but the fastest Amtrak Silver Service train can make the trip in 27 hours and 31 minutes.”
Scratch Miami if you don’t have a license, or frankly even if you had one. Unless your flying your going to spend too many chunks of your vacation traveling to Miami and back.
NY, Boston and DC will have more than enough to keep you busy for two weeks. I’d even throw in Philly or something.
This seems like a pretty good plan. There are good train connections between Boston, New York, and DC, and getting around with public transit there is easy. You can then fly from any of those cities to Miami.
Not 100% sure what the PT situation in Miami is, but I think it’s a fairly bikeable city. If you’re planning to visit Miami, I’d probably plan to make it the last stop; that way you don’t lose a bunch of time flying South and then back North.
If you like planes, the Air & Space Museum by Dulles is amazing.
Ditch Miami if you can. It’s nowhere near as cool as what movies and tv have led you to believe.