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Hi,

I'm planning a trip to the States in early June with few friends.. the main destinations we are thinking of are Boston, NY, Washington DC and LA... we were wondering whether there are any other nice cities to stop by on our way from NY to Washington DC? Are there much to do in Philly? Will one day be enough to see the main attractions? We have about 8 days for a drive from NY-Washington.. will that give us enough time to visit main attractions in both NY and DC?

I know there are much to see in LA, but we will only have 4 days - what are the must see we should do? I guess 4 days does not give us enough time to go to San Francisco for a quick visit? What is the flight cost is like?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks

I think eight days should give you enough time to see the major sights in New York and Washington DC with a little time left to see some of the other cities along the way. 

Boston has some sights worth seeing, but many of them are related to the early history of the USA.  If you are not interested in US history, the sights in Boston may not be very interesting. New York  has many things worth seeing.  It is a large cosmopolitan city with many different sights, many museums and cultural attractions, many restaurants bars and many nightclubs. You can easily spend two or three days in New York City just seeing the main attractions.

The drive from New York City to Washington DC is only four hours.  Philadelphia is at the mid point.  You can stop in Philadelphia, see Independance Hall and the Liberty Bell downtown, eat a Philly cheesesteak sandwich for lunch and be on the road by afternoon. 

Baltimore is just one hour north of Washington DC.  It has a nice Inner Harbor area with museums, ships, and a good Aquarium.  If you are interested in shopping, the huge Arundal Mills shopping mall is located just a few miles south of downtown.

Washington DC has a lot of sights to see.  The Smithsonian Museums are the finest in the USA.  You can easily spend an entire day seeing the Aerospace Museum, the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum and the several art museums.  Many of the government buildings are beautiful to see.  Some of them are open to the public.  There are enough attractions to occupy you for two or three days, and most of them are free.

If you book your flight at least two weeks in advance, you can usually find airline tickets to the West Coast for about $200 each way.  Sometimes even as low as $150 each way.

Hello,

If you are even a little bit of a fan of Museums, I recommend allowing a couple of days for the Smithsonian Museums.  They are quite large and there's many of them.  You won't be able to see everything, so pick a couple that interest you the most.  My favorites are the Air & Space and the Natural History.  I've been to each well over a dozen times and I never tire of them!

www.usatourist.com/english/places/dc/smithsonian.html

Of course you have to see the top sights in LA:  The Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Sign, LaBrea Tar Pits, Mann's Chinese Theatre.  I wouldn't consider them the most exciting attractions.  But every city has the "must see" attractions that everyone will ask if you saw. 

Venice Beach can be an interesting stop.  Though it's not the best beach for enjoying the surf and sand, it does have an interesting culture.  This is where you can find the body builders working out on the beach.  There are bikini-clad roller bladers and eclectic artists.  And there are a lot of kitchy tourist shops where you can find a cheap souvenier. 

A lot of the studios will offer tours.  So if you are a bit star struck you can sign up for one of those or possibly get tickets to be a part of a studio audience for one of our TV shows. 

If you enjoy amusement parks, LA has a lot to offer.  Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knox Berry Farms and Six Flags all have parks in the LA area. 

www.usatourist.com/english/destinations/california/losangeles/losangeles-attractions.html

With 4 days you can easily take a day trip down to San Diego.  It's about 2-3 hours drive, depending upon the traffic.  San Diego is a much more attractive city than LA, with it's mission style architechure.  The San Diego zoo is world famous and would be on the top of my must see list. 

www.usatourist.com/english/destinations/california/sandiego/sandiego-main.html

LA to San Francisco would be a full day of driving, each way.  With the time you have, driving up would be difficult.  However you can get a flight for about $100 per person.  I just checked our Airline Reservation page for flights in mid-June and found one for $103.  You may find that some of the discount carriers offer flights for even less or will be running a special sale.  Beware that the prices you see will likely be for each way. 

You can check prices for the major carriers on our Airline Reservation page at www.usatourist.com/english/reservations/Reservations-Flights.html

And you can check Southwest, one of the discout carriers at southwestvacations.com .

Thank you so much for your replies - it definitely gives us some directions to work with :) Sounds like with the time we have we will be able to see some main attractions of the cities we are visiting !!

I was wondering whether you guys could help with where is a good website to find a reasonable accommodation? Does the vacation apartment generally a pretty good option is shared with few friends? I am not too keen on youth hostel but with everything at States so expensive, we might have to go with our last option.. We are lucky enough to have the accommodation in Boston and LA sorted, so NY and Washington DC are the 2 cities we are searching for suitable accommodation..

Thanks for your help :)

Finding reasonably priced accommodation is relative.  In a city, I would consider up to $150 a night to be reasonable for a room.  So it depends upon what your budget is.

Finding cheap accommodations, especially in New York City can be difficult.  If you are not able to spend that amount for a room, a Youth Hostel may be your best option.  Hostels in the U.S. aren't nearly as common in other countries.  But the ones that we do have are often located in ideal areas.  For hostel information and reservations check out http://reservations.bookhostels.com/usatourist.com  I did a quick search for New York in mid-June.  Their site showed over 50 options ranging in price from $20 - $100 per night.  So even some of the hostels in NY aren't too cheap!

A vacation apartment would be even more difficult to find.  Short term rentals are not common here.  I don't have any sites that I can recommend for this.  But I am sure that Googleling something like New York Vacation Apartments will get you in the right direction.  I do think that most of these rentals require a minimum stay and will likely require a security deposit.