Two years ago, we decided to visit my uncle in Brooklyn New York. We had almost 2 weeks of vacation time to use so we decided to check out the other states in the northeast coast along the way. The good thing about this trip was that you only have to drive for few hours and you're already in the next state (as compared to West Coast road trip). Since it was summer at that time, hotels were extremely expensive. So to save money, why not camp on some states and book hotel in others. We've only tried camping once before this trip, but we bought all our gadgets. At the end, we became PRO campers!
In this blog, I'll give you tips on how I planned to get to New York City (and you can also have more or less days in one state if you'd like).
Day 1: SANDUSKY OHIO
We started driving 5 hours from Chicago to Sandusky and camped at KOA. There were tons of activities for the kids during that weekend. They had crafts, movies, swimming pool and Santa was even there because it was Christmas in July! We drove around Sandusky and went to Shoreline Park. It was a nice place to walk around. And if you love roller coasters, you can also go to Cedar Point (roller coaster capital in the world).
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| our campsite |
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| Christmas in July |
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| strolling in the camp area |
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| Cedar Point behind |
Day 2: ERIE PENNSYLVANIA
From Ohio to Erie, we drove less than 2 hours and camped there again. We went to visit Presque Isle State Park and spent most of the day at the beach.
Day 3: NIAGARA FALLS NEW YORK
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| Naigara Falls State Park |
Niagara Falls was one of my favorites and we really enjoyed the attractions. It would have been nice if we had an extra day in this place. We drove 3 hours to our hotel in Utica, NY.
DAY 4 & 5: BATTLEBORO VERMONT
The next day, we drove 3 hours to our next campsite in Vermont. We stayed 2 days in here but if I have to plan this again, I will just stay 1 day. The weather was not good because it rained most of the time. Can you imagine sleeping in your tent while it's raining? It was so cold and brutal!
DAY 6: BAR HARBOR MAINE
I forgot to mention that I only booked our places to stay up to Vermont. So because our tent was so wet from the rain, I decided to book a cabin in Bar Harbor Maine. We had a 6 hour drive to our destination. The drive itself was beautiful already. It smelled so fresh in our campsite with all those trees around.
We went to
Acadia National Park. The view was breathtaking, just like in the postcard. FYI, my cover page in my FB page was from there. We explored the park and the kids got another Junior Ranger badge. After half a day in the park, we went to downtown Bar Harbor. The town has lots of shops and restaurants. We strolled for a bit then found a restaurant to eat some overpriced fresh lobsters. About 15 mins away from downtown, I saw a small restaurant selling lobster rolls. I went down and bought one then found out that the lobsters in there was so much cheaper. So went down to have another round. Happy birthday to me, I really enjoyed my lunch!
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| Downtown Bar Harbor |
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| Twin Lobster $18 outside of Bar Harbor |
DAY 7: PORTSMOUTH NEW HAMPSHIRE
We then drove to Portsmouth and walked around in their downtown. It reminded me of our suburb here in Naperville. We hung out there for a while and watched the band at Prescott Pier. Then we headed to our next hotel in Peabody, MA, which is just an hour away.
DAY 8: BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS
In the afternoon, we drove to Cape Cod but we didn't stay very long because we still have to drive to the next state.
DAY 9:
NEWPORT RHODE ISLAND and MYSTIC CONNETICUT
We drove around Newport and there were lots of mansions in the area. Then we found Gooseberry Beach and we stayed there pretty much the whole day. It was so nice to smell the ocean again!
I almost forgot that we still need to go to Brooklyn NY so just passed by Mystic CT and went to New York.
DAY 10-12:
NEW YORK NEW YORK
We finally made it to our final destination! First thing I noticed, the traffic was horrible! It just reminded me of my days in the Philippines. I don't think I can ever drive in New York!
The next day we took the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island. My kids were so amazed to see the Statue of Liberty instead of just in TV! Then we went to Time Square and the humongous Toys R Us. Can you believe there was a ferris wheel inside? My kids were in cloud 9! We also went to see Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and had pictures of almost every celebrity statues.
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| Statue of Liberty |
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| Ellis Island |
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| Madame Tussauds Museum |
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| Time Square |
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| Ferris Wheel inside Toys R Us |
It was a lot of walking the day before so the next day was just a relaxing activity at Coney Island beach.
Last day in New York, we didn't want to go anywhere because at this point, we were just so tired from our trip and know that we had a long drive ahead of us. So we just stayed in my uncle's house, swam in the pool and had barbecue in his backyard.
We drove back along New Jersey, the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and finally made it back home in 16 hours! We saw so many states in less than 2 weeks but it was always nice to be back in Chicago!
The best season to plan this trip is around summer or fall. So next time you drive to northeast coast, you can follow my route or just choose some of it and make it an awesome and affordable family vacation!
But no matter how bad the weather was, we made the most out of it. As soon as the rain stopped, we looked for a place to rent a boat to just relax and enjoy nature. There were lots of trees in Vermont and I heard from the other campers that zip lining was great. After that we just drove around town and bought wines, maple syrups, and maple ice creams. Vermont was also known for their bridges so we searched and stopped by for pictures.
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