Five weeks Travelling

[Closto]

Hi all,

Myself and my friend are heading to the States in November of this year. We are planning to travel around the Northeast for five weeks, eg. New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Detroit and Boston and then back to New York, using the Amtrak service. Obviously stopping for a few nights here and there, to really see places. My questions are -

1. Would you recommend this type of trip for two girls in their mid 20's?

2. Would there be any "must see" spots or small towns along any of the routes or anything we should really try to see on our travels.

3. How difficult would it be to find cheerful accomodation for a few nights if we were just to arrive at the different places ?

Any other coments or information about Amtrak and our travel itinery would be very helpful...

Looking forward to reading your posts..

 

[caravanman]

Well,

you should be fine as far as safety aboard train goes. You should have a good look at the Amtrak timetables, as some long distance trains arrive into town in the middle of the night. The trains are a lot less frequent than in Europe, say, but the area you mention would have a greater concentration of trains than some western states.

As for where you stay, or what you see, you might want to try posting a question on Thorn tree . You need to register, but there are lots of travel enthusiasts there who can answer some more general questions. As you can imagine a lot of your travel choices come down to personal preferences. I find train travel good value, you might consider looking at the cost of a rail pass also.

Happy Travels!

Ed B)

 

[RailFanLNK]

Take a look at the HI Hostel in Chicago. Its suppose to be "tops" for hostels. You can check out hostels at www.hostelz.com.

 

[gswager]

Explore the Amish community.

 

[boratwanksta]

if you have any time, try taking a train to Michigan, or go up to Milwaukee. i did the former just this May, and i loved going to Ann Arbor. a great college town to go to that's in Michigan that has tons of nice shops and places to sightsee and walk around, the only downside i found to going there is that almost all the motels around there are somewhat pricey(save for the Microtel on the outskirts of town). at least it has damn good public transit(even towards places not in the central part of town), moreso especially far better than you'd expect for a town its size.

Milwaukee(city just to the north of Chicago) has a great number of interesting places to sightsee too, such as their art museum(which was renovated with a beautiful new addition from architect Santiago Calatrava(sp?) a few years back). not sure how good their public transit system there is(or what its like to ride the Hiawatha Amtrak service between Milwaukee and Chicago, as i've never ridden it), but i know there's service 7 times a day in each direction every day(excluding Sundays, where only 6 trains in each direction operate). not sure about going motel rates unfortunately for Milwaukee.

still, if you don't have time for either, there's always Metra, the local commuter rail system in Chicago. serves hundreds of suburban communities near Chicago. the weekend pass is a GREAT way to see several towns/suburbs just outside of town in one weekend, and take an unlimited number of trips on Metra trains within a certain weekend(and is only $5!).