Expedition East Coast

[CrispyA]

In 2018, we are off to the East Coast of the USA, visiting lots of states and taking in big cities and small towns, with plenty of seaside as well.

Meet the Cast

Here we are in Nashville Tennessee.

From left to right:
Hannah: ex-vegetarian, ultimate funky photo poser and the one who has all the sass.

Evan: carnivore, American sports expert and holiday bargain hunter extraordinaire.

Elizabeth: holiday planner and organiser, Queen of spreadsheets and the person who always ends up talking to random strangers.

Paul: King of the open road and guitar fan, leader of walks and grill champion

Read the Plan
Next year we are heading to the US in the relatively small window between the end of A-levels and Prom and results day in mid-August. We have booked with Thomas Cook and are flying from Manchester to JFK and back again. We got a good price and being able to fly directly from and to Manchester is a real bonus. We don't mind going from elsewhere if it makes a substantial saving but I think we will really appreciate being able to land in Manchester after that tiring overnight return flight.

We will have 4 nights in New York, staying in Queens, before getting the train to Washington DC. We will stay 3 nights in Arlington and then pick up the car for the road trip part of the holiday.

From DC, we head to Nazareth in Pennsylvania, stopping off at the Martin guitar factory nearby. We stay overnight in nearby Bethlehem before continuing to the Catskills in New York state, staying in Big Indian.

After this, we are off to Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains, staying overnight, before our next stop in North Conway.

The reason for this epic four day journey is because we want to visit Acadia National Park in Maine and it's quite a journey! We did deliberate for quite a while about whether or not we could fit both Washington and Acadia into one trip and in the end we decided to go for it. We don't mind a few long drives and one night stops and this looks like a good route for plenty of scenery.

We then have 4 nights in a cabin near Acadia. We loved our cabin in the Smokey Mountains and while this one doesn't have a hot tub, it does have a fire pit and looks very restful. We are planning some hiking and kayaking in and around Acadia and are really looking forward to the National Park.

After Acadia, we head down the coast, stopping off for a night in Portland before arriving in Boston for 3 nights. We found Boston very expensive but have got a nice looking AirBnB place a short way from downtown.

We then leave Boston and have one night on Cape Cod, followed by a night further down the coast in New Haven, before heading back to JFK to fly home.

It will be a bit different this time round - we won't have a car for the first week as we won't need one, so there won't be a first morning Walmart shop. But I think we'll manage!

Most of the accommodation is now booked, along with our train tickets. We are planning some baseball along the way - going to see the Yankees in NY and the Red Sox in Boston. Evan was originally sceptical about the whole trip as he isn't a fan of big cities and had no desire to go to New York, but once he realised the baseball opportunities, he was a lot more interested. He has also been researching the food options and is keen to try a Grub Tub!

We are also looking forward to lots of nice seafood in Maine and some deli sandwiches in NY. It will be a busy trip with lots of moving around places but that seems to suit us as a family, so we are quite excited about it. This is a big and stressful year, with A-levels and University applications, so it is nice to have something completely different to look forward to once exams are over.