planning help needed please - first time booking diy and want to fly into NY and return from Boston

[sunseeker100]

hi everyone

after a great fourth time to Orlando and just back last week thoughts turned to next year. we'd like to do something different so are thinking of New York followed by Boston, with maybe some driving around the Boston part before flying back into Manchester.

I've not booked anything like this before so a bit unsure where to start. I did some searches on the forums on here and have managed to put some flight info into Kayak but I have no idea if that is the best place to start

so I can start to look at prices etc could anyone give me an overview of your steps when planning something like this please? eg.
- do I nail down flights first? If so is a multi ticket the best option or is two one way flights as good? we're looking at maybe Sept 19 but not really settled on a time yet. have no constraints for school hols or anything
- what comes next? accomodation? would you book into hotels via expedia for example or is it better to use Airbnb or Holiday lettings in some areas?

I've looked at a couple of trip reports to get some ideas of what to do whilst there... so it's the logistics that is stumping me at the moment. any advice gratefully received, including pointers to trip reports

I really need something to plan for haha

[Buzz242]

Were doing a similar trip this summer. We fly from Manchester to New York for four nights then we're catching a train to Boston. Once in Boston we have rented a car for 4 days and are visiting Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard etc then returning to Boston for a further 3 nights before flying home from there.
We got lots of advice from reading other posts and trip reports which have been invaluable.
We booked our flights first, Virgin were actually the most competitive for our dates - I'm restricted to school holidays so not cheap but certainly less than we pay for Florida and California.
We have booked our accommodation through a variety of websites - Expedia, booking.com and travel republic.Once we had flights and hotels booked we have gradually added other things like Amtrak tickets and car hire. This weekend we intend to sort out our attraction tickets.
Happy planning !

[P&S]

We flew to NY for 5 nights then got the amtrak up to Boston for 4 nights and flew home from Boston, this was with Virgin and coming home we just had a quick stop over at Heathrow then back to Manchester.
We booked our flights and Amtrak then the hotels.

[marypoppins38]

We have done a few multi Centre holidays and usually book it all with Expedia. Bear in mind that you get a really good discount on your hotels when you book flights+hotels together through them.

[sunseeker100]

Originally Posted by Buzz242

Were doing a similar trip this summer. We fly from Manchester to New York for four nights then we're catching a train to Boston. Once in Boston we have rented a car for 4 days and are visiting Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard etc then returning to Boston for a further 3 nights before flying home from there.
We got lots of advice from reading other posts and trip reports which have been invaluable.
We booked our flights first, Virgin were actually the most competitive for our dates - I'm restricted to school holidays so not cheap but certainly less than we pay for Florida and California.
We have booked our accommodation through a variety of websites - Expedia, booking.com and travel republic.Once we had flights and hotels booked we have gradually added other things like Amtrak tickets and car hire. This weekend we intend to sort out our attraction tickets.
Happy planning !

See more...

thank you that's really helpful and sounds pretty much what we're hoping to do. can I just ask about your flights, did you find a multi centre ticket on Virgin's website? all I can see is one way or return options. Or did you book 2 one way tickets?

[sunseeker100]

Originally Posted by P&S

We flew to NY for 5 nights then got the amtrak up to Boston for 4 nights and flew home from Boston, this was with Virgin and coming home we just had a quick stop over at Heathrow then back to Manchester.
We booked our flights and Amtrak then the hotels.

See more...

Amtrak is looking like a popular option so going to look into that, thank you

[Buzz242]

[QUOTE=sunseeker100;13271182]thank you that's really helpful and sounds pretty much what we're hoping to do. can I just ask about your flights, did you find a multi centre ticket on Virgin's website? all I can see is one way or return options. Or did you book 2 one way tickets?[/QUOTE

I believe we ticked a box that said return via another route and that allowed us to fly into New York and out of Boston. We've done this many times in California booking through Netflights.