The corridor from Boston to Washington holds a third of the country's history and about fifty million people. It is compact by American standards — the whole run is around 440 miles — which makes it the rare US road trip where the driving is the least interesting part.
Boston
Start with the Freedom Trail, a red line set into the pavement linking sixteen sites of the revolution over two and a half miles. Beyond it: the North End for Italian food, Harvard and MIT across the river in Cambridge, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, still displaying empty frames from the 1990 theft.
Newport and the Connecticut shore
An hour and a half south, Newport in Rhode Island holds the Gilded Age mansions — The Breakers and Marble House among them — built as summer cottages by families who considered seventy rooms modest. The Cliff Walk runs behind them along the sea.
New York
Two days minimum. Park the car and leave it parked; garage rates are punishing and driving in Manhattan is pointless when the subway runs all night.
Philadelphia
Independence Hall, where both the Declaration and the Constitution were signed, is entered by free timed ticket. The Liberty Bell is next door and takes ten minutes. The Barnes Foundation holds one of the great collections of post-impressionist painting, hung exactly as its founder arranged it.
Washington DC
The Smithsonian museums are free, all of them, and there are more than a dozen. The National Mall runs two miles from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial with the monuments strung along it. The memorials are open around the clock and are better after dark.
Practical notes
- Consider the train instead. Amtrak's Northeast Corridor connects all five cities centre to centre, often faster than driving and without parking costs.
- Tolls on this route are heavy; get an E-ZPass transponder or budget for them.
- Autumn is the best season — the humidity breaks in September and the foliage arrives in October.
- Hotel prices in all five cities spike midweek for business travel and drop at weekends, the reverse of most destinations.