California to Maine Summer 2021

jkwilson wrote:
Around the 4th of July, you are just about guaranteed to hit minimum 2 or 3 night stays. You may also come across that on other weekends some places. You may need to book the same place for the 3rd and 4th at least.

bukhrn wrote:

Crowe wrote:

awoodwaring wrote:

bukhrn wrote:
Looks like a lot of driving and not much touring/Site seeing, you've entirely left out the Boston, Cape Cod, Salem area, and only 2 days in Scarborough, out of all of Maine, not to mention missing all of Vt just to overnight at Alburg, then on to Clayton, far more to do in Alexandria Bay, than in Clayton.
Unless there are some specific attractions to the places you've listed, i'd give serious consideration to revamping the list.
OF course I understand if there are time constraints.

Foxborough seems like the closest I could get to Boston. Is there a closer site?

Also, figured we could see Cape Cod while in Sandwich.

Salem would be from Foxborough to Maine. Is it more than a day trip?

I’ll look at Alexandria Bay...not at all familiar with the area, just trying to pick points along the route ??

Foxborough is about as close as you can get to Boston. The alternative is Boston Minuteman Campground in Littleton, MA. Keep in mind that we speak of traveling in terms of time and not distance. A rush hour into the city can be a 2-3 hour trek at the wrong time of day from either spot.

Bourne is the Cape as is Sandwich. It's about a 2 hour drive to get from Sandwich to Provincetown.

Foxborough to Scarborough is a few hours. You can easily spend a day in Salem.
you can also spend a day doing the Freedom Trail In Boston, tons of History, it's only a 2.5 mile walking trail, but it's , walk, stop and site see, then repeat over and over, plus a lunch Stop at Feneuil Hall, and a visit to the USS Constitution, it'll eat up the better part of a day.
Plus, if you stay near Bedford, at the Hanscom AFB, you're in close proximity to Lexington and Concord.
No matter where you stay, make use of mass transit,(bus & Subway) as driving in downtown Boston is a nightmare in it's self, you couldn't force me to drive downtown with a big stick.



There are some on here who will tell you it's a doable trip as "they've done worse". Question is do you want to just visit or explore? You don't have much of a buffer to factor in weather, traffic, unexpected illness or any other unexpected issue. A teenager is going to get bored just sitting in a vehicle. I agree with others who have said you might want to rethink your itinerary.

DrewE wrote:
I would consider whether it would be better to concentrate only on the New England area sites you're interested in, and skip most or all of Pigeon Forge through Philadelphia or so; or maybe concentrate on the southern areas, and skip the northeast. Maybe seeing less but in greater depth would be a better use of your vacation time--more vacationing and less traveling.

For the southern parts, spending some time around Washington, DC is well worth consideration. There is so much to see and do in the city, much of it free of admission charges. (Possibly you've already been there...in which case driving on by kind of makes sense.) Similarly, New York City has much, much more to see and do than can possibly be seen and done in one overnight by the city.

(I feel it's my civic duty to point out that Vermont is a wonderful state and, while basically driving through it is pleasant, stopping for a day or two is even more pleasant!)

For what it's worth, most if not all of the states in the northeast opened their state parks to camping over last summer, many somewhat delayed. Quite a few did and still do have quarantine requirements for people entering. A great deal probably will change before next summer on that front. However, I would not rule out state parks at this point for pandemic reasons when planning; I don't think they're particularly more or less likely to be available than private parks in the timeframe you're considering. I could be wrong, of course.

TenOC wrote:
It looks to me like your plan is to rush to the East Coast to see historical sites. If so here are some of my thoughts.

Depending on the size of your RV, camping at Cracker Barrel will be very tight Walmart Or a casino is a better choice If you only plan to sleep for the night.

You have missed a large number of national parks. For example you can see the key elements of Yellowstone in a day. You can also spend a lifetime seeing the important elements of Yellowstone.

Check with some senior citizens tour bus routing and see how they see an area of the country in a very short Amount of time.

dedmiston wrote:
That looks like an AMAZING trip.

There's going to be a lot of competition next summer for reservations next summer. That shouldn't stop you though.

One question/suggestion for you...

Is your adult daughter still in school, or is there any business constraint that borders your family into the summer months? What would you think about pushing the trip back by a month or two? We typically travel in the fall, and the combination of smaller crowds and nicer weather is incredible. If you came home in October instead of August, it would be a totally different trip.

Other than that though, this looks amazing. It's a lot of driving, but there's nothing wrong with that.

What's your strategy for pivoting if your plans get off track a little? Some of those days look pretty long, like Cheyenne to SLC. Nobody ever realizes just how wide Wyoming is, until they try to cross the state like that. Our daughters went to university there in Laramie, and I swear it took a day to get from Laramie to Evanston on the UT border. Our kids could make it all the way home in a day, but they were young and dumb.

What's your plan for reservations? Will you book every spot that needs rezzies, or hope for the best?

Based on some of your stops, I assume you have military IDs. Thank you for your service.

Crowe wrote:

awoodwaring wrote:

bukhrn wrote:
Looks like a lot of driving and not much touring/Site seeing, you've entirely left out the Boston, Cape Cod, Salem area, and only 2 days in Scarborough, out of all of Maine, not to mention missing all of Vt just to overnight at Alburg, then on to Clayton, far more to do in Alexandria Bay, than in Clayton.
Unless there are some specific attractions to the places you've listed, i'd give serious consideration to revamping the list.
OF course I understand if there are time constraints.

Foxborough seems like the closest I could get to Boston. Is there a closer site?

Also, figured we could see Cape Cod while in Sandwich.

Salem would be from Foxborough to Maine. Is it more than a day trip?

I’ll look at Alexandria Bay...not at all familiar with the area, just trying to pick points along the route ??

Foxborough is about as close as you can get to Boston. The alternative is Boston Minuteman Campground in Littleton, MA. Keep in mind that we speak of traveling in terms of time and not distance. A rush hour into the city can be a 2-3 hour trek at the wrong time of day from either spot.

Bourne is the Cape as is Sandwich. It's about a 2 hour drive to get from Sandwich to Provincetown.

Foxborough to Scarborough is a few hours. You can easily spend a day in Salem.
you can also spend a day doing the Freedom Trail In Boston, tons of History, it's only a 2.5 mile walking trail, but it's , walk, stop and site see, then repeat over and over, plus a lunch Stop at Feneuil Hall, and a visit to the USS Constitution, it'll eat up the better part of a day.
Plus, if you stay near Bedford, at the Hanscom AFB, you're in close proximity to Lexington and Concord.
No matter where you stay, make use of mass transit,(bus & Subway) as driving in downtown Boston is a nightmare in it's self, you couldn't force me to drive downtown with a big stick.



There are some on here who will tell you it's a doable trip as "they've done worse". Question is do you want to just visit or explore? You don't have much of a buffer to factor in weather, traffic, unexpected illness or any other unexpected issue. A teenager is going to get bored just sitting in a vehicle. I agree with others who have said you might want to rethink your itinerary.