<p>Hello! I am currently a rising junior and I am planning to go visit several colleges back east next spring break. My mother, being rather unfamiliar with the east, has delegated me all responsibility in planning the trip. I myself am not too familiar with the east coast which is why I thought I'd ask for advice from people on these forums.</p>
<p>I plan on visiting the following colleges over an eleven day period: Middlebury, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, George Washington, American, and the University of Mary Washington.</p>
<p>I've begun planning my itinerary for the trip and as of now, it looks like this:
Day 1: Fly to Vermont. Visit Middlebury.
Day 2: Continue Middlebury visit. Leave for Boston.
Day 3: Visit Tufts. Sightsee Boston.
Day 4: Finish up Boston visit.
Day 5: Leave for Baltimore. Visit Johns Hopkins.
Day 6: Continue/finish visit in Baltimore.
Day 7: Leave for DC. Visit Georgetown. Visit George Washington.
Day 8: Finish up GWU visit. Visit American. Sightsee in DC.
Day 9: Continue sightseeing in DC.
Day 10: Visit Mary Washington.
Day 11: Fly from DC home.</p>
<p>Does that look like a reasonable plan? Are there ways we can cuts costs, i.e. staying in a hotel that has deals with the nearby college? What are the best ways to travel from city to city? Also, it'd be helpful if someone could recommend some things to see in each city.</p>
<p>I'm not sure I would fly into Vermont. You are going to need a car anyway...fly into Bradley Airport (Hartford/Springfield) or fly into Boston. You can drive to Middlebury easily from Hartford or Boston. You should also check costs to fly to Manchester NH. Sometimes that can be less expensive. What airport were you planning to fly to in Vermont??</p>
<p>Hi tiramisu -
Assuming you are coming from the West Coast, you will use up basically all of day 1 in travel, especially as you "lose" 3 hours in the time change. So other than seeing Midd at night, your Middlebury visit would be Day 2. Your Day2-4 schedule works. But you can count on a good 8 hours drive Boston-Balto. So JHU will basically be Day 6. The rest of your schedule works.</p>
<p>Agree with thumper you should check on flights to Boston/Manchester before committing to the idea of flying into Vermont - not much doing re airports in Vt.</p>
<p>Final question is whether you should be looking at any more Boston area/New England schools. Ditto schools between Boston and Balto (the whole Phila, eastern Pa area in particular). Not trying to dissuade you from your list, just that if you're only going to be here once. Of course, it could have the result of making your trip jam-packed.</p>
<p>I, personally, would plan to drive all of the trip except your first flight into New England and your flight out of DC (here you should consider Dulles/Reagan National and BWI as possible airports). It is very do-able. If you can take more than the 11 days, I would go slower between Boston and JHU, adding schools along the way such as other Mass/ Trinity in Ct., and some of the Penn as I said.</p>
<p>Let us know what the common thread is in your college list and we might have better guidance.</p>
<p>P.S. Good for you for doing all the planning. You can use college websites most of the time for ideas on hotels/motels along the way. I recommend booking them all on-line before you leave as you don't want to be driving late and not sure where you can stop.</p>
<p>Definitely check out Manchester, NH. They are served by Southwest. The other option would be to fly into Burlington, VT. I have no idea about fares.</p>
<p>I know that you can fly one-way Manchester/Philly or Boston/Philly for $29 to $79 dollars. That's cheaper than driving. I suspect that similar deals may be available to Baltimore or Dulles, but I don't know. Philly is about an hour from Baltimore which is about an hour from D.C.</p>
<p>There is also Amtrak train service. However, it's more expensive than the Southwest or Jet Blue airline fares.</p>
<p>The "issue" with flying between cities, or using Amtrak is whether you'll want a car once you get to destination. If so, kind of a hassle to fly/train and then rent a car, imo.</p>
<p>If you're not wedded to having a car, you can really do all your DC activities and college visits using Metro/taxi. And you can settle yourself near JHU and not need a car either, I guess. So it depends if you'd rather have a car. You could certainly take Amtrak between Balto/DC.</p>
<p>Spring break time in the northeast is notorious for snow.</p>
<p>This means flights get cancelled at the last minute. Be prepared for this.</p>
<p>I suggest you fly into Washington or BWI and then progress northward. Your flights into the east coast are more likely to be cancelled in Boston/Vermont as compared to DC/Baltimore area.</p>
<p>Plus BWI is a Southwest airlines hub -- hence cheap fares from the west coast</p>
<p>
[quote]
Spring break time in the northeast is notorious for snow.
[/quote]
I guess this depends on when you get your spring break. Here it is often around mid-April; snow not an issue. If you are talking February/March, then it's a consideration.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with the suggestion of Southwest using the Manchester, NH airport - it's about a 3 hour drive to Middlebury from there (you pass within about 15 minutes of Dartmouth on the way). The flights from Manchester to BWI are quite often $39 or $49 one way if you watch for the specials. Tufts is about equidistant (approx 1 hour) between the Manchester, NH airport and the Providence, RI airport - both serviced by Southwest and an easy one hour flight to Baltimore. If you use the Providence airport you could add a trip to Brown. An early morning flight can get you to Baltimore by 10am - driving is a solid 7-8 hour drive (add an hour to get to DC) and can be longer depending upon traffic.</p>
<p>Jmmom- I'm looking for schools with strong international relations programs with a lively arts scene, be it on campus or off.</p>
<p>I looked up the dates on my district's website and the dates of my spring break will be April 7-16. I completely forgot about the snow issue...I am coming from the west coast and having my flight cancelled would be extremely troublesome. The idea of starting south sounds good if snow is going to be a problem.</p>
<p>I have an aunt that lives in NH, so I think flying in there would be ideal since she could show us around. When we're done, I think we could take a quick flight to Baltimore (the one thing I remember from my trip to DC way back when was the traffic <em>shudders</em>) where we could then get a rental car. However, I was thinking about getting a hotel in DC rather than Baltimore seeing as how we're going to be spending more time there.</p>
<p>Did a similar tour last year. Also visited Middlebury over a weekend during the year from TX. It took us all day to fly into Burlington - you will have to conenct) then another 45 minute drive to Middlebury. You will need to rent a car or take the bus from Burlington. And watch out for mud season in April!</p>
<p>I want to differ from some of the other posters on your point of arrival--I think you would do fine with your original plan to fly to Burlington (Vermont) and then drive down Route 7 to Middlebury (assuming you are with a parent and therefore able to rent a car). It is not a long trip--maybe an hour or so at most (SoozieVt would know more precisely). You can then plot a route to Boston for your next visits. (There's no direct Interstate highway route from western Vermont to eastern New England; you will probably take Route 7 down to Route 4 and then go across Vermont on Route 4--map will tell you.) </p>
<p>I think you might want to consider driving the rest of the trip rather than using public transport. Bus/train travel can be very slow becaues of connections and poor schedules (and high-speed trains are expensive when they are running). Even flying can be less time-efficient than you'd think given the security checks and chances of weather-related delays in late winter/early spring in northeastern U.S. The distances aren't that daunting other than the Boston/Baltimore leg, and even that shouldn't be too bad--again, check AAA or Mobil books for mileage/times. If you fly form Boston to Matimore you will gain half a day but it might not be that productive a saving in terms of daylight hours/business hours needed to visit schools or tourist attractions. The the drives will give you at least some sense of the East Coast. Keep in mind thta Mary Washing is in Fredericksburg, at least an hour south of DC (and I-95 can have awful traffic), so you will need to allow some travel time for that, too as well as maybe a quick walking tour of Fredericksburg itself, which is well worth a tour (major Civil War history).</p>
<p>If you're in boston, you might as well check out the other excellent universities too. Boston College, Boston University--and even Northeastern, for safety.</p>
<p>tiramisu - Snow in the Aprill 7 and ffing dates would be very, very unusual. I agree with the idea of a hotel in DC rather than Baltimore. But you <em>might</em> want to spend that first night in Balto so you can just roll out of bed and hop over to JHU, then on to DC. Either way, just depends on how your trip details finally shape up (tour/info session times/interview appts/class visits or whatever you're going to do).</p>
<p>I'm not as familiar as others are with the Intl Relations programs, but others here can see whther you should add schools to your visit list for that. You clearly have most/all of the "key" schools already on your list.</p>
<p>mattmom - I agree with you, also, on driving vs public transport for this particular trip. I don't enjoy 8 hours in a car myself <em>at all</em>. But the time eaten up these days with the "arrive 2 hours ahead" at airports, collecting your luggage, shuttles to rentacar; the issue of scheduling for train/plane/bus travel means, to me, it just doesn't make sense for this kind of trip. You wouldn't be sitting in a car, but you would be sitting in equally uncomfortable airports and subject to cancellation hassles, etc.</p>
<p>Southwest into Manchester is a great choice, but Jetblue and Song also have some decent coast to coast fares into Boston-even nonstops. Flying into Burlington can include some very long layovers. We have done the MHT to BWI route many times on Southwest and have never paid more than $49 o/w.</p>
<p>When we visited schools in the DC area, we stayed in College Park, MD. Rates are much cheaper than in DC. We visited UMaryland and then were able to take the metro (clean& safe) from UMD to GT, GWU & AU-no need for a car in the city as traffic and parking will be a nightmare. GWU has a metro stop on campus and the others have their own shuttles to/from the nearest stops. This also gave S a chance to see how easy it would be to get around via metro. Metro system maps are available online- wmata.com. April is also cherry blossom time so the city will be beautiful but crowded-book early.</p>
<p>Keeping with the Southwest theme - the easiest way to get to Middlebury may be to fly into Albany, NY. It's about a 2 hour drive from there, and you could add Union to your visit list. I'm personally fond of Union, and Dan Lundquist (Dean of Admissions) has a very interesting take on college admissions. It's almost worth a visit just to hear his perspectives on the process. From Boston you can take Southwest from Providence to BWI. </p>
<p>DC is less than an hour drive, off rush hour, from Baltimore and you'll find the hotels considerably cheaper outside of Baltimore (e.g. around the airport).</p>
<p>I like that you've done your research and know what colleges you want to visit. With a trip of this nature, it's easy for some of the posters to say add XYZ colleges to your trip, because you will be in New England, etc. </p>
<p>Regarding American U, the new arts center is nearly complete. I just read that more AU graduates were placed into the Government's Presidential Management Fellows program, (formerly called the Pres. Mgt. Intern program, but changed for obvious reasons), than any other college.</p>
<p>I would NOT recommend driving from Boston down to Baltimore, or even Philly, for that matter, if one is not used to east coast highway signs (or lack of them) and driving manners. </p>
<p>Transitting NYC is not a piece of cake, even for those of us who have done it many a time. After all, try telling an out of stater how to go from the Merritt to the Hutch to the Cross Bronx, dodge the rockfall on the Hudson, make sure to get the turn for the GWB, listen to the traffic reports for accidents...</p>
<p>...then you discover the beauty of the NJT and its modern rest stops. Not to mention waits for tolls everywhere (remember the Delaware tolls?)</p>
<p>So yea, middle of the night with no other traffic, on that rare day they don't have most of the lanes closed for road work, you might do the drive in 8 hours. OTOH, you might hit one of those construction projects that put you in a two hour construction delay x2. Or you might, because someone suggested take the "easy" way, I-95 all the way, miss that branch in the road because you were boxed in by trucks on all sides (I-95 is solid trucks between Boston and NYC!) and could not see any signs.</p>
<p>My humble opinion: DO anything you can to avoid the drive. Anything, even a weather delay, is better than inching forward in a traffic jam to a toll booth, construction site or whatever.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Transitting NYC is not a piece of cake, even for those of us who have done it many a time. After all, try telling an out of stater how to go from the Merritt to the Hutch to the Cross Bronx, dodge the rockfall on the Hudson, make sure to get the turn for the GWB, listen to the traffic reports for accidents...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I've had good luck with the "back door" route -- I-84 through Hartford and Danbury, down the Saw Mill River Parkway past Bill and Hillary's house in Chappaqua, across the Tappen Zee Bridge, and down the Garden State Parkway. I first learned this route back in college and it's still the least painful route past NYC. Ironically, the Jersey rest stops had the cheapest gas of the entire drive from Boston to Philly last month.</p>
<p>I think the Cross Bronx to the G. Washington Bridge route is hell on earth to be avoided at all costs.</p>
<p>If you're going directly from Boston -> Baltimore, take the train. Don't bother with airline flights between the cities, the trains are far more convenient. I lived in NJ and NY most of my life and went to college in Baltimore (JHU, in fact): avoid the drive if you can (adding the part from Boston -> NY makes it worse and I agree with newmassdad that negotiating through the NY Metro Area if you're not familiar with it is likely to be horrendous). When doing college visits last year w/ my older son, we flew from CA to Boston, took the train from there to NYC, then took the train to Baltimore. (We did NOT want to do the driving, and we KNOW the area, having only moved off the east coast in '97.) Cabs and buses and subways are available in all those areas to get you to the schools you want to visit (including on into DC), and if you plan ahead, you can select either early-morning or later-evening trains that will not cut into your visit time very much.</p>
<p>There is a hotel</a> right across University Parkway from JHU that is <em>VERY</em> convenient: it would NOT be convenient to stay in DC and come up to Baltimore just for the JHU tour/visit. Stay at that hotel one night, do JHU, then head to DC and stay there for your DC visits.</p>
<p>An open round-trip air route between your home and Boston/Manchester/wherever, and then DC and your home ought to be possible. And I agree that you should look for flights home from Dulles in Northern VA or BWI in suburban MD between DC and Baltimore: don't use (Reagan) National if you can possibly avoid it. (PS: I lived in DC for 5 years also. :) I do love the east coast...)</p>