Here are two potential coach touring holidays to the East Coast of America as an alternative to the American Heritage train tour set up by Audley Travel that we explored previously. Both tours fly into and out of Boston and flights are included in the cost.
I have received a quote from Greatdays Holidays for an 11-day sightseeing coach tour which culminates in the Thanksgiving ILLUMINATE celebrations at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 2019 or 2020. [Similar festivities are taking place in Plymouth, Devon, beginning on November 1, 2019.]
This tour has the advantage of door-to-door travel and includes tours of Liberty and Ellis Islands, 9/11 Memorial and Times Square in New York, as well as a visit to the Museum of Modern Art and Central Park.
In Philadelphia, a guided tour of the city with entrance to Independence Hall and Liberty Bell building is included, as well as entrance to Betsy Ross House, a visit to Christ Church and a visit to their Museum of Art.
In Washington DC, there is a full-day tour of Washington, Library of Congress and US Capitol buildings, monuments and memorials of the National Mall and White House visitor centre, followed by a full-day tour to Arlington National Cemetery, George Washington’s Estate at Mount Vernon.
Boston includes a full-day excursion to Plymouth and the illuminations the day before Thanksgiving and, on Thanksgiving, sightseeing including Boston Harbour, Beacon Hill, Boston Common, Copley Square, Faneuil Hall, Back Bay, Cambridge with MIT and Harvard, and Bunker Hill.
Cost will be around £3,000, so no cheaper than the Audley trip, but maybe a little easier and safer for us oldies to manage. There is a single supplement.
The second tour is more of a tour of New England but will also include Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Also an 11-day tour, we drive along the New Hampshire coast to Portland, Maine, then on to Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park, New Hampshire’s White Mountains, North Conway; on to Vermont’s Waterbury, Burlington and Killington; in the Green Mountains to Poughkeepsie, NY then on to Newport, Rhode Island and Hyannis (Cape Cod). From here to Plymouth, Mass for 400-year celebrations and return for overnight; finally to Boston for a day’s sightseeing before our flight home.
So lots of driving but spectacular scenery and if done in the autumn spectacular Fall colours. Again, this could be 2019 or 2020. Cost will be similar to the Heritage tour above.
Timing and content of both these tours is entirely up to us, so if you like either of the basic plans, just let me know.