East Coast USAs Best Trips

BEST EAST COAST USA TRIPS

Along the East Coast, sandwiched between the picturesque hamlets of New England and the gracious plantations of the South, youll find the Northeast Corridor, which stretches from Washington DC to Boston and includes Americas one-and-only truly world-class city: New York. But there is so much more to be discovered in this remarkably beautiful and fascinating area that even locals will be surprised.

After youve spent 48 unforgettable hours in Manhattan, you might want to head upstate to explore the Adirondacks or south to discover the fresh crabs of Maryland and the DuPont elegance of dollhouse Delaware. Further south theres the marvelous old-time country music scene thats sprung up in and around the Appalachians along western Virginias Crooked Road.

History buffs will be awed by Civil War battlefields while for city folk and coastal elites theres great fun to be had touring the renowned institutions of higher learning, from the Ivy League to William & Mary or eating your way across New Jersey at its all-night diners. No matter where you find yourself its guaranteed you will find something unexpected and delightful.

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The iconic East Coast has had more than a few songs written in celebration of its incomparable style. Heres a handful to get you started as you cruise the countryside.

Take the A Train, Ella Fitzgerald and the Duke Ellington Orchestra

Autumn in New York, Frank Sinatra

Summer In the City, The Lovin Spoonful

My Old School, Steely Dan

Atlantic City, Bruce Springsteen

Allentown, Billy Joel

Take Me Home, Country Roads, John Denver

Good Morning, Baltimore, Original Broad-way Cast of Hairspray

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TRIP 1

WHY GO Bold and brash New York is a city in flux, moving from one extreme to another in a few short blocks. In 48 hours get a feel for the unique pockets of the city, and do it like a local: on the run, riding the subways, immersed in Manhattans electric diversity and energy.

Start your morning with a jolt in Lower Manhattan, where thousands of hard-charging finance types come streaming into Wall St every day, determined to make their millions. Dozens of major subway and bus lines converge here, along with the Staten Island and New Jersey ferries. Harried businesspeople with swinging briefcases will bump you along as the moribund streets come alive. Take in the morning rush over a foamy cappuccino at Financier Patisserie, a Parisian-style bakery hidden inside the historic triangle at Pearl and Mill Lane, near Hanover Sq.

This is the heart of Old New York, where George Washington once slept, ate and worshiped and was sworn in as the nations first president. The tiny byways below Wall St are crooked and cobbled, small pathways through a dizzying maze of soaring skyscrapers that eventually lead you to the main thoroughfare of Broadway.

North on Broadway youll pass two more remnants of pre-Revolutionary New York, Trinity Church and St Pauls Chapel, where Washington had his family pew; ahead is the teeming chaos of Chinatown.

Merchants line busy Canal St, pushing their fake Rolex watches and Louis Vuitton on jostling passersby. Follow the foot traffic east as Canal turns slightly uphill, turning north onto Elizabeth St. The din and excitement of Chinatown will gradually fade as you move into artsy Nolita, a tiny quadrant of streets north of Little Italy. Martin Scorsese grew up on these not-so-mean streets, serving as an altar boy at the ornate marble church on the corner of Prince and Mott Sts. Long before the massive Catholic church was built in midtown, this Irish-Italian structure the original St Patricks Cathedral was the seat of the Catholic diocese.

Following Prince St to the east brings you to the Bowery, one of New Yorks most infamous streets. It used to be the flophouse for bums and prostitutes youll see the signs of wear and tear in pockmarked graffitied buildings next to brand-new condos but now its home to the avant-garde New Museum of Contemporary Art. Constructed out of seven white boxes stacked unevenly atop each other, the light-filled museum constantly rotates exhibits, bringing emerging artists and established names and mixing them together for a cutting-edge effect.

The main byway of Nolita, leafy, residential Elizabeth St, is a polyglot of languages and cultures, and has one ancient Italian butcher shop Robert De Niro fans will recognize right away. Youll get a taste of the diversity if you stop for lunch at Caf Colonial, a French-Brazilian fusion joint with a big, tropical mural on the outside wall and the classic Parisian tin ceiling inside.

Across Houston St and heading east, you are walking the border between the funky Lower East Side on your right and the iconic East Village on your left. When you come across Ave C, head north, into what used to be called Alphabet City. Comprising Aves A, B, C and D, these four streets entered pop culture lore as the backdrop to the Broadway smash, Rent, the story of young creative types struggling to make art (and the rent) in pre-gentrification New York. This was formerly a drug ghetto full of tenement squats but there are new signs of life along these prettied-up avenues, like the bluesy bar