Okay, I just spent half an hour staring at a blank page, trying to decide how and where to start. In fact, I keep thinking about things like, “How could this blog perform better?” — professional bias — while this is supposed to be some sort of diary and, in case anyone ever reads it, maybe also a source of some useful tips.
This trip was not my first, but it was the one that made me want to start this little personal project. Photography is a passion that recently resurfaced for me after lying dormant for a few years, during which I neither had the means nor the opportunity to pursue it.
Before diving into the trip itself, I wanted to leave some useful information and context about the organization below, together with a few tips that may be helpful for anyone thinking about travelling to the United States.
Group size: 7 people
Age: 2 to 80+
Budget: approximately €2,000–€2,500 per person (child excluded)
Arrival airport: Washington Dulles
Departure airport: New York Newark
We planned this trip to be accessible to people of any age, considering that we were travelling with our 2-year-old daughter and our 80+ year-old parents, and it turned out perfectly. The pace was balanced, with enough time to see everything we wanted to visit.
Day 1-3 – Washington DC
The first part of our tour was in Washington DC, a first-time visit for everyone. Well, everything on this trip was a first for everyone, except New York for me… but that’s another story.
For Washington, after hours of planning, we opted for an apartment in Crystal City. Crystal City is easily reachable from the airport using the metro system, taking the Silver Line (which runs directly to the airport) and then switching to the Blue Line, for a total travel time of approximately 30 minutes. The Blue Line is also perfect for reaching basically any point of interest in the city, including the White House (Federal Triangle stop), Arlington Cemetery, the Capitol Building, and the Pentagon.
For transportation, we bought the 3-day SmarTrip Metro Pass for about $30 per person directly at the airport, which allowed us to take unlimited Metro and Metrobus rides throughout our stay in Washington. The SmarTrip card can be purchased from the ticket machines at the airport.
We left home early for the White House as our first stop. Unfortunately, there was some kind of event that day and the entire area in front of it was inaccessible, so we had to admire the presidential residence from a bit farther away than we had expected, at least from the front.
We then moved around and went to the back of the house… or the front, depending on how you define the entrance side and the side facing The Ellipse. We took some great pictures there before moving on to see the Washington Monument. After that, we visited the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial.
Interestingly enough, there was another event taking place that day, with several veterans (I assume) arriving on board a few buses, while students of many different ages waited to welcome them.
After watching for a while from a respectful distance, we stopped for lunch. By the afternoon, we were already feeling a little tired, so we decided to head back to the metro and make one last stop at the U.S. Capitol before going home.
The second day was a bit lighter than the first. We started by going to see the Pentagon but, surprise surprise (probably not a surprise if we had checked beforehand…), you can’t approach it, stand near the gates or the fence, or take pictures. Basically, you can’t really be there. That’s probably why we were the only tourists around. A bit disappointing, but it is what it is, and we still had the chance to have a quick look around.
For the rest of the day, we first visited Arlington Cemetery, then headed to Georgetown for a walk around the neighborhood and a quick visit to the university, which was impressive, to be honest.
Assateague Park and Ocean City
The third day was when the road trip part of our journey officially started. We rented a 7-seater car (not easy to find, and it also meant we had less space for our luggage). Luckily, we only had hand baggage, but we were still pretty crammed, and then we left Washington.
The first destination of the day was Kent Island, not for any specific reason, nor because we wanted to spend time there. The reason is… we saw the massive 6.9 km-long William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge (Bay Bridge) on the map and we really wanted to drive across it. Yes, I love bridges!
Anyway, after reaching Kent Island, we continued on to Assateague State Park, our real destination.
Assateague is a stretch of land, technically an island, that features wild horses roaming freely around. It was simply amazing to take the scenic routes and see them, together with some other wild animals. We encountered some horses on the road, some on the beach, while others were much farther into the park, in areas where people couldn’t access.
We ended our day in Ocean City, just a few kilometres north of Assateague State Park. Ocean City seemed pretty nice, but we didn’t explore much. Most places were already closed and, funny enough, our hotel was also closing for the winter season the day after our stay.
Day 4 – Amish in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
The fourth day was different from what we had planned. In our original itinerary, we were supposed to go to Atlantic City for a half day of relaxation, walking along the boardwalk and seeing the “Las Vegas of the East Coast.” However, on the third day, we saw multiple news reports and weather warnings about a storm that was hitting, or about to hit, Atlantic City and the surrounding coast.
And it did.
Because of this, we decided on a last-minute change of plans and headed towards Lancaster to visit Amish Country. We joined a guided tour with a local company, riding in a buggy pulled by two horses. We visited authentic Amish farms and were told stories about the Amish community and the daily operations of the farms themselves, which, to be honest, were not that different from any other farm.
During our time there, we saw multiple Amish people. Out of respect, we didn’t take any pictures or videos of them. We observed their interesting lifestyle, hairstyles, and clothing, and we loved the fact that, despite how much the world has changed, they continue to preserve their traditions. Big respect to them!
After the tour, it was already late afternoon, and we were a bit tired after the drive from Ocean City, which had taken approximately three to four hours.
We ended our day in Reading, but before heading to the motel, we randomly discovered a nearby hill with a Chinese pagoda built on top of it, so we decided to pay it a visit. Unfortunately, the pagoda was undergoing maintenance and was not accessible, but at least we were rewarded with an amazing view of the sunset over Reading from the top of the hill.
Day 5 – Philadelphia and Princeton
The plan for the fifth day of our trip was to head to Philadelphia to visit the city centre and, especially, the Rocky Steps. Yes, it’s kind of a mainstream location, but Rocky has always been one of the favourite movies of (almost) all of us, so we really wanted to visit the iconic stairs and the statue.
Parking wasn’t difficult, although we had to walk a little bit. Then we had to wait for a while because, as you can imagine, we were not the only ones visiting the steps.
After taking a few pictures there, we went to explore the city centre, walking along Benjamin Franklin Parkway towards Logan Square. We looked for a place to have lunch but, with not much around, we ended up finding a small market and grabbed some sandwiches.
However, while having our lunch on the go, it started raining. Yep, and not just a short shower… it was really raining.
This basically ruined our plans, so my wife and I went back to the car (a 20-minute walk in the rain, with no umbrella 🥲) and then drove back to pick up the rest of the group.
We then explored the area a little by car before heading to see the Liberty Bell. We made a quick stop for some pictures, again because of the rain, and then started planning the next part of our day.
The idea at that point was to begin heading towards New York, which would be our next and final destination.
We found a motel along the way that would leave us only about an hour from New York, which was perfect since it meant we could use almost the entire following day to explore the city.
So we started driving towards it, but along the way we realised we were passing near Princeton. Since it was still early afternoon, we decided to stop for a quick visit to Princeton University.
We were genuinely astonished by the beautiful architecture, and it made us imagine what student life at an American university might be like, just as we are used to seeing in the movies.
Day 6 – Staten Island, New York
The sixth day started pretty early, as we left our motel to reach the last stop of our trip: New York. Since it was our last full day with the car, and we were planning to visit Manhattan over the following days, we decided to spend some time on Staten Island, which was also conveniently on our way to New York.
Once on Staten Island, we explored a bit by car before heading to Richmond Old Town. We parked there intending to visit the historic town centre, but before that, something else caught our attention.
Right next to where we parked was Richmond Engine Co. No. 1, the first firehouse on Staten Island (or so we were told), in operation since 1905.
The garage door was open, with the fire truck visible from the outside, so we started taking a few pictures. After a few moments, noticing us there, a young firefighter came out to greet us.
He was honestly amazing. He told us countless stories about the place and its history, showed us the truck and their equipment, and even explained some basic procedures, as well as what many of the tools were used for. It was a completely unexpected but very interesting interaction.
All nice and good, you may think?
Well… not exactly.
After a while, while this guy was still sharing stories with us, a couple of older firefighters came out from inside. They immediately sent him back in with some excuse and started talking to us themselves, asking a few questions.
They didn’t say anything rude, but from the questions they asked and the way they asked them, it was quite clear that they were annoyed by our presence and that we weren’t particularly welcome. So we thanked them and left.
The thing is, we hadn’t asked for anything and we weren’t trying to be invasive. We were simply taking some pictures from outside when the young firefighter approached us and invited us to have a look around.
We really hope he didn’t get into trouble because of it. He seemed genuinely happy to talk about his work and his passion.
Well, once we finished at the firehouse, we finally went to visit the old town centre. To be honest, there wasn’t much going on. The main road was closed to traffic and, to us, it looked more like a place used for events, memorials, and community gatherings.
That day, however, there wasn’t really anything happening.
So we simply walked around and looked at some of the historic buildings that remain there, almost like an open-air museum.
We left Staten Island in the early afternoon and headed towards our accommodation, finally ready to unload the car and do some grocery shopping in preparation for the next few days in New York.
Day 7-9 – Manhattan, New York
For our stay in New York, we opted for a house in Hoboken, which is actually in New Jersey, on the other side of the Hudson River. The location was quite strategic because we were only a 10-minute walk from the PATH station, which is basically an underground train system. It started right there and took us directly into Manhattan, with stops at the World Trade Center and 33rd Street, the latter being only about a 15-minute walk from Times Square.
Last but not least, we had an amazing view of the Manhattan skyline directly from the other side of the Hudson. Too bad the weather wasn’t ideal 🥲
Day 7: World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial
On our first day in New York, we woke up and had breakfast without any particular rush. Once ready, we took the car and headed into Manhattan. It was our last day with the rental car, and the return location was very close to Central Park, so we took the opportunity to drive around a little before handing it back.
Once the car was returned, it was approximately 11 a.m. We had planned to visit the 9/11 Memorial that day, so we took the subway, which brought us directly to the World Trade Center area.
As soon as we arrived, it started pouring rain.
And no, we were not prepared.
Even though we already had tickets, the queue was extremely long and we ended up waiting for about an hour. Since it was already lunchtime and everyone was hungry, I went to buy hot dogs for the group while we waited.
Ten dollars each for two slices of bread and a sausage.
No comment.
Anyway, once inside, we ended up spending nearly the entire afternoon there, much longer than we had originally planned.
The fact is, the memorial is simply impressive. Watching those events on television is one thing; being there is something completely different.
You feel it all: the tragedy, the fear, the panic… and you can’t stop thinking about the victims.
It was my second time visiting, but it had exactly the same effect on me as the first. I always say that anyone going to New York should dedicate a few hours to visiting the memorial.
By the end of the visit, it was already late afternoon, so we decided to walk around the area, browse a few shops, and then head back home to prepare for the next day.
Day 8: Big Bus Tour, Rockefeller Center, Times Square
For the last two days, we decided to buy the 48-hour ticket for the Big Bus Tour, which has two routes in New York.
Whenever I travel, I always like to dedicate a few hours to taking a complete tour with the Big Bus. It allows me to visit all the main landmarks and points of interest in a city while listening to interesting information along the way. After that, I can decide which places I liked the most and come back to visit them during the rest of the holiday.
Not only that, though. In this case, the buses basically covered the whole of Manhattan, so we could also use them as transportation around the city, saving some money on bus and subway tickets as well.
In the morning, we left the house and walked all along the Hudson River waterfront, enjoying the amazing view of the Manhattan skyline, even though it was a foggy day.
We took the PATH train to the World Trade Center, where we started our tour with the Big Bus.
We first completed the entire Red Line, which is the longest route and allowed us to explore Lower Manhattan. Then, at Times Square, we switched to the Blue Line and explored Upper Manhattan.
At the end of the tour, we got off at Times Square and went exploring.
Our first stop was, obviously, Times Square itself. It really felt like living in a movie, and the atmosphere was amazing. We stopped in a couple of shops and bought a present for our daughter before heading to Rockefeller Center.
Even though it was only mid-October, the world-famous ice skating rink was already open, so we had the chance to see it.
To be honest, I would have loved to have an ice-skating session myself, but I hadn’t skated in years (and even in my “prime,” I was still terrible 😂), so we settled for watching other people fall on their… backs.
Day 9: Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge and Goodbye New York
The last day was supposed to be the most relaxed one, yet it turned out to be the most intense and the day on which we walked the most.
As usual, we took the PATH train and headed directly to the Empire State Building, with the entrance ticket that was included in our Big Bus Tour package.
To visit the Empire State Building, you need to book a time slot. You don’t have to do it very far in advance though. If there are still slots available, you can even book at the last minute. The day we chose wasn’t particularly busy, so we arrived a little early, but they still let us in without making us wait for our scheduled entry time.
One thing we really liked was that, before going up to the observation deck, you pass through a sort of museum dedicated to the history of the Empire State Building, including audio and video exhibits.
Once at the top, the show began.
We had the whole of Manhattan at our feet.
The view was simply breathtaking. Everything looked so… small.
Before going up, we were a little disappointed because the weather wasn’t looking great. It was cloudy, foggy, and there were even a few drops of rain in the morning. Luckily, and completely unexpectedly, the sky cleared while we were at the top, so the view turned out to be much better than we had hoped, and we could really enjoy it.
After visiting the Empire State Building, we took the bus again and headed to Chinatown for a quick visit, where we also bought some souvenirs. From there, we continued to the Brooklyn Bridge.
We walked across part of the bridge to take some pictures, and it was incredibly busy. There were so many people that it was difficult to walk.
But… yeah, it’s understandable.
That was supposed to be our last stop, also because the Big Bus Tour had already finished for the day and we had missed the last bus.
However, since it was our final day and we still hadn’t seen it, we decided to head towards the Statue of Liberty.
We actually had a ferry ticket included with our Big Bus pass, but we simply didn’t have the time or the energy left to use it, so we decided that seeing the statue from the shore would be enough.
Unfortunately for us—and this was more or less the recurring theme of our holiday—the park from which you normally have a clear view of the Statue of Liberty was under maintenance and closed to the public.
We could only see it through a small gap between the barriers.
Good enough, all things considered.
After that, we walked back to the World Trade Center and took the PATH train home for the last night of our trip.