East Coast Trip Planning

Hi guys.

I'm from the UK and am planning a trip to take in parks such as SFGAdv, Kings Dominion, Hershey, Dorney and Busch.

Trouble is I'm not sure where to stay, ideally I'd like to stay in one, maybe two locations and do the parks in day trips, rather than travelling around and staying at multiple locations near to each park so I'm looking for good, central-ish places with reasonably easy access to several parks.

Don't need specific hotels or anything, just the names of towns or cities that are well placed, if you get what I mean.

And where would I fly to to get there?

Also, when's a good time to go? I wanna go off-peak to keep costs down (not to mention queues!) but at the same time I don't want to find all the rides closed due to cold weather or something. I'm thinking late summer? October maybe? When do American kids go back to school?

Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Thank youuuuuu!

If you look at a map you'll see it's pretty unrealistic to make one or even two base camps. The US is much bigger than England and you have to be willing to switch hotels and drive a lot.

As for timing, it's pretty difficult. If you wait till October you'll run into most parks being weekends only. The parks have really streamlined their schedules lately and go to weekends only AS SOON as the kids go back to school. May would be a better bet, except US parks no longer get their rides open for Memorial Day necessarily so you may miss out there.

To add to what Elissa said about locations, the parks you want to visit are in two kind of distinct "clumps" along the East Coast. You have Dorney Park, Six Flags Great Adventure, and Hersheypark to the north, then a big drive to Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens in the south. But, the parks inside the "clumps" are kind of far away from each other.

Here's my suggestion for "base camps" if you are really adamant about staying at one place for several days:

For the first three parks, I would think about staying in the Quakertown, PA area, which is along the Interstate 476 toll road. It's not terribly difficult to find a hotel there. Staying in Quakertown puts Hersheypark and Six Flags Great Adventure at about an equal drive - about an hour and a half each. Dorney Park is much closer.

I don't travel to Virginia very much, but by simply looking at the map I would say to stay somewhere in or close to Richmond, VA, which kind of splits the difference between Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion.

Thanks A.J, that gives me a good start. I don't mind some driving about - that's half the fun with a US road trip - it's just that in my experience staying in lots of different hotels really inflates the cost, things like security deposits which don't get refunded until 2 weeks after you've arrived back home etc...

Difficult trip to plan this one...

It kind of helps that Quakertown is in between two bigger city centers (Allentown and King of Prussia/Norristown respectively). I strongly dislike Interstate 476 with every fiber of my being (it's probably one of the worst-maintained roads in Pennsylvania in my opinion). However, it's convenient for people who are traveling because there are places to stay at almost every interchange.

So, you could stay at a hotel one interchange south in the Lansdale, PA area if it happens to be cheaper. The only problem with that is that the drives to Hersheypark and Dorney Park will be a bit longer.

Did a similar trip from the UK last summer (mid June), as Elissa mentioned, parks revert to weekends rapidly after summer and even in May many are weekend only. June worked out perfect as most were open every day and it really wasn't that busy at all.

Did consider having one or two bases but ended up staying in about 7 different hotels, just worked out much better that way. It was a bit nuts but by no means unmanageable and i'd do it all over again this June if I could afford it.

If you're interested I posted a trip report about the whole thing:

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=62989

Have fun planning!

Personally I'd go the end of August if you want weekdays. If you don't mind weekends only, I'd go the week after Labor Day in September. I agree with Richmond and Quakertown being an adamant base for Virginia and Pennsylvania if you only want to stay in 1 hotel there. Where you're flying into would be good to know as well. If it's Newark or JFK, I'd probably just go to Dorney Park on the first day if you get there in the morning, then drive to your hotel that night. I'd definitely than look for a hotel between that and Hershey. I feel like you're gonna have a problem with Hershey when it comes to driving. You're adding a lot of driving between there and Virginia. It's not a short drive no matter where you stay though. I would personally consider getting a seperate hotel for Heshey since it's in the middle of no where and has the most driving. Quakertown is fine to use for Dorney and SFGAdv though. I don't know how long you have to go on a vacation here but you can visit NYC, Philadelphia or DC. All are great cities to be a tourist in, particularly NYC.

If you decide to go to parks with weekends only, get to the US on a Friday, go to Dorney, SFGAdv and Hershey first weekend and then Kings Dominion and Busch the next weekend. Good luck man.

I tell you what, that's some fantastic advice there guys, thanks a million. I've narrowed it down to a rough itinerary so I've got something solid to build on now, just knowing where to start was the hard part!

I've come to accept that 1 or 2 base camps is unrealistic, but if I go when the parks are open 7 days then I reckon I can fly to NY and go from Great Adventure - Dorney - Hershey - Six Flags America - Kings - Busch and back to NY for a return flight, all within a week, maybe with a couple of extra days for sightseeing in NY and DC if the finances allow it.

Should be a fun trip!

Thanks again for the tips people.

I adore you widely.

When we did a similar trip last year we had 2 base camps, this was pretty much how we did it. It did make for some REALLY long days though.

Day One: Fly to PHL (Red Eye), SFGADV until about 7pm Drive to Allentown.

Day Two - Four: Base camp in Allentown, park days at Hershey, Knoebels, Dorney (only 90 minutes LOL)

Day Five: Drive to Doswell VA with a 4 hour stop at SFA on the way

Day Six-Eight: Base Camp in Doswell, park days at Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, Air and Space Museum, fly home from DCA.

As I said, it makes for some long drives/long days and arriving/leaving from different airports may be more expensive as well as dropping off a car in different locations. For us it worked out due to some corporate discounts, etc but it wouldn't work for everybody.

I would recommend Knoebels if you can squeeze in the extra hour driving time from Hershey and down to SFA. Wasn't a fan of SFA to be honest but it has a couple of interesting coasters, perhaps you could get there early and do the sightseeing in D.C. in the afternoon/evening if you are really pushed for time. Coney Island is also a nice side trip from NYC but does take around an hour each way on the subway.

Have a great holiday whatever you decide to do.

Sorry for bringing up this topic again, but it's looking as though this trip might actually go ahead! Yay.

Following on from the above advice we've decided to hold off until early June 2014 to get the best combination of 7 day opening and low-ish crowds.

Andybarnes - I've read your (epic) trip report at least twice and taken away lots of useful hints but the trip planned resembles something more like Sir clinksalot's trip.

Here's the plan:

Day 1: Arrive in NY early afternoon, collect car and drive to Jackson. No rush. Stay in Jackson.

Day 2: Six Flags Great Adventure all day, drive to Allentown in evening. Stay in Allentown.

Day 3: Dorney park all day, drive to Hershey pm. Stay in Hershey.

Day 4: Hershey park all day, stay in Hershey again.

Day 5: Long drive down to Doswell VA, possibly stopping at Six Flags America en route, depending on time/energy levels. Stay in Doswell.

Day 6: Kings Dominion all day. Stay in Doswell again.

Day 7: Busch Gardens all day. 3rd night in Doswell.

Day 8: Long drive back to NYC for evening flight back to UK.

How does that sound? Am I being too ambitious? It all looks do-able on the map to me but I just wanna make sure I'm not biting off more than I can chew. I don't think I'm leaving myself with too much driving in one day... but what do you think?

With that in mind, the next thing I'm looking for are money-saving tips. Unfortunately, cost IS an issue so I'm after some budget hotel chains that aren't TOO grotty, maybe some that offer hotel/park ticket combos? Do any offer free shuttle services to parks, saving on car-parking fees? With so many hotels, so many websites, and so many ways of organizing a trip like this, I'm finding the planning of this trip to be a bit bewildering. Any further guidance will be greatly appreciated.

See? I even spelled 'organizing' with a 'z', just to make myself seem less like a 'foreigner'!

You do NOT need a full day at Dorney. You can use that day to catch up on rest and sleep easily.

You do NOT need a full day at Dorney. You can use that day to catch up on rest and sleep easily.

Ok, instead of 1 night in Jackson and 1 night in Allentown, suppose we had 2 nights in Jackson. Realistically, could you leave Jackson, do 1/2 day at Dorney and drive on to Hershey in one day, ready for Hersheypark the day after? That would mean 1 less hotel stop which could save me a few quid. Sorry... a few bucks!

^I would absolutely suggest that. That way you can stay later at SFGAd (El Toro night rides!), then get up early the next morning, do Dorney for opening and a half day, then off to Hershey!

Thanks Elissa, anything that 'simplifies' the trip is really helpful. Nice one!

I've done Dorney twice and spent a total of 3 hours in the park (90 minutes each visit). Trying to get through the park as quickly as possible is most of the fun of that park. 1/2 a day is plenty.

I know this is an old topic but 1 thing I'd suggest is to fly into Philadelphia instead of New York unless you want to tour NYC. Flying into Philly will save you a lot of driving time. It's closer to Jackson and you'll save 2 hours of driving back from Doswell. Just my 2 cents. Good luck with your trip planning!