I think the best thing about the northeast is the nature and especially the coast. If you're going to drive, you should visit the white mountains in NH and maybe do some camping. It's legal to just camp in the woods for free there.

Coastal Maine is very touristy but nice, Portland is a little city with a surprising amount of stuff, and all the little towns to the north of it are pretty. Acadia National Park is nice solely on the off season when the crowds are less.

I like the Champlain region on Vermont and NY. In a car it's fun to take the ferry across the lake to Burlington. Also, you can visit John Brown's original farm house in the Adirondacks nearby, which is imo more interesting than Harper's ferry.

You could also ditch the car and take the train between cities. The Amtrak goes all the way up to Maine. But this does make it harder to really get into nature.

Too good for Boston? Well we didn't want you anyway!

Oh... You're not from america. Locally “the northeast would be like maine and massachusetts. DC is part of tje east coast region. Uhh... How many weeks are you staying because any of those cities is several days by themselves. You're likely not doing virginia and ct in the same trip. Its an eight hour drive or 7 hours by train one way. If you want to do philly i can ask some folks the best way to do the colonial america tour these days.

There's plenty of places to visit in the US northeast/mid-atlantic, but all those locations is a lot of ground to cover. You'll be driving for hours upon hours, and it might eat pretty hard into your sight-seeing time if you're only spending a week. For example, New Haven to DC would be a 7 hour drive! And that's in pretty nasty/aggressive traffic. If you're just getting your license, you do not want to be driving in NYC (or Boston).

For example, you could spend a week in D.C. alone: it would take days to experience the Smithsonian fully, and then you have all the other landmarks and museums and other attractions. Alternatively, New York City and Connecticut/New Haven would also fill a week.

The other thing to note is that if you're vacationing in the northeast, you may be able to avoid renting a car if you'd prefer. This is the only region of the country with decent inter-city train travel (Amtrak), and D.C. and NYC have well-developed subway metros.

go somewhere out west with natural beauty, best aspect of the usa

if you're renting a car do a fuckin road trip and drive to the southwest if it's winter or the northern rockies if it's summer or the west coast if it's either

there are only two small regions in the entire world that have all 3 of lions, bears and wolves. one of them is in the usa. go there

Ya so as others have pointed out a week is not enough time to visit all these places. It would be like trying to see all of europe in a week. It would be a more enjoyable experience to focus on a specific area. NYC can be fun and has a lot to do but its very expensive. Expect to spend like 500-800 USD per day and thats with a cheap hotel and not eating at any fancy places. If your like dead set on it you could fit max like 2 or 3 cities into a week but your gonna be missing out on a lot, and spending hours traveling you could be having fun during.

If you really wanna do it tho this is what id suggest as someone who has seen a good bit of the east coast myself.

Fly in to the nothern most city you want to see, probably Boston it sounds like? Spend maybe 1 or 2 days there, take a BUS to NYC(you can arrange to have a couple hour layover in philly to get a cheesesteak if u want). Buses are THE budget travel option in the US. Greyhound, flexibus, etc. Way cheaper than a train and faster usually too. Spend a few days in NYC, then BUS to DC. Youll arrive at union station. Its massive and beautiful. Big marble work, and vaulted ceilings. Awesome architecture. The national mall and museums are the only thing really all that worth seeing in DC imo. You can hit up the ones you want to see in a day or so.

To burst your bubble a bit you mentioned getting your drivers license so i assume your young. In the US you have to be 21 to rent a car. So if you arent yet then thats a no go regardless of if you can drive. Uber and rideshare is probably gonna be your fallback in that case.

Id try to spend the most time in NYC as its the place with the most to see and do altho if your really into historical stuff maybe DC will be more your thing. Or Boston ive never been to Boston so idk how historical it is. You can find lists of attractions for each city online and choose ones you like.

Honestly tho you didnt mention it but if i was gonna see the US for the only time and had a week id go for the natural wonders of north america not the man made stuff since that u can find anywhere. But stuff like the grand canyon, yellowstone, the redwoods, etc are pretty unique.

Skip Annapolis, or at least you only need like half a day there. Philly is really cool these days and has a great food scene. I also recommend stopping in Princeton, NJ on your way to NY since that's a train stop and has great history too. In New Haven get pizza. There's not much else there but you'll be happy you did that.

If you're looking for nature, go around and avoid NYC, hike hudson valley or the delaware water gap

Honestly not the best time of year for it but I do have a soft spot for the turn of the century holiday architecture on the Jersey Shore, especially the twin lights lighthouse

If you have a student ID for museums, you can also save a lot there

I'd do Amtrak between the major NE cities to Philly, DC, and split. Maybe rent a car and head to Shenandoah if you're curious about the nature, or up to Maine from Boston. Don't really need to do tourism elsewhere it's all highways and corn fields even if the weather is nice, and some national parks that are cool but not worth the added cost I'm sure.

Good chance there's something to do in NYC if you look but there's a good local music scene in Philly, we also have a football club but no idea on schedules. I'm not sure if I recommend tourism in the US.

Baltimore isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be!

OLD IRON SIDES, or, THE USS CONSTITUTION. Probably one of the coolest walkthroughs I’ve ever done. It’s in Boston.

Wait: you don’t even have your license and are planning on trying to rent a car? I hope you know what renting a car entails and requires. Just a heads up, homie. ❤️

Mt Washington

I would actually push back a little against renting a car, pretty much all of the big cities on the east coast have usable transit systems, some are actually pretty great (like New York and DC). Harpers Ferry is a little out of the way, but it's served by Amtrak (one train a day), so maybe do an overnight stay or just rent a car for that day.