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OT: 3-5 Day Vacation ideas within driving range

Easiest decision ever. I'm going to give you a gift -- New York City. 15 year old girls wanna be NY socialites bro. Make every day instagram worthy; you'll be her ****ing hero!

Step 1: Set aside $2,000; assume 3 day trip
Step 2: Hotel rental downtown (battery park / wall st). One for you; one for them (prob gonna be $400 a night all in, $200 per room per night is a good target)

Day 1: Let em run free in battery park and surrounding: wall street bull, oculus with the connected mall and shops

Hot dogs and peanuts and street cart fair on the menu for lunch;

Post lunch: central park - obelisk, belvidere castle; java chip starbucks under the sun; the works.

Walk through the plaza on 59th. Finish up with the tram across to roosevelt island and a freakin NYC Pizza for sunset. (if you wanna get cute and expensive, high Tea at the plaza is also an option)

Day 2: Yankee game (ideally day game). No mets! Foul or home run territory seats ONLY!! You want ball flying action. Take the subway up (4 train to 161 st yankee stadium).

Give em the true New Yorker experience with some ballpark franks; cracker jack;

After the game back to manhattan, Little italy for dinner and gelato

Day 3: Subway to coney island and brighton - do coney island first for the cyclone and sights, then if they're keen to swim, Brighton is your spot (they won't wanna swim in Coney, and no one will blame them for that...)

Lunch - on the boardwalk

Late afternoon - subway back to brooklyn heights. Show em the promenade. walk em around. Finish off with a walk over the Brooklyn bridge back to Manhattan

That's 3 spectacular days right there my friend. You would never believe the freedom of being able to do ALL THAT without a car. Your daughter and her friends will feel the pulse of the city by the time they're done.
Sounds fun..my kinda fun too, but he said no NYC. He needs a place with a beach, so when/if they ditch him he's not left wondering what to do. A beachy getaway has plenty of sunset Snap/VSCO/IG moments for the girls.
 
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Sounds fun..my kinda fun too, but he said no NYC. He needs a place with a beach, so when/if they ditch him he's not left wondering what to do. A beachy getaway has plenty of sunset Snap/VSCO/IG moments for the girls.
Yeah. But he was wrong about "no NYC". And, there's a beach.
 
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You could go see some Gilded Age Mansions... There's some on the Hudson north of the city.. then Newport, RI of course.

Of course.. Blue State CoVid rules could be a factor. Though Lyndhurst in NY was the site for the recent dog show.
 
Easiest decision ever. I'm going to give you a gift -- New York City. 15 year old girls wanna be NY socialites bro. Make every day instagram worthy; you'll be her ****ing hero!

Step 1: Set aside $2,000; assume 3 day trip
Step 2: Hotel rental downtown (battery park / wall st). One for you; one for them (prob gonna be $400 a night all in, $200 per room per night is a good target)

Day 1: Let em run free in battery park and surrounding: wall street bull, oculus with the connected mall and shops

Hot dogs and peanuts and street cart fair on the menu for lunch;

Post lunch: central park - obelisk, belvidere castle; java chip starbucks under the sun; the works.

Walk through the plaza on 59th. Finish up with the tram across to roosevelt island and a freakin NYC Pizza for sunset. (if you wanna get cute and expensive, high Tea at the plaza is also an option)

Day 2: Yankee game (ideally day game). No mets! Foul or home run territory seats ONLY!! You want ball flying action. Take the subway up (4 train to 161 st yankee stadium).

Give em the true New Yorker experience with some ballpark franks; cracker jack;

After the game back to manhattan, Little italy for dinner and gelato

Day 3: Subway to coney island and brighton - do coney island first for the cyclone and sights, then if they're keen to swim, Brighton is your spot (they won't wanna swim in Coney, and no one will blame them for that...)

Lunch - on the boardwalk

Late afternoon - subway back to brooklyn heights. Show em the promenade. walk em around. Finish off with a walk over the Brooklyn bridge back to Manhattan

That's 3 spectacular days right there my friend. You would never believe the freedom of being able to do ALL THAT without a car. Your daughter and her friends will feel the pulse of the city by the time they're done.
Except that OP made sure to say, not interested in a NYC trip…
 
Easiest decision ever. I'm going to give you a gift -- New York City. 15 year old girls wanna be NY socialites bro. Make every day instagram worthy; you'll be her ****ing hero!

Step 1: Set aside $2,000; assume 3 day trip
Step 2: Hotel rental downtown (battery park / wall st). One for you; one for them (prob gonna be $400 a night all in, $200 per room per night is a good target)

Day 1: Let em run free in battery park and surrounding: wall street bull, oculus with the connected mall and shops

Hot dogs and peanuts and street cart fair on the menu for lunch;

Post lunch: central park - obelisk, belvidere castle; java chip starbucks under the sun; the works.

Walk through the plaza on 59th. Finish up with the tram across to roosevelt island and a freakin NYC Pizza for sunset. (if you wanna get cute and expensive, high Tea at the plaza is also an option)

Day 2: Yankee game (ideally day game). No mets! Foul or home run territory seats ONLY!! You want ball flying action. Take the subway up (4 train to 161 st yankee stadium).

Give em the true New Yorker experience with some ballpark franks; cracker jack;

After the game back to manhattan, Little italy for dinner and gelato

Day 3: Subway to coney island and brighton - do coney island first for the cyclone and sights, then if they're keen to swim, Brighton is your spot (they won't wanna swim in Coney, and no one will blame them for that...)

Lunch - on the boardwalk

Late afternoon - subway back to brooklyn heights. Show em the promenade. walk em around. Finish off with a walk over the Brooklyn bridge back to Manhattan

That's 3 spectacular days right there my friend. You would never believe the freedom of being able to do ALL THAT without a car. Your daughter and her friends will feel the pulse of the city by the time they're done.
I know the poster said he was interested in nyc but with that itinerary he would be a Rock Star.
 
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Gettysburg/Lancaster/Hershey. We stayed in Lancaster as a base and did Gettysburg one day and Hershey another. Last day we saw the sights and sounds of Lancaster.
 
I still go for Newport RI…plenty to do for teenage girls and adults as they are left alone…
And not the standard NJ beach getaway
 
I know. It's a slam dunk.
Do you live in NYC? I'd swap your Oculus suggestion for The Highline, Chelsea Market and then The Vessel followed by sunset pix at The Edge.
Trying to do the above today but you need tickets for everything and we just woke. It's also hot as hell. Lol
Edit... Hot AF*
 
Do you live in NYC? I'd swap your Oculus suggestion for The Highline, Chelsea Market and then The Vessel followed by sunset pix at The Edge.
Trying to do the above today but you need tickets for everything and we just woke. It's also hot as hell. Lol
Edit... Hot AF*
Oh yeah. Those are very solid as well. If your gonna go that route, skip the oculus and battery park and replace with highline and Chelsea market for browsing as you suggested, but save lunch for the rooftop at the McCitrick hotel (gallow green). That's a boss move. Can you imagine how giddy those girls would be if you wandered off the highline and into the McCitrick. You own the city at that pt.

I did live in fidi for 5 years ending 2019; bay ridge Brooklyn before that. Miss it. Im starting to get the itch again
 
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I took my early teen daughter and her friend to Buffalo and Scranton many years ago and almost 20 years later the girls say it was as good a vacation as they ever had.

Both have traveled to Europe and several island vacations so their experience is not limited
 
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I know. It's a slam dunk.

Agreed. Up until the china virus I used to bring my daughter and her friend in around Christmas every year. They loved it as did I, lots to do and see. But since OP is not on board, my suggestion would be Lake George. Went there last fall and fell in love with the place, will be going back in Aug/Sep.
 
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Agreed. Up until the china virus I used to bring my daughter and her friend in around Christmas every year. They loved it as did I, lots to do and see. But since OP is not on board, my suggestion would be Lake George. Went there last fall and fell in love with the place, will be going back in Aug/Sep.
Believe OP stated later that they are going LG later with their Mom or something like that.
 
I took my early teen daughter and her friend to Buffalo and Scranton many years ago and almost 20 years later the girls say it was as good a vacation as they ever had.

Both have traveled to Europe and several island vacations so their experience is not limited

You must be a great father to make a Buffalo/Scranton trip work for teenaged girls. A tip of the cap to you, Sir.
 
Loooking for ideas to take my high school aged daughter & maybe 1 or 2 of her friends. Probably no further than 7 hours drive from Central Jersey. Ideas I’ve thought of are Assateaque/Ocean City Maryland, Knoebel amusement/water park Pennsy, Niagara Falls crossing in to Canada (Depending on Covid restrictions), & Ogunquit Maine. Not in to a NYC trip, obviously prefer something less big city for the most part.
Appreciate any ideas.
Instead of Ogunquit, you might want to make Portsmouth NH a home base. Literally a minute from Maine and can do North Shore MA stuff as well. Portsmouth has a lot of good restaurants and easy access to the Maine coast.

Ogunquit is extremely gay (not that there is anything wrong with that, but fyi). Also many of the Maine coastal towns are along the same highway which can back up quite a bit and be a persistent traffic jam. If you want a nice town to walk around Ogunquit isn't really it, but there are some cool spots along the coast that you can enjoy.
 
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You must be a great father to make a Buffalo/Scranton trip work for teenaged girls. A tip of the cap to you, Sir.
I rented a Lincoln Town car and we drove to Buffalo for the girls to go to their first concert. One of many Warped Tours they ultimately attended
My wife stayed at the hotel and I took them into the concert. I stuck tissue in my ears and preceded to just hang out in a side stage while the kids went off

About 5 hours later as the crowd was leaving the I see the girls covered in sweat and dust with huge smiles coming to our arranged meeting place. They spent the entire time in a mosh pit and a bunch of college kids took care of them and included them in the party they were having
 
I still go for Newport RI…plenty to do for teenage girls and adults as they are left alone…
And not the standard NJ beach getaway
I know that Newport is a beautiful town, but what exactly is there to do for teenage girls? Appreciate it
 
I know that Newport is a beautiful town, but what exactly is there to do for teenage girls? Appreciate it
Beach, boutique shopping, live entertainment, people watch, did I mention boutique shopping - the Mansions safe streets. Teenage girls could spend a really good day up and down with food entertainment shopping beaches. Most of those things are usually toward top of the list.
 
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