Budget Family Vacation- East Coast Road Trip to Acadia National Park

Every summer, we try to take a family vacation to someplace new. This year we decided on an east coast road trip to Acadia National Park. On this road trip, we wanted to visit Acadia National Park, New York City, Boston, and Toronto. With those destinations in mind, we filled in the gaps with a lot of fun and under-the-radar stops. This 9-day/8 night adventure was an absolute blast and relatively affordable for a family of 4. Keep reading for the complete cost breakdown and our itinerary.

East Coast Road Trip Map

You can customize the above map to meet the needs of your specific road trip. To do so click the map image, then ‘view larger map’ located in the upper right corner. Then click on the 3 dots and from the drop-down menu and select copy map. This will open the map in Google My Maps. You’ll need to create an account if you don’t have one.

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East Coast Road Trip Itinerary At A Glance

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How Much Did Our East Coast Road Trip Cost?

Lodging- $484 and 120K Hilton Honors points (cost for 8 nights)
For this trip, we had enough Hilton hotel points for 5 full nights and one points + money night. That means we only had to actually pay for 2 full nights. I estimate our points saved us at least $825! The two hotels that we ended up paying for in full were Hilton Garden Inn Time Square and Homewood Suites Boston/Peabody.

Gas- $470
We drive a mid-size SUV on our family road trips so that we have a decent amount of room while driving. We could have saved more money by driving my husband’s smaller, more fuel-efficient car. We opted for more room since this trip was a long one. However, we always make sure to use our Hilton American Express card when getting gas. Doing so gives us 5X the hotel points.

Food- $300
We always bring our own food on family vacations. We rarely eat out on our trips, and to save on food costs, we try to book hotels with free breakfast. That way, we only need to worry about lunch and dinner.

Entertainment/Parking- $317

Total- $1571

Helpful Resources We Can’t Live Without

Accommodations- We love and swear by HiltonHonors, but when we want to stay someplace different, we use Hotels.com. You can search for deals on hotels, cabins, houses & more.

Getting There- Roadtripping with our car is how we prefer to travel. That being said, Skyscanner has great deals on flights and RVShare has deals on RV rentals.

Other Favorites-
Save money on gas- Upside
Find pit stops on your route- RoadTrippers
Deals on local food & attractions- Living Social
Explore top city attractions at a fraction of the price- CityPASS

Looking for gear? See the best deals on clothing & gear here, & best travel essentials here.
Looking for road trip food ideas? Check out food for road trips you’ll love.
Learn how to travel on a budget.
See the best hiking apps

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Must-See Stops on an East Coast Road Trip

On this road trip, we stopped at a lot of incredible places. Some of them are hidden gems, while others are well-known. Regardless, they didn’t disappoint, and I highly recommend you check them out.

Our road trip started in Michigan. Our goal was to visit states and places we haven’t been before.

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Things to Do in New York

Here are all of the beautiful places we explored in New York and think you should explore too.

Eternal Flame Falls (FREE)

Address: Eternal Flame Hiking Trail, Orchard Park, NY 14127

Eternal Flame Falls is a small waterfall. It has a small grotto near the base of the waterfall that emits natural gas. When lit, it produces a small flame creating a very unique experience.

We highly recommend it. There is nothing cooler than seeing water flow over the fire.

Our tip- Try not to go during a dry spell. When we visited, the waterfall was barely trickling down. It was still a cool sight to see but would have been better if the waterfall was actually flowing.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island- $115

The $115 included our parking fee for the time we were on the tour and gave us some time to wander around lower Manhattan.

Our tip- Buy your Statue of Liberty tickets months in advance. We didn’t realize they sold out so far in advance and missed out on going inside. We still had a great time, though. One other thing, don’t skip Ellis Island. I personally know a few people who said they skipped Ellis Island, and I don’t get it. We all learned so much from Ellis Island and enjoyed doing so.

National September 11 Memorial- FREE

To save money on parking, we chose to walk from the Statue of Liberty to the September 11 Memorial. I’m glad we chose to walk instead of drive or taxi, as it allowed us to take in and truly see the city.
If you have yet to see the National September 11 Memorial, you must!

Grand Central Terminal- FREE

This was something I really wanted to see. We had fun exploring Grand Central Terminal and were blown away by the architecture.

Time Square- FREE

Our hotel was in Time Square, so we were able to walk and didn’t have to pay for parking. Since we were so close to Time Square, we made sure to check it out during the day and at night. It was fun to experience both. The daytime was less crowded, but seeing it lit up at night was really magical.

A Not So Helpful Tip- Driving through Time Square to get to the hotel was a nightmare! I am undecided if it is best to have a hotel in Time Square and walk everywhere or get a hotel outside Time Square and use the transit system to get everywhere. I’d love to hear your opinions on this. Where do you prefer to stay when visiting New York City?

Our tip – The parking garages in Manhattan are valet. This means that you do not have access to your car while it is in the parking garage. For us, this meant that we did not have access to the food in our cooler, forcing us to eat out and purchase bottled water. This is something you should plan for if you park in Manhattan.

Central Park- FREE

Central Park is absolutely beautiful. It is huge and filled with vine-covered tunnels, large fountains, giant boulders (with a view), ponds (we spotted a turtle while taking in the pond view), and so much more. Truly dreamy and one of a kind.

The Nintendo Store- FREE

This was such a fun store. They have a lot of stuff to look at as well as purchase. Did you know the Nintendo Store in NYC is the only Nintendo Store in the world?

Things to Do in Massachusetts

Freedom Trail- FREE

*We spent $25 on parking and $14 on the water taxi

We parked at the USS Constitution, toured the USS Constitution, and then walked the Freedom Trail backward. We hoped that by doing the trail backward, we would be able to see the USS Constitution and Bunker Hill with minimal crowds. Our plan was a success. I highly recommend doing the trail backward and starting early in the morning. When we finished the trail, we took a water taxi back to the USS Constitution (where we parked). The kids loved the water taxi.

Bearskin Neck- FREE

Bearskin Neck in Rockport, MA, is the CUTEST and a perfect pit stop. It is a tiny peninsula filled with tiny shops. While we explored, we were able to watch the tide lower, which was really cool to see. Being from Michigan, we don’t get to experience high tides/ low tides like that.

Gloucester- FREE

We didn’t spend much time in Gloucester, but it was beautiful. We stopped along the coast and watched the sailboats, seagulls, and the tide. We also got to see a small drawbridge in action. While we didn’t see anything super exciting, it was really calm and peaceful. Probably the most peaceful place we saw on this East Coast road trip.

Things to Do in Maine

Fort Popham State Historic Site- FREE

We had so much fun running around and exploring this old Civil war era fort. We practically had Fort Popham to ourselves, which was really nice. We also quickly explored Popham Beach. It started downpouring on us, so our visit was incredibly brief.

Acadia National Park- Free

*This was free for us because we already had our National Park Pass that we purchased for our Utah trip last April

We spent 2 days in Acadia and saw so much. We especially loved exploring high tide/ low tide at Bar Harbor (Did you know that during low tide, you can walk to an island?), Thunder Hole (make sure to look up the best times to see it thundering), Jordan Pond, and the Beehive trail.

More on Acadia National Park
Hiking – Best Hikes in Acadia National Park

Things to Do in Vermont

Ben & Jerry’s- $15 (ice cream)

We planned on doing the Ben & Jerry factory tour, but they weren’t making ice cream the day we were there. So we decided not to spend the extra money on the factory tour. Instead, we bought a mini vermonster to share as a family. It was so good. If you are a Ben & Jerry’s fan, I definitely recommend this as a pit stop. The ice cream graveyard was pretty cool too.

Things to Do in New Hampshire

Kancamagus Highway- FREE

Kancamagus Highway was absolutely stunning. With the mountain views and wild animals – you can’t go wrong. I highly recommend taking this scenic drive if it’s on or close to your route. Our favorite thing about it was that we saw wild moose! We have seen many wild animals on our adventures but never a moose.

Things to Do in Toronto (Canada)

Toronto Island Park- $48 (This fee includes parking & a ferry to Toronto Island Park)

Toronto Island Park is huge and filled with a lot of fun things. It wasn’t our favorite stop on this budget-friendly road trip; however, we don’t regret seeing it. On this island, you will find beautiful beaches, a hedge maze, an amusement park, a farm, a children’s garden, and much more.

Funny story- While at Toronto Island Park, we almost (accidentally) took our kids to the nude beach. We had no idea there was one on the island and were heading right for it. Thank goodness we stopped to read a map and happened to notice it was only a few steps away. Oops!

While in Toronto, grab yourself a Beaver Tail. They are so good! It’s a fried dough that can be topped with delicious sweet or savory toppings.

In order to enter Canada from the United States you must have a passport, enhanced drivers license and birth certificates for kids under 16 years of age. We already had these things so it didn’t add an additional cost to our trip.

This East Coast Road Trip was busy, no doubt. But it was so much fun, and we saw some incredible things. If I had to change one thing, it’d be the weather. We went in July, and every destination was incredibly hot. What are your favorite places on the East Coast? If you haven’t been there yet, what are you dying to see? Let us know in the comments.

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Pin For Later: East Coast Road Trip