New York to Chicago

Eleven hundred miles from New York to Chicago by way of Niagara and the Great Lakes, over fourteen nights. Flights, car and hotels are arranged together from the UK with a road book for the driving.

Four nights in New York come first with no car, then it is collected at Newark and the road heads upstate through the Finger Lakes to Niagara Falls. Two nights there is the right call, because it gives you time to get on the water: the boat that goes to the foot of the falls is the only way to understand the scale of them.

Then the lakes. Cleveland sits on Erie, with Cedar Point and its roller coasters on the shore between there and Detroit. Two nights in Detroit cover a city that is more interesting now than its reputation suggests. The route then runs round the bottom of Lake Michigan by way of Ann Arbor and the Dutch-settled town of Holland, before three nights in Chicago close the trip, with the lakefront, the architecture boat tour and the blues clubs on the south side.

Seven stops over fourteen nights, four of them lasting two nights or three. Worth raising the time of year when you enquire: the Niagara boats and Cedar Point both shut for the winter, and they are the reason to be in those places on those days. The itinerary is bespoke, with nights addable and stops removable, and departures arranged around your dates. It suits anyone who wants two great American cities with the Great Lakes strung between them.