The East Coast by Season
When to drive the east, read off eight years of our own dated photographs: the Great Lakes in August, New England in September, Florida January to May.
The trip stories on this site are journeys: one drive, in order, in our own voice. This is the same eight years asked the other question. Not where we went, but when, and what a reader driving the same coast would find there in a given month.
Everything below is read off the dates on our own photographs. Nothing is a recommendation we picked up somewhere else, and nothing is filled in to make a month look covered.
The season band counts every frame we shot on this half of the country, six thousand of them, including the months we were living somewhere rather than driving. The place lists underneath come from our trip record instead, which is better at drives than at standing still. Where the two disagree, the photographs win.
Which months we can actually speak for
Every photograph we took on this half of the country, counted by the month we took it, across 7 different years from 2017. Not the trips: every frame, including the months we were living somewhere rather than driving. There is no month we have no photographs from here, and a short column means a quiet month rather than an absent one.
- 80 January: 80 frames
- 31 February: 31 frames
- 192 March: 192 frames
- 137 April: 137 frames
- 25 May: 25 frames
- 26 June: 26 frames
- 21 July: 21 frames
- 309 August: 309 frames
- 252 September: 252 frames
- 181 October: 181 frames
- 1 November: 1 frame
- 95 December: 95 frames
The Great Lakes
17 of 26 places · 2023, 2024
Michigan, Wisconsin, the Ontario shore and the bottom of Lake Michigan.
We did the Great Lakes in one big August loop in 2024: Pictured Rocks, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Mackinac, then across into Ontario for Toronto and Niagara Falls. Before that, just a December stop on the Lake Michigan shore on the way east for Christmas.
We have been here in AugDec
- Isle Royale NP no dated photos yet
- Pictured Rocks Aug 2024
- Munising MI Aug 2024
- Mackinac / Straits MI Aug 2024
- Rogers City MI Aug 2024
- Petoskey MI been, no dated photos
- Sleeping Bear Dunes Aug 2024
- Traverse City Aug 2024
- Menominee Park / Oshkosh Aug 2024
- Toronto Aug 2024
- Wisconsin Dells Aug 2024
- Devils Lake SP WI Aug 2024
- Brantford ON Aug 2024
- Niagara Falls ON Aug 2024
- Madison WI Aug 2024
- Milwaukee no dated photos yet
- Grand Rapids MI Aug 2024
- Detroit no dated photos yet
- Erie PA been, no dated photos
- St. Joseph MI Dec 2023
- Chicago Dec 2023
- New Buffalo MI Dec 2023
- Indiana Dunes NP been, no dated photos
- Cleveland been, no dated photos
- Sandusky OH no dated photos yet
- Cuyahoga Valley NP been, no dated photos
New York and the Finger Lakes
9 of 13 places · 2019, 2023, 2024
Home base for stretches of 2019, 2023 and 2024, so we know it in more than one season.
This is where I grew up, and I love coming home. We always hike the Watkins Glen gorge, swim in the lakes, play in the waterfalls, buy everything locally grown, and we always hit the Seneca Lake wineries and breweries.
We have been here in AugSepOctDec
- Lake Placid been, no dated photos
- Rochester NY Aug 2024
- Syracuse NY been, no dated photos
- Buffalo Aug 2024
- East Aurora NY Aug 2024
- Cooperstown NY Sep 2024
- Howe Caverns NY Sep 2024
- Albany NY no dated photos yet
- Letchworth SP Aug 2024
- Ithaca NY Aug, Sep, Oct, Dec 2019 and after
- Finger Lakes NY Aug, Sep, Oct, Dec 2019 and after
- Corning NY been, no dated photos
- Elmira NY Dec 2023
New England
8 of 10 places · 2019
Rhode Island to the far corner of Maine.
Two weeks in September 2019, the Finger Lakes to the far corner of Maine and back. Acadia is my favorite national park on the east coast.
We have been here in Sep
The stories from here New England, Corner to Corner
- Burlington VT Sep 2019
- Stowe VT Sep 2019
- Bar Harbor ME Sep 2019
- Acadia NP Sep 2019
- Rockland / Camden ME Sep 2019
- Portland ME Sep 2019
- Portsmouth NH no dated photos yet
- Salem MA Sep 2019
- Boston no dated photos yet
- Newport RI Sep 2019
The Mid-Atlantic
8 of 10 places · 2019, 2024
Pennsylvania down through Washington, the Virginia capes and the Blue Ridge.
We have mostly passed through this one, but at good times: Shenandoah in October 2019, and the wild ponies of Assateague in January 2024.
We have been here in JanAugOct
- Ricketts Glen PA Aug 2019
- New York City no dated photos yet
- Pittsburgh no dated photos yet
- Philadelphia Aug 2019
- Washington DC Jan 2024
- Shenandoah NP Oct 2019
- Ocean City MD Jan 2024
- Assateague Island Jan 2024
- Richmond VA Aug 2019
- Cape Charles VA Jan 2024
The Southeast
10 of 13 places · 2019, 2024
The Carolinas and Georgia coast, the Smokies, and the Kentucky bourbon country.
Kentucky in October 2019, Louisville, Bardstown and Mammoth Cave, then the Smokies and Asheville. And Charleston twice, five years apart.
We have been here in JanAugOct
- Louisville Oct 2019
- Frankfort KY Oct 2019
- Lexington KY no dated photos yet
- Bardstown KY Oct 2019
- Mammoth Cave NP Oct 2019
- Nashville no dated photos yet
- Gatlinburg Oct 2019
- Great Smoky Mountains NP Oct 2019
- Asheville NC Oct 2019
- Atlanta no dated photos yet
- Myrtle Beach Jan 2024
- Charleston SC Jan, Aug 2019 and after
- Savannah GA Aug 2019
Florida
26 of 31 places · 2017, 2019, 2024
The panhandle, the springs, both coasts and the Keys.
Florida got a whole winter in 2024, from Jupiter and Miami down through the Keys to Key West, the furthest south the van has ever been, then back up the Gulf through the springs.
We have been here in JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugDec
- Eden Gardens / Cypress Creek Jun, Jul 2019 and after
- Pensacola FL May 2024
- Destin FL May, Jul 2019 and after
- Santa Rosa Beach FL Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Dec 2017 and after
- Opal Beach FL May 2024
- Jacksonville FL been, no dated photos
- Panama City Beach FL no dated photos yet
- Gainesville FL Apr 2024
- Silver Springs FL Apr 2024
- Daytona Beach Feb 2024
- Ocala FL Apr 2024
- Crystal River FL no dated photos yet
- Gemini Springs FL Jan 2024
- Orlando Jan, Aug 2019 and after
- Weeki Wachee FL Apr 2024
- Tarpon Springs FL Apr 2024
- Tampa Aug 2019
- St. Petersburg FL Apr 2024
- Beer Can Island / Ruskin Aug 2019
- Sarasota FL Mar, Apr 2024 and after
- Jupiter FL Jan, Feb, Mar 2024 and after
- West Palm Beach been, no dated photos
- Fort Myers Mar 2024
- Naples FL no dated photos yet
- Miami Mar 2024
- Biscayne NP Mar 2024
- Homestead FL Mar 2024
- Everglades NP Mar 2024
- Long Key / the Keys Mar 2024
- Big Pine Key Mar 2024
- Key West Mar 2024
Questions we get asked
When is the best time to drive the east coast?
How many places on this page have you actually been to?
When should I go to New England?
What is there to do in Florida in the winter?
What this page does not know
25 of the 103 places above are ones we have no dated photographs from. Some we have been to and some we haven't. They are listed anyway, and labeled, because a guide that quietly dropped them would read as though we had covered the whole coast.
The season band above and the place lists below are counted differently, on purpose. The band is every photograph we took, so it sees the months we were living somewhere and not driving. The lists are places from our trip record, which finds the drives well and finds standing still badly. That gap is why June and July show up in the band: we spent both living on the Florida panhandle, and no drive put us there.
If you already know roughly where you are going, build the route and it will tell you which month fits it.