Classic Capital Region Self-Drive Tour

Sixteen nights through the Mid-Atlantic, self-drive with the flights included, from Philadelphia round to Washington.

Philadelphia takes the first two nights, with the art museum and Reading Terminal Market, among the oldest public markets in the country. Gettysburg follows for one, with a guided tour of the battlefield where the three days of July 1863 turned the Civil War, and the Jennie Wade house, named for the only civilian killed in it.

Shenandoah National Park comes next for two nights at Skyland, with the Skyline Drive running a hundred-odd miles along the Blue Ridge and a guided tour of the Luray Caverns. Williamsburg follows for three by way of Monticello, Jefferson’s house, with the costumed interpreters of Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, the first lasting English settlement in North America, and Yorktown, where the war of independence effectively ended. St Michaels takes two nights on the Chesapeake, then Baltimore and Fort McHenry, whose defence produced the national anthem, with Washington at the end.

Flights, fully insured car hire, all the accommodation and round-the-clock support while travelling are included, and the price is quoted per person. Seventeen days is the longest American itinerary in this range and it earns the length: this is the most densely historical corner of the country and the stops are nearly all indoors or on foot. The car is dropped before a train into Washington, which is the sensible way to arrive there rather than driving into it. Spring and autumn are the seasons, since the Mid-Atlantic summer is humid and the cherry blossom in Washington is an early April business.