Day Trips from New York City: 3 Road Trips You’ll Love

If you already know New York City and want to venture out into the surrounding area, you can rent a car for 3 road trips driving out of New York that will make you feel like you're in a movie.

Below I recommend three trips outside New York. A trio of road trips that will make you feel like you're in a movie: the Hamptons, Atlantic City and Washington DC.

And if you want some extra help planning a movie-worthy trip along the highways of the United States, I put together a road trip from New York to Philadelphia and Amish country. It's a round trip you can do in a day, or two if you'd rather take it slow.

1. Driving from New York City to the Hamptons

You've surely heard about the Hamptons in countless movies.

Two and a half hours from the city, this is where artists, politicians and millionaires retreat to escape the noise. It's one of the closest and most distinctive day trips from New York.

How to get there

The Hamptons isn't really one place but a group of towns on the eastern end of Long Island, an island east of Queens, so you could arrange to pick up your car in that borough.

What all these towns have in common is that they're exclusive beach resorts on the Atlantic shore, where you'll see multimillion-dollar mansions.

In the Hamptons there's a bit of playacting at the bucolic, Protestant New England lifestyle, as you'll see for yourself.

Driving through these towns will round out your picture of the New York way of life.

The various Hamptons towns are where the rich and famous come to «unwind»: Jackie Onassis, Steven Spielberg, Ralph Lauren, Paris Hilton, Paul McCartney, Tiger Woods and Lady Gaga, to name just a few. Eyes wide open and cameras ready!

For shopping or eating you'll find exclusive spots with sky-high prices, even for a bread roll, so if you don't want to blow your budget, pack a picnic.

2. Driving from New York to Atlantic City

Atlantic City is New York's Las Vegas, and if that's your scene, stay a couple of days (here you can find hotels).

This New Jersey coastal city, about two and a half hours from NYC, is a copy of the lifestyle of that famous Nevada city.

So if you like casinos, big boxing events, concerts, musicals and magic shows, you'll be in heaven here, and for a lot less money than in Las Vegas.

Every night there's some major show at one of the hotels in this Atlantic city.

Until the early 20th century Atlantic City was a summer getaway for wealthy New York families, and if you head to the south end of town you'll still see some lavish Victorian mansions along the coast, though clearly in decline.

This city is ideal for driving, because the whole idea here is to make it easy for visitors to spend money, so there's free parking at almost all the big hotels.

Keep in mind that the casinos are open 24 hours a day.

3. Driving from New York to Washington DC

If you grew up watching American movies, another of the trips from New York you'll enjoy is visiting Washington DC.

It's a bit farther than the Hamptons and Atlantic City, about 4 and a half hours from New York.

If you pick up the car in New Jersey you'll already be on the route to Washington, which also passes through other interesting cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore, where you can stop along the way.

I recommend staying in Washington at least two nights, so you can take advantage of the city's dozens of free museums and monuments.

What to see in Washington

Most of the museums are completely free, unlike the pricey museums in New York.

You'll find gems like the Natural History Museum, where Night at the Museum 2 was filmed, the National Gallery of Art, home to one of the country's most important collections of American art, and the Air and Space Museum, where the Wright brothers' plane sits alongside other famous aircraft.

Go up to the observation deck of the obelisk, the Washington Monument, where you can take in the enigmatic layout of this Masonic city…

And if you want American patriotism at its most intense, you have plenty to choose from: the White House, the Pentagon, the Capitol and Arlington Cemetery, where JFK is buried among thousands of soldiers killed in battle, or FBI headquarters, where you'll see men in black going in and out.

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So there you have 3 very different road trips from New York: beach, casinos and museums.

Tips for renting a car in New York

A few important tips for when you go to rent a car:

• Book your car online and well in advance. Online you can find deals for weekend trips, for example, that are impossible to get once you're in the city.
• The other trick is to book your car rental outside New York, in New Jersey for instance, across the Hudson River, where you can get by public transportation, saving gas and time lost in traffic, but above all avoiding the expensive tolls to get out of New York City.
• To rent a car in New York all you need is a valid license and a recognized credit card. If you're under 25 there'll be a surcharge on the rental, so hand the wheel to the oldest one in the group. As in other countries, there's a fee for an additional driver, which is important to declare, because if you have an accident and the designated driver isn't the one behind the wheel, you'll have trouble with the authorities.

More trips from New York

If you liked these 3 road trips out of New York, check out other places to visit near New York and keep exploring.