Thanks for the answers on the New York Pass but what about the trip to Boston and then Niagara and Toronto, can anyone give some advice about method of travel time taken and distances etc.

Boston - 4.5-5 hours by car or 5-6 hours by bus or train.
I guess the best way to get there is by bus from the Port Authority Bus Station in New York (corner of 8th Avenue and 42nd Street)

Niagara Falls - 8-10 hours by car or bus, I drove there several times, but I bet you can take the bus there from the Port Authority. I bet that lots of tour companies offer bus tour to Niagara Falls from New York City.

Toronto - 2 hours from Niagara Falls by car or bus, 10-12 hours by car/bus from New York City. Or, you can take a plane. There are lots of direct flights from New York's La Guardia airport to Toronto. I would check any travel site, like Orbitz.com or Expedia.com or airline sites like aircanada or American airlines for prices and schedules.

I guess I wasn't clear enough, my friends want to have a few days in Boston then go from Boston to Niagara and Toronto and then back to New York. I have been to Boston by train from Penn and found it very good, it took about three and a half hours, I basically just need some info on the Boston to Niagara/Toronto and then return to New York.

Marea, you do know that Boston and Niagara Falls are in sort of opposite directions from NY, right? Boston is east and the other two are west.

Anyway, the main way to get from Boston to Niagara Falls by land is Greyhound. Takes 11 hours, I think: www.greyhound.com. There is also one train per day on Amtrak. It's train number 449, the Lake Shore Limited. Departs Boston daily at 11:45 AM, arrives Buffalo 11:07 PM, but it's a heck of a lot more comfortable than the bus.

Otherwise, fly. There are no small airlines that do that route, so just check on Expedia or something.

You can also fly from Boston all the way to Toronto - similarly, no low fare airlines.

Thanks Red, yes I know where both places are, I've tried to explain to my friends that they will probably use up a lot of their New York time travelling to these places but they want to go if they can so I thought I would find out the info for them.

I know where you are coming from Marea. It is always hard to explain to people not from the U.S., just how far everything is. I will never forget driving from San Francisco to Yosemite with two Japanese guys and they kept asking are we there yet? I finally explained to them, that my state is as big as their country. I had to explaint the same thing to Japanese friends while in Japan, when there would look at me surprised that I had not been to New York, Texas, Chicago, etc.

I always thought Cuba was a little island until one of the hairdressers at the salon I go to told me it would take as long to drive from tip to tip as it would from Holland to the South of France..... I was impressed.

These friends are from Australia and used to long distances, they think nothing of jumping in the car and driving 9 hours to visit family for a couple of days etc but I just don't think they realise how quickly time goes when you are travelling. Michele did a lot of travelling in her early 20s (she's now late 50s) and Patrick had his first trip overseas last year (Fiji), he is 60.

Hmmmm, that's true. Also when living in a country like Australia, it's easy to overlook the distances between places and the time it takes to travel between them because you are so used to seeing signs with 4 figures instead of 3!

Yes, I forget the long distance driving that is done in Australia. Though here too. My in-laws are in their 50's and travel often between Maryland and Michigan. In fact David surprised my boys when they went to the auto show, and came in for the weekend. We used to drive a lot from Denver to San Francisco, or to Detroit, but it's been a couple of years. Take that back, I did two "thelma & louise trips" with my cuz last year to California.

I don't mind a long drive if I'm not pushed for time but usually prefer flying so as to maximise my time at the destination. My friends are giving more thought to their excursions now and are going to let me know what they decide.