Day Trips from NYC by Train and Bus (No Car Needed)

Newark, NJ

⏱ About 15 minutes on Amtrak, 30 by bus

• 🚆New York to Newark trainsfrom $6
• 🚌New York to Newark busesfrom $7
• NJ Transit and PATH

The shortest trip on this page and the cheapest of the routes we sell out of New York with any real volume. The typical ticket was $14, and nearly eight in ten cost less than $20. On Amtrak’s Keystone trains it was $13.75, with almost every ticket under $20. FlixBus and Greyhound run it too, for about $13.

Newark Penn Station opens onto the Ironbound, the Portuguese and Brazilian neighborhood a few blocks east. Come for the long lunches, the bakeries and a very serious steakhouse culture. The Newark Museum of Art is a bit north of the station.

Princeton, NJ

⏱ About 50 minutes to Princeton Junction on Amtrak, then the Dinky

• 🚆New York to Princeton Junction trainsfrom $6
• NJ Transit, then the Dinky shuttle

The train stops at Princeton Junction, and a short shuttle called the Dinky runs the rest of the way to campus. Tickets to the Junction usually ran $18, and $13 on the Keystone. That’s only 36 tickets over the year, so don’t hold us to it.

The Princeton University Art Museum opened its new building on October 31, 2025, with more than four times the gallery space of the old one, and it’s free. The campus and Nassau Street fill the rest of the day. NJ Transit runs fewer weekday trains into Penn Station from October 11 to November 14, 2026, while the new Portal North Bridge goes in. If you’re going on a weekday then, check the schedule.

New Brunswick, NJ

⏱ About 50 minutes by bus

• 🚌New York to New Brunswick busesfrom $10
• 🚆New York to New Brunswick trainsfrom $6
• NJ Transit

Every FlixBus ticket to New Brunswick sold on Wanderu in the past year cost under $20, and the usual fare was $14.98. It’s a small sample, 35 tickets in all, but it’s the most consistently cheap route on this page. New Brunswick is a Rutgers town, with the Zimmerli Art Museum on the College Avenue campus. The State Theatre and the restaurants around it make a decent evening before the trip back.

Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, NY

⏱ About 40 to 50 minutes on Metro-North

• Metro-North off-peak$11.75

We don’t sell Metro-North, but this is one of the cheapest trips out of Grand Central: $11.75 off-peak on the Hudson Line, $16 at rush hour. Tarrytown’s Main Street runs uphill from the station, and Sleepy Hollow is next door. Washington Irving is buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and every October the whole valley leans into the Headless Horseman with a commitment you have to respect.

Greenwich and Stamford, CT

⏱ About 45 to 60 minutes on Metro-North or Amtrak

• 🚆New York to Stamford trainsfrom $6
• Metro-North off-peak to Greenwich$11.75
• Metro-North off-peak to Stamford$13.25

The first two big stops on the New Haven Line. Metro-North is $11.75 off-peak to Greenwich and $13.25 to Stamford. Amtrak also stops in Stamford, and about half of those cost under $20. The usual fare was $22.25. Greenwich Avenue’s shops run north from the station, and the Bruce Museum is a few minutes’ walk the other way, just past the I-95 underpass.

Long Beach, NY

⏱ Under an hour on the LIRR

• LIRR off-peak$11.25

The easiest beach from Manhattan is $11.25 off-peak on the LIRR, and the station is a short walk from the sand. The boardwalk runs 2.2 miles and is free all year. You only need a beach pass from Memorial Day to Labor Day, which makes the shoulder months the good ones.

Cold Spring, NY

⏱ About 1 hour 20 minutes on Metro-North

• Metro-North off-peak$16

Cold Spring is one of the most-recommended car-free day trips from New York, and it earns it. It’s $16 off-peak from Grand Central, $21.75 at rush hour. The station is at the bottom of Main Street, the antique shops and cafes run up the hill from there, and the river is right at the end of the platform. The Hudson Line is also one of the best fall foliage train rides in the country, so sit on the left going north.

Breakneck Ridge, the famous scramble just north of town, is closed, along with its trailheads and its Metro-North stop, while the Fjord Trail is built. The closure started on April 21, 2025 and is expected to last until about mid-2027. Most older guides still send you there.

Philadelphia, PA

⏱ About 1 hour 25 minutes on Amtrak, 2 hours by bus

• 🚆New York to Philadelphia trainsfrom $11
• 🚌New York to Philadelphia busesfrom $8

The one big city where under $20 is still common. Philadelphia is the third-busiest destination we sell out of New York, and a quarter of those tickets came in under $20. The typical one was $24.79, but who you book with matters a lot. BBBus had a typical fare of $14, with nearly nine in ten tickets under $20. PhillyBus only started selling on Wanderu in mid-August 2026, so it’s too new to have a typical fare yet. On Amtrak, the Northeast Regional and the Keystone both came in around $24, with about half of their tickets under $20.

The First Bank of the United States opened to the public on July 1, 2026, for the first time in 50 years. It’s one of the oldest bank buildings in the country, in Independence National Historical Park, a walk from the Liberty Bell. And if you like it enough to stay, our day trips from Philadelphia pick up where this page leaves off.

Beacon, NY

⏱ About 1 hour 30 minutes on Metro-North

• Metro-North off-peak$18.50

Beacon is the next stop up from Cold Spring and the one on every list. It’s $18.50 off-peak, just under $20. Dia Beacon, the huge contemporary art museum in an old box-printing factory, is a short walk from the station. Main Street, with its galleries and restaurants, is a longer walk east.

On weekends a Metro-North Day Pass to Beacon costs $37, the same as two off-peak one-ways, so it only saves you money if you stop somewhere else on the way back.

Poughkeepsie, NY

⏱ About 1 hour 25 minutes on Amtrak, up to 2 hours on Metro-North

• 🚆New York to Poughkeepsie trainsfrom $26
• Metro-North off-peak to Poughkeepsie$21

The end of the Hudson Line. Metro-North is $21 off-peak and can take close to two hours. Amtrak is faster, about an hour and 25 minutes, and tickets on Amtrak’s Empire Service usually ran $38.99. The draw is the Walkway Over the Hudson, an old railroad bridge turned into a footpath 212 feet above the river. It starts about 0.7 miles uphill from the station.

You may have read about new super-express trains here. They’re real, but they only run on weekday rush hours in the commuter direction, at the peak fare, so they won’t help a day trip.

New Paltz, NY

⏱ About 1 hour 30 minutes by bus

• 🚌New York to New Paltz busesfrom $24

No train, but Trailways runs straight there from Port Authority, and tickets usually ran $35.48. None cost under $20, so go for the place. New Paltz is a college town with a walkable Main Street. The Wallkill Valley Rail Trail runs through it for more than 22 miles, flat and easy on foot or on a bike. Since August 8, 2025, Trailways has also picked up at Hudson Yards, but only on Fridays going up and Sundays coming back, which suits a weekend better than a day.

Easton and Bethlehem, PA

⏱ About 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes by bus

• 🚌New York to Easton busesfrom $20
• 🚌New York to Bethlehem busesfrom $16

Two old river towns in the Lehigh Valley, about ten miles apart. FlixBus is the cheapest, typically about $29, but it stops at the William Penn Park and Ride. That’s about four miles outside Easton and five from Bethlehem, so you’d need a lift into town. OurBus and Trans-Bridge Lines, typically about $32 to $40, use other stops, so check where yours drops you before you book.

Easton has the Crayola Experience on its town square. Bethlehem has SteelStacks, where the blast furnaces of the old Bethlehem Steel plant now light up behind an arts campus. Across the river is a historic district of 18th-century stone buildings.

New Haven, CT

⏱ About 1 hour 50 minutes on Amtrak or Metro-North

• 🚆New York to New Haven trainsfrom $11
• 🚌New York to New Haven busesfrom $9
• Metro-North off-peak to New Haven$20.25

Metro-North is $20.25 off-peak, a quarter over the line. The Northeast Regional is a better deal than it looks. Tickets usually ran $21, and nearly half cost under $20. Buses run about $23 to $25.

Two Yale museums are free and recently reopened: the Peabody Museum of Natural History in 2024, after a four-year renovation, and the Yale Center for British Art on March 29, 2025. And then there’s the pizza, which people in New Haven will tell you about whether you ask or not.

Hudson, NY

⏱ About 2 hours on Amtrak

• 🚆New York to Hudson trainsfrom $35

What you’re paying for is Warren Street, a long, walkable run of antique shops, galleries and restaurants that starts a few blocks from the station. Olana, the painter Frederic Church’s hilltop house, is about five miles south, so you’ll need a taxi or a bike to get there. And you do pay. It’s the priciest trip in this band: Empire Service tickets usually ran $51.99, and none dipped under $20.

Atlantic City, NJ

⏱ About 2 hours 30 minutes by bus

• 🚌New York to Atlantic City busesfrom $15
• NJ Transit bus

Bus only, and the bus drops you close to the Boardwalk. OurBus was typically $37.05 and Greyhound $42.97, so plan on closer to $40 than $20. The Boardwalk is the oldest in the country, it’s free, and the beach is right below it. The casinos along it have other plans for your money.

Montauk and the Hamptons, NY

⏱ About 2 hours 15 minutes to 3 hours 15 minutes on the LIRR

• LIRR off-peak$24.50

The long way to the beach. The LIRR is $24.50 off-peak to Montauk and the Hamptons, $33 at rush hour. Getting there takes most of the morning, so it’s a very long day or a short weekend. Montauk Point Lighthouse, finished in 1796, is the oldest lighthouse in New York State. It’s about six miles past the station, so plan on a taxi.

Baltimore, MD

⏱ About 2 hours 50 minutes on Amtrak, 3 hours 30 minutes by bus

• 🚆New York to Baltimore trainsfrom $17
• 🚌New York to Baltimore busesfrom $13

The Walters Art Museum in Mount Vernon is free, and so is a walk around the Inner Harbor. Keep going east along the water and you hit Fell’s Point, cobblestones and old bars by the harbor. It’s also the cheapest of the long trips. Tickets usually ran $33.99, with CoachRun around $30 and Wanda Coach and BBBus about $32. The Northeast Regional was typically $43.99.

Providence, RI

⏱ About 3 hours 30 minutes on Amtrak, 3 hours 30 minutes to 4 hours by bus

• 🚆New York to Providence trainsfrom $17
• 🚌New York to Providence busesfrom $12

Go on a WaterFire night, when bonfires are lit on the river through downtown, free to watch. The full lightings run on select evenings from spring into the fall, so check the schedule before you pick a date. Getting there is close to a tie. Greyhound was typically about $42, the Northeast Regional about $43, and OurBus and FlixBus about $44.

Boston, MA

⏱ About 4 hours to 4 hours 30 minutes by bus or on the Northeast Regional

• 🚆New York to Boston trainsfrom $22
• 🚌New York to Boston busesfrom $12

Boston’s great. Four-plus hours each way is less great. Make it a weekend and the four hours stop mattering: the Freedom Trail is free to walk and covers most of the old city, and the North End is where the saved money goes. It’s our single biggest route out of New York, and fewer than 1% of tickets sold for less than $20. The typical one was $41.83. The cheapest regulars on the bus were CoachRun at about $32.50 and OurBus at about $36. The train is where booking ahead pays. Northeast Regional fares to Boston roughly halved for tickets bought two weeks or more out.

Washington, DC

⏱ About 3 hours 30 minutes on Amtrak, 4 hours 30 minutes by bus

• 🚆New York to Washington trainsfrom $22
• 🚌New York to Washington busesfrom $13

Most of the Smithsonian is free. The new National Geographic Museum of Exploration isn’t. It opened on June 26, 2026, and adult tickets start at $29.99. The memorials stay open all night, and they’re better after dark anyway. Getting there typically cost $40.66, and about 1% of tickets came in under $20. By bus, CoachRun was about $31 and OurBus about $35. The Northeast Regional was typically $62, and like Boston it drops sharply if you book two weeks ahead.