Jenna
St. Louis

Best Route and Must Sees

I'm planning a road trip to take my parents on and I could really use some help/advice. We would leave from St. Louis Missouri and head to New York. I would want the trip to last less than 14 days. 14 days is the absolute max. Places we have to stop are Niagara Falls, Cooperstown and New York City. In a perfect world we would take a different route home. I guess what I ultimately want to know are recommendations of routes, must see places and how much time you would suggest in each place. Leaving from STL I figured we would take the most direct route I-70 through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, ect to Niagra Falls. Coming home I'd like to stop in Charleston and spend at least a whole day there. New York City we were thinking 3-4 days. Any suggestions, advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

St. Louis ⇨ New York City

1 Answer

answered first by

Claudia from New York City

Hi Jenna,
Here's a sample itinerary that I found on Trippy with suggested stops and driving time on I-70. You can also customize your trip and get directions: https://www.trippy.com/drive/St--Louis-to-Cooperstown
I have not driven from St Louis to Cooperstown but have between New York City and Niagara Falls . You would need at least 2 nights to enjoy Niagara Falls and 4 nights to see the sights in NYC. As you may already know, most of NYC is still under Pause (businesses aren't open).
From Cooperstown to NYC, you have the option to take NY17 E or I-87S. Both routes will take you around a 4-hour drive, depending on traffic and time of day you travel.
Use Trippy's New York to St Louis driving guide for your trip home: https://www.trippy.com/drive/New-York-City-to-St--Louis
You may want to have an overnight stop at Columbus , OH, which is an 8.5-hour drive from NY. Columbus to St. Louis is about another 7-hour drive.

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Jenna
I appreciate your feedback! We are planning to go in September 2021. I should have mentioned that in my original posting. I was under the impression there isn't much to do at Niagara Falls other than the waterfall. My husband keeps saying he wants to drive straight through on the way to Niagara Falls from STL. Google claims it is about 12 hours. I thought we could wake up the next morning and spend a few hours at Niagara Falls then move on to the next location. I was thinking 5 finger lakes and the Ithaca area. Maybe spend the rest of the day exploring that area, then moving on towards Cooperstown the next morning. I thought from Cooperstown we could head towards NYC or possibly Connecticut. I would also like to take a more scenic route home.

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