New York, Washington DC and Niagara Falls, 5 Nights

A driver waits for you after the arrivals hall and takes you into Manhattan; depending on the airport and the traffic, the ride can take well over an hour. Check in, rest, and if you have energy in the evening, walk out to see Times Square after dark or catch the view down Fifth Avenue. Carry a light jacket even in summer, because air-conditioning indoors is fierce.

Head to the southern tip of Manhattan for the harbour cruise that passes close to the Statue of Liberty without landing, with the towers of the Financial District rising behind the water. Then walk up to the 9/11 Memorial and ride the fast lifts of One World Trade Center to the observatory. The bus takes you uptown for the afternoon: Wall Street, the Flatiron, Times Square, Rockefeller Center and Central Park, stepping off wherever you like.

Transfer to the airport for the short flight to the capital, or take the Amtrak train from Penn Station, which runs city centre to city centre in about three hours. The afternoon is yours. Union Station, a handsome Beaux-Arts hall, is a good place to start, and from there the Capitol dome is a short walk away. Georgetown, with its brick houses and riverside restaurants, makes an easy first evening.

Use the bus to string together the great buildings of the capital: the Capitol and the Supreme Court, the White House seen from Lafayette Square, and the memorials at the western end of the Mall. The Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the World War II Memorial are all within a short walk of one another. Leave a few hours for a Smithsonian museum; most charge no entry, and Natural History is the family favourite.

Fly to Buffalo in the morning, and a driver takes you on to the town of Niagara Falls on the American side. Walk into Niagara Falls State Park, the oldest state park in the country, for Prospect Point and Goat Island. In the boating season, the Maid of the Mist carries you right up to the churning base of the Horseshoe Falls; outside it, the frozen spray in winter is its own spectacle. Come back after dark to see the falls lit up.

Breakfast, and a last walk to the falls if your flight leaves later in the day. The driver takes you back to Buffalo Niagara International for your onward flight, whether that is home via a larger hub or on to another part of the country. Many travellers add Orlando or the West Coast from here, which we can plan with you.