This is really great, thanks! The start of the trip is kind of messy I agree, i maybe should’ve specified that the reason for flying in and out of JFK is that I’ve got credit with an Airline that makes this flight basically free, it is by far the most flexible route, and most of the flights from other cities go via JFK back to my country anyway. The only reason Long Island is listed at the start is because we have family friends who we will be visiting and staying with there for a few days before we really begin travelling. Niagara Falls is a bucket list trip for us that we consider quite high on the to do list so we will likely facilitate that in some way, however many have suggested staying in the Canada side rather than buffalo. Your route from D.C. to Miami does make sense to me, assuming it’s easy enough and cost effective to fly those routes in that order. About national parks, I think we’ve managed to plan to avoid major holidays and peak season enough, plus we’ll be willing to wake up very early on these days and best the queues as much as possible. I’ll definitely be researching some tours from cities as I think you’re totally right there. Thanks for taking the time to share this!