I doubt there is the need for a Travel Agent for this type of trip. You are bound to get more insider knowledge from forums such as this with regards to hotel locations and proximity to attractions than a Travel Agent. IMHO...I must add

I've been to three of the cities listed and Seattle is down for next year. I don't think you would be disappointed with any of D.C., Boston or Chicago to be honest. A perk of visiting D.C. is that the majority of the attractions (i.e. Capitol Building, Washington Monument, the various Smithsonian museums) are all free. I would always advise anybody on a budget (you may or may not be) who wants to do a USA city break to visit Washington D.C.

Boston and Chicago are excellent also. I would utilise the search function on this forum and see if any other threads have mentioned these cities. I'm pretty sure they have, and quite recently as well.

My first port of call would be Expedia. Try flight and hotel together and see what the savings are. There is always the option of Hotwire in these cities but you don't find out the hotel name until you confirm booking and obviously with your concerns on location, I doubt this would be an option. There are considerable savings to be had though with Hotwire, especially as you've chosen four of the more expensive US cities to potentially visit.

Not going to New York??

how abot san francisco? you could also visit vegas & san diego!
we also visited,new orleans,memphis,nashville,texas & oklahoma,on one trip.
one things for sure,you will be spoilt for choice!
tracy

You could do boston and DC in one trip. I liked DC but much prefferred Chicago, its probably my fave non-vegas place in the US. Easy to get around, loads to see and do and not expensive.

No need to use travel agent for any of it.

some good ideas there guys, thanks. so..........lets say I did something like Boston - New York - Washington...........or New York - Pittsburgh - Chicago..........just limiting where I go to save on money and stick to travelling by train to keep costs down......how much would you expect such a trip to cost? (roughly) excluding spending money?

Pittsburgh???
New York, Washington, Boston - much better..