VACATION HELP: What should I see in New England?

Hi Guys!

I am planning my Honeymoon in New England, any tips?

We will be showing up late October and I was thinking of starting in Boston, which I hear is very nice, and then venture out from there by car. There are some things which draw us there and I want to make sure we hit them as best as we can, plus add some places and things that we maybe didn't think about.

Things we would like to see are:
-Americas Castles
-Quaint little towns worth getting out and walking around and browsing from shop to shop
-Authentic Oceanside seafood dining
-Big and high mountains
-Twisty grown-in mountain highways with little shops along the way
-Have you got hot springs out there?
-What are some good and reasonable resorts or hotels to stay in in the mountains?

We have two weeks. Is this too much time for this area? Should we also head south for a spell?

Thanks for your help!
Wes

 

Sorry I can't help off the top of my head, I live here and I still use the computer to find things to do here. If yoiu have access to a computer, use search engine and ask it whatever you want. Good luck.

 

You can cover all of these in Newport, RI. No mountain highways or hot springs though. Lots of good resaturants. Easy to walk around and shop as well.

 

i'm a huge fan of the vineyard in the fall and early spring. but lots of stuff might not be open.

the white mountains are beautiful. a clear day at the top of mt. washington is a thing of beauty (it'll be around freezing though in october, in the sunshine, i'd guess).

the maine coast is very very cool, as is acadia national park.

some cute towns near boston with walk-around downtowns: wellesley, concord, lexington - not tourist stuff though - just nice downtowns.

the leaves may or may not be in full swing when you're out. getting hotels up in nh/vt/me might be challenging - leaf-peeping is HUGE for them up there.

newport is very nice - i'm a big fan.

doody.

 

If you were speculating on coming out to Connecticut here is what I can help with..

Americas Castles - There is Gilletes Castle in East Haddam CT
Quaint little towns/oceanside... There is Mystic CT.... the harbor...shipyard etc.. Downtown Mystic...
Big and high mountains? Nothing in CT... Maybe the Berkshires? Green Mountains in VT
Hot springs - Not sure.. HAve not heard of anything in the area?

Maine is nice this time of year as is New Hampshire.

I think there is a lot to do in the area.. For 2 weeks.. I would start either south in CT and work north to Maine or vice versa.

 

I worked in Mystic, CT during summers in college, and would give it a look as a tourist destination. It's an old whaling port, located on a river that runs a short distance to long island sound. The Mystic Seaport is a good recreation of what the old port area looked like back in the 1600s-1700s. There's a world-class aquarium there, too, as well as restaurants anywhere from the typical New England fried clam shack up to some really fine dining.

Plus, Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun (2 of the biggest casino resorts in the western hemisphere) are about 10 minutes away.

Cape Cod is worth a look, too, particularly as the end of October is the "off season". Lots of good restaurants there and nice places to stay (Chatham Bars Inn in Chatham, MA is particularly nice). You can drive all the way out to Truro and Provincetown to see largely untouched dunes and former art-colony craziness, respectively.

Out in Western Mass there are the Berkshire mountains (not much more than hills ,really). In Lenox, Mass, where Norman Rockwell did a lot of his painting work, you can stay at the Red Lion Inn, sit on the porch, and see a lot of the main street that is featured in several of his paintings. Lots of good bed and breakfasts out there, too.

Gio P

 

Drive from Boston north to Portsmouth,NH, then NW (93 to 89N) to Stowe, VT. You'll find everything you need there, including 5 star resorts, spas, congestion free roads and scenery reminscent of Austria....

 

Since everyone is touting their home state, I will suggest something a little bit different. See all six of the New England states!

Start out in Boston, where there are many, many things to see and do, from cultural (Boston Symphony, Museum of Fine Arts, Gardner Museum, theaters) to historic (Freedom Trail, Old North Church, Paul Revere's house) to interesting neighborhoods (North End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, South End, Fanueil Hall/Quincy Market, Harvard Square/Cambridge) to lots of fine restaurants (local flavor try No Name Restaurant or Union Oyster House for classic New England seafood) to Fenway Park (yes, the Red Sox will still be playing in October!), clubs with jazz and other popular music and on and on. You could easily spend several days just in Boston alone. But you could pack a lot in over 3-4 days.

Next, you might want to head up to the northeast into the Maine seacoast, say Kennebunkport at least and maybe on up to Portland and Camden. Since Kennebunkport is literally only 90 minutes from downtown Boston, that part is an easy trip. Because it is so close, you perhaps could take the scenic route along the coast north of Boston through Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester and, of course, Essex where you must have some fried clams at Woodman's.

Once in Kennebunkport, maybe stay a night at the White Barn Inn in Kennebunkport and then spend another day or two meandering up the coast line. While in Maine, you will want to sample or gorge yourself on lots of lobster of course with steamers!

If you really want to spend more time in Maine, head as far north as Rockport and Mt. Desert Island, see the sunrise from Cadillac Mountain, shop in Northeast Harbor (stay at the Asticou Inn for an step back in time) and Bar Harbor (pronounced Bah Hahbah) and see Southwest Harbor where the high end Hinckley yachts are made.

After you've completed your Maine sojourn, head west across the Kancamangas highway into the White Mountains of New Hampshire, see Mount Washington and Lake Winnepesauki. There is a very nice classic old inn that has just been restored (forgetting name) in the Mt. Washington area that has been a destination for Ferrari club tours the last few years. If you want to keep going then head north and west up Rt 89 into the Green Mountains of Vermont. Just before the NH/VT border, stop for lunch and see Hanover, NH, the home of Dartmouth College. Very classic New England small town with the campus right in the center of town and the only Ivy League that is a college and not a university. You could even take in a Dartmouth football game if the timing works out right. It's a totally smaller and different but very fun time compared to the games of teams in the big conferences.

Back on the road, you could continue north on Rt 89 say 2-3 hours to head towards Stowe on Rt 100. The foliage should be well past peak this far north and this late in October but it still is a beautiful area and hotels/inns might be hard to get. There is a fancy hotel and spa at Topnotch on Mount Mansfield where you can pamper yourselves if you like. There are several lively restaurants and pubs along the mountain road down into the town of Stowe itself, which is yet another classic old New England town with lots of galleries, antiques and other shopping. After say a day or two in Stowe, time to head due south, approximately 2-3 hours along Route 100 South (one of the most picturesque roads in New England). Stop in Waitsfield for antiquing or shopping and lunch and then back on the road for a couple of hours to take in Bennington or Manchester, VT (lots of outlets but still a very nice town, possibly stay or at least eat at the Equinox Inn in Manchester) or, for a smaller town atmosphere, Dorset, with lots of quaint shops. This section of Vermont has no real highways but the roads are very interesting to drive and you can make reasonably good time between the villages and towns. You will see and experience much more of Vermont than you would on a highway, that's for sure. After all this, you are well poised to drive an hour or so south into the Berkshires of Massachusetts.

You could visit Lenox and several other small towns in this western part of Mass. Maybe next you would head straight east on the Mass Pike and then turn south on Rt 91, turn over to Rt 395 (I think) east of Hartford and down into eastern seaboard Connecticut for Mystic Seaport, Essex and the very big but very nice casinos at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Even if you're not into gambling they have some big name show business acts that appear there.

From eastern Connecticut head east along the coast to Newport RI. Quaint if a bit touristy harbor/sailing town with America's Cup history. Definitely see the "cottages" (i.e. very large mansions of the Vanderbilts et al), have a drink or two at the Black Pearl on the harbor and maybe even see if you can go for a sail on some of the vintage 12 meter America's Cup yachts that are berthed in Newport. Ask around for Seascape/Tiedemann collection (Bob Tiedemann died last year but his wife Elizabeth still runs the business. They do lots of corporate charters but they also might do sailing excursions for unrelated groups).

From Newport you head to the east and maybe take in Cape Cod. Chatham is mid-cape and a very nice walking and shopping town. The Chatham Bars Inn is one of the nicer places to stay and recharge your batteries.

By the time that you are done with the Cape, you are only 2-3 hours away from Boston and your flight home. The nice thing about New England is that it is fairly compact, particularly compared to the western states and therefore it is not a big deal to drive from one state to the next. The longest drive that you might have between destinations probably would be no more than 4-5 hours, and many of them are much shorter distances.

There! You should be able to fit most of that in two weeks if you want to. You will have had an action packed two weeks and will have seen every state in New England plus most of the must see places. The only problem might be is that you could be so busy that you won't have much time or energy to do, um, er, "honeymoon" type things. But I'm sure that you can work that into the schedule if you want to!

Have fun!

John

 

The post above from John is spot on, just do that it sounds just about perfect.

Andrew

 

TRE-MEN-DOUS!!!

Thanks so much guys! I will be printing this all out and looking it over with a map in hand, but I agree, it's all laid out, especially in John's post. Thanks John!

Sometimes a person can go to a place and miss something they might be driving right by, this way I feel this won't happen. And I agree with the Boston Symphony concert too. There's a Violinist (my instrument) there the weekend we leave, so I hope to catch that. But I will definately make Boston home base now.

Thanks again, really appreciate it. When I get back I will try to post some (amazing) pics!

Cheers!
Wes

 

Sorry for the delay guys, but yes I am back and had a really nice trip in your New England Stated, thank you.

A special thank you to Ashman for his large write up which I printed out and consulted along the trip.

We had a great time, and the weather was great. Only rained one day. Temp was between 55-65, and sunny.
Started in Boston, then up to Portsmouth and Rockport, then over to Laconia, then to Stowe, then down to
Hartford, then over to Newport R.I., then to Chatham on Cape Cod, then back to Boston for 3 days. Just perfect
as a 'smorgasborg' of the States.

Even got to take a nice picture of one of the Yachts up there in Provincetown. Such affluence.

Again, thanks for the help. A real nice place you have there!



Wes
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Glad that you had a good time! Hope that the memories from your honeymoon are only the beginning of a long and happy life together!

John

PS I was even right about the Red Sox still playing in October, and how! Go Sox!

J

 

Ya!

We weren't even baseball fans, but did watch most of the games after arriving. It was really neat.
Especially when the first hotel had a 42" TV.

But just loved the Newport Mansions. Grew up watching them on TV, so it was a 'must see'...and did
not disappoint.

But for the life of me...we could not find the beach at the turn off to Stowe. That will remain a mystery.

And now, some nice fall pics. See if you can guess the locations....

Wes
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Gee, I'd say that second one is at the "Cold Hollow Cider Mill". Which, if I remember correctly [quickly hides the google search behind his back], is in lovely Waterbury, VT

 

Well, I call it all "Stowe", but you're probably right.

And I guess that first one is a little hard, so I'll show you a wider version, though
stitching pics together does distort things a bit.

And I bet someone can guess where the second one's from.....
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Sorry to jump in a little late; Foxwoods is actually the largest casino in the world. Had to get some CT pride in there, we aren't known for too much other than all that history shennanigan stuff.

Sounds like your itinerary was more than lovely though, and couldn't argue with that weather either.

 

Take a drive along rt 1A in NH along the cost from Salisbury MA to Rye NH. Beautiful sights and homes along that route.

The beach looks very rustic i think in the winter time and makes for some cool scenery. Also some "quaint" towns to check out: Newbury Center, Agunquit Maine, Kittery, Kennebunkport Maine (the Bush compound is a cool site)