nvl325

Just made plans- arriving Boston/Logan on Sat evening, then heading by car to Concord, NH for 3 nights. Thoughts for our 2 full days:

Sunday- head over to Portsmouth, then a bit up the Maine coast, then loop back inland and end up back in Concord at end of day.

Monday- head north or northwest out of Concord, loop around through Woodstock, VT, then back down to Concord.

Tuesday- head toward Boston in a leisurely fashion, since our flight out is at the end of the day.

Questions- would like to take scenic routes, nice for sightseeing, stopping to take some photos, find a lobster roll for lunch, etc. Google maps sends you on the freeways/main roads, but I'd like suggestions from you locals on smaller, more picturesque roadways- could I get some proposed routes for those 2 days? We don't want to spend huge amounts of time driving really long distances, would rather poke along and see those wonderful colors. thanks!

dfrostnh

Color is coming on, still spotty in Concord area but some trees are beautiful. Traffic today southbound at 4pm wasn't too bad, some back up at the Hooksett toll booth in the two rightmost cash only lanes. Which means ... try to avoid being southbound on Sunday night! Same goes for I89 Vt to Concord.

Take Rt 4 to Portsmouth. Get an early start. Be careful in Northwood around antique shops area. We've never had a problem but other Fodorites have (sudden stops to make a turn). You can bypass Durham but it's a beautiful college campus. Very nice countryside as you approach Dover Point. It becomes dividied hwy Rt 16 but goes over beautiful bridges over Great Bay and it's my favorite approach to Portsmouth even though you can end up at the traffic circle and Rt 95. Get a detailed map. Head out to Kittery Point ME (NOT Rt 1 which has a congested strip of outlet malls) and find the state route to York area. I would not go to Chauncy Creek for lobster this time of year (outside dining). Or take Rt 1B from Strawbery Banke area out thru New Castle, a very old residential area and then past some new expensive housing and the beautiful restored Wentworth by the Sea hotel. We haven't had lobster rolls recently in this area so let someone else give you some advice. If you want to stop in the Great Bay area, there's Hilton Park picnic area right there.

Monday traffic to and from Woodstock VT shouldn't be bad except for commuting hours. You can take Pleasant St/Rt 103 west thru Hopkinton and Contoocook into Warner. Stop in Hopkinton at Gould Hill orchard for apples and view. Continue Rt 103 into Warner. It roughtly parallels I89. Follow signs thru Bradford and Sutton to New London. In Sutton there is a small Wadleigh Park/lake. Musterfield Farm is a beautiful former farm now more of a farm museum but unless an event is going on, there's not much to see. Make a short detour up auto road (toll) to Winslow State Park in Wilmot. You can get on Rt 89 in New London to VT. Popular lunch destination is Simon Pierce restaurant in Quechee VT. You could also make a detour to the Sunapee Lake area. But there are also back roads around New London and the Pleasant Lake area.

You can also go up Mt Kearsarge on the Warner side. I haven't been to the Kearsarge Indian Museum but it gets good reports. Famed naturalist/author David Carrol has a studio (Year of the Turtle) in Warner. You can see some of his work in the Bookends bookstore on Main St. Not sure if his studio is open.

Just north of Concord the area around Canterbury Shaker Village is pretty.

When you return to Boston I93 gets very industrial and commercial as soon as you get to the MA line. I'm not sure what to recommend on your last day.

nvl325

thanks, dfrost, those are helpful ideas!

Does anyone have any recommendations for an inland route back, after hitting Portsmouth or Portland? Just figured we should go a different way back, rather than driving back the same way.

And how about for a different way back from Woodstock?

joesorce

I would agree to get off Route 1 when you get to Kittery and to take route 103 down through kittery point and onward to York. Follow 1A down Long Beach route in York and on to Main Street, forking right when you see Shore Road. You can follow the shore all the way through York Cliffs and Cape Neddick, past the Cliff house and onward into Ogunquit. Have a late lunch in Ogunquit and maybe walk the Marginal Way........then grab route 1 up to Wells where you'll connect to 109 and head to the lake area near Shapleigh, Acton and on to Sanbornville/Wolfeboro. Early evening head down through Alton Bay on route 28 southward and then head west to Concord.
A long day but a beautiful drive and worth it, taking in some awesome coastal scenery and then some lakeside color.

What time is your flight out of Boston? traffic getting through the city to the airport is going to be very bad from 4:30 to 7pm.

dfrostnh

sounds like a nice route back from Maine

Maybe from Woodstock VT head south toward Brattleboro. Cross over to Keene NH. You would have the option of Rt 101 toward Nashua and that goes thru the picturesque and quiet SW corner of NH. If you do this route, you should go as far as Peterborough. The quick way would be highway back but you could take rt 202 to the Hillsboro NH area and then 89 back to Concord. I'd have to check the map but you should be able to go thru towns like Hancock and Antrim. Rt 101 takes you past Mt Monadnock. Pleasant drive if you don't go as far east as Nashua (big city) but you could also go thru New Boston and Dunbarton and end up in the Clinton St area of Concord.

One of the very best recent times we've had in Boston is a culinary tour of Boston's North End. You might be leafed out by then and a walking tour of a beautiful historic area might make a nice change.

nvl325

Have spent time with a map, and google maps- mapped out a loop for each day based on excellent suggestions.

Sunday- Concord to Portsmouth (on 202),
Portsmouth to Kennebunkport (thru Kittery Point, York Harbor, Cape Neddick and Ogunquit), Wells to Wolfeboro, then back to Concord.

About 4 1/4 hrs driving time without stops, so a nice full day including all the stops. Question- I see on Google maps, on the Cape Neddick "nubble", Fox's Lobster House, and Brown's Old Fashioned Ice Cream. Anyone heard of these?

Monday- Concord to Contoocook, to Warner, to New London, to Woodstock, to Brattleboro, to Peterborough, back up to Concord. That's 5 hrs of driving, without stops- too long! Where are the places to shorten the driving?

Thanks so much for the guidance! (btw, we were in Boston last summer, and visited the North End for lobster rolls at Union Oyster! well, I guess that's near but not in the North End!)

dfrostnh

I guess you'll have to eliminate the Brattleboro to Peterborough portion. Check mileage simply returning via I89 from VT. It's a pretty road even if it's an interstate. Or check to see what mileage is going Brattleboro/Keene to Hillsboro NH. It's nice enough. From Hillsboro take 202 which merges with I89 to return to Concord.

Perhaps for your leisurely return to Boston go thru Peterborough then head to Nashua and south to Boston.

Brown's ice cream is well known and popular. We were just talking this weekend about the huge amount of ice cream places in New England. We've gotten fussy and want 'homemade'. On Sunday we tried a small place in North Salem NH. The ice cream was great but it's made by the famous Richardson's in Middleton. We've decided it's acceptable as long as it's fairly locally made. In Concord there is Arnie's if you're an ice cream lover. But a nice trip to an old farm near Concord is Beech Hill (actually in Hopkinton I think). Great selection of flavors.

There's a great review of Maine lobster rolls on the internet but I think they may be mostly mid-Coast lobster places. You can try a google search. Just reading the reviews and seeing the photos is fun.

Color is really coming on now and we're having a rainy week (at long last) so maybe next week will be all sunny.

Ackislander

We did the Peterboro-Jaffrey-Monadnock area from Boston this past weekend. Took MA 225 from 128/95 to avoid Nashua and went through lots of pretty small towns in MA. Connects to a NH route that takes you directly to Mt Monadnock thru Jaffrey. Gorgeous views. Some spectacular spots of color but most is at least two weeks away. Came back via NH 101-I89-I93-I293- Everett Turnpike. Traffic (4 PM) much better than expected all the way to Arlington, MA, where we dropped off a friend.

joesorce

Brown's Ice Cream for sure. Nice place to relax with an "Indian Pudding" or "Grapenut" (Maine specialty flavors) cone and then take a walk towards the sea for a nice stretching of the legs. Foxs Lobster has a good reputation and there's also Mabel's in Kennebunkport or the little Beach Plum Picnic area on route 1 between Ogunquit and Wells. You'll choose a lobster, they'll cook it, and you'll be eating it on their picnic tables. Bring a bottle of wine with you and your own accompaniments as this place is just bare-bones lobster (check reviews on Yelp).

If you get up to Kennebunkport, you don't have to circle back to wells to head through Sanford and onward to the lake regions, you can just head west from Kennebunk, I think it's route 99 that connects later to route 109.