Sherlon03

We are planning a trip to possibly Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont area in the first part of September. We have never been to the area and were kind of looking at flying into Manchester. We would plan on spending 7-10 days. Looking for suggestions on destinations. We like sight seeing, good food and a few nights at country inns. Not much into adventure activities such as hiking or fishing. Any suggestions for itineries would be so appreciated. We had kind of thought of making a loop up coastal Maine, White Mountains of New Hampshire and back to Manchester.

jludwig

I think of VT & NH as one trip and Maine as a trip in itself. I may be mistaken, but it seems like too much driving. We flew into Portland ME the first week of Sept.,rented a car and drove Rte 1 north to Bar Harbor (Acadia Nat. Park our destination)making a lot of stops along the way. Beautiful weather, little traffic, no summer crowds and laid back locals. What great conditions to explore lighthouses, museums and small towns.We love the mountains and plan to do VT & NH in the future,however, another trip to ME couldn't hurt.

rkkwan

7-10 days is totally fine for the Maine coast and White Mountains of NH. But you probably should skip VT to save travel time.

Here's what you should do:
1 night near Kennebunkport or south of Portland
1 night around Portland
1 night at like Boothbay Harbor or Camden
2 nights at or near Bar Harbor
1-2 nights inland between Bar Harbor and N. Conway, NH
The rest at N. Conway or other W. Mountain areas

It'd be a leisurely trip with very reasonable driving time each day.

gail

I might reconsider if your interests are sightseeing, good food and not hiking and other outdoorsy activities.

Northern New England is beautiful - but a 10 day driving loop looking at trees and mountains would get old really fast for me, unless you are really into scenery, photography or want to relax for several days at a time at various inns.

The problem with a loop is that NH is between Maine and Vermont - and for your interests NH and VT might be redundant - but I have a strong preference for interest value of VT over NH. In much of northern New England, north-south roads are fine - east-west routes can require some creativity.

All that said, rkkwan probably has a fairly good routing. Check airfares into Manchester versus Boston - Manchester (Southwest) is generally cheaper - but Boston is only an hour from Manchester so if by some chance it is significantly cheaper, it can be an airport option. And if you were not spending time in Boston, the drive into/out of Boston just to airport is not terrifying.

aprilkrueg

My husband and I spent 7 days in the exact same area last year. We flew from Miami to NY Laguardia, transferred to Manchester and then drove to Sugarhill, NH. We stayed at the Hilltop Inn, and I must say that we had a wonderful time. The proprietors were incredibly pleasant, and Meri is an AMAZING cook. Rooms were very homey and it just felt like you were staying with family. We stayed there four days, and still had time to drive up to Montreal for the day (we did get back about 2 a.m - but we stayed late for an Expos game); and we drove over to Vermont, stopped at Cabot Creamery, had lunch in Montpelier, and then drove over to Burlington for dinner, and back to Sugarhill. It was a long drive back - and perhaps it would have been better if we had slept in Vermont a night. Then we went from Sugarhill to Rockland Maine (at the Limerock Inn). There were so many tourists in mid-coast Maine (we were there around August 13th -17th) that it was really horrible. That and the mosquitos! We drove up early in the a.m. to Acadia - and it was breathtaking, but again, tourists were an issue. But then again, we were tourists too - so I guess it's all relative! Acadia is definitely a must see though. I wish we would have had more time there.


If you have any questions, feel free to email me [email protected]. I'll go through our trip details and give suggested places to eat, etc. if you're interested.

gc

Sherlon,

You will be too early for foliage, but it sounds like you want to travel after Labor Day...when all the kiddies go back to school, and all the crowds leave the vacation spots, and the weather is absolutely glorious.

Being sensitive to earlier posts, I'd suggest NH-ME, or NH-VT, unless you don't mind driving.

I can't disagree with rkkwan's itinerary, except to add Portsmouth NH.

Having said all that, if the ocean is not mandatory, consider VT and the Adirondacks... The Green Mts, Lake Champlain, Lake Placid and Montreal...