Road trip from Oakville to Vermont, Maine, Boston - too much in 7 days?
 

Hi,

I am new to Fodors forums and hoping you can help me get started with planning a road trip for my hubby and I in mid October for a week, after our Canadian Thanksgiving!

We love walking (not fond of tourist traps) and enjoying good food (mmm lobster or any type of seafood). We like touring wineries and my husband enjoys sampling local wine/beer. We also enjoy shopping in small towns (trying to stay away from malls) and relaxing by the water. If there's time to get in a golf game to enjoy the fall colours, we might be open to that too.

Other than that, this is our first long road trip and we wanted to enjoy a scenic drive together and be spontaneous.

Any advice on whether Oakville to Vermont, Maine and Boston is too ambitious to accomplish in 7 days?

I heard Portland is good for foodies (we love farm to table restos), not sure if too far to travel to Bar Harbour. Any ideas/suggested routes/day 1 to 7 rough itinerary for a leisurely trip?

Also any suggestions on contemporary hotels or cute bed and breakfasts would be helpful. Am guessing we need to book soon altho looking for flexibility in booking in case our driving plans change.

Finally, we are debating on whether to go through Montreal ... or an alternate drive crossing the border. Decisions, decisions, decisions ...

Thanks so much in advance to all who are open to sharing experiences and/or advice!!

OK, where is Oakville?

I'm glad you asked emalloy, I was embarrassed to admit I didn't know. I think it might be in Ontario, not far from Toronto. At least that's the first Oakville googlemaps found for me.

Oakvilletraveler, I think covering 2 states and a city in 7 days might be overly ambitious, but it doesn't mean you can't touch on those states. You need to lay out a few details before we can help though. How much time in Boston, for example? Take a look at some trip reports here, or others questions and try to decide a couple of towns or areas that interest you and we can help you string them together.

Also, mid October is peak foliage season, and the most busy time of year in New England by far. You will have a very hard time if you try for flexible accomodations. And most places will have minimum stay requirements, at least on the weekends.

i was trying to book a hotel in Portland mid week around then, and already most of the b&bs were fully booked, and some of the hotels had no availability. Portland is a great foodie destination, and there are quite a few breweries around. Vermont is less of a restaurant destination, but does have some nice microbrews as well.

Frankly, I'd skip New England wineries. There are none that are any good at all.

I'm glad that was cleared up or tomsd would start giving you directions from the Town of Oakville in No. Calif and telling you stories of how he and Sam Brannan were hanging together in Oakville CA planting the first crop of grapes before going to law school in SF. :))

Ah sorry emalloy being a newbie I was thinking I would get an email alerting me of a reply! I had Oakville, Ontario in subject line and when I had to shorten it, forgot to specify in body of my post :)

china_cat, I think we are going to look at travelling to Brattleboro or Burlington, VT (approx. 7 hours away from Oakville, Ontario) and hope to make it to Portland altho now may be we need to revisit if there's no availability. Since this is our first road trip, we may need to make another trip to Boston. We hope to stay in a couple of places for a couple days. Any other suggestions for Maine althernatives if Portland is booked solid?

And yes, we have lots of great wineries in Niagaga-on-the-Lake region so if anyone wants Canada suggestions, just ask!

Kal, my hubby wishes we lived in Oakville California :)

mid-October is a little late for color in northern parts but you might get some color on the Maine coast. Yankee Magazine thinks Camden ME has great fall foliage.
You can get a list of wineries for each state. There are several around Rockland ME and we like the backroads to Cellar Door Winery in Lincolnville (just north of Camden and not their Rt 1 store). Do tastings and decide for yourselves whether you like any of the wines. For a short trip, I don't think you have time to go to Bar Harbor.

If Portland hotels and B&Bs are full, you can try the condos in the Wells area. They are modern but boring. Portland's Old Port area is fun to explore. I didn't think the foodie tour was as good as in other places (i.e. Boston's North End). You can find lots of restaurant recommendations on Chowhound.com. Due to your timing, some of the best lobster shacks are closed for the season (usually open weekends only after Labor Day and close after Columbus Day) but you'll still find plenty of lobster.

But, starting out, Burlington is a great choice. I think Brattleboro is too far south. From Burlington, head to Norwich VT. The Norwich Inn is lovely, has a good restaurant and across the road, Carpenter & Main is also very good. The Norwich Inn has their own beer. You can visit King Arthur Flour. Next to KA is a wonderful farm stand, Killdeer Farm Stand. Just a bit further down the road, the Norwich Farmers Market is on Saturdays thru October. You can find lunch there, lots of food samples, music and a festive atmosphere. I have not explored White River Junction but we enjoyed lunch at the Tuckerbox which has Turkish food.

Then head I89 to Concord NH. Then I393 to Rt 4 and head to Portsmouth NH where you can connect with I95 north to Portland. On the way, you could do a slight detour for Flag Hill Winery and Distillery. Portsmouth has a nice walkable downtown and shops to explore. Good seafood choices although we like Petey's in Rye NH best (so far). Planning to explore Kittery in a few weeks, not the Rt 1 outlet mall area.

What you might want to stop for on Rt 1 is When Pigs Fly bakery outlet (great samples) and Stonewall Kitchen (great samples). I would avoid the Rt 1 area on weekends if you can.

If you go thru Montreal (great city) you can head to the border crossing at Phillipsburg/Highgate which is usually an easy one. This will place you 45 minutes from Burlington on a very scenic, rural stretch of highway. Burlington is a beautiful city, with a nice pedestrian friendly downtown and a world class bike trail. It is a city however, and if you are looking for small town ambiance it may not be ideal. The Waitsfield/Warren area is one of my favorites in Vermont - quite rural with some unspoiled back roads and the charming Round Barn B&B. You will find that once you get away from the strip malls of Burlington, 90% of Vermont is very rural and scenic. You didn't mention New Hampshire in your post - most of NH is also beautiful (more lakes and rugged mountains). Seven days to explore northern New England along with Boston is a lot, but it is possible. I would eliminate Bar Harbor however - just too far. Portland IS a foodie paradise. It is the tail end of peak season, but there are lots of motels, b&b's, condos, etc. If you do your homework you should find something.
One of the above posters dismissed the wineries in this area, which is unfortunate. True Northern New England will never rival California, but in the past 10 years wine production up here has exploded, and ther are some very nice wineries to visit.

dfrostnh, great advice! Will do my research on Camden, Norwich and Portsmouth. Thanks so much for info on wineries, samples and routes too!

zootsi, thank you! Yes we love Montreal so will go thru there (hmm, may be stop for a nite) and head to Burlington, VT. We like big cities too! Yes, will have to consider New Hampshire now ... guess Boston will be another trip. Let's hope we get to Portland before it's time to return home!

We live in Oakville and have done more than 20 trips to Vermont/ Maine to ski ( Sunday River) or bike. Definitely you can reach northern Vermont from Oakville on same day by late afternoon and western Maine by the next morning. We usually stay in St Johnsbury New Hampshire( no Tax!) overnight before heading out to Maine via Gorham and the White Mts. Love Burlington and its a great jumping off point for many places in Vermont, such as Stowe, Ben and Jerrys' and Waitsfield. Many artisan food places to tour in Vermont too . Would also caution if its peak season for fall colors to try and book ahead. I would agree with everything zootsi wrote. Forget wine but go for the Cabot Cheddar. I bring it back in boatloads!

Thanks snowgirls! It's great to know you have made lots of treks from Oakville and will definitely check out your suggestions. Artisan food places sound yummy and yes have to narrow down options with hubby and start booking a couple of places soon!

OT...We were on a 35 mile bicycle "Tour of Napa Valley" this past Sunday and pedaled by The Oakville Grocery.
Came this <--------> close to stopping, grabbing a dozen cookies, cuppa coffee and just sitting out front and watching the grapes grow.

A Vermont bike tour is on our To Do list.

Hmmm, Kal I better not show your post to my hubby as he may want to go to Napa Valley instead! Sounds like you had a great bike tour :)

Drop Boston and you've got a good trip. I used to live in Brattleboro, great little town (but it's all the way at the border of VT/MA so you might not want to head that far south?

Thanks suze. We will have to make another trip to Brattleboro ... and head to Burlington from Montreal. And sigh, not enough time for Boston. Wish we could go for 2 weeks!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...oday-1.1272228
On your return trip, you can take the new road we took last year to avoid Montreal traffic.

Ok, so not CA or WA, thanks,
If you don't have lodging yet, then look to areas close to the interstates, boring, motels, but more likely not to be booked up yet.

Have a great trip.

Great tip snowgirls! Thanks for the lodging advice emalloy :)

OT we travelled from Toronto to coastal Maine and back in early summer this year. Going there we went east on the 401 and crossed into the US at Ogdensburg, then down through the Adirondacks to overnight at Westport, NY on Lake Champlain (7hrs). Next day we were in Kennebunkport in 5 hours. Coming back we did Bar Harbor to Toronto in one drive (14hrs).

You can look at crossing at Niagara Falls and it's probably faster to get to Maine, but we found that route looked to be mostly interstates whereas the other route was very scenic. Test out different routes on Google maps. We found the times pretty accurate.

You can read my trip report here for spots to visit and places to stay: http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...-road-trip.cfm

It's a great road trip - you'll love it!

Last weekend we visited Hermit Woods Winery tasting in Meredith NH. Some of their wines are made from honey which resulted in an interesting lecture from the woman pouring our tastes about their Knot Mead wine which is made from honey bees have made from Japanese Knotweed. They only sell local and use local products as much as possible. The first wine they ever made was from Dolgo crab apples growing on an owner's property. Unfortunately, their wine made from Day Lilies was sold out. Peach wasn't ready yet. Pair this with recent Yankee Magazine article about heirloom apples grown on Scotts Farm in southern VT (they have Dolgo Crab Apples) and I ended up at Gould Hill Farm in NH to buy some of their heirloom apples. Poverty Hill Orchard and Farnum Hill Ciders isn't too far from Norwich VT. They specialize in cider apples and "hard cider". They are large enough to sell in the NH State liquor stores as well as local stores and food co-ops.

Alas, you are right, 7 days is not enough.