I won't dwell on the little details but will give you some of the highlights of my 6-day trip to New England. I just returned last night. I traveled solo and rented a car.

My flight from Ohare was to Manchester NH. I prefer the smaller airport rather than trying to maneuver in Boston traffic. I picked up my rental car and headed first to lunch in Amherst NH with friends who were there from Canada. Then, off to Danvers MA for two nights at a Comfort Inn. The location of the hotel, although tough to find coming from Amherst, was really very convenient, right along route 101. The hotel was not fancy, but was comfortable and had a good breakfast buffet included.

I took a day to explore Salem Ma. I'm glad I did. It was interesting. I parked my car in the building adjacent to the visitors center in the heart of the historic district. Parking price was very reasonable.

I bought a pass on the tourist bus and took the one-hour+ tour, straight through, without getting off. I wanted a quick look at my options. On the second trip around I stopped at the house of seven gables and took that tour. I somehow expected the house to be on a more grand scale... it's really a very small house! Interesting tour.

I also toured the Peabody Essex museum (PEM) which was interesting. Friends had recommended that I take a look at the 200 year old Chinese house which was moved from southeast China to the museum in 2002. I travel a lot to southeast Asia so this was very interesting indeed.

I always enjoy the outlet shops in Kittery Maine, so I drove there after finishing my look around Salem. I like eating lobster in Maine (lol) so dined at the Weathervane restaurant. A little shopping and then back to Danvers. I took route 95 because it's much quicker for getting from Danvers to Kittery.

On Saturday the 7th of Oct, there was a GTG in BOS (Cambridge actually) which I attended. This was the reason for making the trip from Illinois. And it was well worth it. We had a great group of fodorites both at lunch (36 I think) and at a Thai dinner (24 maybe?). Lots of conversation and sharing of travel tidbits. Thanks to Bob and Karen and Andy for organizing another fun GTG!

Following the GTG, I left Sunday morning for a two-night visit to the Cape Cod area. I stayed at a fairly new Hilton Garden along route 3 in Plymouth. Breakfast is not included but is available at the hotel restaurant. There were some very noisy folks in the hallway at 1:30 in the morning! Why do civilized (?) people think it's OK to be slamming doors and cursing at the top of their lungs when others are trying to sleep!! Beats me... I'm sure it wasn't anyone on this board...

I had time to drive to Orleans on the cape, and could have gone further out on Sunday, but didn't. I drove the "southern" road (route 28?) thinking I'd see some of the Cape's beaches but no such luck. The road is nice though. It passes lots of little towns and shops as it winds its way through the trees. When I got to Orleans I took the "northern" route (6a I think) back to Sandwich. Again, I hoped to see some of the Cape beaches but didn't. But I did stop of one of the many home made ice cream places and thoroughly enjoyed that! There were also lots and lots of shops that I could have explored but wasn't on a shopping trip...

I had the most beautiful weather on Monday the 9th for a 1-day boat trip out to Nantucket. I went over to the island on the fast boat (IMO too windy and too much salt spray to sit outside) and returned on the slow boat, where it was perfect to sit outside and enjoy the sea air! I'd do the slow boat both ways next time I think.

I enjoyed Nantucket. I took a 1-hour+ van tour around the island and enjoyed the driver's historic commentary. Always informative. There was just one stop, a quick photo op. The rest was riding. This is not a hop on, hop off type of tour.

After the tour I had time to look in the many shops in Nantucket town and have a lunch of Nantucket clam chowder. YUMMY!! It is very do-able to go on an early ferry (9:00am) and return on a late afternoon ferry (4:00pm) and enjoy lunch and shopping on Nantucket. I recommend booking the ferry tickets in advance rather than the day you want to travel. I originally wanted the fast ferry both ways, but found out that the returning ferries were all booked up. That's when I had to take the slow ferry... and discovered just how much I enjoyed IT!!

I really wanted to see some fall color on this trip, so my last full day was spent in New Hampshire. I drove up to Woodstock NH on highway 93 and then got off the 4-lane for a scenic drive south on route 3. I stopped a number of times to take photos, although the color this year was not what I would call spectacular. I headed to Squam Lake and Lake Winnepisaukee (pardon my sp) also. Lovely area! Not much traffic at all. Now, if I'd gone the day before, I'd be stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, I think. A lady at the NH welcome center said that weekend traffic was tremendous because of the 3-day weekend and the gorgeous weather we had.

It was a lovely trip to New England. The only problem was the 2 1/2 hour delay to fly home last night. Chicago weather was causing delays all over the place...

I'll be back in New England next fall. It's really a lovely getaway location, and especially when the trees are turning.

Carol

Thanks for posting a trip report. You certainly lucked into some great weather. Last night it rained and today is gray and drizzly. I was interested in your comment that you liked the location of the Comfort Inn in Danvers (Rt 1 not 101, I think) since that is the one where we stayed a few weeks ago. We wanted something convenient to both Salem and Suffolk Downs but I thought it was a little too far from Salem and we did not have good directions. We also enjoyed the PEM and a tour of the Chinese house. The Squam Lake area is also one of my favorites, esp Center Sandwich. The traffic on Sunday and Monday was indeed very heavy esp since there was a fair in Center Sandwich. Sounds like you got a great overview of New England. I'm glad you enjoyed your visit and want to return.

Carol, for you next trip, in Salem, MA there is a shopping mall across from the Visitors Center, and inside is a Thai restaurant with great food.

Also, check out the Pirate museum if you're interested in this sort of things. It's a piece of history, they have guided tours.

Thanks for the replies to my "quick trip report." I'll be happy to try to answer questions anyone might have. I kept a travel journal, as always, and tried to jot down notes in a timely fashion. Sorry I didn't have my journal at hand when typing this little report though.

dfrost, you are right about the route number of the hotel in Danvers. As far as directions to Salem, yes it was tricky. I put together two sets of directions from yahoo and mapquest and that helped. It was still tricky finding the historic part of Salem. But I was glad I had stayed outside of Salem because traffic was a problem there. I was sitting and sitting at many stoplights trying to get in and out of there. Danvers, on the other hand, was a breeze.

faina
I saw the Thai restaurant as I strolled into that little mall and bought a couple of souvenirs. I didn't eat there, having had a bowl of clam chowder just prior to this at the PEM.

I will definitely be back in New England next fall. There will be yet another great BOS GTG around this very same time, and I wouldn't miss that for the world!

Carol

Thanks for the report, Carol

Q for you:
We're going to Boston next month and plan on visiting the Peabody-Essex Museum and the Chinese House. The museum website recommend buying tickets in advance, but do you think it's necessary? Did you have advance tickets or just buy it when you arrived?

yk
I did not buy any tickets in advance. I was told that I might want to purchase my "time" to see the China house ahead of time, but that was not necessary at all. Up to you whether to do an advance purchase. I didn't know what time I'd be arriving in Salem and did not need the added stress (besides the traffic) of having to be someplace ON TIME.

Do enjoy the museum/house. It's nice.

Carol

it is often important to get advanced tickets to the chinese house especially on the weekends....it would be a shame to miss it...there is a combo ticket which will save you some money....we went a few sundays ago and there were 300 people waiting in line for tickets...

Yikes, we had tickets for the Chinese house on a Friday. We arrived before lunch to pick up the tickets early and discovered there was a docent led tour (rather than audio) that still had available tickets. The museum staff suggested we might want to exchange our times which we gladly did. We also thought the Museum cafeteria had very good food (except for the crabmeat sandwich). Since school groups frequently visit the museum I think the day you pick the museum might be fairly empty or might be packed. Make sure to allow time to watch the short videos about the Chinese House. Carol makes a good point about travel stress, however. Due to poor directions and mis-reading signs we spent far too much time trying to find our hotel then made a quick stop and then rushed back to Salem for dinner reservations at Passage to India and the 8pm haunted Salem walking tour. This is why the Danvers hotel location was a poor choice for us.

We're planning to go to the Peabody-Essex Museum on a Saturday morning, so I guess we won't have to worry about school groups.

I'll probably check for tix availability when it gets closer to our visit date - and decide then.

Hi Carol, thanks for sharing your trip report to New England with us. Would love to hear more about your time on the Cape and in Nantucket.

My husband and I are planning a trip to Cape Cod next fall (Oct. 1-5th). Weather permiting, we are also looking forward to visiting Nantucket for the day.

Would you recommend the "riding tour" of the island as opposed to the "hop on, hop off" tours?