A week in east USA
 

Hi, I will be travelling to Boston for work and shall take a week off(29th Oct 2018) to spend in and around the city.

Need your suggestions on places I can visit and stay. I will be travelling with my friend and we both love to visit tourist places as well as places that show the very culture of that specific city. Hence, need suggestions from good and must try food places to best budget friendly accommodations to places outside the city.

I haven't myself researched anything yet hence shall have more specific questions once I get a direction from the ideas that you guys throw here.

I have been to Boston earlier and could just see Boston harbor and MIT.

> Need your suggestions on places I can visit

The cities around Boston are steeped in history, including (just for starters) Plymouth, Salem, Concord, and Lexington.

A drive all the way to Provincetown and back would make for a good day.

PaulRabe gives some pretty good suggestions. Salem might be crazy with Halloween so it would be up to you whether to visit during the mayhem or later in your week. We combined Concord and Lexington with a visit to Fruitlands in Harvard.

I vote for Portsmouth NH. There are some great seafood places in all price ranges. We like Petey's in Rye NH, an old seafood shack.

I'd like to suggest Lowell MA because it would be a unique view of New England's mills that were a huge impact on our history. Farm girls went to the mills for work. The landscape was devoted to sheep farms. When we visited despite being on a bus trip there weren't many people at one of the mills. The museum docent was happily available to answer questions.

Thank you both. We researched more and decided to go further to Vermont (2 days), Rhode island (a day trip) and New York (2 days). Let me know if this looks feasible. I would now need your help with where can we stay in Vermont and New york so that its less expensive and still near to most of the places that we can visit. Also the route and travel options.

> I would now need your help with where can we stay in Vermont and New york
> so that its less expensive and still near to most of the places that we can visit

New York City is going to be expensive. You might consider BetterBidding.com for tips on getting good deals from PriceLine.
One good thing about NYC is that, no matter where you stay, you're never far from a mass transit system that will quickly get you from where you are to where you want to go. So don't worry about being close to places, just find an acceptable place at an acceptable price, and then learn how to get from there to places you want to visit.
Note also that two lifetimes wouldn't be enough time to visit all that NYC has to offer, so pick ONE area that you want to concentrate on.

What are the places in VT that you plan to visit? Tell us more about your interests and we can better point you in the right direction.

Sure. So We are planning to go for a day trip to block island, mohegan buffs in RI then to Stowe, VT ( glenn falls we found out) and then a day in Ithaca, NY and rest of the places in NY. One of our interest is photography, i love light houses, mountains and we both enjoy nightlife and nature.Now, my concern is VT is too far from boston and I am thinking if it is worth a short visit of 1.5 - 2 days. Again, VT to newyork is another long journey as we do not wish to spend more time in travelling. What do you suggest? We are yet to book our return flights.

Stowe wouldn't be my choice. VT wouldn't be too far if you only went as far as Quechee/Woodstock/Norwich areas but since you want some night life the distance to Burlington would probably be worth it. You could do some photo ops coming and going. The eastern side of VT is very wooded but the western side along Lake Champlain is beautiful farm country. Explore Church Street in Burlington.

You list some great spots but they're so far from each other. Ithaca, NY is wonderful- there's beautiful nature (Ithaca is "gorges") so you could stay longer there, but for nightlife you'd have a college scene, not sure if you're into that. If you want to do NYC and Block Island on this trip, you may want to add Newport RI and see Mystic CT too while you're at it, here's a possible trip:

Day 1: Leave Boston, drive to Newport RI, sleep Newport
Day 2: Block Island RI day trip, sleep Newport
Day 3: Visit Mystic, CT, sleep NYC
Days 4-6: NYC
Day 7: Back to Boston

I love Vermont and think it fits perfectly. I'd keep that and upstate New York and skip going into the city (NYC) entirely. If you want to add one more place, western Massachusetts is very nice and would fit with your loop.

Great! I am waiting for my tickets so that I can make the final itinerary. I may have more questions on where can we stay and how to travel in and around city and to VT. We were thinking of taking a cab .

It may be leaf season, which will make any drives very nice but spur of the moment lodging more difficult.

There are rarely cabs in rural areas. Bus to major cities/towns is possible but you might be extremely limited in VT depending on where you choose. There is regular bus service from South Station in Boston so check what's available and where it goes. Uber/Lyft might be non-existent. There won't be any foliage left in northern VT and NH and possibly very little except in southern New England. For rural New England photos during foliage season you might check out Jeff Foliage. By that late in the season you shouldn't have too much trouble finding lodging.

For Vermont , you need to rent a car. It is beautiful but largely rural with dairy farms and mountains.