My wife and I are planning to visit New England for the first time in October 2007 with our 3yr. old fraternal twins. This'll be around the week of October 17th, our 9th wedding anniversary. We have a list of places to pick from with our timeshare/exchange program but don't know where to start. We are VERY much into Fall themes (our daughter's name is Autumn) and would like to stay some place central to great Fall festivals/Fall foliage/historical sites as a base to work from. Then we could branch out and visit other small towns with that Norman Rockwell/Ray Bradbury (although his stories usually take place in Illinois) October feel to them: autumn leaves & decorations; apple & pumpkin picking; historic home porches with jack o' lanterns lit; apple pie scent in the air; and Halloween right around the corner. Thought about Boston with its proximity to Salem (would love to check out the Halloween goings-on over there), but I'm not sure. We'd also like to be able to check out some historic seaside fisherman's villages, but we only have one week alloted us. Any suggestions as to where to set up our base? We'd like to jump on this soon, as we had originally planned to go to Hawaii this year but the exchange failed to go through (we put in our request 11 mos. ago and still no openings). Any sites would be greatly appreciated as we can cross-reference them with the listings in the program and find something close. Thank you, thank you.

Eric "Sorry for the novel" Coleman

New England encompasses such a large areaa, it's hard to know where to start. Basing in Boston is not a bad idea if that's an option for you.
http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/home.htm

http://www.theinsider.com/Boston/att...ttractions.htm

http://portlandme.about.com/cs/fallf...onDayTrips.htm

If you're looking for peak leaf peeping, you'll have to go a bit further north I think at that time
http://tinyurl.com/9rztj

One suggestion is to have a look at this magazine which is all about New England.
http://www.yankeemagazine.com/

For that late in October I think you want to stay in Massachusetts, RI or CT. The Keene NH pumpkin festival is probably worth a trip. It's on Oct 21. Get in the spirit, carve a pumpkin and contribute to the effort to have a record breaking number of jack-o-lanterns. But the foliage should be on the downside in that area with many trees bare if it's an average year (which last year wasn't). I've heard good things about the pumpkin display at the zoo in RI and have seen half decent foliage as late as Oct 23 that far south. I'll vote for some place in RI. From there, Boston could be an easy day trip and it would be great fun to visit on a Friday when the pushcart vendors are in Haymarket Square. (On Saturdays the crowd is much too thick for young children.) Walk over to the North End for lunch. We figure Columbus Day weekend in early October to be peak color in the Concord NH area so head further south. If you check out the forums on Yankee Magazine's website suggested by the previous poster, it has a different forum for each state now. There's a frequent poster who lives on the Cape who could give you some great info for the area south of Boston.

Boston should be a must see, but if you want small town Norman Rockwell, you'll need to head away from the big city areas. The Keene area of NH is an excellent suggestion, even if the foliage is past peak, there will still be some. Towns like Walpole (Ken Burns' hometown), Peterborough, Harrisville, all have the feel you are looking for. For interesting historical attactions, Sturbridge Village and Plimouth Platation in Mass, and Canterbury Shaker Village in NH are highly recommended.
For seacost towns, Gloucester and the
Cape Ann area still have some working fishing communities, and parts are very scenic.

Plan A: Stay north of Boston - see Boston, the quaint coastal towns (Salem, Cape Anne, Portsmouth, Portland), Lexington and Concord, and the NH lake district.

Plan B: Say south/west of Boston. See Boston, Plimouth Plantation, King Richard's Faire (held on weekends only in the fall-its a hoot), Sturbridge Village, visit Cape Cod, or Mystic, or Newport.

Plan C: Five-college area (Amherst/Northampton). College football game, pick-your-own punkins (apples this late?), hay rides, the Eric Carle museum of picture book art. Northampton has an arts festival and a film festival in the fall, but I don't know exactly when. See Old Deerfield. Corn maze in Sunderland.

Plan D: Northwest corner of Massachusetts. See the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge; driving tour of quaint towns in Vermont; drive the scenic Mowhawk trail, and visit the cute towns in the Berkshires. (This plan may have less for the kids to do.)

Really great suggestions! I'll get started on researching these areas. Thank you all so much. You're right, New England's such a large area my wife and I's heads were spinning as to where to even start. his is a great jumping off point for us, though. Again, thanks.

Eric

I'd suggest a base in the Sturbridge area, and start from there. Lots to see in the area, and there are all kinds of festivals at Sturbridge and the kids would love it there as well.

Check the website for Sturbridge Village so you can see what the Village is offering.

Boston is a pretty easy ride from there, on the Mass Pike and you might try the Sheraton Hotel which is right ON the Mass Pike as a place to stay which is easy to use as another base to get into Boston/Cambridge and also N of the city.

Also when you stop at any of the rest stops on the Mass Pike, pick up one of the travel guides (free) and get discount travel coupons for lodging and lists of sites to see.

Have a GREAT time.

I'd also suggest Ma,CT,RI. You'll want to be south for the foliage, at that time. Also, southern New England has more of the colonial feel most people picture when thinking of New England. The Sturbridge,MA area reccomendation is a good idea. The town has a little more hussle and bussle than I like, but its a good centralized area for
the Berkshires(Norman Rockwell country),
CT and RI for your seaside excursions
(Essex, Mystic CT) etc. I might look for a less busy area slightly out of town. You can squeeze in Cape Cod and Boston too.

Just don't get too romantic about New England though. No place is as perfect
as you described. The apple pie scent in the air? Better stand outside a bakery.

The outsiders view of New England towns-
pumpkins, perfectly painted old houses, church steeples, village greens.

The New Englanders (me) view of New England towns- A 24hr mini-mart, a karate studio, a Curves, and a crummy chinese resaurant.

Reality is somewhere in between.

You can absolutely find all you are looking for in New England - quaint towns w/out strip malls, plenty of white houses, black shutters, or those painted in the historically correct colors surrounding lovely New England town commons with white church steeples, and plenty of pumpkin patches, train rides, activities for the kids, etc.

I live in Boston/South of Boston and pass through many small towns with just what you are looking for.

I will try and give you some ideas based on what we used to do when our kids were that age - as well as a mix that can give some other things adults enjoy:

That late in October you may have missed foliage time, since it is peaking now and usually toward end of October it has passed, - but you never know - and so much depends on weather/rain/wind/type of spring we have, etc - but you can always check Mass. foliage on the following sites:
Mass Foliage Hot Line 1.800.227.MASS
and
Website for details on forests/parks/ where to view on
mass.gov/dcr/forparks.htm

You may also be a little late for apple picking, as we are picking now in our orchard south of Boston - but still plenty of that apple cider/pumpkin/jack o lantern type activities:

As far as fairs and festivals in New England here is a link listing them all:
http://tinyurl.com/dbsvg

Your children are 3 now, or will be in 07 - so I would suggest the following two things:

One: Base in Boston
In town there are quite a few things for kids -
not knowing your toddlers, hard to say, but many get antsy on the freedom trail or historical visits; but you can certainly put them in a stroller and do parts of the Freedom Trail, visit Boston harbor (and there is a park there where kids can run and work off some energy) the Children's Museum, the Museum of Science (many interactive kid exhibits, nature, animal, etc) walk along the Charles River, Boston Common & Boston Public Gardens (Make Way for Duckling statue, obligatory photo op for toddlers) - and you and wife can enjoy seeing some great history and they'll have plenty of room to run around and let off steam.

You can enjoy walking thru the North End, see Paul Revere's House and Old North Church and have some pizza one night.
I think someone already gave you the link to the Freedom Trail, which will show you exactly what spots it hits.

They may enjoy the Duck Tour, again, not knowing them or how long they will sit still.
You can google all of the above and find links to see if they appeal to you.

For out of Boston day trips:
to alternate with days in Boston, and to give you the quintessential New England small town feel/common/etc I would suggest:

Kids that age (and parents too) love
Drumlin Farm Nature Center in Lincoln, MA - and the town captures much of what you are looking for, and is a day trip from Boston and not too long a ride for the little ones - and is only about 30 minutes max out of the city. the link is:

http://tinyurl.com/edmdy

Drumlin Farm has hay rides, pumpkins, activities for kids - mine used to love the toddler activities of painting with cut vegetables and other crafts, you could check their website for specific times or just enjoy the farm, wildlife, animals, etc.

Lincoln also has the Decordova Museuma and Sculpture Park (decordova.org)

In Lincoln, you are only about 10 minutes from Concord and Lexington, MA - where you can visit Minute Man Nat'l park and Walden Pond/ all the Walden/Thoreau connections, etc - two good links:
http://www.nps.gov/mima/
http://tinyurl.com/o2rjm

for both the above destinations I would travel as much of Rte 2 vs. the pike, highway as you can b/c it is much more scenic -

In Natick, you have Belkin Lookout Farm & Petting Zoo - the link is
lookoutfarm.com-
they have everything for toddlers, farm activities, rides, and the Great Pumpkin Express ride - a train thru the orchards, w/ thousands of carved lit pumpkins, etc, great at night and runs till halloween -and if season is right, you can pick apples, etc. -
Natick is about 30 minutes from downtown Boston

For toddler activities in Boston, check out this web site, it is for this year, but most of the offerings are annual

BostonCentral.com - activities for toddlers,
specific page http://tinyurl.com/o2jc6

FOr another day trip I would suggest heading South of Boston to Plimoth Plantation - you could do Strubridge Village also, but I think the ride south would also give you the seaside villages you are looking for:

Drive the "old" Rte 3A instead of the highway 3South and from Boston it is about 30 minutes to Hingham/Cohasset/Scituate - which all give you a nice ride past water views, a stop in Cohasset Common (where Witches of Eastwick was filmed b/c of the historic town common with a little duck pond and plenty of space to run and a lovely Unitarian Church on the green), - have a snack in the local village and walk down to the harbor - about a 10 minute walk from the green - many lobster and fishing boats bobbing in the harbor, etc -

you can also stop in Scituate, about 10 minutes from Cohasset, another seaside town, see their harbor - at this time of year, all you will see is the lobster/fishing boats as most others have been taken out of the water - then move along either on rte 3A or the highway thru to Plimoth (about 60 min straight from Boston, about 2 hrs if you amble along this way and stop to see things) -

Plimoth Plantation will have activities for the kids, some history for you, all the fall activities and you can go to Plimoth harbor, see the Mayflower, the rock, the Jenny Grist Mill and another harbor on the coast (more fishing boats, etc) and then head straight back to Boston on the highway in about 50/60 minutes.

So if you did two days in Boston,, 2 from the above choices west/north of boston and then a day south of boston, you will have seen most of what you were asking to see.

Of course, you can also head up to Cape Ann, Gloucester, Salem, Rockport instead and see fishing villages, harbors, etc - but I like the ride to the south and I think Plimoth Plantation is a better match for kids that age than Salem - the Halloween things in Salem may not be age appropriate, but
Salem will have lots of activities for halloween, I'd google their web page and be sure what they would have for your family.

so ifyou do go to Salem, I would go during the day - the whole witch museum, house of seven gables, etc is not geared to 3 yr olds in my opinion, my kids were much older when they enjoyed that visit.

You could also, if you find a time share closer to natick/lincoln/sturbridge/etc - do most of this also,, sturbridge also being about 60 min out of boston -

Your other option is north to new Hampshire and the whole White Mountains/North Conway/Jefferson, Glen, Loon Mt, Bretton Woods area that has many things to see, but are not day trips from Boston so you'd have to find a time share in that area (there is a farm up there Chester Eastman Homestead - which has some of the things you are looking for) and of course the Pinkham Notch, the cog railway, train ride, Storyland is unfortunately closed by then which is a great take with toddlers, and there may be some good festivals up there, try looking on
mtwashingtonvalley.org for ideas if you prefer that region.

If you end up deciding to do a drive South of Boston in the future, I can give you some more specific places to stop for new england lunch spots/ things for the kids and adults/ etc.

good luck planning - hard to choose - you could also likely find all these things, except the fishing village, in western mass.....another trip or you'd need to make it two weeks !

wow, I really have to learn to read the date of original posting !! I just saw it at the top today and typed away and you are leaving in a week or so , so have likely made all your plans ! oh well, let us know where you went when you get back !

I dunno, escargot - OP says "October 2007". Maybe he had a typo? Or maybe you're still in time? At any rate, great info for someone else! There are always so many questions on NE fall foliage, etc. ...

ggreen

Well ggreen thanks for not making me feel soooo dumb - someone had posted onto this and I didn't look at OP and then saw it at the end !! Maybe you are right, someday it will be of use to someone - you are an optomist!

Thanks again for all the info, folks. Don't worry, escargot, ggreen is right. You're still "in time." We aren't going until Fall of 2007, but we like to plan very early if we can. Getting this info now along with reports about what's going on this Fall 2006 gives us a bit of an overview (even though weather/foliage can change from year-to-year). We can also take into account any unlikely events that may happen like must-see places and restaurant closures (ran across some of those on Oahu last month like the Waimea Adventure Park turning into an Audubon Nature Reserve...no more ATV riding.) Also, we have enough time to save up for things we definitely want to check out based on all these wonderful recommendations, without feeling any budget crunch. So keep that wonderful info coming. And everyone please feel free to email me if it seems this post is getting too big. My wife and I love Fall so much, we're really looking forward to this and can't for the life of us figure out why we waited so long to do this.

Eric
[email protected]

Wow! Just read your post escargot. Boy, you really nailed it about our twins. That's them to a "T". Great info. Though I'd like to keep to October for the trip, I am willing to arrive within the first two weeks if you all think that'll be a good time to still catch the foliage in color. My kids are just starting to get into Halloween this year; broke them in with "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and Mickey Mouse's "Happy Haunts" Halloween Sing-Along.

Eric

Hi, burbankjones! I don't have any information for you -- I just wanted to tell you and your wife Happy Anniversary! My husband and I were married on October 17, 1981 (so we're celebrating our 25th this year), and it's a great time of year to celebrate!

Burbankjones: well, glad I am still on time !
If you really want to see foliage, and it is always a hard call to make since it is dependant on so many things, you would probably be better off coming at least one week earlier - and you can check some of those links I sent you and see if there is a particular festival/fair that speaks to you, or the dates of the other programs geared for kids/families that I included.

If you decide on your location, and/or want to skip Boston and look into staying in NH or Vermont or elsewhere, let us know and there are thoughts on those locations also -

but either way, coming to the area during this time you need to book early between foliage seekers, later in month the Head of the Charles Regatta, etc.
and in Boston and further up north, October is a big month for Parents Weekends at area colleges so many hotels, etc book earlier than later.

Again, I wanted to thank everyone for all your advice. We didn't make it last year, but this year we're booked! Travel time and place have changed, though. We're staying at the InnSeason Resort- The Falls at Ogunquit (639 Main Street),ME, from September 26th thru October 3rd, 2008 (courtesy of our exchange program). The twins will be 4yrs. old then. Was hoping to make this a 10yr. anniversary trip with just my wife, but she wants the kids along so now it's back to a family adventure. Any new suggestions based on our new base of operations and time frame? Thanks again in advance for all your help. this forum is a God-send.

Eric

Great trip and I hope you have fun - you can see what happens on this post but it might be worth it to start a new one with "Fall in Oqunquit, ME with two 4 yr olds...any suggestions for activities" - that type of thing - b/c if people who know Maine are scrolling through the posts, they might not answer one with New England i the title - they might, but I think you might have a better shot at attracting those who really can help you specifically in Maine with a new post too ! can't hurt !

I think you will enjoy Portsmouth. The twins might be a little young for a narrated cruise but if you think they are old enough, either the harbor cruise or inland rivers cruise is very nice. Reward them with a trip to the Portsmouth Children's museum. You are a little early for fall color. From Portland to the Conway NH area is about an hour's drive. Just north of Conway is very popular Storyland in Glen, NH. Your children are the perfect age. It is open weekends until Columbus Day. This is also NH's White Mountains so you should see some color there. Because of all the things to do in the White Mountain area, I would consider making this an overnight even though you have a week's reservation in Maine. Wolfboro NH which is south of Conway has a scarecrow festival in late September. Wolfboro is a beautiful small town on the shores of NH's largest lake. I understand Portland also has a children's museum but we haven't been there. I don't think the twins would enjoy Salem MA. A lot of families head to orchards for apple picking. Some orchards have small playgrounds.

Thanks, escargot! I'll try your suggestion and repost for Maine. Thanks, dfnh. I'll definitely look into those. You may be right about Salem, but I'd sure would love to see it. I'll have to gauge how the trips going. Figure if possible, we'll try to hit ME, NH, & Mass this trip (although I'd love to see Vermont as well). So much to see, so little time...