Fall foliage day trips from Botson
 

Interested in planning a trip to Boston in early Oct, which would also include seeing Cape Cod, and driving down to NYC for a few days to visit family. Would like to try and squeeze in a day or two to Maine (maybe Kennebunkport?). Is there a short drive that I might be able to include en route to Maine from Boston to see some fall foliage?

Foliage can be observed anywhere, when it happens. By late summer, you should consult some websites and check out whether you should be going North, South, while you were there to catch the best colors based on predictions and forcasts.

The best places to see lots of Foliage are the mountains: The Berkshires in MA, the White Mountains in NH, etc. All the New England states have foliage hotlines. So, you may want to have those numbers available when you arrive to determine the best direction for driving. You'd have to go quite a bit out the the way to see serious foliage "en route from Boston to Maine". While you will likely see color all about, it's much more intense in the mountains, and there will be little along the ocean, as the leaves change last along the shore.

The best foliage is away from the coast, in the mountains. We like a trip to the white mountains for foliage. You can drive up Mt Washington and from there you can see from VT to the coast.
You could take a round trip up through Conway N.H. and back down around by Bethal ME. That area should be really lovely that time of year.

I had a foliage trip last year in the New England. We went to Vermont, Maine, and NH. Stowe and Woodstock VT was absoulately beautiful. We did a horseback trail ride in Woodstock. It was one of the highlights of our trip. Mt Washington was good too. We took the cog railway to the top of the mtn and also took a ride around Conway. The colors were brillant.

But Camden, Maine on the coast was very very nice too. I absolutely adore that area. We took a sailing trip in the morning. The color of the coast seeing from the boat was lovely.

I can't say the mountains are always the best to see foliage. I think timing is everything when it comes to foliage.
http://www.yankeemagazine.com/travel/index.php has a lots of good links and recommendations. Check it out by late summer.

It sounds like you will have a nice drive wherever you go. If you want a pretty and short (about 90 minutes unless you dawdle) drive from Boston to the Kennebunkport area, take I95 north going towards Maine and then get off the highway on route 1, either in Mass near the NH border or in NH. If you drive north along the NH seacost, it will be lovely even if not in peak foliage. I would reccomend the Berkshire Mountains in Western Mass for more intense foliage in early October (it peaks later in Maine than in Mass).

Marcia from Maine