Just a quick question to Fodor friends: with Kansas family visiting this week in Boston area, any recommendations for a one day fall foliage trip? Thanks!
Bill in Boston (actually Watertown)

Southern New Hampshire may still be good. Peterborough is a busy, fun town with lots of restaurants, shops, etc. Close by are the 'picture postcard perfect' and somewhat remote villages of Hancock and Francistown. Very pretty area.

Definitely don't want to head very far north. A nice ride that doesn't spend too much time on highways would be Rt 2 up to Littleton, then move over to 119 and follow 119 into southwestern New Hampshire and the Monadnock region.

You could also stay on route 2 and head towards western mass. Some friends went to Shelburne Falls last weekend and enjoyed a scenic ride, lunch at a diner, and a couple nice shops and galleries.

Another option, to stay closer, is just head to Boylston and visit Tower Hill Botsnical garden which has great views across to Mt Wachusett. You can drive out to Princeton and drive up Mt Wachusett as well. There are a couple of good orchards which probably still have apple picking in the area.

We enjoyed a recent visit to Concord/Lexington and Fruitlands in Harvard MA (great view from top of hill). You can take a trolley tour of the Concord and Lexington famous sites. We got off at the Louisa May Alcott house for a tour there. Concord had some very nice shops. Can't remember the name of the café where we had lunch. Small but good (and busy). If your company likes ice cream, you can also visit Kimballs or, if wine, do a wine tasting at the vineyard.

Peterborough and over to Keene would make a nice trip. Rt 101 is very pretty. It really depends on how many miles you want to cover.

But, if you'd like some fresh seafood and history, head to Portsmouth NH (drive Rt 1B thru New Castle or north over the bridge to Kittery Point). The drive along the coast in Rye is always nice. Lunch at Petey's in Rye. Maybe stop in Newburyport. Portsmouth has a nice area of shops to walk around. Prescott Park by Strawbery Banke is a nice place to look at the water.

If they are from Kansas I would think they'd like to see the coast. How about Cape Ann - Rockport/Gloucester? The colors in Western Mass are already pretty much past peak (I don't there was a 'peak' this year) so I would think the same would be true of southern NH.

Try Lake Winnepesaukee region- like the town of Alton.

Was in Camden Maine two weeks ago and the colors were just coming on. It's so beautiful there, and Lake Winnepesaukee is lovely too of course

We also did the Duck Tour and it was a lot of fun!