How do I fit Stowe, Bennington, and Ogunquit into an 8 day trip?
 

Planning to go to British car show in Stowe and spend 3 nites there in mid-September. Was also planning to include Bennington on the trip as my husband is a car buff and would like to see the cars at Hemmings. But I want some lobster and would love to manage to spend a day or two in Maine? Any suggestions on how to route this? We can fly to Hartford, Mancheser or Boston.

Probably MHT would make the most sense. From MHT head to Keene NH (check google maps for fastest route) and across VT to Bennington. If you arrive early, Hemmings could be Day 1. The drive is about 3 hours. If you need to stop to eat, Keene is a college town with lots of restaurant choices.

It's a 3 1/2 hour drive to Stowe and not much difference in three choices of routes. Skip the fastest, there's hardly any time savings on the interstate. The western route is thru farm country and past famous Shelburne Museum.

Stowe to Ogunquit is almost 4 hours depending on your route. My choice would be googlemaps second I89 over to Rt 4 because you go thru Northwood's Antique Alley (beware of people stopping for antique shops) and lovely Dover Pt area with bridges over Oyster Bay. Your drive might be a little shorter if you choose a lobster place in Portsmouth or Hampton ... shorter still if you're willing to give up an ocean view and eat at Makris Lobster Pool in Concord NH. Hard choice since ocean views definitely improve the taste of lobster.

You can probably find lobster on another menu even closer to Stowe with a little searching. But you've got 8 days. Plenty of time. You could even stop for a lobster roll on your way to Bennington. One route takes you for I89 to rt202 toward Henniker. If you get off for Hillsboro there's a take-out place called The High Tide (but check if they are open daily after labor day) that is right on the way through town and then you can re-connect with the google directions (rt 202 now bypasses downtown Hillsboro). Not the best lobster roll but not bad.

Just about every major supermarket in NH and Maine (maybe VT) has live lobsters and will steam them for you for free. You could have lobster in your hotel room! Sometimes they get as low as $4.99/lb for chicken lobsters (one pounders).

When you drive from the coast back to MHT, Rt 101 will be your best bet. It's a boring hwy but a direct route to the airport.

The hard part about your trip is driving past or near a lot of great places that would make 8 days not long enough.

Thanks. We're coming from AZ so most likely wouldn't get to MHT (or whatever airport we fly into) till later in the day so would probably overnight somewhere near MHT or somewhere along the way to Bennington, depending on what time we arrive. So Bennington would be the day after we arrive.

Manchester has a great variety of restaurants and hotels. If you take the route thru/near Concord, nice town but less choices. Between Concord and Keene, not much at all. A friend has raved about a new restaurant in Manchester called Hooked. Could be your first lobster dinner!

Best fares were into BDL so that's where we're flying in and out of. DFrostnh, can you provide a revised itinerary considering we will arrive BDL around 4pm on a Saturday? And we will be finishing up with a 3 day stay in Stowe. Thanks.

Tough decision. Bradley to Bennington is 2 hrs 21 minutes via I91 a very pleasant route thru rural western MA. We rarely do side trips along this route but you'll go near places like Yankee Candle's flag ship store.

I think I would head to Bennington first then over to Portsmouth/Oqunquit area. It looks like a 4 hour drive but I would follow google map from Keene up to Concord via I89 BUT then ignore google to take I93 to I393 to Rt 4 to Rt 16 to get the prettiest ride and best approach to Portsmouth. Rt 101 is very boring. You could make this a great tourist day. If it's a saturday, stop at Brattleboro VT farmers market. You can do a casual foodstand lunch with several ethnic choices. Very festive atmosphere. Perhaps get local cheese and wine. If you like ice cream, take a slight detour to Arnie's Place in Concord NH for homemade ice cream although there is also the option from I89 to Hopkinton's Gould Hill Apple Farm for heirloom apple varieties (see their website) and a nice view. Or if you like wine (and vodka) do a slight detour from Rt 4 to Flagg Hill Winery where General John Stark vodka is made (also great example of re-purposing a family dairy farm).
You might want to stretch your legs in Concord NH. Pretty downtown which is home to NH League of Arts and Crafts. (I haven't been to their new place yet.) Good choice if you like upscale crafts and handmade jewelry. If you have a sweet tooth, you might stop in nearby Bread and Chocolate from some European style pastries.

From Portsmouth NH/Ogunquit ME area I would ignore all googlemap options. This is your chance to see NH's big lake and mountains (very different from VTs mountains). It doesn't add a lot more time but about a 4 1/2 hour drive. To find the route on google maps, start from wherever you are in Maine, 2nd destination Wolfboro NH and 3rd destination Stowe VT. I93 goes right thru the mountains. You could also alter the directions to take you over the famous Kancamagus Hwy thru the mountains but then you would miss Lake Winnipesaukee.

This route misses the Montpelier VT to Stowe where many people like to stop for the Ben and Jerry's ice cream tour. It's fun but if you don't care for ice cream it would be best to skip. Mid-week is not a problem but weekends this route is very busy.

It really depends on what else you want to see. There's a famous quilt shop Keepsake Quilting in Center Harbor (near the lake), there are different museums, opportunities for boat rides (Portsmouth is my favorite), hiking and kayaking.

It's going to be a FUN trip.

Thank you sooooo much for this detailed itinerary. It really helps with planning. We are so looking forward to this trip.

I'm confused about your timing. Are you now going to do Vermont at the end of your 8 days? If so, it makes no sense to do Bennington at the beginning. If you want to see Vermont and Maine and are landing at BDL I suggest the following:

From BDL either drive straight to Portsmouth NH for the first night or make a slight detour and stop in Northampton,Ma for dinner and then on to Portsmouth for the first night. Northampton is a college town (Smith) with lots of great restaurants and some unusual shopping. Get off at Exit 18. Then you'd have to back track about 15 minutes to Exit 14 to get on the Mass Pike (I-90) to head toward Portsmouth.

Day two drive up the Maine coast (coastal route) to Portland, stopping in York, Ogunquit and Kennebunkport. Spend night two in Portland which has tons of lodging and shopping options. http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/new_england

Day three either explore the coast up as far as Camden or head west to NH en route to Vermont. dfrostnh gave you lots of suggestions of things to do there.

Then after Vermont on your way back to BDL you could stop in Deerfield Ma for either Yankee Candle (kind of over rated but millions of people disagree with me) or Historic Deerfield www.historic-deerfield.org/ Don't know what time your flight is, but from Deerfield to BDL is about an hour.

That's probably more than enough for 8 days but if you need suggestions for other things to do between Vermont and BDL let me know (I live there).

Have to end up in Stowe for the last 3 days of our trip for the British Invasion Car Show.

Have already been to historic Deerfield and will pass on the Yankee Candle place.

We will probably be exhausted when we land in Hartford; our flight out of PHX leaves at 6:12 AM so we will be up super early. So we will not want to drive too far the first night.

otc: I had never heard of this British Invasion show until your thread. Thanks!! (Unfortunately, this year's marques were Morgan and TR and In missed them :( Owned a +4 when I lived in the UK and raced a spitfire for a few years at home in CA. Do you know what the featured marques are for next year?)

I've wanted to plan a tip to NE and now I have another reason . . .

isabel, that's why I said how to do the route is a tough decision. Other opinions will help orangetravel cat make a decision. I don't like the route from CT to Portsmouth so I'm biased. I really hate the Mass pike. Some people hate driving roads with a 45 mph limit.

We traveled Concord to Portsmouth yesterday via Rt 4 and I still love that approach to Portsmouth. But Bennington at the end of the trip would be fine, too. Probably OP should check hours/days when Hemmings is open.

dfrostnh - totally agree that the mass pike is a complete bore but it would efficiently get them to the area they want to be in and then they could enjoy themselves on the way back through NH.

Also in complete agreement with you about RT 4 from Concord to Portsmouth. I've lived in Concord, Epsom, and Durham and that's one of my favorite areas. But it's good in both directions. Is Newick's Lobster Pound still there? She said she wanted lobster and while there are a ton of places to get it that would be on the route (that was the place we always went when our parents came to visit us at UNH).

orangetravelcat - if you don't want to drive all the way to Portsmouth the first night then perhaps spending the night in Northampton would work for you. There is really no place between BDL and Northampton (only about a 45 min drive) that would be pleasant to stay.

janisj,I think the marques will be Singer and Mini, but not sure. I recall reading that somewhere but I can't remember where I found it.

I'll google Newick's and see if its still there.

Newick's is still there but completely new after a fire some years ago. They had a couple of other restaurants but closed them while opening a smaller restaurant in Concord NH. We went once to the Concord restaurant and didn't care for it. Didn't care for the new Woodman's located in Litchfield NH. Maybe both are too far from the ocean. Newicks was kind of shack-y in the 60s and seafood dinners were a bargain but all that has changed. It's huge now but same location on Dover Point.
It's an option. So is a lobster roll at Johnson's Dairy Bar in Northwood Rt 4 which, I believe, is back in the Johnson family. A "small" cone is 2 huge scoops just like in the 60s.

We sort of skip southern Maine except for an occasional day trip. I recently asked a resident of Wells ME where to get good fried clams. Her #1 choice sounded reasonable but she said off season she thinks the Weathervane is pretty good. The Weathervane is a small regional chain. There's one in Concord, one in the Kittery outlet malls area but I don't think I would recommend it.
- dfrostnh UNH class '70

dfrostnh - we weren't at UNH at the same time but it's good to hear about another UNH grad. We've been down in western Mass since the 80s but go back frequently to see friends who still live in the area. I saw UNH with a new perspective recently as my daughter applied there. They had some pretty spiffy things that weren't there when I was a student.

I also go the southern Maine coast at least once a year as I love that area. I second the idea of the Weathervane. I also think skipping Kittery is a good idea. There are several 'lobster pounds' just north of there though. Along the Maine coast you can even get lobster rolls at McDonalds (though I'm not suggesting that - just pointing out that you don't even really need a specific recommendation to get lobster in that area).

Thanks for the ideas. I have plenty to research now.

Just did a new post on our revised itinerary. Taking ME out of the mix and putting Mystic CT in in its place.