Chris_Monica

This is my wife and my first trip to the North East US. We would like to see the prettiest spots. Here is our itinerary. How does this look, what should we add or change. Any information on things to see in these areas, places to stay, eat, etc would be greatly appreciated.

Sunday Oct 4 LAX -> Machester, NH We will likely arrive late, so stay somewhere close
Monday early drive to Manchester Vt, tour and stay in Manchester, Vt
Tuesday Drive to Montpelier Vt, tour around and stay in Montpelier
Wednesday stay in Montpleier Vt
Thursday Drive to Camden, ME. This is a long drive.
Friday and Saturday stay in Camden, day trip to Acadia NP, Bar Harbar
Saturday late drive back to Manchester NH
Sunday fly back to LAX.

Thank you,
Chris

RetiredVermonter

Gee, Chris, it seems like a long flight to spend so little time hereabouts, but if that's all the time you have, I guess that will have to do. My observation would also be that your plans suggest quite a lot of time behind the wheel, and rather little time left over to see much, but that may be at odds with what someone else will say.

How did you choose Montpelier and Camden, if I may ask?

Have you gotten any info from the states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to help you plan? It may not be too late to get some of the "official" information from the states you plan to visit. Just visit their web sites and ask for it.

When you say "stay somewhere close" in Manchester, have you already reserved? You can probably find something, but if you are "arriving late" (depending on how late), I'd want to have something reserved -- especially since you're getting into leaf-peeper season, so some things start to book up.

Yes, it IS sort of a long drive from Montpelier, VT to Camden, ME. Mapquest says about 5-1/2 hours, via the highways they suggest. Your other option would be to go "straight across" on Rte 2 out of Montpelier, through St. Johnsbury, and then pick up Rte 17 outside Rumford, ME, and follow that down into Rockland, ME. Then you can just take Rte 1 up to Camden from there. This may be slower, in a way, but maybe prettier.

However you do it, driving ACROSS Vermont, New Hampshire and into Maine is tougher than going north or south! If you check a map, there are fewer highways "going across", so it may take a bit longer than you might think.

Sounds like a lot of driving. I hope it all works out for you, though.

Chris_Monica

Well, I only 8 days and 2 of them are mostly in an airplane We had friends suggest Manchester and Montepelier. Also, the Lincoln home (I know it is his offspring's home) and Ben and Jerry is close to Montepelier Friends told us these are both very nice areas. Camden we heard was very pretty and looked like a good location to go out and look at various areas. We do plan on booking our lodging as soon as we can, so recommendations for these areas would be very usefull. We have been looking at Norumbega in Camden as a possible place to stay?

I like the comment about the scenic route. As long as it is a one day drip from Monteplelier to Camden, even if it took 3 or 4 more hours, rather spend it looking at something pretty than just driving. Since we have limited time any suggestions on lodging, alternate locations, restaurants, etc would be great!

Thank you,
Chris

dfrostnh

It seems a shame to be so close to the White Mountains and pass too far north to see the best part of them. Of course, the problem is to see the prettier part of the mountains you will add more time. During a busy weekend I wouldn't waste my time standing in line for the Ben and Jerry's tour. You can get their ice cream anyplace. I think you would enjoy a small, locally made ice cream place better. Ben and Jerry's is located on one of VT's busiest roads since it heads up to Stowe.
Camden is beautiful and so is Acadia but it's a long drive/day trip. We haven't actually made the entire drive in several years since we usually only go as far as the Ellsworth area. If I understand your post, you'll spend all day driving to Camden on Thurs, do another long drive to Acadia on Friday and then drive to Manchester on Saturday. That's an awful lot of car time. I would scrap Acadia and spend more time around Camden. Take a boat ride if weather is warm. Visit the Cellar Door Winery in Lincolnville. Go to Rockland, short hike to Owls Head Light. Sit someplace pretty to enjoy the view. Find a good lobster place. We usually take a picnic and bag chairs to the top of Mt Battie to enjoy the view overlooking Camden Harbor.
Depending on your flight time on Sunday, consider spending Sat night in Portsmouth. It's less than an hour via Rt 101 to MHT. At any rate plan your Sat drive from Camden south to include a couple of sightseeing stops. Maybe lunch in Portland. Dinner and final walkaround in Portsmouth NH (very pretty small city on the water).
Rt 101 is a boring limited access hwy. Rt 4 is a prettier drive to Concord and then it's an easy 15 minutes south via Rt 93 to MHT. To get to rt 4 from Rt 95 you would take go thru the Great Bay/Dover Point area. Very scenic over the bridges. Slower road but more interesting.
Get very good directions to your Manchester NH hotel since some of them are on weird little side streets off congested South Willow Street. Brown Avenue area is much quieter but more industrial. South Willow is area of malls and fast food. There are a couple of hotels in the downtown area. Depending on time of your flight you might only need 1 hour early at airport. Check airport's website. It's a nice, small airport although it has grown a lot in the last 10 year.

Chris_Monica

Thank you RetiredVermonter and dfrostnh for your responses. One more question. We originally were thinking of leaving Sun Oct 4th and coming back Monday Oct 12. We cannot leave on Saturday due to a previously engagement. We are thinking of maybe changing this to Sat Oct 17 to Mon Oct 26 (we cannot go the week of the 11) . Would give us one more day. But would this be too late. From what I understand the high time is the last week of Sept and the first two weeks of October. But is the 3rd week of October still very nice, would it be find moving it out two weeks?

Thank you again,
Chris

dfrostnh

Foliage in VT and NH is pretty much done and gone by Oct 26. I've seen half decent foliage as late as Oct 23 in RI which is much further south and on the coast. Even Oct 17 is past peak in much of the two states. Furthermore, we seem to get a rainy spell around Halloween every year. For the sake of one day I would keep your original dates which should have great color.

irishswampyankee

There you go again and again, jrmichel, about the Green Mt Inn. You obviously are the owner, mngr of the place.

Alert to Fodors mngr - this guy is advertising.