Massachusetts
 

We are looking for advice on part of our trip. We arrive in Boston but do not want to stay there as we have already been. Would like to head up the coast to Maine and we were thinking of spending a night in Portland and then going on to Boothbay Harbor for 4 nights to chill and eat lobster and see whales.

The final 7 / 8 nights will be spent in Chatham Cape Cod.

So we have 5 or 6 nights in between Maine and Cape Cod. Need to visit relative near Lenox MA for one night too. Can anyone suggest a route/ itinerary from Boothbay Harbour to Cape Cod via Lenox?

We are a family of 3 with a 12 year old girl.

Thanks

Wow ... that's quite a trip! From Boothbay to Lenox to the Cape is one very large V-shaped route with a lot of mileage in between each location.

A couple questions for you:

Are you interested in sightseeing between Boothbay and Lenox, and between Lenox and the Cape? Or are you thinking of a "coastal vacation", with the Lenox leg of your trip simply being a must-do because of family obligations?

If you have no interest in sightseeing in interior New England, then the easiest way to go at this is probably to make Lenox your first stop. Come in to Boston, and head directly for Lenox. Boston to Lenox is an easy drive. It's a straight shot west on Rt. 90 (the Mass. Pike). It'll take you a couple hours to make the drive.

When you leave Lenox, get back on the Pike and head east again to begin your coastal vacation from Maine to Cape Cod and back to Boston.

Doing it that way, you'll cut out a good chunk of the travel time you'd spend doing the V-shaped route from Boothbay to Lenox to the Cape.

On the other hand, if you want to spend time sightseeing between Boothbay and Lenox, and again between Lenox and Cape Cod, there are tons of places to see and things to do along each leg of that route.

Let us know what you have in mind, and I'm sure we can give you more helpful suggestions for routes, stops, etc.

Some of us worked rather hard when you first posted this question. You thanked us and now have essentially posted it again. What do you want to hear? You seem to have added time on the Cape, which is well worth it, but you have not added to the Lenox portion despite the difficulty of finding accomodation in that area at that time of year: many places have minimum stays.

What has not changed is that you are proposing a trip that caper 64 correctly characterizes as a "very large v-shaped route."

I want you to have a splendid visit. You can do much of what you want, but you need to find lodging before you decide on the number of days you can spend in each place.

Suppose an American asked you about driving from Heathrow to Edinburgh, arriving in the middle of the Festival, then leaving and driving to Anglesey for the rest of the holiday by the sea -- in August? What would you recommend that they do?

Thanks for your feedback - I posted this under Maine and MA as I thought I would need advice from people in both states. There didn't seem to be an option of posting a genaral New England topic. Sorry if you feel I didn't appreciate the advice you gave us - i do.
We can't go directly to Lenox as my niece is not available until after 15th July - we arrive 11th.
We are interested in interior New England too.
We enjoy touring around and sightseeing and don't mind driving. We do want to see the sights from Boothbay - through the White mountains and then on to Lenox. We will then probably make a non stop journey from lenox to the cape to chill for our final week.
I planned out a tentative itnerary starting in Boston - Portland - Coastal Maine - White Mountains - Waterford / Waterbury - Lenox - Cape Cod ( 7 nights) and back to Boston - 880 miles - this seems absolutely fine to me - we have 19 days to spend in US. We have toured California and South Africa where the mileage has been much higher - we feel we are taking it easy this time! We don't mind the loop as long as there is plenty to see and do along the way which doesn't seem to be a problem in New England!

We love quaint villages, boat trips, wildlife, great food, craft and antique shops, one day of theme parks - two max, shopping a little.

Thanks again, Gillian

Gillian, you can apply multiple tags at once to avoid duplicating threads.

Ok thanks - will try that next time. New to this! didn't realise.