New England - 10 days - confused...
 

Hi Fodorites :-)

We are travelling to the USA in September and would like to spend around 12 days in the New England area. I have done some reading of Fodors and self drive tour websites to get an idea of the more popular places to visit and am wondering if this itinerary looks ok or (more importantly).. how it can be improved and if I have missed any 'must see' spots. We are hoping to see some quaint places, learn about the history of the area and take some amazing photographs.

Potential idea...

Day 1 - New York - Newport - Cape Cod
Day 2 - Cape Cod - Plymouth - Boston
Day 3/4 - Boston
Day 5 - Boston - Kennebunkport
Day 6 - Kennebunkport - Bar Harbour
Day 7 - Bar Harbour
Day 8 - Bar Harbour - White Mountains
Day 9 - White Mountains - Stowe
Day 10 - 12 - Stowe - The Berkshires - Hartford and back to New York

Thanks for any input or ideas.

Cathy

This will be a lot of driving I'm afraid. If you could add a couple of days.Bar Harbor could use an extra day. From BH to say Jackson in the White mountains is a long way.Jackson is a gre

Sorry my mistake. Jackson is a gre

Something wrong with my PC. Jackson is a great place to visit the W.Mountains.On your way to Vermont take the great Kancamagus highway. I would stay in Burlington and visit the fabulous Shelburne museum.Also drive up Mount Washington if you're not afraid of heights.Paul

We will potentially have a few extra days... just depends on the ret of the trip. Can you suggest a route that takes in the essence of New england but cuts down driving?

On day 1 are you planning to stop in Newport? Are you going to spend any time in Cape Cod? Newport could take a day to visit and you could easily spend much more than a day on the Cape and still not get to see it all. Depending on what day of the week you go it could take most of a day just to get to the outer Cape from NY without actually getting off the main road especially on Friday or Saturday.

When you are in Bar Harbor are you planning on visiting Acadia National Park? It is really beautiful, but the trip from Kennebunkport is long and mostly quite slow, and day of the week can add lots of time to your trip.

As long as you remain flexible and adjust your plans as you go, you will be able to have a wonderful trip. You have planned to see some beautiful places.

Thanks... I think this is where I am getting myself tied in knots.... not sure on driving times and I dont want to spend the whole time in the car! I want to see the coastal areas and I want to see Vermont and realise that means driving... but also want to choose places to stop at and spend a decent amount of time at... would rather see a few places properly than drive through many!

Could you fly into Boston rather than New York?

I would cut out the Cape, unless you can add more days. From NY - the Cape takes at least 4 hours and even though it's lovely, it's really more about the beaches. There is a ferry from Provincetown to Boston, but not sure if it takes cars.

If you skip Boston, then I would spend the first night in the Newport area, there's a lot to see there. Then head directly to Boston the next day.

I also agree about the extra day in Bar Harbor, we love this area and there's so much to see and do.

The rest of the itinerary looks great.

That's good advice.Skip the New York -cape cod part and try to fly direct to Boston.visit Boston(nice town) then on to Portland-then to Bar Harbor for 2 days.B.H. to Jackson will be a long drive but worth it.2 days in Jackson ;Then by Kancamagus highway to Burlington and visit Shelburne museum.If you really wa

Sorry, want to have the trip of your life you should try to do it second half Sept-early October for the fall colours.They are spectacular.We did the 6 N.England states in 2004 but took 26 days to do it.Paul

Also, no reason to go through Hartford from the Berkshires to get back to NY.

Day 1 looks insane. Newport deserves at least a full day, preferably 2. And the Cape really is all about the beaches, although a day walking around Provincetown is nice.

I agree that if at all possible, look into flying into and out of Boston instead of NY. You'll waste half a day just trying to get into/out of the NY airports!

I also want to stress that Newport itself takes up a full day easily, so it's insane to try to see Newport and Cape Cod in 1 or even 2 days, unless you don't mind seeing the sights from the inside of your car.

At first glance, the list looks like way too much driving but if you can figure out how to handle Cape Cod/Newport, I would also change Stowe for another place in VT and the suggestion for Shelburne Museum area is a good one. You could see the Lake Champlain area and the beautiful farmland. Stowe is nice but to me is too similar to the White Mountains only the White Mountains are more scenic.
I also agree that it would be a lot easier if you could fly into Boston instead of NYC.
You can visit Yankee Magazine's website and facebook page to see some photos taken around New England. That might help you decide which areas you'd like to see the most.

That's doable, but way too much.

My recommendation would be to cut out Cape Cod and Bar Harbor and Hartford.

If you can add a few days, spend more time in each place.

Newport and the towns on the way to Kennebunkport are plenty of "coastal" without bothering with Cape Cod and Bar Harbor. Or, stop in Kennebunkport on your way to Camden or Boothbay Harbor and travel through the White Mountains from there to Stowe.

You could skip the White Mountains and head for Stowe from Kennebunkport.

You really should pick one or two seaside and one or two mountain towns if you don't want to spend all your time in the car.

Spending two nights at several destinations is much better than one-nighters and driving all day from one place to the next.

Last summer, we did a 4-day drive through New England. We did pass through many scenic places and stopped in only a few (Old Deerfield, MA, Woodstock, Vt., Hanover, NH, Newport, RI, Boston (but we've been in Boston a number of times before)) to savor what was there in the little time we had). Here's my trip report (and once again, thanks to defrostnh, who helped immensely with our planning).

Anyway, I think you've got to cut something, and if it were me, it would probably be Cape Cod, mainly because traveling there is more difficult, not because it's not a great place to go.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...ew-england.cfm

Hi everyone

Thanks very much for all of your thoughts.... I started the trip at NY as thats where we will probably be.. but could look into flying into Boston and maybe finishing in NY. Ifwe were to pick 2 coastal and 2 mountain spots to concentrate on, where would you suggest?

For the 2 coastal areas, I would look at Cape Cod or Cape Ann in Massachusetts and the Bar Harbor/Acadia area in Maine. For mountain spots, the Franconia Notch area of New Hampshire and the Stowe area of Vermont.

Thank you emalloy.... I am checking these areas out now :-)