We are planning a trip tp New England in the middle of October and want to see the changing of the leaves. We will be in Boston for a couple days visiting friends and then want to drive north to see the leaves. Where is the best place to go - Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont? We will be driving and staying at hotels/inns along the way for about 3 days.

Personally, I think the foliage is prettiest in the mountains, where you can get up above it and look around. I like New Hampshire's White Mountains, the Kancamangus highway, and the area around Franconia Notch.

Be aware that hotels and inns get very packed this time of year. It is not wise to go without reservations. I hope you are planning to do this driving around midweek. If you are planning a weekend trip for leafpeeping, you are way late to get accomodations, and almost all inns will have multinight limits on weekends.

Mid Oct will be too late for very far north - the leaves will be off the trees. You usually need to do Boston and south that time.

Also - if you mean this year - hotels are probably already booked for weekends.

I think if you look at past years foliage reports on the website below, you will find that peak color in mid October is right across New Hampshire and Vermont. It varies year to year, obviously, and it moves quickly (makes a little difference whether you are talking October 10th or 20th, for example).

http://www.foliagenetwork.com/reports/northeast_us/

but I also don't think "past peak" means the leaves just fell of the trees either.


you probably do want to avoid Maine by that time of year.

Thanks for all the advice so far. We will be going mid-week and are very flexible in our timing. We will be in Boston over the weekend (Oct 10-12) with some friends and then will head north from there. Anyone have any suggestions for accommodations?

For those dates, I'd head to southern Vermont, the Monadnock region of NH and/or the Berkshires.

The Monadnock region would be nice - it's southwestern NH. The towns along Rt 101 like Peterborough are lovely. Sorry, no recommendations for lodging as this is practically my backyard. However, wanted you to know that it's on the way to VT so it would be an easy day trip. Should the foliage be late you can be in NH's White Mountains in about 2 hours. An easy day trip from the Monadnock area.

I second the vote for the Berkshires (western Mass.) The leaves are already beginning to turn (near Albany NY) and if that's any indication, it may be an early season. You would be wise to keep checking reports for where the peak colors are. Hopefully, since you are travelling mid-week, you would be able to find a place to stay at the last minute. Or book something in a couple of different areas, so if the color is gone to the north, you can go some place more southern. Also, in reply to a previous post, if there is wind or rain, the trees can be bare overnight, so even if it's "peak" one day, it may not be the next. Leaf peeping can be a hit-or-miss proposition!

At that time of year Western MA is very pretty, on sunny days. It is very hard to get accommodations in foliage season. Wherever you decide to go, you will have to make a reservation and hope for good weather. I found this site which may be of use, if you want to think about MA.

http://www.massvacation.com/find/lodging/

You still have time to visit Vermont. The foliage season is great. Check out my blog where I have posted pictures of maple trees in front of the state capital. I have lots of tips on my site: www.mysecretvermont.com