We are planning to spend a couple of weeks in the New England area this coming summer. I'm looking for recommendations for travel guides for this area? We are interested in natural scenery and historic sites. Thanks!

There are several major historic sites in New England such as Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth NH, Canterbury NH Shaker Village, and the wonderful Shelburne Museum in VT. I would suggest you pick which sites you would like to visit, then post a basic itinerary here on Fodors for critiquing. You might also check out Yankee Magazine's website for suggested drives. I like to combine a visit with an event whether it be Bath ME's Heritage Days (around the 4th of July) or (DH's favorite) an antique tractor show. Fodorites can help you fill in the extras. We also carry a DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer for the state we are visiting for detailed road maps and the location of waterfalls, covered bridges, and best fishing spots. We like to spend at least half a week in a particular area and wander back roads. On our last summer trip to VT we wondered why so many cars were parked by a river (Lincoln Gap between Bristol VT and Rt 100) and discovered a very popular, beautiful swimming spot that included a small waterfall. We returned with a picnic lunch to watch kids jump off the ledges. Summer in New England is The Best.

I can't get a handle on planning an itinerary because I don't know anything about the area. That's why I'm asking for a good guidebook for the area.

I'm thinking of doing a loop--driving up the coast and back south further inland but I don't know which roads/towns/sites to include.

Thanks for the suggestion of the Delorme Atlas and Gazetteer.

Sign up on each of the state tourism websites, they will mail you a lovely guide....more like a magazine than a book but full of ideas and photos and information.

I have problems putting voluminous info of an area in perspective so the first thing I do is get an overview by using the AAA Tourguides. They introduce a state with suggested tours and follow it with detailed info. From this I can build on it by info from state tourist bureaus or guidebooks or history books, etc. for the details. We have learned that some of our best memories are from places/events suggested by "locals" who we meet along the way or by accident, much like dfrostnh mentioned. For this reason our itinerary is only a suggestion, not cut in stone.

Maybe I'm biased, but I have a copy of
Fodors New England
and
Fodors Maine, Vermont & New Hampshire

I find them very good.
http://www.fodors.com/guidebooks/9781400007219/
http://www.fodors.com/guidebooks/9781400007523/

Perhaps you can head to your local bookstore and flip through a bunch of different guidebooks and see which you like best.

I'd highly recommend 23 Great Drives in New England. It's one of the few guides available for the entire area - with photos - to assist in selecting places to visit most appealing to you.

The very best guides for each of the states are the "Maine, An Explorer's Guide" (Also NH, VT, MA, CT, Cape Cod, Boston...). They are incredibly comprehensive in ever regard. Obviously, purchasing all of them would be quite the investment, but you may find them at your local bookstore for a bit of research.

Thanks for all your ideas. I'll look into all of them.

I don't need to plan each moment but we need a bit of a plan to make any reservations needed and to flesh out a route. We can be fairly flexible but we have to have some sort of route to start with.