please help with New England intinerary
 

I am working on a long road trip for next fall 2011 (late Sept or early Oct) We are leaving Denver and driving to Montreal and Quebec City. I sure could use some help planning our route through New England.

We will be traveling with our dog . Sadly, I am sure we will not be able to stay in any of those famous New England B&Bs because they never allow dogs. So we will need a town large enough to have multiple choices in order to find something really nice which is dog friendly.

We could easily drive from Quebec City to Camden Maine but then we would completely by-pass New Hampsire/Vt.

If we leave Quebec City, we could drive to:
Woodstock, Lebanon, Hanover or Concord for 1 night
Which one is the most quaint, charming, large enough for restaurant and hotel choices
We are NOT interested in outlet/mall shopping.

Then continue on to the coast of Maine--Portsmouth and Camden for 2 nights.

Doesn't seem logical to backtrack after Portsmouth and Camden to go south but I don't see any other way to get to Rock Port Ma.

Any ideas will really help!

Hanover and Lebanon are almost the same town, so I consider them one stop. Hanover is great. It has Dartmouth College and an eclectic and cool downtown.

Concord is nice and has a vibrant Main Street.

You can choose either, but I'd probably lean towards Hanover.

From Hanover you would drive down rout e 89 south which comes to Concord and you could at least look around. From Concord you can take route 4 towards Portsmouth.

I like Portsmouth a lot. Despite the economy, Portsmouth is popular and doing well. The downtown is very walkable and there are many locally owned shops and restaurants/pubs. They've done a good job at preserving a lot of the historical buildings in Portsmouth too.

Woodstock VT is very quaint but it's a tourist town. You'll see other people walking dogs in downtown Concord. You will have several hotel choices. The Holiday Inn is a good location at the north end of the shopping/restaurant area of downtown. The Marriott Courtyard is out of the way but across from a pretty river/pond/farm and popular walking area for nearby offices. Don't remember name of hotel next to Common Man Restaurant even though it faces Rt 93. I think there are 3 hotels in a row on Hall St near Rt 93 exit 13 otherwise it's a combined residential/commercial street. Plus another at exit 12. Concord has several parks including an official dog park. Another plus is it is located along the Merrimack River. There's a picnic and boat launch area behind the ice arena on Loudon Rd. I'm not familiar with the walking/biking trails around the city but there are lots. Concord has a lot of restaurant choices, maybe more than Hanover but they don't rate as high as those in Portsmouth. In addition to typical chains there are good variety of local places including a new little Chinese place (mostly take-out) with a pretty good dim sum menu and some dishes not usually seen outside of Chinatown.

We did the drive from Quebec City to Bar Harbor many years ago. If you a looking for foliage, that may not be a good drive since I remember it as big pine paper company land. Should you choose to go Concord to Portsmouth via Rt 4, you'll have a very pretty approach to Portsmouth over the Great Bay bridges. I like the drive altho some Fodorites have encountered traffic problems in the Northwood area.

But if you head north on Rt 93 you could go thru the mountains or Lake Winnipesaukee area and then over to Portland ME and up Rt 95 to Camden. Then south to Portsmouth and Rockport. I actually like the drive north on Rt 93 since you get a lot of nice scenery. Rt 95 is pretty flat and straight with lots of trees but can get a bit boring.

I forgot to mention that from the west side of the Merrimack River around 5:30 pm the sun hits the trees just right and the reflection in the water is gorgeous.

Would it be best to spend a few nights in Portsmouth and take a day trip to Camden? Or is Camden so similar to Porthmouth that we don't need to drive further north? What about Ogunquit, Me? We always prefer a base with day trips than moving around but some times it's best to stay overnight. What do you think?

Thanks for helping me sort out the overnight in NH. It's so hard to know where to stay.

I live very close to Hanover & Lebanon. Of the towns that you mention, Woodstock is the most quaint. Very 'picture perfect' and touristy. Hanover is very pretty, much of it is Dartmouth campus. Like most college towns, there are several good places to eat, and a handful of shops. Lebanon is the next town south, and is more of a small residential city, also with a few good restaurants. West Lebanon along the Connecticut River is our 'strip mall' shopping area. With any of these towns, drive a few minutes and you will be in some very scenic countryside. Concord is by far the most urbanized, but still a charming city surrounded by some mall sprawl.
I don't know about dog policies, but there are several large chain hotels between Hanover and Lebanon.