adnil

Any driving tips and sights including niagra falls?

adnil

We are (50's) driving, popup camping and sightseeing... want to see Niagra Falls, Acadia and possibly back through Boston a couple days? crazy?

nytraveler

If you need campsites I would reserve as far in advance as possible - esp anything near Boston. (Assume you can detach the car and use it if necessary to get to train station. If not,, you would need to find a place near a Boston transit line that also had transport from the campsite to the transit - might be dicey.)

You do not want to drive any sort of camper thing anyplace IN Boston - actually most people don;t want to even drive a car there. Huge number of one-way streets, complicated (not grid) street pattern and you can't get there from here. And a major exit to center city is is the middle of the tunnel coming from the highway into downtown.

I'm used to NYC traffic and have driven in Boston at least a dozen times - and can still find it very confusing. I can;t imagine trying to do it in something larger than a car.

nytraveler

Oh - and for Niagara Falls the best sights are on the Canadian side. Allow time to cross the border both way (it may be fast or it can take 30 minutes to an hour if there's traffic).

Bowsprit

Where is your start point? Just curious....


Can they park their camper in Newton, Mass. at the train station for the day or overnight?

dfrostnh

If you want to stay in Boston for a couple of days, I would consider, for safety reasons, leaving your camper at a campground. Check campground locations and amenities. You might find some campgrounds with shuttles into Boston but you could also find something near a bus or train route. The bus station in Concord NH, for example, offers free parking for cars. Portsmouth NH should have similar offer. RT bus fare from Concord NH is $35. You can probably find something closer to Boston. I would not leave a camper overnight in a public parking lot.

We enjoy the mid-coast area of Maine. Chewonki in Wiscasset is a wonderful, small campground convenient to Rt 1. The Common Ground Fair is held 3rd weekend in Sept, sponsored by organic farmers association. Low key and very interesting. You will have to drive thru a short section of NH between MA and ME. Portsmouth is worth a stop but not pulling a camper. Great boat trips. Also consider a day trip to Monhegan Island. It would work if you were camping near one of the boat docks and can leave your camper at a campground. We went out of Boothbay Harbor and there is no place to park a camper but there is a campground (probably several) in the Boothbay area (Wiscasset is the next town).
Don't miss the auto road up Mt Battie in Camden. I like the view better than from Cadillac.
Get a list of farmers markets so you can buy some fresh goodies. In Sept I would also visit orchards for the very best apples esp if you can find an orchard with antique varieties. Skip the Cortlands and Macs for the kinds you won't find in the grocery stores. Buy local free range eggs.

I would also drop the camper or stay near Portland ME so you can visit the Old Port area. The mailboat cruise of Casco Bay is interesting and would be a nice break for the driver. I enjoyed the foodie tour but with some research on chowhound.com you can probably find the food shops and restaurants that will be the highlight of your visit (i.e. the best whoopie pies bakery and the french fries at Duckfat).

You can have breakfast and dinner at the campground but find a good lobster place for lunch. A lot of the good lobster shacks are open weekends only after Labor Day so I would time my visit accordingly. Five Islands probably has the best view. These are the eat lobster at a picnic table kind of place. No inside tables. No frills. Lobster, butter, and a bag of chips (maybe). You don't need anything else. If you really like lobster and want to also have it for dinner, many supermarkets will steam it for you and the price will be less than $7/lb for chicken lobsters (1 lb, kind of scrawny so you might need two each). If you've bought a homemade pie at a farmers market or good farmstand, you're all set.

Bowsprit

If you do make it to Acadia, don't forget to stop in at the Rangers' Station for a guided tour on audio tape or CD. The Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce also has video tours of the area. Here's the link:

http://www.discover-acadia.com/acadia-auto-tour.html