A friend and I are thinking about taking a 5 day trip to the Boston area in mid-June. I'd love to get some itinerary ideas - sites we shouldn't miss - as well as any hotel/restaurant recommendations. I'd also like to know of any places near Boston that would provide some scenic beauty for us to photograph. We're not tied to spending all 5 days in Boston if there's someplace beautiful nearby. Any and all suggestions would be most appreciated!

Given how well covered Boston is in this forum, a good place to start would be to do a board search.

It would help as a start if you could give us an idea of what you consider "scenic beauty" to be. Forests? Mountains? The ocean? Urban settings? Historic buildings?

Thanks - I'll do a search (still kind of new to this site; haven't navigated around much yet). I'd prefer mountains; ocean would be 2nd choice. Not urban settings or buildings.

Mountains + June + photography = NH's White Mountains. Google lupine festival for dates the flowers will be in bloom. If you aren't all that interested in Boston, I would suggest flying into Manchester NH and splitting your time between Portsmouth NH (take a boat trip) and the White Mountains.

Confused here. You don't want a city/buildings/urban setting, you want an ocean or mountains. Boston is about 2 hours from any mountains, is on a harbor not the ocean (again, at least an hour away for a non-urban ocean) and it has a lot of buildings since it is a city. Seems Boston might not be your best choice unless you are just using it as an airport and then would be driving away. NH, Maine, Western MA? Why Boston?

I know, but the friend I'm going with wants to spend at least 2 - 3 days in Boston (she's a history buff). I was just trying to add on a side excursion for myself (a nature lover). It's been difficult to find a trip that will please both of us in such a short period of time.

Another option: You could take the ferry to Provincetown for your 2-day excursion. The National Seashore is right there, with ``mountains'' of sand and ocean surf.

The history buff can learn about the Pilgrims, who stopped there first before proceeding to Plymouth. And there is a shipwreck museum.

We took a 4-day loop driving tour from New Haven, up through southeastern Vermont, through the center of New Hampshire, back down to Boston, then Newport and back to New Haven last summer, all of which we planned with drostnh's invaluable help. All I can say is, it was all wonderful and beautiful, especially the Hanover, NH area. Here's our trip report:

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

gosh sf7307, thanks for the compliment. I still feel bad that you missed the Sunapee craft fair.

to the OP, maybe your friend will compromise with a visit the Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth NH and a stop at Canterbury Shaker Village just north of Concord NH on your way to the White Mountains. Portsmouth is so close to Boston (1 hr?) that if you got up early you could take a morning cruise in Portsmouth, have lunch and then head to the White Mountains for 2 overnights. I think you have all the ingredients for a great trip with some good planning and a little compromising.

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We try to 'go with the flow' -- even when we got there and realized we were too late, my reaction was "rats....okay, what's next?" We'll come back some day on the right dates!

I've never heard of the National Seashore - I'll have to check into that. What about places like Cape Cod? How far is that from Boston, and is it nice or super "touristy"?

As others have said, the Cape is about 70 miles or a 12 hour drive from Boston on a Friday afternoon. Well, maybe an exaggeration. The area of the Cape near Provincetown has much to offer in the National Seashore and not touristy at all. If your friend is not going to go with you from Boston, then I would take the ferry from there and rent a bike if you don't have one to take on the ferry. There are nice bike trails through the seashore area. Provincetown itself is touristy/artsy with lots of people, galleries, places to eat, junk shops, t-shirt shops, leather goods shops, mostly on one street. Once out of town the vibe is much more relaxed, although the town is quirky enough to give you some nice photo ops.