travel in August
 

My husband and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary in August and would like to go away for about a week. We live in NJ. Any suggestions? He's not a real beach person, so unless there are other things to do, just a beach is out.

August non-beach vacations are tough. I suggest heading to a cool, pleasant climate with plenty of things to do:

San Francisco (the city - the suburbs will be hot)

Montreal

Quebec City

Maine

Toronto

If you're willing to fly:

Lake Tahoe (fly into Reno)

Colorado - Summit Co. from Denver, or any mountain town should do

Jackson Hole, WY (proximity to national parks)

Las Vegas - great fun any time, if it's your kind of place, but will be REALLY hot (side trip to Mt. Charleston to cool off.)

If you want to drive:

Adirondacks in NY; Lake Placid? Saratoga Springs? a cabin by a lake?

Maine - maybe Bar Harbor & Acadia?

mountains in Vermont or New Hampshire

Alaska cruise.

Drive from SF to Seattle.

Queen Mary II.

Banff/Jasper.

Yellowstone.

I second Banff/Jasper and the Alaska cruise. Other possibilities:

Vancouver and Victoria

Seattle and/or San Juans

Monterey, Carmel, and/or San Francisco

Colorado is great in August. Very warm and plenty of things to do. I recommend Estes Park if it is your first visit to Colorado.

I think Montreal is a great idea. Its beautiful, value is great and you can drive there in 8 hours from New York. Stay at a boutique hotel in old Montreal and pretend you're in Paris!

My first thought was Mt Tremblant. They have a great rail trail for biking and the lake. Great restaurants. We combined it with a stop in Montreal for a few days and broke up the long drive with one night at Lake George for a week long trip.

I read the other posts and I also highly recommend Bar Harbor. It's a classic place for July 4th. We did some repelling with a guide on the cliffs over the ocean and canoe trip. You can't beat the Nat'l Park. We stayed at the Holiday Inn. They redid their pool and it's beautiful. Save time to hit the LL Bean Outlet area on the way up. I didn't plan on wanting to spend so much time there. I thought a couple of hours would be ok. The NorthFace outlet store was great. It would be a far drive for you for the first night so you might want to stay south along the beach just in Maine or maybe find a cheap place on the way up as you pass Boston. Good luck.

Depends on how much travelling time you want to spend, Jasper/Banff (canadian exchange saves a little right now) is spectacular. but you have to fly to calgary or edmunton. if you don't fly, New England, Cape Cod, or Martha's Vineyard, you don't really beach it there, the water is pretty cold even by NJ standards! Also Montana, Glacier National Park is beautiful. If you keep it to the east you are driving 5 to 10 hours depending on where you stop in New England. the Smokies are also a full days' drive.

I love Cashiers and Highlands, NC in August. It is spring-like weather there. Have you read Cold Mountain? You can have the same view there that's on the cover of the book. The Smokies are really beautiful. But what to do? Go to Asheville for a couple of days, for one. Go antiquing, two. After that I think you'd run out of things to do. So if you're looking for city life, you need to look elsewhere.

if you like to hike and enjoy beautiful scenary - banff/jasper or cape breton, nova scotia.