After a week at New York City, I am planning to drive with my family (all adults) for close to a week through some of the New England States (July 3 to 8), before flying back to our country. I already know about interesting places and cities like: Boston, Rock Port, Salem, Plymouth, Cape Cod and Providence, but would like to know about scenic drives different from the coast line, with the possibility of spending the night at some of those places. ¿What is the best place to attend the 4th of July celebration? ¿Where can we get the best clam chowder?

You need to keep in mind that driving July 3-5 means being on the roads at one of the busiest times of the year around most of the areas you mention - traffic can be backed up horribly around the holiday - so keep that in mind when planning your distances -

July 4 celebration: what do you want? big city like the Boston Pops on the Esplanade?
Small town celebration in one of the towns on the Cape that has music, fireworks, etc -
Most of the scenic rides are coastline because you've chosen coastal comunities -
I would think deciding that first might help in choosing the route -

First, you need to make reservations soon for any lodgling during this time - the first 2 weeks of July are the most popular vacation times in US and it obviously includes the July 4th celebrations. Depending on your interests and if you also need to drive back to NYC by the 8th, I would consider staying in 2 places only - for a few days each. Certainly Boston, and over July 4th there is a lot going on. The traditional thing to do is see the Boston Pops Orchestra and fireworks on the Esplanade (a long narrow park along the Charles River) - but I actually warn people to avoid this as it is crowded and you must sit all day to get a spot where you can both hear music and see fireworks. Instead, there are lots of other things going on around Boston - including a clam chowder contest.

From Boston you can do day trips to Rockport, Salem, Portsmouth, NH if you wish. Then you could either spend a few days on Cape Cod or head a little north or inland to New Hampshire - depending on your interests. Do not attempt to see all of New England in 6 days - you will do nothing but drive around. Instead, concentrate on Boston area/southern New England so you can actually have a good time.

Hotels are going to be very expensive during this time frame - about the same price as you will be paying in NYC - so be prepared for that.

For away from the coast areas you will find that most of the small towns in New England have celebrations for the 4th. Many have fireworks. Look at www.ctvisit,com or www.massvacation.com the web sites for travel in Connecticut and Massachusetts . In Connecticut the off the beaten path areas would be the Litchfield hills in western CT or the "quiet corner" in eastern CT. In Massachusetts, look to the Berkshire hills area, perhaps Lenox.

Although you can get good clam chowder in Boston, you might want to go to the waterfront in some smaller city that has a working commercial fishing industry. There you can get your seafood (including lobstahs and clam chowder) stratight from the boat. Some towns that come to mind include Portsmouth NH, Provincetown MA, and Wellfleet MA, and Gloucester MA. Wellfleet is mostly known for its oysters, though.

(To clarify -- Provincetown doesn't have a waterfront fish shop, but it has some great restaurants. The others have seafood sold from the dock, if I recall correctly.)

In Boston, for the thick type of New England clam chowder (the gloppy one you can stand your spoon up in), Legal Sea Foods does this pretty well. For the thinner type of New England clam chowder that actually has good clam flavor, Neptune Oyster or B&G Oysters do this excellently.

you can take a day trip to Ogunquit, Maine (sp?)
Lunch at the American bistro with a view of the oceon.

bachs, I thought Legal was expensive til I went to Neptune.

cigalechanta--

In my experience, sit-down restaurant seafood, like most everything else in Boston, is expensive. If you've got your heart set on something resembling bargain basement prices on seafood, you need to hit the no-waitstaff quasi-lobster-pound style places like Yankee Lobster (Seaport area) or Morse Fish (South End) or Courthouse Seafood (East Cambridge). In my experience, Neptune Oyster is no more expensive than B&G Oysters (South End, also very good), Kingfish Hall (Faneuil Hall, quite good), or Turner Fisheries (Back Bay, not bad), and only a little more expensive than Legal Seafood (several locations) or Atlantic Fish (Back Bay). Dolphin Seafood (Cambridge) is arguably the cheapest of the good sit-down places and is well worth a go.

But if I could only recommend one seafood place in the Boston area, Neptune Oyster would be it. At least (in my experience) the quality of product they offer is consistently top notch, and few other area seafood places can say that.

escargot, gail, emalloy, capxxx, bachslunch, cigalechanta:

Taking into account all your excellent comments and suggestions, I decided to move my traveling dates a little bit, so I will be visiting New England before and after my trip to New York, where I will stay for the week of July 4th in a rented apartment. Gail: your comments were decisive for this change of plans. I wish I had more time and money to visit so many good places.