New England + Boston advice and ideas

trets77

i,m going to New England for the first time in just over a month ( end of Sept) on a Fly drive.

we are staying at The Lenox in Boston
moving on to Salem ( hawthorn hotel)
then up To Bar Harbour (blue nose inn)
across to White Mountains, New Hampshire ( eagle mountain house)
onto Green Mountains, Vermont (Green Mountain Inn)
down to Sturbridge (publick House)
onto Newport (marriot)
and Finally onto Chatham ( Wayside inn)

i've done plenty of research but there is nothing like advice from Money savers :beer: :beer: .


Many Thanks

trets77

bump :beer:

monkeyspanner

Main advice would be don't take your hire car into Boston especially during the week unless you are planning on using it a lot. It will cost you $30plus a day to park it in the central area. Boston has a brilliant metro called the T and there is an airport stop serviced by a free airport bus from the terminals. The jump on jump off tram tours are good if you want a more scenic way to get around. You can get a Boston ticket if you want to do the Museums. Try to get tickets for the Blue Man Group, thats really good. For a Museum with a difference goto The Isabella Gardener-Stewart Museum (close to Museum of Fine Arts). Follow the red line in the sidewalk from Fanueil Hall which will take you a on a guided tour of the main heritage sites.

In the White Mountains check out the ski resorts like Attitash you can sometimes ride the Gondola to the tops of the hills. Never done it but the Mount Washigton Cog railway is supposed to be good. Mount Washington Hotel is worth a visit to see a Grand old style resort hotel. In North Conway try the Muddy Moose and UpCountry resturants. There is also a very good Pizza place with real wood fired oven to the side of the old white hotel opposite Joe Jones ski shop (sorry I can't remember the name of the hotel). There is also a Scenic Railway starting in North Conway.

In Stowe area try the Ben & Jerrys factory tour. If you like the Sound of Music visit the Trapp family lodge hotel and look at the family photos.

If you like to plan your trips in detail www.yahoo.com driving directions will give you pretty good detail. Some of the roads in New Hampshire are Turnpike and you will find small charges being made.

Have a great time.

Alan_Bowen

I am not sure there is any point staying in Salem, it is less than an hour from Boston and frankly worthy of only half a day at most. Bar Harbor is brilliant, take a day to explore the Acacia National Park from there, Newport is fascinating and spend enough time at Chatham in Cape Cod to explore the islands of Marthas Vineyard or Nantucket.

trets77

i,ve got a desire to do all the Witch stuff in Salem but we are only there for a night.

many thanks for the tips so far :beer: :beer: :beer:

dondo

In Boston- can recommend doing the freedom trail which is a great way of exploring the city.

Also worth visiting the JFK museum which we found extremely interesting

The Boston Duck tour is supposed to be good fun but we didn't get round to doing it

Echo the comments about visiting acadia national park when you're up in Bar Harbor

Also I would say go whale watching if you can- you can definitely do that from Boston and from cape Cod- cape Cod is better as nearer the whales so more whale watching time

Cape Cod is lovely- we spent part of our honeymoon there- our favourite towns were Provincetown, Sandwich and Falmouth

Also in Eastham there';s an information centre that tells you about all the walks that you can do around the cape- well worth picking up a leaflet as there are some amazing walks

We found this guide book really good
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3397668/Fodor-Cape-Cod-Nantucket-and-Martha-Vineyard/Product.html

davetrousers

You have to go to 'Cheers' well it is actually called the Bull and Finch.

Quaint1

Unfortunately you'll just miss being able to visit Filene's Basement in Downtown Boston, a great place for money savers as it offers a wide range of goods (mostly clothes) at a discount - the discount increasing the longer the item is on the shelf. It's shutting down on August 31st for two years whilst the building above is being redeveloped.
Au Res.,
Paul

blindman

davetrousers wrote: »

You have to go to 'Cheers' well it is actually called the Bull and Finch.

Just don't go inside!

Chatham
Time your drive across Cape Cod to avoid weekend traffic as the road to Chatham is a single carriageway with little if no overtaking.

Also the access roads\bridge (only 2 of them) to the island can get really snarled up with weekend traffic.

Salem
I agree that it's not worth an overnighter as it's close to Boston.


Have a good time.

mollymunchkin

We did a similar trip a few years ago. Flew into Boston then drove north through Maine, Vermont erm and a few others (I've forgotten ). We had a general idea of which direction we'd take but no definite route planned, just picked up a local map en route. The highlights of our trip were whale watching in Provincetown, Cape Cod; day trip to New York City (stayed in a town and took a 1hr train journey in) and a walking tour of Boston.

The Duck boat trip thing in Boston is supposed to be good but it was fully booked. Sorry for the lack of detail I'll try and remember the missing parts.

Have a great trip :j

JOHNNY5

I would recommend diverting onthe way to BAR, and going to FREEPORT. (this is just north of PORTLAND on interstate 1). FREEPORT is a beautiful costal village. There is plenty to do here along with over 170 outlets. Many bargains can be found here as there are some factory direct outlets including THE NORTH FACE.
If bargains is what you are after whilst on holiday then also try NORTH CONWAY, (which is only a short drive from Mt WASHINGTON), this again also has the factory outlet shops, aswell as the other items as mentioned by Monkeyspanner. I can also recommend the MuddyMoose in NorthConway. There are 3 ways that you could possibly goto the top of Mt WASHINGTON. The first is by the cog railway, second you could drive your higher car up but I would check your car insurance first as it is on a private road.....and the third way is to walk it, but not recommended unless you are mad!!! Also don`t be fooled by the weather, when I went up there the first time (it was at the end of Sept a few years ago), it was scorching hot down the bottom, by the time we go to the top it was snowing so be prepared. It can also be very windy as at the top the highest ever wind speed measurement had once been taken and one of the buildings is held down by large chains over the roof.
Another road with a senic view is the KANCAMAGUS PASS which runs between NORTHCONWAY and LINCOLN (near WOODSTOCK) also in the WHITE MOUNTAINS.

hope this helps.......enjoy your holiday:j :j