| Boston
| The Fall
| Woodstock
| Stowe |
Franconia Notch
| Kennebunkport
| Camden
New England
New England
is only 6 hours flying time from the UK and offers terrific variety and interest
whever you turn. Of the six States making up the region, we visited Massachusetts,
Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, all to the North of Boston, New England's principal
city and main gateway for travellers. |
Boston - Quincy market | | The
City of Boston
Choose a hotel near the centre, to make the most
of your stay in Boston. Top of the range hotels - available at reasonable package
rates - include The Lenox, elegant and traditional; The Copley Plaza; and the
Marriott Copley Square, ultra modern but very comfortable and efficient. The Copley
Square Hotel is pleasant and has lots of character. Book well ahead - Boston is
a major tourist destination for Americans as well as overseas visitors. |
There is a historic walk
marked out in the centre of Boston, and if you are feeling energetic it makes
for a pleasant and informative introduction to the city. Points not to be missed
include Quincy Market and Fanieul Hall. If you venture too far on your walk, the
'T' - Boston's subway -is a safe and inexpensive way of returning to your hotel.
A three-day visitor pass costs $9.00.
The 'T' is a
convenient way to reach other interesting parts of the city, such as Harvard which
is in Cambridge - Boston's "Left Bank", and home to the famous university.
Eating out is less expensive than in the centre of Boston; try The Grafton Street
Pub and Restaurant on Dunster Street. In town, there is a huge selection of up-market
eateries on Newbury Street from French haute cuisine to Thai curry houses. Clam
chowder (a thick seafood soup) is a local delicacy. In the medium price range
the popular "Legal Seafoods" chain has a number of popular restaurants,
including one at Long Wharf down by the harbour. Pre-booking is advisable when
dining out in Boston.
Long Wharf is also the departure point for the
Boston Harbour Lines' Lines' Whale Watching Cruises. These take place on a very
large and very fast catamaran which whisks you out to a point where the whales
feed in nutrient-rich waters welling up from the deep. |
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commentary is given by qualified naturalists. The whale watching season runs until
late October: we were lucky enough to spot several whales, including spectacular
breaching and near-boat curiosity by 'Roswell', a star performer well known to
the naturalists. Nobody viewing these amazing mammals, in their natural habitat,
from a few yards distance, can fail to be impressed. The two-hour trip is well
worth while and great value at £15 per adult.
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Great value is also to be found
in Boston's downtown stores; Macy's, Filene's Basement, etc., offer goods at bargain
prices compared to the UK. Clothes, shoes and cosmetics are all at a fraction
of the UK price.
If you prefer a motorised tour, Town Trolley Tours offer
a circuit of the city with 14 stopping points at places of interest. You can stop
off at any point that interests you and rejoin as you please. "Duck"
tours offer something completely different - a tour of Boston by land and water
in a converted WWII amphibious landing craft.
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The Fall For
a few weeks every year, New England offers an unrivalled spectacle of natural
splendour, as the leaves turn from greens to golds and summer gives way to Autumn.
If you visit early in October, there's also the chance of an Indian Summer, with
warm sunny days on the coast, while up-country it's cooler and the leaves are
turning. The fall colours are best
seen in Northern New England - in the Green Mountains of Vermount and the White
Mountains of New Hampshire, or in Maine. To reach any of these, you must first
pass through Massachussets, with its famous battle sites from the War Of Independence.
It's worth stopping to explore historic Lexington and Concord, beautifully
preserved towns only a short drive from Boston, and a welcome contrast to the
bustle of the city. Points of interest include the spot where the first shots
in the War of Independence were fired, and the Concorde Old Colonial Inn.
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Woodstock
From Concord, head North towards White River Junction, and then on to Route
4 (West) for Woodstock.
Woodstock is one of the most beautiful towns
in America and a two nights stay gives time to explore the town and the surrounding
countryside. The village green is the focal point and is at its best seen early
or late in the day, when there is least traffic.
Other sights include
the classic white New England churches set amongst the autumn foliage.
Woodstock is busy, and pre-booked accomodation is essential. The Woodstock Inn
is the prime accommodation in town, an attractive property right beside the village
green. | | 
Woodstock |
 | | A
major attraction is Woodstock is the Stephen Huneck Gallery. This talented sculptor
and artist recovered from a near-fatal illness to achieve considerable success.
His work is humourous and attractive, featuring dogs, fish and birds as light-hearted
sculpture, or in woodcuts, or as imaginative decorative elements in top-quality
furniture.
Scenic attractions around Woodstock include the Queechee
Gorge, found by returning East along Highway 4. The views over the gorge from
the bridge are stunning and there are easy scenic walks for a mile or so on either
side of the highway. Lake Ottauqueechee lies half-a-mile to the North of the gorge
and is a great spot for a picnic. |
On the
way back to Woodstock be sure to visit "Fool on the Hill", a highly
entertaining cross between an open-air sculpture park and a garden centre.
Depending on the weather and how advanced the fall is, you might need to
travel around a little to catch the best of the leaves.
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Stowe
From Woodstock, head East on highway I4 to pick up the scenic VT100 North to Stowe.
This town is set in a green valley, amongst forest covered hills and mountains.
Stowe is a busy ski-resort in winter, so the town has expanded out along the Mountain
Road, with Inns, Motels and Ski Lodges on either side for quite a few miles. Whenever
you are visiting Stowe, it is best to pre-book, because this village is popular
with visitors in Summer, Autumn and Winter. Major fall activities
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Not real veal at
Fool on the Hill |
include cycling and hiking.
Stowe sits astride
"The Long Trail". This 300-mile footpath runs from Vermont's Southern
border with Massachussets to the Canadian border in the North. .There are some
particularly attractive sections of the trail around Stowe; The Green Mountain
Club on 802-244-7037 has information and maps Stowe Soaring
offer magical glider flights over Northern Vermont. These run at about £75
for 30 minutes; luckily there is (just) enough room for two passengers side by
side , so it works out at £37.50 per person. This is great value! Take off
is by tow-plane. At about 5000 feet the tow is cast off and the glider soars free.
The sensation is superb, quite unlike flying in a commercial aircraft. It's very
quiet, and the view through the perspex bubble canopy is amazing. The sensation
of swooping silently over the hillsides and alongside the mountain crags is fantastic,
an experience never forgotten. Back down to earth, drive North
from Stowe through scenic Smugglers' Notch into Northern Vermont. Things are more
rugged here, in the 'Northern Kingdom'; even the 'Moose Crossing' road signs have
the occasional bullet hole through them. Many of the scenes could have come straight
from a Norman Rockwell painting. Don't miss 'Dinner's Dunn' diner at Waterville
or the drugstore at Montgomery Centre for a taste of rural America, as it was,
is, and will be for a long time to come. |
Apples by the Bushel and the Peck
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| Northern Vermont rates as a major
apple-growing centre and the excellent local produce is sold by the bushel, the
peck and the half-peck, often on an 'honesty' basis; $1.75 in the box for a half-peck
of apples. This procedure would no doubt fall foul of EC Regulations on a dozen
counts but in the land of the free apples are plentiful, cheap and delicious,
and sold in traditional measures. |
Franconia Notch
In early October, it can snow in Vermont and it snowed for us! Time to head
towards the coast, and some warmer weather. If you enjoyed Stephen Huneck's Gallery
in Woodstock, pause at St. Johnsbury and visit his workshop and gallery on Spalding
Road. Interstate I93 sweeps South from St Johnsbury through Franconia Notch State
Park, which is centred round the gorge of the Pemigewasset River. Over the centuries
the river has worn away the rocks to form "The Basin" an amazing, swirling
pool. Further South at the visitor centre there is a one-hour circular walk through
the woods taking in Flume Gorge, with wooden walkways over the torrent.
Franconia Notch lies at the Western end of the NH112 Kancamagus
highway, a 45-mile scenic route through the White Mountain National Park. The
whole length of the highway is lined with forest trails, waterfalls and above
all the spectacular colours of autumn foliage. If you intend to stop along the
way, buy a $3.00 parking permit as you enter the park. Mount Washington, the New
England's highest mountain, lies at the Eastern End of the highway with a scenic
railway and some difficult hiking higher on the mountain, where sudden changes
in the weather can catch out the unprepared. South from Mount
Washington, the Lakes area offers a change of scenery. Lake Winnepesaukee is the
largest lake. The Western shore around Weirs Beach is commercialized, brash and
neon-lit. The Eastern Shore is quieter and picturesque,especially in the South-East
round the genteel town of Wolfeboro. There you find a number of accommodations
including the prestigious Wolfeboro Inn; The Lakeside Motel is reasonably priced,
while the Clearwater Lodges offers individual cabins amongst the trees by the
water's edge.
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Kennebunkport
Leaving Wolfeboro it's a half day's drive East to the
Atlantic Coast of Maine. The best known resort in this area is Kennebunkeport,
carefully preserved and very attractive with wooden buildings around the harbour,
some built out over the clear waters of the inlet. | |
Morning mists at Kennebunkport
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There are places to stay to
suit every taste and pocket, from the Austin Inn Towne Hotel at $50 per room per
night to the Kennebunkeport Inn which asks for (and gets) $270 excluding breakfast
(best to pre-book through a UK tour-operator for a lot less). There are a number
of Inns and Motels on Shore Road, which runs Northwards from Dock Square in the
centre of town. The Yachtsman is a single storey building on the Shore road, just
a hundred yards from the centre. Recently refurbished to a very high standard,
the large rooms have picture windows and patios right by the waters edge. The
resort's most famous resident, former President George Bush Senior, lives further
along Shore Road. His house is beautiful, set on a grassy spit of land jutting
out into the sea; the Bush family have have owned the site for generations. Eating
out in Kennebunkeport majors on seafood; Maine lobster is famous the world over.
The Port Lobster Company is worth a lunchtime visit for their lobster rolls, while
at the very top of the range The White Barn sets very high standards for a special
night out. Grissini's Italian Bistro is inexpensive and the food is good. Reservations
essential. The Bush compound marks the Southern end of Goose Rocks Beach, a
four-mile stretch of white sand lined with summer homes and a few small hotels.
The "Tides Inn" offers stunning views over the beach and the ocean and,
although some distance from Kennebunkeport, has its own restaurant and bar. Another
very attractive property is the Sundial Inn, on
Kennebunkeport Beach.
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Camden Harbour | | Camden
Northeast from Kennebunkeport, the breezy coast of Maine is windjammer country.
These fast sailing ships were the lifeblood of trade in the 1800's and now there
are many fine restored examples running pleasure trips out of Boothbay, Rockport,
Camden and Bar Harbour. Camden is (just) within range of a day trip from Kennebunkeport.
On the way visit historic Pemaquid point, with its lighthouse and fisherman's
museum.
On the way back to Boston, there are one or two final gems to
discover. Marblehead, a seaside village with narrow streets and a huge harbour,
is a yachtsman's paradise with hundreds of craft moored in the basin. A little
further South, the historic town of Salem has an attractive waterfront, and a
colourful history. |
New England makes a great holiday destination
in Summer and even more so in the Autumn, and in the Winter there is lots of good
ski-ing. Whenever you go, you will be intrigued, entertained and more than likely
enchanted! We cannot wait to return and explore southwards from Boston; Rhode
Island, Mystic, Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard are waiting. Watch this space.
Booking Ahead New
England is a popular resort with Americans, as well as with visitors from all
over the world. The best accommodation is usually taken up first. For self-drive
visitors, arriving un-booked, this means taking what's left over. The worst possible
scenario is to try booking 2-3 days ahead; you will pay top dollar, and more than
likely end up somewhere you would rather not be. Best then, to book through one
of the 70 UK Tour Operators offering New England vacations. You have the guarantee
that the accommodation they offer will match the description in the brochure.
Smaller operators, such as Osprey Holidays, take a personal view of the hotels
they feature, which confers a certain assurance about the Inns and Hotels in their
New England brochure.
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