For the lovely Mrs. S’s birthday next year, I was thinking of taking her on a trip. She has mentioned several times that she has always wanted to see Maine, AND has always waned to see whales in the wild, so I figured with a late May, early June time frame, the coast of Maine would be good for at least part of the trip. However, neither of us has been to New Hampshire or Vermont, and I have only been to Boston for work purposes, so this may be a good chance to see those places as well.
That all being said, I have no idea where to start with this one. Drive times don’t look terrible place to place in the region, but not sure how much time I need to budget, places that really need to be seen, etc. I am thinking that she will want a more relaxing and “pretty” vacation instead of a constant action vacation, if that helps. the only MUST would be the whale thing in Maine.
I appreciate any and all help, you guys were great when it came to the Italy trip!
New England may look little on the map, but keep in mind that things tourists want to see are pretty spread out. It could take you several hours to drive from Boston to some place in Maine you’d like to visit too (for example, say you wanted to visit Bar Harbor to whale watch…5 hours from Boston), so consider taking enough time so you can spend at least a day in each state you want on your itinerary.
The first thing you have to do is get a recording of this song and play it constantly on the car stereo. When your wife and kids tear it out and shatter it, you have to sing the song loudly over and over until they beat you to death. This has been key to our best New England trips!
There are whale watches out of Boston and Provincetown on Cape Cod. You can still go to Maine but do the whale watch elsewhere.
For the coast of Maine, the biggest draws are Acadia National Park/Bar Harbor, Boothbay Harbor, Monhegan Island, and tons of small towns and out of the way places. What do you want to do?
You can find nice B&Bs in Bar Harbor and spend time biking the carriage roads, having popovers at Jordan Pond house, taking a windjammer cruise. Late May is still going to be pretty chilly but manageable. Have a lobstah dinner at Beal’s Lobster Pier in Southeast Harbor. Visit the lighthouses. Take a boat out to the Cranberry Islands.
You should look at spending a night or two on Monhegan Island. It’s isolated and remote, but casual and refined; a great place to get away from it all.
Pssssssst. Thurston’s Lobster Pound, in Bernard. About a 20 minute drive away from Beal’s in Southwest Harbor.
A bit further afield, but a much nicer place for lobster and steamers. Don’t tell the Ukulele Lady I told you about it, she’s trying to keep it Undiscovered.
I live in Maine, and I strongly recommend exploring some of the coastal forts. Popham/ Baldwin are next to each other in Phippsburg, near Brunswick and Popham Beach. Ft. Edgecomb is a nice spot on a beautiful island off of Rt. 1 between Wiscasset and Bootbay. Ft. Knox(Not to be confused with the Ft. Knox full of gold) , in Prospect is legendary for its ghost stories.
There are whale watching trips out of Portland - which is a cute town worth a visit anyway. If you do go, take your wife to Soakology. Trust me on this. Make an appointment beforehand though, their walk-in slots are scarce (and after walking around all the shops etc. you will BOTH enjoy it).
We’ve never had time to do much exploring outside the area - my daughter attended a summer program there for two summers in a row so our time was spent driving her there, walking around a bit, going home, then going back in 3 weeks to fetch her.
I always wished we had time to drive along Moose Alley but no luck so far.
If you happen to be in Vermont, a quick trip to the Ben and Jerry’s factory can be fun, but don’t go far out of your way for it.
The only problem with good lobster pounds is that they don’t fry clams, only steam them.
Last time I was up that way we tried The Chart House in Hull’s Cove, about five minutes north of Bar Harbor on Route 3. We had ignored it for years…looks like any other Maine basic fish house.
BEST clam chowder and BEST fried clams I’ve had Down East.
This is really good stuff, and much appreciated. I am not that keen on going to Boston, so we may skip that entirely, depending on how she feels about it. My thought was to fly into Portland, and spend a few days either in that area, or in Boothbay, which looks like it’s only about on hour and half drive away.
From there, maybe driving into New Hampshire for a day or two, then over to Vermont for a day or two, including hitting Ben and Jerry’s/ general Waterbury area, then flying back home from Burlington. what do you think?
What are you planning on doing in NH and VT for a few days? The skiing will be mostly shut down, and the Mt Washington Auto road will have just opened up (usually open by Memorial Day weekend). The Ben and Jerry’s factory tour is nice but it’s really nothing special. IMO, it’s not worth the trip from coastal Maine.
Unless you have specific things you want to accomplish in NH and VT I’d spend your time on the coast of Maine and avoid killing a few days driving around.
You might want to the the Morgan horse farm at the University of Vermont, if either of you are interested in horses. I enjoyed it, although I only saw it as a kid.
That’s a great point actually, and part of why I started the post. I’ve heard that Vermont and New Hampshire are both beautiful states, but not sure if there is much to do in either. We don’t need a ton to do, our past couple vacations have been full of activity, and we could use a get away type of vacation, but it would be nice to have some suggestions/ options. The Moose Road is interesting actually, we’ve never seen one in the wild, so that would actually be kind of fun.
Late May/early June is when things are starting to green up so just a leisurely walk in a natural area or driving around is beautiful. Add in a lake cruise on someplace like Sunapee and it is wonderful. There are happenings all over but don’t expect them to be big and overwhelming; you will have a low-key time even if you hit a bunch of local events.
