I’ve recently been tasked with putting together the itinerary for a five-day Memorial Weekend road trip with my girlfriend and her mother (in town from San Diego), the desired focus being Western MA/Berkshires and Southern VT. Due to a highly successful trip I led along the coast of Maine last fall, expectations run high. Unfortunately, my knowledge of non-coastal New England is not anywhere near as deep!
Our interests and focus tend to fall within the following:
[ul]
[li]scenic drives (no problemo on this trip!)[/li][li]light hiking[/li][li]art museums[/li][li]historical sites[/li][li]food and wine[/li][/ul]
…with a particular interest in experiences that are unique to the local area.
My current tentative plans include two days/nights in the Berkshires and two in VT (probably Bennington or Woodstock areas, but we could be enticed to head further north); as the two areas are fairly close together this is certainly flexible. We’re starting from Cambridge, so first leg is most likely taking Rte 2 out to Williamstown/North Adams.
We’ve got Mass MoCA on the agenda for sure, and most likely some hiking around Mt. Greylock in MA. In VT, I’ve been specifically requested to include covered bridges (again, shouldn’t be a problem). Other than that, the goal is to provide a good feel for the rural New England experience, and a contrast to metro-Boston (which we’ve covered pretty thoroughly in previous trips her mom has made out here). Our previous vacations and roadtrips have been very improvisatory, and as such the goal is to put together a “menu” of activities that can fit with the mood (or the weather!) of the day.
So… suggestions? Recommendations? Things we should definitely see (or avoid)? Restaurants to try? Museums? Points of Interest? Special Events?? We’re not terribly picky with lodging generally, though if there are any terrific New England inns that we’d actually stand a chance of getting a reservation for at this late date, bring 'em on as well!
(Yes, this is not a whole lot of time to put together a 5-day trip, but all three of us are quite laid-back and very flexible with the road trip experience. With some solid Doper recommendations, we’re sure to have a great time!)
Woodstock is a beautiful little town (not far from us, incidentally). It’ll give you rural quaint Vermont until it’s coming out your ears. It’s not far from Quechee Gorge, southern Vermont’s answer to the Grand Canyon. There’s some very light hiking there. Also in Woodstock are the Billings Farm and Museum - one of those working old-timey farms, if you’re into that sort of thing - and Billings National Historical Park, which has more nice hiking. Oh, and there’s a covered bridge in Quechee. There are lots around, but that’s the only one I can place with certainty off the top of my head.
For interesting mountains to visit and hike on, consider Mt Monadnock (east of Keene NH) and Mt. Ascutney. You can drive most of the way up the latter, to one of the highest road points in New England.
The champion covered bridge is the Cornish-Windsor bridge across the Connecticut River.
Though it’s almost certainly far too late to book it, a great place to stay near Brattleboro would be Naulakha, Rudyard Kipling’s house when he lived in Vermont.
As for restaurants, I really like the Montague Night Kitchen: fine dining in a rustic New England setting (it’s inside a renovated mill building). You can sit at one of their copper-topped tables next to the windows and look out on the Sawmill River as you dine. The Night Kitchen isn’t far from Route 2 and it’ll be on your way as you drive west to North Adams. It’s only open for dinner though, but the wonderful food and ambience are worth the visit. I was just there last week and loved it.
The Mount Greylock Summit Road will probably be open by Memorial Day weekend (it’s been closed for repairs for two years, with a reopening scheduled in 2009; apparently the construction is finished now). If the Summit Road is open, you can drive up it to reach the War Memorial Tower at the top.
The star attractions of the northernmost Berkshires are Mass MoCA, the Clark Art Institute, and Mount Greylock. Further south, in Pittsfield and Lenox, are historical sites such as Arrowhead (Herman Melville’s house), the Mount (Edith Wharton’s estate), and Hancock Shaker Village, but if you only have two days to spend in MA, they might be too much out of the way.
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! Almost certainly going to include Mt Greylock auto road if it’s open, and Quechee Gorge in VT. Clark Institute and walking around Williamstown would be great too. And, yeah, tough to beat the Cornish-Windsor bridge for ambitious scale of that form (plus, the driving along the Connecticut River Valley is some of my favorite in the area).
Serronaulta: thanks for the Montague Night Kitchen tip. Looks perfect for that part of the trip.
Smeghead: any recommendations for dining in the Woodstock area?
Stockbridge is nice, a very pretty New England town. The Norman Rockwell Museum is also worth a trip, as is the Berkshire Botanical Garden. The Red Lion Inn is also interesting, and has good (though pricey) food.
Springfield MA is just outside the Berkshires, but has the Springfield Museums, a complex of art and science museums.
In the Bennington, VT area, there’s the Bennington museum, and if you like battlefields at all, make a trip to the Bennington battlefield (in Hoosick NY). Downtown Bennington has some charming shops. North of Bennington, there’s the Chocolate Barn in Arlington, which is a must for any sweet tooth.
West of town is Camelot Village, primarily antiques, but with a North River Winery story, which gives tastings. North River is Vermont’s only winery, and specializes in non-grape wines. The winery is east of Bennington, near Wilmington. The wine is pretty good, but doesn’t seem to keep well – drink it within a few months.
An hour or so north of Bennington is Hildene, in Manchester, the home of Robert Todd Lincoln (Abe’s son). It’s both a farm and a mansion and well worth the tour. Be sure to catch the Aeolion Pipe Organ, one of the few still in working order – played by music scrolls like a player piano. The grounds are beautiful, too.
If you end up doing dinner in the williamstown area, shoot me a PM with your dining preferences and I’ll make a few recommendations. I went to college in that area and am well acquainted with the dining experience.
Other than that I can just second what others have said about the main attractions. There actually isn’t all that much in that area beyond “those tree, mountains, and lakes are pretty.”
There are a host of good hikes though. If the Mt Greylock road is closed you might want to look in to trails to the same. it’s a good view.
I’ve been there. I didn’t really get what all the fuss was about. It’s a bread store. If you’re really into baking you might find it exciting, but I thought it was just a lot of overpriced baking goods.
The only place we’ve tried there was an Asian place called Angkor Wat. It was weird. I wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re over in Quechee, there’s a place called Simon Pearce right on the village green that’s supposed to be the fanciest place around. We haven’t been there yet, but we’re going to try it next time we have something to celebrate - it’s a bit pricey for us poor grad student types. Apparently the draw (apart from the food, which has been highly recommended to us) is that you can watch glassblowers while you eat, and your tableware was made right there.
Yeah, most of the famous tourist attractions in the Berkshires are in the southern part of Berkshire County (Tanglewood, the Norman Rockwell museum, the towns of Great Barrington and Stockbridge, the Mount, etc.)
How much driving do you want to do? It would take around an hour to get from North Adams to Great Barrington.
Great Barrington is a nice New England town, good for shopping, but if you really want quaint New England, check out Shelburne Falls. Shelburne Falls is just off of Route 2 and would be on your way to North Adams. It has some cute galleries and shops, the Glacial Potholes, and the Bridge of Flowers.
Speaking of hikes, Monument Mountain in Great Barrington is a must-hike destination. The view from the summit is amazing, and the place has some historical significance too. Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne hiked up the mountain and got caught in a storm. While waiting out the storm, they had a conversation that inspired Moby Dick and they became friends. Oliver Wendell Holmes might have been with them too, I’m not sure.
A hike up Monument Mountain isn’t too hard. It’s definitely not a stroll in the woods–you should at least be in basic shape–but not as challenging as Monadnock would be! It would probably be an intermediate-level hike, if you’re up for that sort of thing.
Shelburne Falls is off the beaten track, and has lots of great unusual attractions - the bridge of flowers and glacial potholes first come to mind, and I recall a nice little bookstore at the end of the bridge of flowers. There’s a wonderful glassblowing shop right near the potholes too, a little less upscale than Simon Pearce.
Ask a local for directions to the trail to the fire tower. A nice, not too strenuous hike leads to a stone fire tower with AMAZING views of the valley.
I second Mt. Ascutney. If you drive up to the top parking lot, you are about two-thirds up the mountain and can easily walk to the summit, or even better, to the hang glide platform - awesome spectacle. The State Park road is off Rt. 44A.
There are at least three trails that you can take all the way from the bottom, but that would be at least 5-6 hours up and back.