New England Road Trip - Oct 2016

[Beaker's Fluff]

Hi Gemma.
I have not seen you on here for ages and have been thinking about you. I was wondering how your Mum is doing too?
Your trip sounds amazing and has taken some planning.
We are off to Toronto the day after you go, we are enjoying the countdown as it seems to be moving along nicely.
Looking forward to reading more of your plans.

[gtyrel10]

Originally Posted by tocpe321

We stayed in the Hampton Inn.

It was very nice actually.

Bennington is a really nice area.

We did the Battle Monument, the First Congregational Church, Museum and Apple Barn and Country Bake Shop.

We didnt do a railway there.

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Hi

Thanks for getting back to me. You are right the Hampton Inn looked super nice inside it was more just because from the pictures it seemed to be right on the edge of a motorway which wasn't what we were looking for. Although the pictures could have been misleading and its maybe more rural than we thought. it was just for the £170 it seemed like a lot to be far out.

Bennington centre did look really cute like the little towns from Beetlejuice.

Oh fantastic thank you, I'm currently working through every day to see what we will do each day. And i'm nearly at North Conway so that is a massive help.

Thanks again xx

[tocpe321]

Originally Posted by gtyrel10

Hi

Thanks for getting back to me. You are right the Hampton Inn looked super nice inside it was more just because from the pictures it seemed to be right on the edge of a motorway which wasn't what we were looking for. Although the pictures could have been misleading and its maybe more rural than we thought. it was just for the £170 it seemed like a lot to be far out.

Bennington centre did look really cute like the little towns from Beetlejuice.

Oh fantastic thank you, I'm currently working through every day to see what we will do each day. And i'm nearly at North Conway so that is a massive help.

Thanks again xx

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Enjoy

[gtyrel10]

Originally Posted by Beaker's Fluff

Hi Gemma.
I have not seen you on here for ages and have been thinking about you. I was wondering how your Mum is doing too?
Your trip sounds amazing and has taken some planning.
We are off to Toronto the day after you go, we are enjoying the countdown as it seems to be moving along nicely.
Looking forward to reading more of your plans.

See more...

Hi

Thanks for finding me, i've been absent for a while as work has been so busy and with no Disney trips i wasn't sure what to do. But i've missed all the chat and holiday planning so i'm back!

My mum is doing great, i recently did the Moonwalk with a group of my friends and she made us all matching tutus and decorated bras for it.

Oh Toronto, i am really wanting to go to Canada so that would be fab, are you doing a trippy? xx

[Beaker's Fluff]

Originally Posted by gtyrel10

Hi

Thanks for finding me, i've been absent for a while as work has been so busy and with no Disney trips i wasn't sure what to do. But i've missed all the chat and holiday planning so i'm back!

My mum is doing great, i recently did the Moonwalk with a group of my friends and she made us all matching tutus and decorated bras for it.

Oh Toronto, i am really wanting to go to Canada so that would be fab, are you doing a trippy? xx

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Great to hear she is doing well Gemma.
I am always tempted with a trippie, I may just do a little live thingy.
We will have to see.x

[gtyrel10]

Originally Posted by Beaker's Fluff

Great to hear she is doing well Gemma.
I am always tempted with a trippie, I may just do a little live thingy.
We will have to see.x

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Yea the photo trip reports are fab and so much less writing, i probably should have went with that but as you are about to see i clearly love to waffle to much! xx

[gtyrel10]

Hi Everyone,

Ok so I left you all with introductions and my rather long winded plan. Now its time for the details of each of our spots, this is where I am so hoping for help because I’m pretty much winging it!

So lets get into it! Apologies in advance for the lack of photos in this update!

19/10-22/10: Boston, MA

Day 1: We arrive into the airport at around 1:30 so I’m hoping we will be at our hotel around 2/2:30. I need to look into shuttles or taxi to take us to our hotel that’s on the to do list. Although while reading GopherLass trip report she mentioned being able to get the airport shuttle direct to Back Bay and Copley Square is right next to our hotel so this might be the winner!

The plan will be to head out and maybe start having a look about for Boston I basically have a massive list of things I want to see but on our arrival day I’m hoping to tick off the things near out hotel:
Trinity Church
Boston Public Library
Wang Theatre
Boston Public Garden – To Ride in the Swan Boats and see the ducklings (another tip from GopherLass trip report)
Cheers Bar





This might be way too much but I’m hoping going straight out in the fresh air will keep us awake and we can grab a meal on the way. The first 2 are all within a 10-minute walk of our hotel so we will definitely be doing them at the very least. I will do a separate post dedicated to where we will be eating so any food fans don’t fret!

Day 2: Plan of today is up early and breakfast somewhere local (I have a few ideas) then head off to follow The Freedom Trail first thing. This covers off a huge list of tourist sites and it looks really exciting so I cant wait to do that I think there is 10 main attractions on the walking tour so that will be amazing and its really up to us how long it will take as it will all depend on how long it takes us to walk it and look around.

Depending on how long this takes I would ideally like us to then head over to Harvard and have a proper look round there and if time allows get into their Natural History Museum. We may do the tour but from what I’ve read online the Tour app seems to be just as good and really it’s more about visiting it than anything else! It would then be back to the hotel (ideally via Fenway Park) and hopefully out for somewhere nice for dinner.





Day 3: Today I want to get to the JFK Presidential Library this looks huge and I think its going to be a good few hours (hence the very jam packed days 1 and 2) but I love history and to be right there at his official library I have to go! After the library the plan would be to pick up anything we had missed like Fenway Park or even Harvard. Then hopefully a nice dinner our before heading to bed for our early Road Trip start tomorrow.



22/10: Today we will pick up our rental car after a quick breakfast and head out of Boston, now this is where the plan becomes a bit more casual. Yes ladies and gents you heard me right I’m not sticking hard core to a plan (for this day) so I would like us to head to Northampton maybe get brunch and just have a wander about. It’s approximately 1hour 40minutes from Boston.



After having a look about Northampton we will travel to the Hancock Shaker Village, this is 1hour 12mins away from Northampton it has a museum and the overall village you can see. It closes at 4:30pm so we will probably just have a few hours here if we did indeed stop in Northampton. However, the option is there to not do here or Northampton and we think this might be a decide on the day thing.



Either way we will then head to the Big Y Supermarket in Pittsfield which is only 10 minutes from the shaker village to get some breakfast things, water, juice etc as the next few days we wont really be near any supermarkets. I’ve never heard of Big Y before but if worse comes to worse there’s also a Walmart nearby (which I love!). It will then be a 20 minute drive to our hotel at the Vacation Village Berkshires. This hotel has an amazing pool so we are thinking about spending an hour or so relaxing here before heading out for dinner and then an early night ahead of tomorrow’s next big road trip day.

23/10: So we will be up bright and early today and heading off to Hildene and the Lincoln Family home I am super excited about this place. Our hotel doesn’t have breakfast so it will be a bit of a drive to get breakfast then straight to Hildene. It is 1hr 15mins to Hildene direct but a wee pit stop on the way will probably make this journey time closer to 2 hours.



After Hildene there will be another stop for lunch before heading to Hanover via the Cornish-Windsor covered bridge (I believe this part of the journey is about 1hour 45mins). The original plan was actually visting Cornish but turns out there isn’t much there so now its just a chance to go through the bridge.



Once in Hanover the big thing to do will be to visit Dartmouth College (this may be my only chance of getting to an Ivy League college!). Its just all very picture perfect so will be nice to have a stroll about and see the place and then see the main town. Our hotel for the night is outside near the motorway so we only really intend to head here once we have seen all of Hanover and eaten dinner.




24/10: This morning sees us leave Hanover for the next leg of our road trip. Luckily this hotel provides breakfast, in case you are all wondering why I keep mentioning food its just that Maurice is a total nightmare if he’s not fed and basically without breakfast he isn’t going anywhere in the morning! We will be driving straight from our hotel to St Johnsbury this is again another 1hr 15mins, I’ve tried to keep all the driving segments to under 2 hours each to really break it up for Maurice.

In St Johnsbury the big thing there seems to be the Dog Chapel and I’ve never heard of it so would seem ridiculous to miss it out. There is also the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium and the Athenaeum, but overall I just want to enjoy being in this cute little town and getting a lunch somewhere local.



After we have really explored St Johnsbury we will be heading to our next hotel stop at the start of the White Mountains this should only be about a 45minute drive away. The hotel looks fabulous with some amazing views, so I cant wait to get in here. So I had great plans about doing the aerial tram to get amazing views of the classic New England Fall scenery only to discover it stops running the week before we arrive (doh), so it was back to the drawing board.

What I have found though is the Mt Washington Auto road, where you can either drive yourself up or go on a guided tour to the top of the Mountain. This seems perfect for Maurice (he likes mountains) and for me(I don’t like walking up them) so I’m hoping to fit this in also, if we can’t then this may be a next day activity. The hotel has a fab restaurant with amazing views so this might be a dinner option but I think more likely will be heading out somewhere local.



25/10: Today we leave our beautiful White Mountains resort and head down to the Franconia Notch State Park its about a 30 minute drive to here from our hotel. This will hopefully have some beautiful views and will set us up nicely before begin our drive along the Kancamangus Highway hopefully stopping off at some of the key stops, from the websites I have found I think we may be going in the opposite direction from recommended but we will still see loads.




We are heading to North Conway for our stay in the Grand Hotel although I really want to see some local sights I’m also set on getting a good trip round the outlet mall. Main stops being Banana Republic, Walgrees, Yankee, Zales (to get a diamond earring fixed that I got for my 30th) and Stonewall Kitchen. I also really want to head into the little town and see the train station, we wont be doing the train ride as I read very mixed reviews but the station itself is adorable.



I’m really hoping for today to be a bit more laid back and dinner will probably be a casual something in the outlet mall affair.

26/10: Well today we leave North Conway and head to a new state Maine, specifically Portland this should be about 1hr 30mins and pretty much the plan will be to head straight to the hotel park the car and then head out exploring on foot. Not even sure exactly what we will be seeing here all I can think about is Lobster Rolls!

27/10: Time for us to leave Portland and head back to Massachusetts but this time Salem, Hocus Pocus was one of my most favorite movies so I am excited about here, and just like Portland we will basically be parking up where we can then heading out on foot. This will be the biggest drive of the whole trip at over 3hrs. Ultimately a stop will probably happen at Portsmouth but overall we really intend to be in Salem for the start of the day to get the most out of our time there.

All the main things we will cover off like the House of the Seven Gables, the Salem Witch trials memorial, burying point, Witch House, and the Witch Museum. I think in the grave yard the house that was used in Hocus Pocus is there so we will make sure we make a stop for that. There is so much to see in Salem and ideally we would have stayed here but I just couldn’t find any hotels so this is why its now an early morning arrival.




Near the end of the day we will then travel on for the final leg of our tour to Providence this is only 1hr 24mins so pretty short in comparison to the early part of the trip.

28/10: Then that is us, we will have some time in the morning to explore a bit of Providence ideally we would like to see Brown University and State House so its very much a whistle stop tour of Providence but it felt like while we were there in New England we should make as much effort as possible to get to so many places. Before heading in the car for the last part of our road trip to Logan Intl Airport for our flight home.



This final drive is about an hour so not bad and with a late flight we should have plenty of time. Our trip to Orlando had a late home flight and we had meant to go out but with so much packing todo it wasn’t possible. At least this way we wont have any major packing, as it will have been so much moving anyway.

So that is it guys a pretty much full breakdown of our whole trip. I realise I’ve totally waffled on but this has really helped me get organized and planned a bit more. Also I know its been a bit word heavy but had to be done to help me get my head in order for what we are doing.

What’s next,

Next up I will be pulling together a list of breakfast, lunch and dinner stops for each of our road trip stops and adding in any top tips or advice from you guys! Please throw them at me!

Also Kirsty and I had our first Disney planning night so I think we finally have plenty to go on to start typing up our February RunDisney pre trippy!

Thanks for reading along,
Gemma xx

[tocpe321]

Hi Gemma

Looks like a well-structured plan. You do a lot of different towns etc from where we went.

Sorry I got my wires crossed with Bennington in Vermont and North Conway. Think its because we stayed in Hampton Inns in both.

In Boston we stayed at the Colonnade which was a really nice hotel and we had a good view of the central part of Boston. It was opposite the Prudential Centre which contains the Cheesecake Factory. Think we ate meals in there twice and 1 night went in for just the cheesecake. We did the Duck Tour which was great fun for all as well as interesting. Also did the Aquarium and Museum of Science. We have kids so that may be why the last 2 were good for us.
Food wise we went to Regina's for Pizza. Famous landmark. Nice pizza and atmosphere. Our pizza was a little burnt.
For breakfast we enjoyed Thornton's Restaurant near the Colonnade.
One night we went to the Yankee Lobster. Its a bit out of the way. We went by taxi and came back by public transport. Its a fairly basic looking cafe but they do nice chowder and fried shellfish etc.

From North Conway we did the Kancamagus Highway and the Mount Washington Cog Railway. Appreciate you are driving there. The views are good with a few thing to see and buy up there.
We enjoyed eating at the Lobster Trap in North Conway. 3 guesses what I had to eat.


If we did New England again I would like to revisit Boston, Cape Cod, Bar Harbor and Bennington.
North Conway was nice but probably wouldn't go back.

We went in August so no leaf peeping!

Enjoy planning.

[gtyrel10]

Originally Posted by tocpe321

Hi Gemma

Looks like a well-structured plan. You do a lot of different towns etc from where we went.

Sorry I got my wires crossed with Bennington in Vermont and North Conway. Think its because we stayed in Hampton Inns in both.

In Boston we stayed at the Colonnade which was a really nice hotel and we had a good view of the central part of Boston. It was opposite the Prudential Centre which contains the Cheesecake Factory. Think we ate meals in there twice and 1 night went in for just the cheesecake. We did the Duck Tour which was great fun for all as well as interesting. Also did the Aquarium and Museum of Science. We have kids so that may be why the last 2 were good for us.
Food wise we went to Regina's for Pizza. Famous landmark. Nice pizza and atmosphere. Our pizza was a little burnt.
For breakfast we enjoyed Thornton's Restaurant near the Colonnade.
One night we went to the Yankee Lobster. Its a bit out of the way. We went by taxi and came back by public transport. Its a fairly basic looking cafe but they do nice chowder and fried shellfish etc.

From North Conway we did the Kancamagus Highway and the Mount Washington Cog Railway. Appreciate you are driving there. The views are good with a few thing to see and buy up there.
We enjoyed eating at the Lobster Trap in North Conway. 3 guesses what I had to eat.


If we did New England again I would like to revisit Boston, Cape Cod, Bar Harbor and Bennington.
North Conway was nice but probably wouldn't go back.

We went in August so no leaf peeping!

Enjoy planning.

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Oh that all sounds amazing!

Actually i was looking at the Cog Railway the other day and it sounds really good, i'm wondering if it would be better to do that than drive up? The drive looks pretty scary, does it take a long time?

Thanks for reading all my plans x

[tocpe321]

Originally Posted by gtyrel10

Oh that all sounds amazing!

Actually i was looking at the Cog Railway the other day and it sounds really good, i'm wondering if it would be better to do that than drive up? The drive looks pretty scary, does it take a long time?

Thanks for reading all my plans x

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No problem

Cant remember but think maybe 45 mins each way