New England Road Trip - Sept 2017!

[Lolly90]

Hi Everyone!

I may be a bit early with this pre-trip report but after missing out on a US trip last year, I'm super excited for this one

After an incredible trip to California & Las Vegas in 2015, we spent last year saving for our first home, which we moved in to in December. Luckily we managed to sneak in a couple of city breaks, to Rome & Berlin. We also recently got engaged last month

We spent a while deciding where we wanted to go this year but finally chose New England. We were excited about doing another road trip and we've wanted to visit Boston for a while.

This will be our 4th visit to the USA together and our 2nd road trip!

Who's Going -

Me - Laura
Fiance - Mark

When We're Going -

16 Nights, from 1st September to 17th September

After keeping an eye on flight prices from when they were released, we finally booked our flights in January.

We have return direct flights from Heathrow to Boston with Delta, which cost £415 each through ebookers.

I was really happy with this price, after paying over £600 each for all our other flights to the US.

Where We're Going -

We'll be flying into Boston, where we'll be staying for 3 nights before picking up our hire car.

From here we'll be heading up the Maine Coast, stopping in Portland for 1 night before ending in Bar Harbor for 3 nights, to explore Acadia National Park.

Next we'll be heading across into New Hampshire, basing ourselves in North Conway for 3 nights, for the White Mountains.

Our next stop will be Manchester, Vermont for 1 night followed by Great Barrington, Massachusetts for 1 night.

From here we'll be heading to Newport, Rhode Island for 1 night.

Our final stop is Cape Cod. We'll be staying in Chatham for 3 nights before heading back to Boston for our flight home.

I'll be doing updates as I go along, with the hotels we've chosen and what we have planned.

Thanks for reading!

Updates:

Where We're Staying - Part 1 - Part 2

What We've Got Planned - Days 1 to 4 - Days 5 to 8 - Days 9 to 13 - Days 14 to 17

[Pussycat Doll]

Sounds brilliant! We did a road trip to New England with the in laws a few years ago, it looks like we followed a similar route to yours. We're off again in May, less travelling this time but we have 6 days in Chatham! Whereabouts are you staying? Pussycat

[tocpe321]

We did New England a couple of years ago and it was excellent. We did NY first before heading up to Cape Cod - West Yarmouth. We then did a few days in Boston which was really good. After this we went to Bar Harbor before heading over to North Conway. Finally we did a few nights in Bennington Vermont.

We would like to go back to New England. Would probably go for Boston, Cape Cod, Bar Harbor and Vermont again.

Pussycat Doll we went to Chatham. Really enjoyed it here even with a day of rain. Nice area to walk around. We visited the Duck Shop and a nice bookshop.

Happy planning both.

[Lolly90]

Where We're Staying -

London Heathrow

Premier Inn Bath Road - 1 night

We've booked the Premier Inn Bath Road again for the night before we fly, which is my favourite way to start a holiday. Our flight is just before 10am, so we don't want to be rushing round in the morning and risk getting stuck in traffic.

We've paid £31.50 for the night, which I was pretty happy with.

Boston

The Westin Copley Place - 3 nights

One thing we've found is that hotels in New England are quite expensive, especially in Boston. The Westin is in Back Bay, not far from the Prudential Center, which has lots of shops and restaurants including a Cheesecake Factory!

I thought we managed to get a good deal with this one, compared to other hotels in the area, paying £448 through Lastminute.com with £49 cashback.

Portland

Residence Inn by Marriott - 1 night

We found there wasn't much choice for hotels within our budget in Portland but this one has good reviews and is Downtown, which is where we wanted to stay.

We paid £150 again through Lastminute.com with £16 cashback. We will have to pay parking here though, which is $18 but it does include breakfast.

Bar Harbor

Best Western Acadia Park Inn - 3 nights

This hotel isn't right in the centre of Bar Harbor unfortunately, so a short drive from the national park entrance but it has great reviews and free parking & breakfast.

This cost £350 through ebookers, which I like to book through as often as possible as you get Bonus+, which equals money off hotels

It's also free cancellation, so I'll be keeping an eye on this one incase the price goes down.

This is all we have booked so far but I'm keen to get the other hotels booked up ASAP before prices change. We will be staying in 8 different hotels on this trip, so I need to be organised. I'm sure I'll be back with an update very soon!

Thanks for reading!

[Lolly90]

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Sounds brilliant! We did a road trip to New England with the in laws a few years ago, it looks like we followed a similar route to yours. We're off again in May, less travelling this time but we have 6 days in Chatham! Whereabouts are you staying? Pussycat

See more...

Thank you for reading. 6 days in Chatham sounds great! We haven't booked anything yet but currently looking at The Chatham Motel. Do you have any recommendations?

Originally Posted by tocpe321

We did New England a couple of years ago and it was excellent. We did NY first before heading up to Cape Cod - West Yarmouth. We then did a few days in Boston which was really good. After this we went to Bar Harbor before heading over to North Conway. Finally we did a few nights in Bennington Vermont.

We would like to go back to New England. Would probably go for Boston, Cape Cod, Bar Harbor and Vermont again.

Pussycat Doll we went to Chatham. Really enjoyed it here even with a day of rain. Nice area to walk around. We visited the Duck Shop and a nice bookshop.

Happy planning both.

See more...

Thanks for reading. Sounds like you had a great trip. We looked at Bennington but it was just a little too out the way for us as we're already travelling so much. Glad to hear that you enjoyed Chatham

[phoebe23]

We stayed 5 nights on Cape Cod in a tiny cottage - lovely Michaels Cottages in Brewster. Took ferry over to Martha's Vineyard for the day - fab!

[1972]

I will be following your thread.

We have just booked flights to New York and going to be doing a New England Road Trip, so will be interested in where you will be staying.

Happy planning!

[16offtodisney!]

Ohh , will be following this, i am hoping to go in a few years x

[fa$$a]

Just subscribed 👍🏻 We will be visiting next September so I'm really intrigued in your trip, it sounds amazing. Can't wait to hear more.
Claire

[Lolly90]

Where We're Staying -

North Conway

Fox Ridge Resort - 3 Nights

We decided on North Conway as our base for the White Mountains as there's lots of choice for hotels & restaurants. This hotel is just off the main highway and within walking distance of quite a few restaurants, which is always great so we can both have a cocktail or two

We paid £248, which includes breakfast and free parking but there is a resort fee of $30 to pay

Manchester

The Manchester View - 1 Night

We'll be making a quick stop in Vermont, to see a snippet of the Green Mountains and a drive down Route 100. This hotel has really great reviews and as the name suggests, great views

The cost for the night was £93.

Great Barrington

Days Inn Great Barrington - 1 Night

Another short stay, this time in The Berkshires. Just a basic motel for the night but I'm sure it will do the job.

Price was just £89 and includes breakfast!

Newport

Newport Bay Club & Hotel - 1 Night

I'd originally looked at booking The Newport Harbor Hotel but then the price suddenly shot up. This is another place where prices are pretty high. In the end we went with the Newport Bay Club, mainly for the location.

We paid £135 for the night here.

Chatham

The Chatham Motel 3 Nights

The final stop is Cape Cod, where we'll be based in Chatham. Although this hotel isn't fancy the reviews are really good and as there is so much to see in the area we won't be in it much anyway.

The cost was £325, which I didn't think was too bad at all for the location.

So, that's all 8 of our hotels booked up

The next update will be some of the things we've booked to do whilst we are there and all of our other plans. It's going to be a very busy trip