deniseincarmel

Hi everyone,

I have 10 days starting next Friday in which to take a vacation and thought New England would be a nice place to go. We have relatives in Connecticut, New Canaan area. Can anyone recommend any good places to stay or sights to see? We would prefer nice but not too pricy for the hotel accomodations. We also love Bed and Breakfasts.

We will be driving. Any ideas would be soooo appreciated.

Oh, we'll drive through Ohio, Pennsylvania, NY, etc.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

Scouse Express

Q: How many days do you intend on staying with/close to the Relatives?

Otherwise, Vermont, Massachusettes and Maine are full of wonderful places to visit. I'll provide some ideas, once you dish out some more info.

Meanwhile, if you haven't seen it already, you could visit Niagara Falls on your way up or back from New England.

Jim.

deniseincarmel

Well, we thought we'd maybe try to visit Amish Country on the way up in PA and then maybe stay a night in upstate NY or CT. We're open to suggestions in places that aren't too far for a day trip from New Canaan :-)

krizzy

Unless you really want to see it ...don't come to Cape Cod in the summer...its a nightmare out there right now till Sept...if you do then there are a lot of rip off places to stay so be careful...

deniseincarmel

Thanks, Krizzy! No, we're 'fraid of Cape Cod during the summer, too :-)

We're more looking for away from the beaten path--places not well known about.

NC Penguin

Why don't you ask the relies in CT for suggestions?

Bob

I just saw New Canaan and thought poor you, but then it's the one in CT and not ME, that one, that really is the village of the damned meets deliverance

But now that I've put you off Maine. Bar Harbor is good on the coast, plenty of fun things like whale watches, mountains, lakes etc, cheap food and B&B's, and it'll still be fairly quiet till the end of the months as some of the schools haven't broken yet because of snow days. The whole coastal connector, Route 1/1a is a lovely scenic drive up through maine, which is a couple of hours north of Portland, which is a fun city to explore tool...and that's not that far from CT.

I-95 North up from CT, get off at the Portland mall road exit and cut through the mall and get on to I-295 (It's the next exit past I-295), it'll save you a toll and during the day is much quicker. Then you've got a couple of options, bang a right at Brunswick/Bath and go up Route 1 which puts you through the lovely towns of Rockland, Camden and Belfast...great places to eat through there, especially cheap lobster in Belfast at the lobster shack. The other option is keep up I-295 and exit at Augusta for Rt 202...Augusta is the capital, and apart from the Beale St bbq place, is a crapper. That'll throw you out at Belfast and you'll go past some lovely lakes instead of the coast.

It's quicker from Belfast to go over the bridge to Bucksport, to Ellesworth and Bar Harbor, but you'll find some fun towns going north to Bangor, and then heading right to Brewer and then south towards Ellesworth.

Anyway, plenty of islands out there that have fun and cheap things to do, and Arcadia National park is superb, and I think free before July, and well worth it to see the morning view from Cadillac Mountain, one of the earliest views of the sun rise in the US, but it's cold up there even in summer.

deniseincarmel

Wow! What great suggestions, Bob. Thanks! Will definitely look into those.

Patrick Hasler

Lake George NY is the most beautiful lake on earth .............. and just a few miles away from the most beautiful bloke on earth ....... Me of course.

As for CT .... I sugest Mystic sea port and a stay at The Old Whalers Inn. You will need a couple of days there .......... very historic and old world place, Tall ships etc.

I could also recomand Lake Placid but thats just a few miles away from the ugliest bloke on earth :-)

Rete

Easy drive and a lovely places to visit would be in and around the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. Visit Lenox, Massachusetts and Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony <sp>, Stockbridge, the home of Norman Rockwell. You can stroll the lovely streets, have lunch at the Red Lion Inn and visit the NR museum.

P.S. Lake George is lovely. Of course, it would have to be. Its where my hubby and I were married 9 years ago.

deniseincarmel

Awesome, Rete! I am checking into now...thx so much!!!

krizzy

I like the look of Conway NH...I'm into stream trains..and the trip 5 hours long looks lovely...they also have a fun themed hotel there...

deniseincarmel

Patrick, Lake George looks lovely. Thanks for the suggestion. That might work as well. Krizzy, it's not looking like NH this time around, but maybe on the next trip. Thanks for the suggestion, though. I'll put it in the file :-)

Englishmum

Ha ha......we're going up to Cape Cod for a couple of days for the 4th of July (our wedding anniversary).

Which are the worst of the rip-off places so we know to avoid them?

Celsius

Round one to PH.