Summer Route & Stops Through New England - Suggestions?

Hey now, I thought I was the only crazy one cuz I haul 2 trailers (doubles) every night on the NYS T-way!!

OK. You're crazy.

(Not because of your post, but just because you said so.)

:B

Crowe wrote:
Call me crazy

OK. You're crazy.

(Not because of your post, but just because you said so.)

Avoid Bar Harbor and Portland on dates when large cruise ships are docked. They unload thousands of passengers that overwhelm the otherwise lovely towns. The ship schedules are available online.

Call me crazy but I love Bar Harbor when it's nuts! Yes, parking is at a premium but you can take the shuttle that runs from the campgrounds. Eat further out or at your campsite to avoid the crowds in restaurants. Take a sail or a whale watch out of Bar Harbor. Explore little towns like Blue Hill. Check out some of the fairs that will be going on. The National Forest along the Kancamagus Hwy offers some excellent hiking. Enjoy strolling through Kennebunkport, ME, Portsmouth, NH, Rockport, Newburyport and Gloucester, MA. No matter what area you go to it will be crowded as you will be here during peak season.

If you take the Southern Tier Expressway (I-81 & 88 - no tolls) plan to stop at the Corning Glass museum.

Matt

mkc wrote:
Avoid Bar Harbor and Portland on dates when large cruise ships are docked. They unload thousands of passengers that overwhelm the otherwise lovely towns. The ship schedules are available online.

Sadly, in Bar Harbor there's a cruise ship in port almost every day from May to October. But the rest of the scenic Island is still there, so if you are interested in more than shopping and crowded sidewalks, not to mention difficult parking, then tour the Loop road and the quiet side. Enjoy your lobster at the out of the way lobster shacks, not the big in-town tourist restaurants.

While traveling through NY, consider a stop at Letchworth State Park as its a beautiful area on the Genesee River gorge. Years ago, we stayed at a KOA near Plymouth, MA and from there it was easy to take the train into Boston or drive out to Cape Cod. Obviously, there is a bunch of stuff to do in Boston. At least walk part of the Freedom Trail and see the historic sites. The aquarium is also one of the best.

Stop at Freeport Maine

For the Adirondacks (and New York state in general), a very handy resource for public campgrounds is the campadk campsite photo database. I tend to consider the Adirondacks an honorary part of New England, for what it's worth. :C

In Vermont, the state park campgrounds all lack any hookups but offer (with maybe one or two minor exceptions) a dump station/water fill station. Many of the campgrounds date from the CCC days, and so tend to have small sites well-separated by vegetation and such. Larger RVs often only fit in a handful of sites.

Mt Ascutney offers some nice hiking (both relatively strenuous if you hike up and down the mountain, or more sedate if you drive up and merely hike around the summit) and impressive views. The half dozen or so state parks in and around Groton State Forest interconnect with a network of trails that offer good hiking, and hiking that isn't just up or down a mountain. There's a neat little stone shelter on Owl's Head there. Little River state park also has some hiking trails among the ruins of a former settlement (mostly cellar holes). There are other Vermont parks with good hiking and historical points, but those are ones that I've personally been to and enjoyed.

St Johnsbury is an interesting city to spend a little bit of time in; the Fairbanks Museum is a neat old natural history museum, with some other quite eclectic items, and in some ways also a bit of a "museum museum" in that it hasn't changed a whole lot in many years and so shows something of what museums used to look like. The Athenaeum (public library) has a very good little fine art gallery, too.

In New Hampshire, the White Mountains have lots and lots of things to enjoy and places to see. I'd suggest at the least a leisurely drive over the Kancamagus Highway, which has stops for various overlooks and hikes ranging from brief walks to quite decent treks.

Boston, of course, has a long list of historically important sites, but limited parking in the city and even more limited camping.

Avoid Bar Harbor and Portland on dates when large cruise ships are docked. They unload thousands of passengers that overwhelm the otherwise lovely towns. The ship schedules are available online.