Seeking 2 weeks Vermont, NH, Maine must do ideas

Acadia is beautiful, but a 7 and 9 year old may run out of interest after a day or two. Every little Maine coastal town, including Bar Harbor has its charm and interesting sights.

For mainland Acadia, parking is a mess and getting there early is very important. I'd recommend getting to the visitor center before 8 and riding the (free) bus for most of the attractions one day, then doing Cadillac another morning. You can only get to the summit of Cadillac by private vehicle (includes private tour buses) or a pretty vigorous hike, and the lot fills quickly. If you like to hike, do it. I still have my sense of superiority from us old farts hiking to the top and watching the tour buses unloading their passengers up there ;-)

The Kancamagus Highway from Conway to Lincoln, NH is worth a drive, even without the incredible fall colors. Several cool waterfalls right on the road or short hikes. Conway and Lincoln are both reasonable drives to the cog railway, which is pretty interesting. Reservations are a good idea for that.

The Lakes Region of New Hampshire is beautiful. Squam Lake is where "On Golden Pond" was filmed. Castle in the Clouds is a bit of an oddball place that is interesting.

Ben&Jerry's is a neat stop.

Vermont Country Stores in Weston and Rockingham, VT might be an interesting half-hour break if you are in the area already. Wouldn't drive far to see them.

IMO, Salem is just a tourist trap. The Boston area has more real history. Lexington and Concord, The USS Constitution, The North Church etc.. Stay well out of Boston and use public transit to get into town. Cape Cod is "nice", but not amazing. Traffic can be bad on Friday and Sunday evening. Fact is I'd plan to not travel near the coast on Friday or Sunday afternoon/evening just because of the mass of people heading out of Boston to get away for the weekend.

Newport, Rhode Island is a very nice day. On an island (with bridges) so it stays pretty cool. Several incredible mansions that will blow you away.

If you want to go further west, upstate New York is a great place. Watkins Glen, Corning and the Finger Lakes region are nice places. Waterfalls, the Corning Glass museum and many other pretty places.

If you want to go even further west, Niagara Falls would be a must-see, but Letchworth state park will be more popular with the kids and is probably prettier but not quite as awe inspiring as Niagara.

You'll run out of time before you run out of things to see.

Plan your route on paper. Your GPS will probably push you very close to New York City, and the tolls and traffic there are tough. Better to drive a little further and stay west of that mess.

Speaking of tolls, an EZPass would be a good investment if you plan to be on any of the toll roads. Mass Turnpike and New York Throughway in particular. It's not just not needing money. In some of those places you'll have to exit to a toll booth to pay, then get back on. EZPass is a big time saver.

Acadia is all about bicycling and hiking - and driving up to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see the sunrise (first spot on the continental USA to get hit by sun in the morning). Definitely can spend a week there (that is what we've done with older teenagers who are outdoorsy) if that is what you want to do, but... are your girls going to want to do that for 5 days? You might want to think like 3 days - one day for hiking, one day for bicycling and Jordan Pond House for lunch, one day for Cadillac Mountain sunrise and a couple other spots.

In Connecticut, if you can, check out Gillette Castle. Mystic Seaport is good. I wouldn't make an effort to see Mystic Aquarium - it has been years since I've been there, but I thought it was pretty ho-hum.

Definitely stop in Freeport Maine. It's a nice town and you can overnight in their parking lot.

These are somewhat in order of decreasing levels of recommendation.

The cog railway up Mt Washington (or the auto road, but I'd prefer the railway myself) is a good option too. Be prepared for chilly and windy conditions at the top...sometimes very, very windy.

The Shelburne Museum is worth a (full) day. The collection is large and very eclectic, including impressionist and american art, a steamboat, historic buildings and interiors, duck decoys, a carousel, hat boxes, and a whole lot more. This is not far at all from the Vermont Teddy Bear factory. Also not too far away is Mt Philo state park, which has a carriage road and pretty easy hiking trails to the top with very nice views over Lake Champlain. (You really do not want to attempt to take your RV on the carriage road!) Also somewhat in the vicinity is the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, which I haven't seen myself but I understand is a decent museum, though no Mystic Seaport.

If you like hiking, there are heaps of options throughout northern New England, ranging from easy to quite challenging.

The Fairbanks Museum in St Johnsbury, VT is a fun little natural history (mostly) museum, and sort of a museum that time forgot. Some of the taxidermy specimens are usually popular with kids, as are the pictures made from insects.

Canobie Lake Park in Salem, NH is a fine medium-sized traditional amusement park.

The Montshire Museum a little north of White River Junction is a decent science museum geared towards children. (The name comes from verMONT and new hampSHIRE.) It's not really much different from many other fine little museums scattered around the country, so I would skip it before some other things.

If you're interested in tools, there are a couple of museums in Vermont that are good stops. The American Precision Museum in Windsor has a lot of machine tools. Kitty-corner across the state, there's the (free, but only open on Saturdays) Arnold Zlotoff Tool Museum at the Apple Island Resort in South Hero, which has an impressive collection of antique hand tools.

Here are four places which we visited,, and I would recommend for anyone in the area. We spent several days in Maine, due to a minor breakdown which kept us in Bangor for several days. Went to a campground out on the Island and spent several more days. So, I would say at least four or five days in Arcadia. Then go see all of these Especially Eartha!

Sights to see in Maine.

On the way up I would stop at the Mystic Seaport Museum.You can see and tour the The Charles W. Morgan the last of an American whaling fleet. They also have a traditionally built Viking long boat.
https://www.mysticseaport.org/
I spent some time in The North East this summer. Went all the way to East Port.
You should also stop in Freeport.
https://www.visitfreeport.com/visit/shop/
The kids might like the tour at Ben & Jerry's. Check out the "Graveyard of failed flavors"
https://www.benjerry.com/waterbury
Bill

Acadia depends on how much you want to hike and what else you want to do. You can technically "see" the park in a day, but if you want to "enjoy" it I'd base the rest on what you might what to do in the park, such as biking, hiking, playing at Sand Beach, taking a carriage or horse back ride, etc. You will also want to spend time in Bar Harbor just puttering around. Take a sail or whale watch out into Frenchman Bay. If the girls like shopping stops in Kittery and/or Freeport are a must. You can spend quite a bit of time in either. For an anomaly visit the Desert of Maine, which is right outside Freeport. In NH you can go up to the White Mountains. The Flume Gorge is an interesting site and there are a bunch of small amusement type parks. Clark's Trading Post with the trained bears is a must. However, keep in mind it's 250 miles between there and Bar Harbor. Vermont has the Quechee Gorge and with girls that age the Vermont Teddy Bear factor in Shelburne. It's hard to remember all that's available and pick favorites.

Lake Dunmore Kampersville was always my kids favorite in Vermont. Lots of daily activities for the kids and for adults

With the popularity of the witch, vampire, werewolf shows as of late, Stop on the way up in Salem Ma. They can see where the witch trials and events happened. It's not far off 95.

Moosehead lake region in Me, Lake Winnepausaukee in NH are all great ares in their own rights.

We spent 5 days in Acadia the first time we went and we saw MOST of what we wanted to see. We spent an afternoon at Jordan's Pond, did Cadillac Mountain for sunrise (it was cold and VERY windy), rode bikes around different parts of the park, spent an afternoon in downtown Bar Harbor, went to several of the beaches to test the waters (too cold for this Southerner), took in Thunder Hole and just hiked/walked throughout the park.

On the way up, we stopped and spent a couple of days at Old Orchard Beach and ate lots of lobster. We really enjoyed this small beach town. We drove on up and took in the Portland area and the original LLBean. We again ate more lobster.

We also took a day for Camden/Rockport areas, which were so charming and beautiful.

You can find stuff to do all along the way up or back down. Most of our activities were outdoor related and we hit beautiful weather.

We have done the trip two more times and have taken in other areas that we found just as picturesque with all sorts of things to do.

I will say that we drove straight up, spending a night in PA, then another as soon as we crossed into Maine. It was a long haul with kids, but we knew we only had 12 days and wanted to make the most of our time there.

On our second trip, We started in the very southwest corner of Virginia and went to DC for a couple of days, then on to Philly for a day to see the Liberty Bell and Constitution Hall; hen on to NYC for a couple of days (Liberty Harbor RV Park), before we headed on up to Maine.

You will NOT be able to see everything along the way and will have to go back several times. (That's what I keep telling DH, anyway).