Inns & Charming Hotels of New England

Day 1 – Boston Arrival

You will arrive at Boston Logan Airport after a 7 hour 30 minute flight non-stop from the U.K. Due to high parking charges in Boston we do not recommend collecting your rental car on arrival, a better bet is to collect it from a convenient downtown location when you leave Boston after 3 nights – We arrange all this for you.

We can arrange shared shuttle transfers or private car transfers but it’s quite easy to take a regulated meter cab from the official tax rank outside the terminal which will cost you approximately $30.

Depending on your arrival time you might like to take a walk into the Boston Public Garden in the centre of the city, this would be a great way to relax after your flight. Overnight Boston.

Hotel:
Loews Boston Hotel

---

Day 2 – Boston

Boston is a great walking city and the Freedom Trail is the highlight of Boston for visitors. The 2.5 mile red brick walking trail leads you to 16 nationally significant historic sites, every one an authentic American treasure. Preserved and dedicated by the citizens of Boston in 1958, when the wrecking ball threatened several important places, the Freedom Trail today is a unique collection of museums, churches, meeting houses, burying grounds, parks, a ship, and historic markers that tell the story of the American Revolution.

You can take a self-guided tour or one of the many other tours which include the hop on hop off trolley bus tours. Be sure to stop at the most important sites like Old Ironsides, the Paul Revere House and the Old North Church. Plan to stop and eat at Faneuil Hall, once the primary meeting place for America’s revolutionaries. It is now a bustling market of restaurants and shops. You will find Colonial and Revolutionary history on every step of the Freedom Trail, charging up Bunker Hill, and on the cobbled streets of Beacon Hill.

Lively and informative costumed characters travel the Trail during the summer. These characters are fun and engaging for children of all ages (from 5 to 75!) and act as ambassadors to the era of America’s founding and the birth of the country’s freedom. Boston is a shopping mecca, head to historic Back Bay to stock up on fashion favourites at Copley Place – a dazzling mixed-use complex with over 70 stores and restaurants – or bag a bargain at Wrentham Village Premium Outlets®, New England’s largest upscale outlet center. Overnight – Boston.

Hotel:
Loews Boston Hotel

---

Day 3- Boston

A 2^nd full day in Boston to explore other sites such as New England Aquarium, Museum of Fine Arts and do visit the North End also known as Little Italy. It would be a good day to appreciate Boston from the water today and given it’s nautical history maybe consider the Liberty Fleet Tall Ships Adventure, a harbour cruise offering fabulous views of the city. The Charles River should not be forgotten either and you can take a boat tour here too. The entire Boston waterfront for the downtown and Seaport of Boston is a public walkway, so it’s easy to get to the waterfront and at least get a glimpse. Overnight – Boston.

Hotel:
Loews Boston Hotel

---

Day 4- Boston to Kennebunkport
85 miles

Today you will collect your rental car, the location is 5 minutes’ walk from your hotel. Head for Essex National Heritage Area Scenic Byway which takes you north through Salem, site of the famous witch trials in 1694, Marblehead, Ipswich, and Newburyport. From there, you’ll be travelling the Coastal Byway to Hampton Beach and Portsmouth on your way to Kennebunkport. The Kennebunks are very old coastal towns, settled in 1620. The state of Maine remained a part of the Colony of Massachusetts and Kennebunk did not become a state until 1820. If you’re up for a short walk at this point, the Kennebunk National Register Historic District Village walk begins at the Brick Store Museum and continues on Main Street. If there’s time, the Kennebunkport History Center is located at 125 North Street. Five buildings, including a shipwright’s office, comprise the history center campus and present a good perspective of seafaring life in the Massachusetts colony. If you have time when travelling, you may wish to call in to Kittery Premium Outlets® to top up your suitcase with the latest designer gear at bargain prices. Overnight – Kennebunkport.

Hotel:
Nonantum Resort

---

Day 5 – Kennebunkport to Jackson
80 miles

After a very restful evening on the serene Maine coast, another series of scenic roads will take you to New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Wolfeboro, New Hampshire has the distinction of being known as ‘The Oldest Summer Resort in America.’ More than 200 years ago, New Hampshire’s colonial Governor John Wentworth built a summer home on the shores of what is now called Lake Wentworth. He came to his ‘mansion’ during the summer and was followed by others who discovered the quiet and charm of the area. Another scenic drive north along larger Lake Winnipesaukee takes you through Moultonborough and on to Tamworth and North Conway on your way into Jackson. Overnight – Jackson.

Hotel:
Eagle Mountain House

---

Day 6 – Jackson & The White Mountains

It’s everything you’d expect in quintessential New England. Cold, clear rushing streams reflect the deep lush greens of summer and the blazing colours that set the hillsides on fire in fall. Towering granite cliffs and soaring mountains hug both sides of the road as you make your way along age old winding, scenic routes, the woods that poet Robert Frost called, ‘lovely, dark and deep.’

You can come here to escape all of mankind, which most of the residents do. Locals will assure you that you can have a vacation away from the ‘citied’ world in a place that has not changed much in centuries. Many of the charming villages still look as they did when writer Nathaniel Hawthorne and painter Thomas Cole lived here in the 18th century. And that’s the way they like it, slow, easy and simple, leaving time to appreciate the astounding scenic beauty all around.

There’s a great scenic loop to be explored today that includes the beautiful Kancamagus Highway, Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast and scenic Route 16, which gets progressively more scenic as it heads north. Jackson is one of the most attractive towns in all of New Hampshire. Overnight – Jackson.

Hotel:
Eagle Mountain House

---

Day 7 – Jackson to Stowe
112 miles

Nearly 70 years after the von Trapp family resettled from Austria, ‘the hills are still alive with the sound of music!’ On you way from Jackson to Stowe enjoy the classic New England landscape and architecture – a mountain ridgeline, a winding river, hillside farms, covered bridges, and quaint villages. Whether you travel this region during the summer or fall you are sure to appreciate the beauty of the mountain scenery. Overnight – Stowe.

Hotel:
Trapp Family Lodge

---

Day 8 – Vermont’s Green Mountains

There’s another great scenic loop highway waiting today with white steepled churches, winding roads, quintessential, quaint New England towns bathed in bright sunshine and set up against mountains as old as time. And, of course, there’s Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. The countryside hasn’t changed much here in the 230 years since the Green Mountain Boys declared Vermont an independent republic. A mountain pass in Vermont is called a ‘notch’ and mountains here have interesting names like Camels Hump and Crouching Lion. New England at its finest! Enjoy your drive. Overnight – Stowe.

Hotel:
Trapp Family Lodge

---

Day 9 – Stowe to Lenox
170 Miles

Leaving Stowe today, you’ll be travelling south on scenic Vermont State Road 100. It is 170 miles between Stowe and Lenox, your next stop, so if you set off early there will likely be time to travel additional scenic Vermont roads today although this really is a very pleasant drive in it’s own right. Take time to stop in Manchester at the heart of the Green Mountain National Forest, a lovely town and a great place for a few bargains from the brand name outlet shops.

You’ll find this area (Bennington County, Vermont) as quintessential New England as there is. If you have time to stop in the town of Bennington, there are two historic walking tours. One includes the original structures remaining from settlement and the ‘Old First Church’ behind which poet Robert Frost is buried. Another driving tour takes you under five covered bridges and to the Vermont Covered Bridge Museum. Be sure not to miss the Apple Barn and Country Bake Shop, as well as Bennington Potters, world famous for their stoneware pottery.

Continue south crossing the state line into Massachusetts and to the heart of the Berkshires at Lenox for your overnight stop. Overnight – Lenox.

Hotel:
Yankee Inn

---

Day 10 – Lenox to Newport
176 miles

Lenox, was a prosperous farming and mill town until it was suddenly ‘discovered’ by the rich and famous in Boston and New York in the mid 1800s. Nathaniel Hawthorne was the first to arrive. He wrote the House of Seven Gables while living in a little red cottage just outside of town. Samuel Gray Ward, a Boston banker who would later finance the purchase of Alaska by the United States, built a summer home near Hawthorne’s cottage. And the rest, as they say, ‘is history.’ By the late 1800s, Lenox and Stockbridge were booming with the summer homes of the country’s elite. Shadowbrook, Anson Stokes ‘summer cottage,’ had 100 rooms.

Stockbridge, located right next to Lenox, is Norman Rockwell’s America at its finest. The Red Lion Inn is the focal point of one of Rockwell’s best known paintings. Stockbridge is also the home of the Norman Rockwell Museum and Chesterwood, the historic home of Daniel Chester French, who created the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial as well as other well known works of public art.

Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be more scenic roads in New England, you’ll experience US Route 20 across southern Massachusetts through Sturbridge and the Blackstone River Valley on your way to Newport, Rhode Island. Plan to stop at Old Sturbridge Village where you will come face-to-face with the past and the events that shaped life from the late 1700s to early 1800s in colonial Massachusetts. The Village, set out as a country town, illustrates the struggles and triumphs of everyday life.

The Blackstone River Valley in the state of Rhode Island was the site of the first textile manufacturing in the United States, giving rise to the Industrial Revolution in the American northeast. Legend has it that Samuel Slater stole the original technology from England. His original mill on the Blackstone River has been painstakingly reconstructed. Now lined with pleasant, well manicured towns, it will be hard to imagine that this serene and lovely region once teemed with over 1,100 textile mills and thousands of residents who worked in them.

If you have time try to pull in Mystic Seaport on the museum, a re imagined waterfront settlement featuring a 19th-century village, historic ships, a museum & more. Mystic is also an incredibly quaint New England seaside village with historic river drawbridge. Overnight – Newport.

Hotel:
Marshall Slocum Inn

---

Day 11 – Newport

Get ready for the wonders of Newport today. Opulence reigned here for decades during the Gilded Age. The wonderful houses along the cliffs and Bellevue Avenue were the ‘summer cottages’ of the rich and famous from New York and Philadelphia who descended on Newport for a summer social season. Houses modelled after French castles and other royal residences were the site of lavish parties, dalliances and intrigue. When no longer occupied by their owners, a collection of the mansions were purchased by the Preservation Society of Newport and have been opened to the public. You can pack your day in Newport as full as you would like. The Breakers and Rosecliff are must sees. Newport is also a great walking town. You can take the Harbor Walk North and The Harbor Walk South, both of which begin at Perrotti Park, and the Cliffwalk, which follows the coastline and the cliffs. There is also 10 mile scenic driving tour which begins at The Elms and the Newport Winery. Overnight – Newport

Hotel:
Marshall Slocum Inn

---

Day 12 – Newport to Cape Cod
60 miles

Cape Cod is larger than most people imagine, so we finish your tour of New England with 3 nights on the Cape giving you chance to explore the whole Cape or kick back and relax on one of the many beautiful beaches before your flight home. The Upper Cape closest to the Massachusetts mainland is home to Sandwich and Falmouth, location of the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Hyannis, of Kennedy fame, is located Mid-Cape. The narrow portion of land where it bends sharply north is considered the Lower Cape. The Outer Cape includes the Cape Cod National Seashore, forty miles of pristine sandy beach, marshes, ponds and uplands. Lighthouses, cultural landscapes and wild cranberry bogs offer a glimpse of Cape Cod’s past. Stephen Leatherman, aka Dr. Beach, recently named Coast Guard Beach the 5th best beach in the US. Provincetown, at the very end of the Cape and long known as an art town, berths several whale watching fleets that patrol Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Several guarantee a whale sighting at the right time of year. Overnight – Cape Cod.

Hotel:
Dan’l Webster Inn & Spa

---

Day 13 – Cape Cod, Nantucket

Today we suggest a trip by ferry to Nantucket Island, one of the most unique, historic and visually stunning places in the world. Originally a booming whaling port, the National Historic District of Nantucket has changed little since the 17th century, when many of the seaside cottages were built and old-fashioned whale oil lamps lit the streets. Today, nearly 40% of the remainder of the island is protected conservation land. You can walk wide sandy beaches, swim in the sparkling waters of Nantucket Sound or brave the Atlantic on the island’s south shore. If land is more to your liking, browse the many boutique shops, art galleries and museums or sign up for a tour of the island. Overnight – Cape Cod.

Hotel:
Dan’l Webster Inn & Spa

---

Day 14 – Cape Cod Martha’s Vineyard

Even though Edgartown is the most famous town on Martha’s Vineyard, the Vineyard, another island reached only by boat, actually has six different towns that are as different as night and day. Once a thriving whaling port, the island is now home to writers, artists, architects and designers who come here to get away from the hustle and bustle of Boston. There are no chain restaurants, no shopping malls and no speed over 45 miles an hour on Martha’s Vineyard. What a great way to end your journey through New England in complete relaxation! Overnight – Cape Cod.

Hotel:
Dan’l Webster Inn & Spa

---

Day 15 – Depart Boston
60 miles

Today leave Cape Cod and drive back to Boston. This peninsula is a beloved vacation spot for visitors and natives alike. Maybe stop in Plymouth, a living panorama of Pilgrim and Colonial times and see the Mayflower II. Return your car at the airport before your departure flight. We select an evening flight for you giving you the day to enjoy before the time comes to return home.

---

Your holiday includes

• Scheduled Flights
• UK & US Airport taxes
• Accommodation – 14 nights
• Compact car rental based on Hertz – 14 day rental
• Exclusive travel documentation portfolio including personalised maps, itinerary and driver directions along with all applicable tickets and vouchers.

Additional Experiences

Our holidays are completely tailored to suit you. We would be happy to help you choose from a vast array of additional experiences that will enhance your North America holiday adventure.

These might include:

There are many more, often quite unique to your chosen destination so please do ask.