Hi, I’m traveling with my wife to New England, leaving NC on June 24th and need to be back to NC by July 10th at the latest. We would love recommendations for activities, destinations, campgrounds, restaurants, etc. Our goal is to stay in every state in NE for at least one night and we plan on stopping at Acadia NP before we head back South.
Awesome, thanks for the advice. I’ll start booking campgrounds ASAP.
If you can get decent weather head up to the top of Mt. Washington. It’s great! Like riding to space.
You can camp at the state park in nearby Crawford Notch. Very pleasant. The White Mountains are just fun and beautiful.
Thank you! Exactly the recommendations we were hoping for. We did Pikes Peak and Mt Evans a few years ago and absolutely love riding in the mountains.
Be sure to check the conditions at the top. Last fall I wanted to go up, it was a beautiful day at the base but 60-70mph winds with gusts up to 80 at the top. I decided not to go up lol
Good point. I’ll be sure to check before we go.
Skip southern New England and get to the good part up north asap. VT, NH, and ME are great. Don’t do the auto road up Mt Washington. Hike it instead. Or do Lafayette and Lincoln.
Thank you!
Definitely plan on a few days in the White Mountains, New Hampshire. Head up and down all the notches (Franconia, Crawford, and Pinkham - Crawford has the cog railway up to Mt Washington, Pinkham is where the auto road ends), cross over on the Kancamagus Highway to get between Conway and Lincoln (southern end of Franconia). Hurricane Mountain Rd is a good route to get over to Fryeburg from the Conway area.
For lodging in the area I can recommend The Notch Hostel: cheap, but shared bunkrooms - they do have a couple of regular hotel-like rooms, but half the fun is spending some time in the common area sharing traveling stories with others there, most of whom will likely be hikers (it's a common stop in "civilization" for a few nights before the last stretch northbound on a through-hike of the Appalachian Trail). The Littleton/Franconia Notch KOA was pretty good when I stayed there for a couple of nights; The Colonial and the Green Granite Inn in North Conway were both fine for a night on other trips.
For food in the area - around North Conway, Vito Marcello's is good for nicer Italian (though I only ever had it after coming over the mountain, thanks to COVID and busy event schedules when I was in town, it was still pretty good as takeout), Delaney's Hole in the Wall has a good variety of basic American sports bar type food (and sushi for some reason, can't speak to that), and I don't recall what I had at Moat Mountain but they were good too. In Lincoln I only recall the Woodstock Inn's restaurant, same story as Moat Mountain though.
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Further south, in Falls River, MA (near Providence, RI) there's the USS Massachusetts (BB-59, a South Dakota-class battleship built in the 30s and preserved in WWII configuration) and a bunch of Portuguese places.
In Boston there's the USS Constitution, the oldest in-service ship in the world (emphasis on ship - the HMS Victory is older, but it's been promoted to building since it's in permanent drydock; the Constitution is still fully capable of sailing under her own power and is floating). Lots of Colonial-era touristy stuff. Soem really good Italian food in the north end - I ate at Riccardo's last time I was there, one of the best Italian meals I've had, just across the street from Paul Revere's house. Mike's and Modern are well known for pastries in the area too - both are cash-only. For a Boston trip I'd suggest parking the bike for a couple of nights, staying in a hotel with a secure lot outside the city, and take the T or commuter rail in and move around on foot/public transit.
I haven't been to Lexington and Concord, but it's one of my biggest regrets now that I've moved away. Will definitely have to go next time I'm in the area.
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In Maine, The Garage in Scarborough (along the coast) is some great BBQ, The Bait Shed and Stern are two seafood places just down the road owned by the same people. Dunstan Tap and Table is upscale American cuisine (and a bit more, they introduced me to arancini). Portland Pie and Otto are two local pizza chains that have varied menus (Otto's mashed potato pizza is a personal favorite, Portland Pie does a rotating seasonal menu including seasonal dough). St Joe's Cafe has some great breakfast sandwiches and beignets.
I don't drink, but Nonesuch River Brewing is apparently quite good for beer, and their food is definitely good. Over in Westbrook, Allagash, Battery Steele, and Foundation are all pretty close.
In Portland, Slab has some of the best Sicilian-style pizza I've had.
On the way up to Acadia, Fort Knox is a pretty cool revolution/civil war era fortress intended to stop British and later Confederate attacks. There's a number of other fortifications around the region (including down in Boston Harbor), but I don't think any are quite this nice while being easy enough to get to.
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In CT I actually don't have that many suggestions, though I lived there for years. Biggest ones are if you like car racing, Lime Rock Park - when I was there it was just a Porsche club day, but it was neat seeing a bunch of cars racing around. Looks like there's a couple of events while you're there.
For food, Hosmer Mountain Soda is absolutely worth it anywhere you can find it (their Sarsparilla is better than anything else I've had anywhere else in the country). Cheek's Chicken and Waffles is some of the best fried chicken I've had, with really good southern-style sides too - the original location is in Manchester, but they've become a chain since I started eating there when it was just a trailer in a run-down strip mall.
Wow. Thank you! I wish we had more time in this trip Thank for the awesome response.
If you want to camp in Acadia look ASAP. I did Mount Desert Campground. Rose Eden Lobster is a nice family run shack if you want some lobster at a decent price. Most touristy places are available but I wanted to avoid that and was very happy with this place.
Don't forget about Mount Washington.
New Hope, Pa and Lambertville, NJ are nice river towns. If you go that way, head north on the PA side on the road along the river. Stop at Dilly's at Center Bridge along the way just north of those towns. Cute little dive. There's almost too many good options and places to drive to along the North East.