New England in Fall

[LumpyandBumps]

Hi,
I am hoping for some input from people who have travelled to New England, or live there.

Since I was a child ( and I am now retired) I have heard how beautiful New England is in Fall.

I would love to visit, but don’t know where to start.

I realise that New England is a huge area. Is there are particular town/ area that is especially stunning?

I will be flying to whatever is the closest airport to my destination, and ideally I would prefer not to have to hire a car, so would need some form of public transport.

I would appreciate suggested locations. Many thanks

A company like Bon Voyage might suit you. They do a Trafalgar escorted holiday in the New England fall. It’s on a luxury coach but it’s easier than public transport in my view. I know people who also really rate Titan Travel and they do New England too.

New Hampshire is always stunning. You can always use Boston as your base and do a bunch of amazing trips and hikes. DH and I did a lot of this in our 20s and the fall colours are just stunning.

Boston is the nearest international airport and most trips start there. Take time to look around Boston. Do you want to hike as you are retired? The coach trips obviously go much further afield to the best places. However they will be crowded! Leaf peeping is a big thing there.

When I was 24 I did a fly drive to New England by myself as (like you) had always wanted to see the Fall colours. I booked my fly drive with Virgin and flew in/out of Boston, which was a lovely city. This is the current self-drive tour that Virgin offer: www.virginholidays.co.uk/destinations/usa/tours/lobsters-and-lighthouses it's not the same as the one I did, as I went all the way up to Niagara Falls, but covers many of the same places.

I know you mention you wouldn't want to hire a car, but I found New England one of the easiest places to drive around (have also driven in Florida and California) as there are many smaller roads, more like the UK, rather than just great big interstates. I didn't even have a sat nav back then and had to use maps (quite tricky by myself!) so with a sat nav it would be a breeze.

you'll pretty much need to drive if you want to see it properly, but it's fantastic.

went with kuoni years ago, I don't know if they still do it but if they do I can recommend booking with them, everything was handled and great customer service.

One of my favourite ever holidays was "leaf peeping" in New England. We were there for my birthday (very end of September). We flew to Boston and did have a car so covered some miles. I seem to remember that Concord was a lovely town.

I think you’d need a car to do this. We’ve done it a couple of times using Boston as our base. I don’t like driving abroad but actually, as a pp said, it’s one of the easiest places in the world to do so. Easy, wide roads with almost no traffic and automatic cars.

with the exception of driving in boston city, I agree, it's super easy

Have done this in the past. We visited amongst other places

• Boston
• Cape Ann
• Vermont - Ben&Jerry's factory tour and visit to Von Trapp family lodge in Stowe
• ferry across Lake Champlain
• Lake Placid - Olympic toboggan and hike up Whiteface Mountain
• Adirondacks
• Massachusetts - Norman Rockwell museum

We had a fabulous trip to New England one year. Unless you can get a coach tour I don't see how you would get the most out of it if you don't drive.
We started off in Boston then visited Plimouth, Lennox, Hancock Shaker Village, Old Sturbridge Village, Weston in Vermont, Marblehead and Salem.

We did this for DH's 40th birthday, we flew to New York and then drove to Albany, on to Lake Placid, Vermont, Boston, Maine and back to New York to fly home. We had an amazing two weeks and I would highly recommend it but unless you go via a touring company as part of a group I'm not sure that public transport would work.

It's easy to drive but I would recommend a couple of days to settle in, get over the jetlag etc first. There are amazing B&Bs as well as hotels that give a much better experience imo. I booked it myself and there were no issues wherever we stayed.

Thank you for all of your help.
I have found a package including coach travel to many of the suggested areas.
I couldn’t get booked for this year, but we are very much looking forward to going next year.
Thank you

I spent a summer in New Hampshire, then another summer on Martha's Vineyard. Agree with others that most places in New England are not easy without a car so a coach trip would make sense. The town I lived in in NH had no public transport at all!
However if you do want to go somewhere without a car then Martha's vineyard is possible. Greyhound bus from Boston to Woods Hole, from there get the Ferry to Martha's vineyard. There is a decent bus service on the Island or you can hire a bike - there are cycle paths everywhere. Just thought I'd mention it as most places outside big cities in the area have terrible or non existent public transport but I lived on the Vineyard for 4 months without a car and it was very easy.
I don't think it's really known as a leaf peeping destination but it's lovely there and worth a visit if you touring the area.

Can I ask who you booked with LumpyandBumps