# Never been to New England...is two-wk trip recommended?



## Carol C (Feb 6, 2010)

I actually went to Boston once for a concert, and to Vermont for a film festival I was entered in...but that doesn't count. I've never been on vacation there to explore. I love natl parks, nature, and historic architecture. I don't really shop for fun. So...what would be "best"? I've got a Newport RI one br in mind, piggybacked with somewhere on Cape Cod like Yarmouth. Is that a good match up of home bases, and would there be enough to see and do for two full weeks? Would fly into Boston I suppose...and definitely looking to rent a car. Just two people would be going...no kids. Thanks in advance for all your advice and hot tips!


----------



## Carol C (Feb 6, 2010)

Another question: Is the area of the Berkshires nice in summertime and would it be good to piggyback a week in MASS Berkshires with a week in Newport RI or Cape Cod area? I like variety...and mountain areas (frequently I go to NC mtns/Great Smokies)...but I don't want to miss out on all that the shore towns of NE  would have to offer. TIA!


----------



## DanM (Feb 6, 2010)

I like the Cape better than Newport if you have a car, but if you are planning a summer trip and want to get a real New England flavor I wouldn't do both. Too much of the surrounding areas is water/beach oriented (great for summer, but not variety).

Berkshires near Tanglewood would be a nice contrast, Vermont or New Hampshire mountain areas...perhaps North Conway or Stowe areas. Again, you need a car for any of these.

Also, if you are flying into Boston you might want to leave a couple of days at either end to explore the City. It's a lot of fun and it sounds like your prior visits weren't tourism.


----------



## STEVIE (Feb 6, 2010)

Every where you mentioned makes for a great vacation. Remember summer in new england is prime vacation time for families. I love the Cape but hate the traffic. Boston is a great place to visit, lots of history and you can't beat a game at Fenway. We love newport and visit there every year, you will be amazed at the Mansions, and if you stay close in town, you can walk to many good restaurants, you'r better off walking because parking in the summer can be a challenge. You should contact the Newport visitor center and they will give you all kinds of information. Connecticut has two casinos if you are into that, and I think a drive up the coast of Maine is just amazing, don't miss out on a great Maine lobster dinner!! The Berkshires offer beautiful scenery and a tranquil feel. This area is rich in museums and the arts. James Taylor lives in the Berkshires and every summer he plays a show at tanglewood. You can't go wrong with any of the places I mentioned and you will find two weeks will not be enough, you will have to visit the area again! Sue


----------



## falmouth3 (Feb 6, 2010)

Carol, you don't say where you live.  If you'd like to see the White Moutains, it might be fun to stay there or on Lake Winnipesaukee.  If you'd like to see Acadia Nat'l park, you might want to stay in Bar Harbor or Ellsworth in Maine.  I'd also plan to visit Boston for *at least* 2 days.  

The Berkshires would be fun and pretty, but if you want to "do something" every day like DH, it probably wouldn't be the place for you.

If you could give us an idea of what you want to do, we could be more helpful.

Sue


----------



## chriskre (Feb 6, 2010)

Carol,

I did this trip last May and June.

I did a week on the Cape on the beach and then another week in the Berkshires.  We ended our two weeks with a weekend stay in Boston.

We had a fabulous time.  I was with my senior Mom and Aunt so it might be different going with a man as they do tend to get bored easier. 

It was fairly easy to get exchanges for that time of the year but I'm sure once the season starts it would be difficult.  

We stayed in Smuggler Inn on the beach.  Great little beach but it's a converted motel but I liked the location, it was central to most of the Cape and made doing day trips fairly easy.  

In the Berkshires, we stayed initially in Stonegate which is an old converted Victorian turn of the century mansion gone timeshare.  We had the unit on the front porch.  The big unit.  I liked it because it was a nice location for exploring that part of the Berkshires and it was neat to stay in a historic home.  

Unfortunately my Aunt fell on the front porch of the unit and I decided that "old" meant not Senior friendly and RCI moved us to the Vacation Village in the Berkshires.  It's a ski resort and very different than Stonegate but at least it was handicap friendly.  A bit out of the way for some things but the scenery was so beautiful I didn't mind driving everywhere.  There is alot to do in the Berkshires if you like history and beautiful scenery.  I want to go back.  

The last few days of our trip we returned to Boston where I turned in the car and stayed a few days at the Marriott Custom House.  Again a beautiful historic building gone timeshare.    I highly recommend staying at Custom House if you can swing it.  Great location for tourists, near all the trolly buses and the waterfront.  They also have a great concierge.  You don't need a car in Boston.  It costs too much to park to make it worth having.
It would have sat in the garage anyway.  We drove around Cambridge and other parts of Boston before turning in the car and did our own little city tour and then just used the trolleys.  

You will have a fabulous time.  :whoopie: 

The food is fantastic everywhere.   On the Cape, Berkshires and Boston.  I didn't have a bad meal for 2 weeks.  My cholesterol went up with all the Lobster bisque and Clam chowder but it's back down again.  It helps if you don't drink it everyday.


----------



## mecllap (Feb 6, 2010)

Absolutely do at least two weeks.  You can actually see  the "main" Newport mansions on a day trip from Yarmouth on the cape (altho 2 days would be good), with an early start. 
Acadia NP in Maine is beautiful.  (I'm working on getting to all the states, so I cruised briefly thru VT and NH -- also gorgeous).  Things are closer together up there, than in a lot of the country.  Lots to see in Boston (JFK library, the glass flowers at Harvard . . . . [and, yes, don't take a car into town, unless just to drive around and get your bearing, use public transport]). 

If you go in whale-watching season, go up to Provincetown on the cape and take a boat out for that -- awesome.  The Berkshires are lovely -- with wonderful old houses to see and art (and of course the Rockwell Museum).  Plymouth and replica Mayflower are interesting near the Cape.


----------



## Judith (Feb 7, 2010)

*Newport and the Berkshires*

We are an English couple coming over to New England at the end of April beginning of May.  We are spending a night in New Jersey after our flight to Newark and then driving to the Wyndham Inn on the Harbor in Newport for a week followed by a week at Ponds at Foxhollow in the Berkshires.

We have plenty of ideas of what to see in Newport from excellent recommendations made on this site but we don't know as much about the Berkshires.

We would be pleased to have any recommendations for places to visit.  We love wandering around old houses, small towns, museums, art galleries and the like.

Judith and Bernard Hilton


----------



## Carol C (Feb 7, 2010)

Judith said:


> We are an English couple coming over to New England at the end of April beginning of May.  We are spending a night in New Jersey after our flight to Newark and then driving to the Wyndham Inn on the Harbor in Newport for a week followed by a week at Ponds at Foxhollow in the Berkshires.
> 
> We have plenty of ideas of what to see in Newport from excellent recommendations made on this site but we don't know as much about the Berkshires.
> 
> ...




Ditto that...I don't know so much about the Berkshires and would like specific "to do" items. Because now a few of you suggested the Acadia Natl Park and Maine coastline, which I forgot about until savvy TUGgers reminded me. Are there timeshares I should try for there? I kind of think that coastline might be of more interest to me than the Berkshires, since I live in Atlanta and go to the Great Smokies often (and I even own a t/s in North Georgia mtns that I use every year and never trade).

Thanks also for the tips on Boston which I indeed plan to visit for a coupla nights on one end or the other. I wish I could stay at Custom House (and I'm in Marriott so maybe could swing an exchange via II). However I wouldn't want to stay in Boston for a full week, with so much else to see in New England.

Thanks all...and please more suggestions...like any timeshares in MN coastal area that you'd recommend. (I'm planning this trip for summer 2011, so I could put my RCI tiger trader into a search for the ideal spot to piggyback with the Cape/south coastal NE area.)

P.S. TUGgers rock!


----------



## Werner (Feb 7, 2010)

Carol C said:


> Ditto that...I don't know so much about the Berkshires and would like specific "to do" items. Because now a few of you suggested the Acadia Natl Park and Maine coastline, which I forgot about until savvy TUGgers reminded me. Are there timeshares I should try for there?



A few days in Boston without a car would be fun.  The Commons, the North End, Symphony Hall, the Museum of Fine Arts, etc.  Acadia National Park is an amazing place.  Stunning temperate rain forests, granite shorelines, real lobster (not those warm water impostors), almost 50 miles of carriage roads (bike paths) through the park, hiking trails.  There is more to the Bar Harbor area than just the park.  The "Quietside" is the Southwest and Bass Harbor areas and they are very attractive towns.  

There is a timeshare in Southwest Harbor available through II but it is impossible to get in the summer.  We stayed there the first week in November and had terrific sweater weather for exploring the area.  

You could do a coastline tour from Newport to Boston to Bar Harbor but that's a lot of driving since you have to come back also.  Boston to Newport direct is only 140 miles r.t. but if you include a short tour of Cape Cod it becomes 300 miles r.t.   Boston to Bar Harbor is 280 miles one-way direct but there are some great towns along the way, Portland, ME, Boothbay Harbor, Stonington, etc.  Visit an island community by ferry, like Isle au Haut, or Swans Island or Vinalhaven.  Go out on a lobster boat from the Old Quarry in Stonington.  Kayak in one of the most beautiful group of coastal islands in North America, just off Deer Isle.   If you have two weeks you could poke along the coast between Newport and Bar Harbor and have a great trip.  Allow a few days for Boston and a few for Bar Harbor, and maybe one full day for Newport town and a few of the mansions, then just pick some of the more picturesque towns along the route to visit.  

Some of our Bar Harbor Pix are here;http://wernerg.smugmug.com/Travel/BarHarbor-09/10283542_6z5UP#710145800_jQzDg


----------



## Carol C (Feb 7, 2010)

Werner said:


> A few days in Boston without a car would be fun.  The Commons, the North End, Symphony Hall, the Museum of Fine Arts, etc.  Acadia National Park is an amazing place.  Stunning temperate rain forests, granite shorelines, real lobster (not those warm water impostors), almost 50 miles of carriage roads (bike paths) through the park, hiking trails.  There is more to the Bar Harbor area than just the park.  The "Quietside" is the Southwest and Bass Harbor areas and they are very attractive towns.
> 
> There is a timeshare in Southwest Harbor available through II but it is impossible to get in the summer.  We stayed there the first week in November and had terrific sweater weather for exploring the area.
> 
> ...



Werner, do you write travel articles or guidebooks? This is awesome info you've provided here. Thank you so much for posting in such detail! And thank you to everyone else who posted with such great tips!


----------



## GrayFal (Feb 7, 2010)

Spent 6 days at Oak N Spruce in the Berkshires last summer - this is so much better located then VV at Berkshire which is way the heck up in the mountains (I visited the resort) which makes it great for winter/ski vacations.
OnS has many different levels of quality/units so just be prepared. All were clean and well maintained.

Right near Oak N Spruce is
Red Lion Inn - Stockbridge.
MASS MoCa - North Adams
Berkshire Botanical Gardens
Naumkeag Mansion and gardens
Tanglewood Music/Art Festival
Norman Rockwell Museum
Mt Greylock and the Appalachian Trail.
Williams College and The Clark Museum
Hancock Shaker Village and so much more

http://www.berkshires.org/

I could have stayed 4 more days - the list of stuff to do was endless.
Combine this with a Cape Cod week and a 2 night stay in Boston - perfect trip.


----------



## silverfox82 (Feb 7, 2010)

Two other airport choices might be Manchester, NH and TF Green in Rhode island, sometimes much cheaper and easier than Logan. For historic buildings besides the obvious in Boston try Portsmouth, NH, the restored dock area is quite nice with good restaurants and shops and right across the bridge is Kittery, Me for lobster. The lake region of NH is nice in the summertime also.


----------



## sfwilshire (Feb 10, 2010)

We spent a week on Nantucket, a week in Maine and a week in Boston. It was a great trip. Plenty to see and do.

Sheila


----------



## bigrick (Feb 10, 2010)

We spent 2 weeks *just in Boston *and wished we had additional time to see more.


----------

