For my sisters 80th birthday I decided to treat her to an extra special trip away. We have both travelled extensively but one place we had never been was New England in the United States. The prospect of seeing the beautiful Fall trees convinced us this would be a great trip so we booked to go.
Our flight was from Heathrow and I was impressed to see that one of the Travelsphere staff was there to assist with check in. Not that it was needed. We were flying with Delta and they were very helpful and efficient. Our flight was to Boston and was only 7.5 hours. Before the flight I had received a message from our Tour Guide, Kelly, to say that she was on the flight and would meet us all on arrival. At Boston Logan airport we all congregated, there were 20 of us, and Kelly was ready to meet us with a big smile. Kelly was a rather loud, extroverted Scot who was perpetually “up” (not a quality we particularly appreciated when we had early morning starts!!!) However, she proved herself to be the best Tour Guide I have ever experienced and often went over and above when trying to ensure we had a good time.
Kelly organised our transfer to our first hotel, The Marriott Bovey in central Boston. A large efficient hotel with the most awful Sports Bar as it’s main hub. Trying to eat dinner when very tired and whilst about 20 TV’s showed sports continually was not the pleasant introduction to Boston we had expected! However, we were only here for one night. The next morning we had a guided tour of Boston, a lovely city and chance to see some of the local sights. We had a brief lunch stop in Harvard which was interesting and then we were off to Falmouth, to the Inn on the Square hotel. Falmouth is like something out of the Stepford Wives, lovely, cute little houses and shops, very manicured lawns and, at this time of year, pumpkin decorations for Halloween adorning everything. The next day we were taken off to see Chatham Lighthouse (supposedly the best in New England), I have to say their lighthouses (and we saw quite a few more) do not compare to the ones in the UK. I have seen many lighthouses on the South West Coastal Path and in Kent and they are much more dramatic looking. We then moved on to Provincetown which I was rather excited about as I had watched a series on TV that was set here. Lovely beach, wooden cute tourists shops and a library that has a half size boat (The Rose Dorothea) in it’s centre! We had lunch here, clam chowder for my sister (she ate a lot of that on this trip!) and chips for me!! Unfortunately New England does not cater well for vegetarians! Back to Falmouth for another night and we had dinner in Liam Maguires Irish Pub (which was actually another Sport’s bar!!)
Cases were packed and collected early the next morning and we headed off to Wood’s Hole Ferry port to catch the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. Unfortunately, whilst the weather had been great so far, we now had the tail end of a hurricane crossing this area. It was very blowy on the ferry for the 45 minute ride. Marth’s Vineyard is made up of 6 separate towns and lots of rich and influential people live here. Jaws was filmed here and as it is the 50th anniversary of the film there was a lot of shark memorabilia along with the pumpkins!! Our lunch stop was in Oak Bluff, famous for it’s little “gingerbread” houses. Our hotel this night was a rather soulless Sonesta Select which was in Newport. Unfortunately it was on what looked like a industrial park so there were no nice walks nearby (although it did have a rather nice swimming pool).
The next morning our coach took us to Newport, Rhode Island and took us down Ocean Drive to see some of the many mansions on display/ These were owned in the past by the Astor’s, the Vanderbilts and we even saw Eisenhower’s old house and where Jackie Kennedy grew up. The weather was lovely again and we had declined the optional trip to another mansion (The Breakers) so we had some free time in Newport.
The next morning we left Rhode Island to go to New Bedford. This is where Herman Melville got the idea for Moby Dick so we started off at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Very interesting (it also had a half replica ship in it’s interior like the previous one we saw!) After that visit we headed to Portsmouth (it seemed strange heading to all these places that had English names!) for some free time and then headed off to Lake Winnipesaukee. We now began to see the beautiful autumnal trees. New England had a drought this summer with only 1 day of rain so the colours of the trees are not quite as vibrant as usual but they were still beautiful. Our hotel tonight was The Fireside Inn right on the lake. They had shops nearby and walks around the lake. It was very pretty.
There were two meals included in our trip, tonight it was at the Ellcoya Bar which was very busy and not really able to cope with us and we ended up leaving before the dessert course. Kelly was very apologetic and later, back in Boston, she bought us all a Boston Pie to make up for this. (As I said before, she definitely went out of her way to make our trip enjoyable!)
The next morning it was a visit to the White Mountains and we had a local guide who took us to rivers, forest areas and viewing points. All the rivers were low but it didn’t detract from the lovely views. (The water falls we visited were basically just “falls” as there has been such a drought!)
The next morning involved a visit to “The Castle in the Clouds” (a house built by the Plant family which is very unique and has stunning views). We then crossed into Maine with it’s rugged coastline. Another Ocean Drive tour with houses that are the most expensive in the USA (except for California!)
Our last night was in The Ogunquit River Inn which has an incredible view from each room overlooking the river. Another included dinner and I had some aubergine dish whilst the rest of the group grappled with lobsters!! This meal went much better and Kelly did not have to resort to buying us desserts later to make up for our disappointment!
We then visited Salem. If you want to see the place, don’t bother! An awful place, obviously decorated more for Halloween but actually just a street of shops selling “witch” products. Like a whole town of Harry Potter shops!! Cafe’s were crowded, the streets were packed and it was not a great place. Back to Boston with free time in Quincy Market and on Boston Common and then back to the airport for our flight home.
My summary: We saw wonderful sights and the Tour Guide was fabulous. It was a packed itinerary so lots of early mornings so it wasn’t relaxing but we are so pleased we did it.
