Manchester, Vermont Area Recs

Bump

It's a nice area.

Hildene and the Southern Vermont Arts Center are nice. There's a museum of fly fishing, but I didn't go there.

quote:

---

Drive in today from NYC. Actually staying in Arlington.

Interests for this trip are hikes, historical landmarks, sightseeing, eating and drinking.

---

On the drive there, or back, I would go through Stockbridge, MA and take highway 7 to Arlington. Or, you could make a day trip to these places if you have time. It's 1 1/2 hours from Arlington, VT to Stockbridge.

Stockbridge, Lenox and Lee are three towns that are about 10 miles apart.
The Norman Rockwell museum and studio are in Stockbridge; we did the museum but not the studio. Took about 2 hours.
Tanglewood is at Lenox; that where the Boston Symphony does the Boston Pops but you can walk around the grounds for free. They may be having concerts this weekend and that's not free.
All three of those towns have a variety of restaurants. The Red Lion Inn is a well know one in Stockbridge; we didn't eat there as the town was crowded when we were there.

North of there is Pittsfield which is a larger town/city. The Hancock Shaker Village is just out of Pittsfield. It was a working farm but now it's a farm museum I guess. It's interesting because of their lifestyle and creativeness. If you go there catch some of the talks by the employees/volunteers.

North of there is Mount Greylock and MG State Reservation. We didn't go there but you can drive to the summit of MG or hike. The hike is strenuous according to their website.

Then North Adams, which is almost to VT, is supposed to be a good place to visit; it has art galleries, museums, hiking and breweries. The Mass Museum of Contemporary Art is the largest contemporary art museum in N. America.

Just outside of Arlington is Robert Frost's home. We drove by it but didn't stop; not sure it was open.

Bennington has locally owned restaurants on Main Street.

[/url][/img]
N. Rockwell museum.

[/url][/img]
Shaker village. There are not many Shakers left because they were celibate. IIRC the women lived in the that large brick building on the left; not sure where the men lived.

Woodstock VT is a primo place if you want that Hallmark Channel experience. Manchester VT is nice too. Norwich VT is the home of King Arthur Flour an they have a place where you can attend various baking & cooking classes. If you are looking closer to northern VT then Stowe/Waterbury is probably the best fit.

For northern NH I prefer places north of Franconia Notch like Franconia, Littleton, and Bethlehem. Jackson NH is a nice spot closer to having a Hallmark Channel feel than Lincoln. I also prefer the views of Franconia Notch over Pinkham Notch, though Bretton Woods and Mt Washington are closer over that way. All in all though it's like a 35-40 minute drive from Lincoln to North Conway via the Kanc.

Researching those now. Much appreciated


Up to this point I’ve booked flights and Hotels in Portsmouth and Portland without spending any money, just points. I think I’m going to have to spend some primo cash at this point to not look like cheapskate.

Just finished this trip up.

Really enjoyed it. We missed Fall for the most part at our main stay around Woodstock but it was still pretty great area. We caught some glimpses of foliage in Southern NH, Maine, and Boston.

Portsmouth is a great town. Not a destination by any means but a great side quest or day trip. Cleanest downtown I’ve ever seen.

Also super and stupidly woke. Rainbow and BLM flags everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Meanwhile I saw literally one PoC in the entire state.

Portland Maine was ok. It was a cleaner Austin with a bay. Food was fine but my wife said it wasn’t her top lobster roll by any means. Not somewhere I would go back to again.

New Hampshire itself was great. We drove the Kancaamagus and went and saw a few bridges and falls. Would recommend that drive.

Woodstock and Lincoln were nice little towns. Not based on tourism like a “Hallmark” town but more built around skiing on Loon mountain and Flime Gorge.

Anytime I showed my ID for booze they asked why somebody from Texas was there in November. We normally were just there for the summer.

We ended with a rushed day in Boston. Really loved that. Blew NYC out of the water in my opinion.

quote:

---

All due respect, if your thoughts of the food in Portland was “fine”, you did it wrong

---

Sorry I should have clarified. I’m allergic to shelllfish. My burger was fine.

My wife enjoyed her lobster roll at Evantide but thought ones she had in NYC or Boston were better.

Holy Donuts was a perfectly fine breakfast. We had already eaten heavy so there could have been a better breakfast.

Just those two. We got in at 4:30. Went from Portsmouth to Maine Diner up to Cape Elizabeth and then straight into Portland.

We did the Portland Museum of Art and then to the hotel and it was pitch black by 5. Evantide was the recommendation we had it was on the same block. We were pretty wiped so we went to the hotel. Next morning I went for a run around the bay but neither of us were feeling a huge breakfast.

If it weren’t dark at 4:30 we would have hung around for lunch but we wanted to make sure we had daylight to drive the Kanc.

It wasn’t ”bad” just reminded me of Austin. Albeit cleaner and with more seafood but it was just Austin to me. Old Port itself was cool but we didn’t feel anything keeping us there.

ETA: WTH we’re you when I was asking for recommendations?