New England summer trip?

There are a lot of options. Boston has a ton of historical sites (Freedom Trail is a nice walk). Maine coast is beautiful--Kennebunkport, Bar Harbor, Acadia Nat'l Park.

I'd try to stay at the Mt. Washington hotel in NH for a couple of nights(go see it even if you don't stay there). Lots of hiking around there varying from easy to difficult. Take the train up Mt. Washington.

We went to the Cape in middle June and a lot of places weren’t open yet because it was technically summer yet for them.

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We went to the Cape in middle June and a lot of places weren’t open yet because it was technically summer yet for them.

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Out of curiosity, where on Cape Cod were you? My parents have a spot in Truro - I've never had issue with anything being closed up in June, especially as you move into Provincetown.

Portland and Boothbay Harbor are the places i enjoyed the most. Great food and drink options in Portland. Did not care for Bar Harbor which was about a 3 hour drive from Portland—very touristy with cruise ships and t shirt shops everywhere

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What the frick? First, you give a location on the other side of the continent that isn’t really culturally similar to New England. Second, you post 60+ photos that have nothing to do with the topic

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I RA’d him. He has been bashed before for doing this and I didn’t think it was that bad, but at this point it’s absurd.

Fussy britches

A lot of great advice in here already, but I'll throw in my two cents as well.

Since you're only going to be in New England for a week and are trying to hit a lot of places, you should probably be selective.

For Maine, there's a ton of amazing coastal towns you can visit, but I'd recommend Kennebunkport for a small town feel, and checking out Portland (the food scene is amazing).

Rhode Island, there's really only one place I'd recommend, and that's Newport. The problem with going there is that it's an hour and a half SOUTH of Boston, and everywhere else on your list is an hour to three hours NORTH of Boston. So you're going to lose a lot of time being on the road if you try to do it all.

NH has some great places to hike, but honestly if you have a 10yo in tow that might not be the thing you're looking for.

Lots of great places in VT to visit: Woodstock for a small mountain town vibe, Stowe, etc. Burlington is great but is likely too far away for you to get to on this trip.

And then of course there's Boston, which I'm happy to help with details if you're going to spend time here.

Overall, I'd recommend limiting yourself to 3 stops at most. With one week you're just not going to be able to see and do everything on your list, so pick your top 2-3 and really do those right. But that's just me.

Kennebunkport or Newport RI

we did a similar loop many years ago on a family vacation but we went Boston>Camden>bar harbor>banff>Boston

Good points in here, just adding on re: New England in the summer.

We did a week vacation last year (really 10 days/9 nights, Friday to 2nd Sunday) New York City and New England. Flew to NY, spent 3 days there, picked up a rental car, drove to New England (Martha's Vineyard then Boston) and flew home from there. We were able to get a day trip in to New Hampshire and Maine from Boston, mainly just to say we've been there.

If you've never been north of Baltimore, I wouldn't stretch it that much. New York city would be a week in itself. I'd focus on New England, with Boston as a home base air arrival point, and rent a car.

In Boston itself, The Freedom Trail is great, and if you can catch a game at Fenway Park that's a great bucket list thing, but really that's about it for Boston attractions in my mind. I'd recommend 2-3 days there tops

For the rest, I would really recommend doing some of the coast/island resorts, like Block Island, Rhode Island, or Nantucket/Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, or places in New Hampshire or Maine on the coast. We had a lot of fun on Martha's Vineyard sightseeing and such, and I even jumped off the Jaws bridge (it's a thing there, look it up).

We went out on Cape Cod, but that wasn't at all what I thought it would be. I thought it would be a lot more open and sandy with dunes and very few trees (sort of like Cap Hatteras). It's not like that at all; very hilly, very wooded and developed; unless you are RIGHT BY the ocean or bay you don't see much shoreline or water vistas and really wouldn't know that you were in a "coastal" region.

Also, coming from down here, be aware that their sea water is generally VERY COLD, much different than what we are used to in the south. Some beaches on coves have shallower, warmer water and are okay for swimming, but the ones on open ocean rarely have folks in the water.