New England Trip Details (October 2008)
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I found driving singularly hard in the city - in fact hardest city to drive in among the ones I have driven - note that I haven't (yet) driven in Manhattan. My resume however includes Chicago, LA and San Francisco. The hardest parts of the driving are the winding nature of the roads and lack of good signs. Having said that, I managed to come out without a dent or a scratch on my car. As long as you have a reasonable navigator, you probably will be OK.
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Museum of Fine Arts - I was able to see all of it within a day. But I went during the construction when most of the works were not on display. The parking structure next to the museum has limited spots. But if you go early, you should find plenty of parking. I went around the opening times on a weekend (10am) and had no problems finding a spot there. If you have some spare time, do walk across to the Isabella Gardner Museum. The museum is worth a peep-in just for the courtyard (note that no photography is allowed anywhere in this museum - bummer!)
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Harvard Art Museums - These are three museums next to each other - Sackler, Fogg and Busch-Reisinger. These are currently under renovation. Only Sackler is open with some condensed highlights of each museum. It looks like the renovation wont be done for at least 5 more years (this is being written in 2008).
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Other Harvard Museums - Peabody Museum of Archaeology and its sister museum of Natural History. The Natural History one is a must-see. It has a stunning glass flower collection. You can read all about it here.
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The thumb rule for the best time to visit the region is the week of the Columbus Day Holiday. If you are travelling a long distance to see the colours, then it is better to be early than late. Colours at 50% peak is much more rewarding than leaf-less twigs! I used this site for my planning.
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Drive to Acadia National Park from Boston: This is a 5 hr drive (with minimal stops) to the park entrance. It is a leisurely 2 hr drive to cover the park road. There is only one place to eat in the park and it comes only at 3/4th of the park road loop (unless you want to backtrack to cover the rest of the park - the loop road is one-way most of its length). It is an additional hr up and down the Cadillac Mountain Road. Bar Harbour is the popular place to stay. Cheaper motels can be found in Trenton. We stayed at the Sunrise Motel in Trenton - cheap and reasonable.
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Drive to Rangeley Lakes Loop from Acadia: It is 2-2.5 hrs to the start of the scenic drive from Trenton (with minimal stops). The scenic drive is between towns of Madrid on 4N and Houghton on 17S. Drive would take little over an hour to drive straight through with minimal stops. The best view points are near the middle portion of the drive - Rangeley Lakes view point on Rte 4 just before entering the town of Rangeley and the view points on either side of 17S (few miles after the intersection of 4 and 17). We stayed in the town of Bethel for the night. The town has no cheap motels - only B&Bs. We stayed at the Chapman Inn - little expensive for the size of the rooms, but the breakfast made up for it! We ate dinner at a restaurant called SS Milton - we highly recommend it (note that we are vegetarians!)
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White Mountains Scenic Byway: Between Errol and Conway on NH 16. It takes about an hour to Errol from Bethel and takes about 2hrs to get from Errol to Conway. Do spend some time at Glen House (turn off for the Mt Washington Auto Road). It would take 1.5 to 2 hrs to get to the top of Mt Washington and back (note that it is only 8 miles one-way!)
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Kancamagus Highway - It is 32 miles and connects Conway and Lincoln and would take about an hr to cover it in one direction. We spent the night at the Econo Lodge in Lincoln (it was very good by Econo Lodge standards!)
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VT100 - It would take 6 hrs to drive the length of it (from Newport to Wilmington). It takes little less than 2hrs to get to Newport from Lincoln (note that the directions to Rte 100 from I91 are non-existent (follow directions to 105)
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Mohawk trail - The best bit is between North Adams and Greenfield (both in MA). It would take an hour to drive this distance. The views from the Hairpin Turn and 65 mile view point are the best. Note that the art museum in Williamstown (a few miles before/beyond North Adams) is quite good.