2006 fall foliage trip

My husband and i really like new england, we honeymooned in NH., Mass. and RI. Nov. of 2003 and returned in late Oct. of 2004 for a work/vacation. This time my husband and I will be traveling with our new baby ( she will be 4 months in oct.) to new england in october. we are flying in and out of hartford, Conn. Oct.5 - Oct.14 so we have 8 days to see the foliage.We were planning on a day in Vt. near ben and jerry%26#39;s and lake champlain, couple days in Nh. near the white mountains (castle in the clouds?), couple of days in maine somwhere, not sure about Conn. yet and maybe a day in new york city. Iam a little worried about all the driving with the little one so If any one has any suggestions or advice on what to do and where to go I would greatly appriciate it, i know we need to make resevations soon. Thank you for your input.

2006 fall foliage trip

So, this baby is about a month old, now, eh? How tired are you? Do you have much experience of traveling with her, yet? My baby experience suggests that your optimal driving will be when the baby sleeps. Fortunately, at that age, they sleep a lot, but depending on the baby, in 15 minute to 3 hour segments. When she awakes, depending on her temperament, you will have 15 minutes to an hour or so of driving before you have to take care of baby business, including just being out of the restrictiveness of a car seat.

The locations you have mentioned are all probably 3 to 5 houors apart. And, in the vernacular of NH, ';You can%26#39;t get there from here.'; Burlington, VT to the White Mountains in NH does not have a lot of neat high speed highways. Likewise, NH to Maine, depending, especially, on where you are headed.

I would suggest lowering your travel expectations. The VT/NH/ME locations will probably be ideal for fall colors. I would drop NYC and CT. If you have not yet booked your travel, you also might want to consider flying into Burlington, VT, Manchester, NH or Portland, ME, and possibly even into one and home from the other, with a rent it here, drop it there car rental. If I had to choose one airport, I%26#39;d choose Manchester. It is reasonably convenient to both VT and ME, so you can fly in, drive to VT, do your cut across NH to ME, and return easily enough to Manchester. By the way, if NYC is important to you, drop either Maine or VT and leave some time to get there. But I%26#39;d recommend making that another trip.

The locations you are considering all sound great. Lake Champlain is beautiful and Burlington is a great city. In the Whiite Mountains, I%26#39;d avoid the North Conway area, just for traffic, but if you are there mid week, it may not be as bad. North Conway is home to excessive outlet shopping, though the rest of the area there is gorgeouos. But you can get a lot of the beauty driving up through Franconia Notch (I-93), across to Twin Mountain and down Rte 302 through Crawford Notch and past Mt Washington and the impressive Mt. Washington Hotel, down through North COnway to The beautifully scenic Kankamagus Highway (Rte 112) and back to the base of Franconia Notch. If you stay on the Franconia Notch side, there are lovely and convenient places to stay below the notch in Lincoln and Woodstock or above the notch in towns like Franconia, Sugar Hill, Littleton and a host of other towns both above and below the notch.

In Maine, if I were to go to one place, it would be Acadia national Park/Bar Harbor. But that will be a lot of driving on winding 2 lane roads across the state from NH to that part of the coast. My next choice would be the other Portland, in Maine, and any section of coast in either direction north or south. Portland, like its namesake in Oregon, is a great city, though smaller. Good wallking, shopping, eating, on the water opportunities, etc. The coast of Maine is gorgeous. There are tons of places to stay. I don%26#39;t know how busy they get at that time of year, though I%26#39;d guess pretty busy. From Portland, you are about 2 hours back to Manchester.