New England Foliage Blog →
Planning your fall foliage trip in New England, 2009! (pt 1)
Thoughts on travel arrangements and sites to see
by Jeff "Foliage" Folger
A small pond in RI where from this direction I found great color. I do love a reflection...
Hey did everyone have a great fall 2008?
I know what you are all thinking? No I'm not crazy! I can see by the calendar that October is only four months away and fast approaching so I also know that a little planning is needed to have a nice relaxing Fall Foliage trip in New England.
Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting on different topics, such as travel suggestions, camera tips and some interviews like the one with Jimmy from California who is the one person to seriously out-do me on mileage. There may have been others but Jimmy did over 4000 miles in a week long driving odyssey with his girlfriend? I'll post some of the things that worked for him and those that didn't later this summer.
Step A: Start making plans and reservations.
I won't say you're late but if you are planning a trip for the Columbus Day weekend (which is the busiest weekend to try to travel for fall foliage) then you need to make reservations, ASAP. Next, if you are saying "I don't know where to go?", then you need to decide on what you want to see. As simple as this may sound it's very important. Listing the things you would like see and do will tell you where to go and when you should try to be there.
Step B: Outline what you want to do while here in New England (similar but not the same as above this gives a time line) and then you have to figure how much you're going to do in a day. Like, are you here for a relaxing spa day at a B&B on a hill side (Sugar Hill NH comes to mind) Or are you here to hike/bike Mount Washington? If you traveling with kids and you're mainly concerned with keeping them entertained. (We have so much for families I can't even begin to cover it all)
Here's a couple of quick suggestions for kid friendly travel. First you can try Six flags over New England (31$ per/person w/online offer) and Clark's trading post ($7 - $17).
Next, I will also mention a couple educational and fun things, yes I said the "E" word and fun in the same sentence. We have a couple of "Living museums" (not quite like in the movies but close), like the Plimouth Plantation in Plymouth Massachusetts where you can explore a Colonial English community set in the 1600s. Also you have Sturbridge Village, where you can view early New England life from 1790-1840. One of the country's largest living history museums, they have a large staff of historians in costume, 59 historic buildings on 200 acres, three authentic water-powered mills and two covered bridges. Visitors can ride in a stagecoach, view antiques, heirloom gardens, meet the farm animals, and take part in hands-on crafts year-round.
There are so many more that I would need ten blogs to mention them all.
Now while you start working on that part of the planning I also want you to start thinking about where you would like to stay each night. My friend Jimmy and his girl friend that I mentioned above are young, so not having lodging for a night is an adventure for them, and staying a parking lot in the car might work for them but for me, I like to have a comfortable bed and bathroom nearby. (Outhouse's are so yesterday!)
So start now matching up your lodging requirements with your budget. Whether you want B&Bs, Hotels, Inns, Motels, or campgrounds, we probably have something within your budget. You can start with Yankee Magazine's lodging deals for each of the states that you may be interested in. If you try this link Yankee Has listed different travel bargains in all six New England states After that you can start with the other travel sites. Stay tuned to this blog and I will be posting as many good deals as I find in my local travels. Also if you find a great deal let me know in the comments so everybody can see what and where you found a deal.
I hope to hear from you throughout the summer and if you have any questions please feel free to ask them here in the comments section or over in the foliage forum and I and the other forum regulars will do their best to answer them.
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