New England Fall Colours and Acadia

Boston to the White Mountains

Boston Logan airport to Whitefield, New Hampshire, about 3 hours

• Repas du soir
• Hébergement : Mountain View Grand Resort ou équivalent
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

By late afternoon we reach Whitefield, on the northern edge of the mountains, and check in to a grand old resort hotel that looks across the valley to the Presidential Range, your home for two nights.

Soir

Tonight the group gets to know each other over a welcome dinner.

Compris

• Pick-up at Boston Logan airport (BOS)
• Drive through Franconia Notch
• Welcome dinner

The Cog Railway and Flume Gorge

Mount Washington and Franconia Notch, about 2 hours of driving in short legs

• Petit-déjeuner
• Hébergement : Mountain View Grand Resort ou équivalent
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive about 35 minutes to the base station of the Mount Washington Cog Railway, the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway, which has carried passengers to the summit since 1869. The train pushes up three miles of track with grades as steep as 37 percent, over the curved wooden trestle called Jacob's Ladder and above the tree line onto the bare rock of the summit cone. At 6,288 feet (1,917 m), Mount Washington is the highest peak in the northeastern United States, and on a rare clear day the view reaches four states and Quebec. The round trip takes about three hours, with roughly an hour at the top. Summit trips run only when the mountain's famous weather allows.

Après-midi

In the afternoon we walk Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch, a granite chasm found in 1808, the story goes, by a 93-year-old woman out fishing. Boardwalks and stairs climb beside a rushing brook between walls 70 to 90 feet high. The late afternoon is free at the resort.

Compris

• Mount Washington Cog Railway to the summit, weather permitting
• Flume Gorge boardwalk walk

Across Maine to Bar Harbor

Whitefield to Bar Harbor, about 4 hours 30 minutes

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Hébergement : Bar Harbor Grand Hotel ou équivalent
• Environ 5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch together is in a Maine town on the way, then we carry on east through farmland and forest to Bangor and down to the coast at Ellsworth. A short bridge takes us onto Mount Desert Island, home to Bar Harbor and most of Acadia National Park. After check-in at our hotel, an easy walk from the centre, your leader takes you along the Shore Path, a public footpath beside Frenchman Bay that passes the summer 'cottages' of the Gilded Age, when wealthy families made Bar Harbor one of the grandest resorts in America.

Soir

Dinner together follows in town.

Compris

• Scenic stop in the Androscoggin River valley
• Lunch on the drive
• Evening walk on the Shore Path along the Bar Harbor waterfront

Acadia National Park

Ocean Path, Jordan Pond and Cadillac Mountain, about an hour of driving

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Hébergement : Bar Harbor Grand Hotel ou équivalent
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is at Jordan Pond House, where hot popovers with strawberry jam have been served since the late 1800s, looking up the pond to the two rounded hills called the Bubbles. Then a horse-drawn carriage takes you for an hour along the broken-stone carriage roads that John D. Rockefeller Jr. built across the island. The afternoon is free.

Soir

Before dusk we drive up Cadillac Mountain, the tallest peak on the Atlantic coast of the United States at 1,530 feet, for sunset, then sit down to a lobster dinner.

Compris

• Acadia National Park entry
• Ocean Path walk and Thunder Hole
• Lunch with popovers at Jordan Pond House
• 1-hour carriage ride with Wildwood Stables
• Sunset on Cadillac Mountain
• Lobster dinner

Lobster boat, Portland Head Light and Kennebunkport

Bar Harbor to Kennebunkport by way of Portland Head Light, about 3 hours 45 minutes

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Hébergement : The Nonantum Resort ou équivalent
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

This morning we board a traditional Maine lobster boat in Bar Harbor for a cruise of a little under two hours on Frenchman Bay. The captain hauls a few traps, shows you how each lobster is measured, and explains why the undersized ones and the egg-carrying females go back into the sea. Harbour seals often rest on the ledges, and seabirds work the water around the boat. Back on land we drive south, about three hours, to Cape Elizabeth and Portland Head Light, the oldest lighthouse in Maine, first lit in 1791, standing white above the surf in Fort Williams Park.

Après-midi

Lunch is on your own along the way. From the lighthouse it is under an hour to Kennebunkport, an old shipbuilding town that became a summer resort, on the Kennebunk River.

Soir

Our hotel for the last night sits beside the river, and tonight the group gathers for a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Lobster boat cruise with Lulu Lobster Boat Rides
• Portland Head Light
• Farewell dinner

Kennebunkport to Boston

Kennebunkport to Boston Logan airport, about 1 hour 45 minutes

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

The morning is yours in Kennebunkport. Walk into Dock Square, the small hub of shops, galleries and cafes by the bridge over the Kennebunk River, or follow Ocean Avenue past grand shingled houses toward Walker's Point, the Bush family's summer home, which you can see across the water from a roadside lookout. Early risers can watch the light come up over the river mouth with a coffee in hand. After breakfast and a last look at the harbour, we leave late in the morning and drive south on Interstate 95, past Portsmouth in New Hampshire and into Massachusetts, about an hour and three quarters, to Boston Logan airport.

Après-midi

We plan to reach the terminals in the early afternoon, so book a flight that leaves after 2 pm, or later for an international flight. If you would like more time in New England, ask us about extra nights in Boston before or after the trip.

Compris

• Drop-off at Boston Logan airport (BOS)