New England Fall Colours and Acadia

1. Day 1: Boston to the White Mountains

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

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Dinner
   • Stay: Mountain View Grand Resort or similar
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Boston Logan (BOS) by noon, where your See Sight Tours leader meets you at arrivals and loads your bags into our small van. We head north out of the city on Interstate 93, through the woods of southern New Hampshire and past the state capital at Concord, and the colour deepens as the land rises toward the White Mountains. The highway threads Franconia Notch, a narrow pass between Cannon Mountain and the Franconia Range, where Echo Lake and the cliffs above it are often at their brightest in early October. We stop on the way to stretch our legs and take photos. 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. Tonight the group gets to know each other over a welcome dinner.

   Included

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

   Activity: Land at Boston Logan by noon.

   

2. Day 2: The Cog Railway and Flume Gorge

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

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay: Mountain View Grand Resort or similar
   Day 2 details

   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. 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.

   Included

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

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the resort

   Activity: Warm layers, a hat and gloves for the summit.

   

3. Day 3: Across Maine to Bar Harbor

   Whitefield to Bar Harbor, about 4 hours 30 minutes

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay: Bar Harbor Grand Hotel or similar
   Day 3 details

   Today is the longest drive of the trip, about four and a half hours on the road, so we take it in easy stages. We leave the mountains east along the Androscoggin River through Gorham and cross into Maine near Bethel, where the river valley and the hills around it are among the most colourful stretches of the route, and stop there for photos. 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. Dinner together follows in town.

   Included

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

   Activity: The longest drive of the trip, broken by a scenic stop and lunch.

   

4. Day 4: Acadia National Park

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

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay: Bar Harbor Grand Hotel or similar
   Day 4 details

   Acadia became the first national park east of the Mississippi in 1919, three years after it was set aside as a national monument, much of it on land given by summer residents of Mount Desert Island, and took its present name in 1929. We start on the Park Loop Road and walk part of the Ocean Path, a mostly level coastal trail over pink granite between Sand Beach and Otter Point. At Thunder Hole, when the tide and swell are right, waves rush into a narrow slot in the rock and boom as the trapped air bursts out. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Ride the van between the Ocean Path viewpoints instead of walking.

   Free time: Free afternoon before sunset

   Activity: Thunder Hole is loudest about 1 to 2 hours before high tide, so the morning order follows the tide. Bring a warm layer for sunset.

   

5. Day 5: Lobster boat, Portland Head Light and Kennebunkport

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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay: The Nonantum Resort or similar
   Day 5 details

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

   Included

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

   Activity: Lunch on your own on the drive south.

   

6. Day 6: Kennebunkport to Boston

   Kennebunkport to Boston Logan airport, about 1 hour 45 minutes

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 6 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Boston Logan airport (BOS)

   Free time: Morning free in Kennebunkport

   Activity: Book flights leaving after 2 pm, later for international flights.

   

Wildlife and weather: Late September and early October bring crisp days, with afternoon highs of roughly 13 to 18°C (55 to 65°F) in the valleys and on the coast, cold nights in the mountains, and ice or even snow possible on the summit of Mount Washington. Harbour seals and seabirds are likely from the lobster boat. Moose live in the White Mountains but are not often seen.

• 2 nights · Days 1 and 2

  Mountain View Grand Resortor similar

  Whitefield · Hotel

  Historic resort hotel looking across to the Presidential Range

• 2 nights · Days 3 and 4

  Bar Harbor Grand Hotelor similar

  Bar Harbor · Hotel

  In town, a walk from the waterfront and the shops

• 1 night · Day 5

  The Nonantum Resortor similar

  Kennebunkport · Hotel

  On the Kennebunk River