Quick New England Fall Foliage Road Trip

Fall is, by far, my favorite season!  Don’t get me wrong, summer is high on my list too, but there is something about fall that just makes my soul smile!  I love the colors, the fall smells, sweater and jeans weather, apples, pumpkins, cornstalks, mums—the list just goes on!  I’m not a fan of the gory Halloween stuff, but fall/harvest is my jam!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to travel to New England in the fall to see the changing leaves.  New England is known for their beautiful foliage and I wanted, so bad, to be a leaf peeper!  We planned to go in 2020, but those states were all banning Ohioans due to COVID so we didn’t get to go. 

Our kiddos are always off school around the second Friday of October, so it’s a perfect time to take a fall trip.  I started looking at flights over the summer and didn’t find any great deals so we considered driving.  My kids have been on so many road trips over the past couple of years, that another road trip was not something they wanted.

I saw an ad for Breeze Airways, which is a newer airline, that flies out of a few airports near me.  You can read about our Breeze Airways experience here! We ended up finding great flights—non-stop, good times and only $540 (round-trip) for our family of five, so we booked! Here are the stops we made:

Hartford, Connecticut

We flew in to Bradley International Airport (BDL) and stayed the night at the Hampton Inn Hartford Airport.  We are Hilton Honors members so we like Hampton Inn hotels.  They are reasonably priced, clean and offer free breakfast so they work well for our family. 

We picked up our car rental through Hertz, which I booked through my Tickets at Work account.  This is something my employer offers us as a way to save money.  We’ve used this account to save money on hotels, Universal and Disney tickets, car rentals, attraction tickets and more.  If you don’t have this benefit, check with your employer to see if they can add it!

I would have loved to hit some of the towns that inspired Gilmore Girls, but those were west of us and we were heading east.  We drove through Connecticut, but in mid-October, the leaves were still pretty green in this area.

Things to consider

If you’re planning a trip to New England, there are a couple of things you need to consider:

1. Cost: Prices are higher for a lot of things—especially if you’re traveling in leaf peeping season.  Some of our hotels as well as our car rental were pricier than usual.  We stayed in four different hotels and paid about $1000.  Just for comparison, we stayed five nights at a resort in Missouri and only spent $800.  We booked a rental car in Florida for 4 days and spent $132, whereas our rental car was $350 for this trip.
2. Parking: Remember that if you’re heading to a city or even the small towns in Vermont, you’re going to have to pay to park.  We did get lucky and found some street parking or metered parking in some places, but if you don’t, you’ll either be walking quite a way or paying upwards of $40. 
3. Kids: If New England is a family trip, you will probably want to plan for some kid activities.  We had a little bit of time and a whole lot to see in just a few days so we really didn’t do anything specifically for the kids.  Our plan was to hit all six New England States, so we were in the car a lot.  Between the driving and walking so our kids did a lot of complaining!  This trip was, honestly, more for me than for our kids—I wanted to see the leaves and they were coming along for the ride.  It’s a good time to teach them that it’s not always about them!  The good thing is, if you have time, there are plenty of things you can add in to make it more kid-friendly!

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is about an hour drive from Hartford, CT.  We stopped in DePasquale Square to see the fountain and stopped at Pistache for some sweet treats!  We had a blueberry muffin, chocolate chip cookies and an eclair, which were all delicious.  One of our favorite things to do on any vacation is find good places to eat–both food and treats–and Pistache didn’t disappoint.

We then drove to downtown Providence and parked.  I love just taking in all of the cool architecture. We walked and checked out some small shops, RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), the Van Wickle Gates of Brown University and had lunch at The Malted Barley.  They offer a variety of freshly made soft pretzels and sandwiches as well as ciders and beers.  And they also had root beer on draft for the kids!  Their food was good and their pumpkin cider was a favorite! 

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston was about an hour from Providence so we headed there next.  Before we went into the city, we walked the campus of Harvard and drove past MIT.  From there, we headed to our hotel.  We stayed at the Hilton Downtown/Fanueil Hall.  Hotels in the city definitely cost more than those farther away, but sometimes the extra cost is worth it–especially if it means you can easily get around. Our hotel was located in an area that allowed us to walk everywhere, which means we didn’t have to fight city traffic or pay for parking at a variety of locations.

Parking can be a big expense too. Our hotel charged $65 to park (on top of the hotel cost) so we chose to park at the Boston Common parking garage because it was significantly less ($18) than parking at the hotel.  You can usually reserve parking online via SpotHero (or other similar sites) that cost less. You just have to pay attention to the in/out privileges. If you need to have your car, some of those garages don’t allow you to leave and come back. In our case, we got a cheaper parking rate since we were planning to walk everywhere.

And remember that even if the garage is a little farther away, hotels offer short-term parking for check in/out. So you don’t have to worry about dragging your luggage all over the city.

Boston has an aquarium and science center that can easily be added for the kiddos!  We did not do either of these, but we walked to the Boston Public Gardens, which was beautiful, plus we checked out Cheers and Acorn Street in the Beacon Hill district.  On our walk, we stopped at the Omni Parker House for some Boston Cream Pie.  We couldn’t go to Boston without trying this iconic dessert from its birthplace!  It was a perfect snack before dinner and it was devoured pretty quickly!

We then continued our walk and went to Fanueil Hall for some dinner.  The kids had Regina Pizzeria, which they enjoyed.  My husband got clam chowder from Boston Chowda Co. as well as a lobster roll from Walrus & Carpenter Oyster Bar.  Both were good!

I ordered chicken parmesan from Giacomo’s for dinner.  The chicken was flavorful and tender, but in all honesty, their sauce was bland and watery.  It’s one of the top restaurants in Boston, but I just wasn’t all that impressed with my meal.  If you want great chicken parmesan, head to Youngstown, Ohio and eat at Nicolinni’s Ristorante!  Nothing compares to our hometown Italian cooking!

We also picked up a chocolate covered cannoli from Mike’s Pastry and it was out of this world!  I’ve had Cannoli from several places and that was the best I’ve ever had!

Our initial plan for breakfast was to head to a local bakery near our hotel.  However, we just became Diamond Members with Hilton so we received a $20 food voucher with our stay.  We decided to just grab a bite to eat at Tradesman Coffee Shop & Lounge right inside our hotel.  We sampled a variety of items including a Pumpkin cream cheese croissant, the bacon and egg biscuit, chocolate chip cookie and chocolate croissant, all of which were very good.  Plus this café had a cool little vibe!

Salem, Massachusetts

Once we left Boston, we headed to Salem, MA.  I am not into Halloween horror, but Salem is such a cool place to visit—especially this time of year.  It’s been on my bucket list to visit for a while now!  I even re-read the Crucible in our hotel the night before to remind me about the witch trials.

Because Salem is a popular destination around Halloween, be prepared for crowds.  Parking was between $30-$40 for the day. I only planned to be in Salem for about an hour so I wasn’t willing to spend that kind of money on parking!  We ended up finding some free parking on a side street not too far way. 

We saw the Salem Maritime Museum, awesome decorations, the Nathaniel Hawthorn Statue, Witch Village, and the Bewtiched statue.  The streets were closed for the festivities so there were lots of people dressed up, vendors, etc.  You can easily spend the day or more in Salem, but my goal was just to see it while we were in the area.

Hampton Beach, New Hampshire

We left Salem and headed north towards Portsmouth, NH.  We hopped on the highway, but took a detour in Salisbury to catch 1A.  This road follows the Atlantic Coast so it gave us a totally different view.  We ended up driving through Hampton Beach, NH and decided to stop for some shopping and lunch. 

The beach was super-wavy, but it was beautiful.  We ate at Sea-Ketch for lunch where we had a nice ocean view!  Our lunch was great—my husband was excited to get some fresh seafood!  If you are a fan of crab rangoons, try their lobster rangoons—they were delicious!  My husband and kids are seafood fans so they got a platter, which they all enjoyed. 

Just outside of the restaurant was a playground. It was right on the beach so we had a great view and the kids were able to burn off some steam.  I ran in to a few of the local souvenir shops while my husband and kids played.  Everyone totally enjoyed this town!  I bet it’d be a fun spot to visit in the summer months. 

We continued up 1A and went through Reys beach, which is full of beautiful mansions right on the water.  We didn’t stop, but it was nice to just drive by and take in the view!  I was on this trip to be a leaf peeper, but I will take a coastal view any day!

Kennebunkport, Maine

Next, we headed up to Kennebunkport, ME.  On our way in, we stopped at a little coffee shop for a quick photo (Brewed Awakenings).  The coffee shop wasn’t open when we arrived, but they have an adorable mural and old teal Ford truck.  Teal/turquoise is my favorite color so I just needed a quick photo.

We continued up to the town of Kennebunkport, which was another little coastal town.  It was busy, but not busy like Boston!  We walked around the town and checked out some of the shops.  I got a brown sugar and cinnamon latte from Dock Square Coffee House, which was wonderful!  We also got some candy from The CandyMan shop and ice cream from Rococo.  The kids loved the speculoos and pretzel flavor.

Manchester, New Hampshire

When we left Kennebunkport, we headed to our hotel in Manchester, NH.  We were pretty exhausted for the night so we just ordered sushi and ate in our room.  If we weren’t so exhausted, we probably would have taken the kids over to Dave and Busters, which was right across the street from our Hampton Inn.

Franconia, New Hampshire

On Sunday, we woke up early, had breakfast at the hotel and drove up north to Echo Lake in Franconia Notch State Park.  We hiked the short trail up to Artist’s Bluff for some beautiful pictures of the lake.  I wouldn’t call this hike easy.  There are lots of rocks to climb, which the kids loved.  The climb is also steep in places so just be prepared for that!  That being said, there were lots of people of all ages on this trail. 

The leaves in this part of New Hampshire were about 85-90% changed so it really looked like fall here.  This is the first place we saw good fall foliage so if you’re planning a trip to New England, you’ll need to go pretty far north, depending on when you go.

There is a Tramway that runs in this area as well, but we were there at about 9:45am and they were already sold out for the day.  So if you plan to ride that, you’ll need to book your tickets in advance.

Woodstock, Vermont

On our way back down to Connecticut, we were hitting our final state, Vermont.  Woodstock, VT is a quaint town, but it was so busy that it wasn’t as exciting to see as I had expected.  New England draws in so many visitors in the fall months and there are lots of events happening all over. 

We were getting hungry, but most of the restaurants either closed early since they were more breakfast/lunch spots or they were super busy.  Most restaurants also take reservations so if you don’t have one, you likely won’t get in.  If you’re planning to spend time in Woodstock, I would suggest planning your day in advance and make reservations so you can eat where you want!

One of the things I really wanted to see was the Sleepy Hollow Farm, which is one of the most picturesque spots in Vermont!  It was beautiful and postcard perfect!  I highly recommend this spot if you’re in the area!  It is busy though and my picture was actually just snapped from the car.  People were parking all over the road, but you really aren’t supposed to.

Chester, Vermont

We continued driving south and stopped in Chester, VT.  This is another small town, but we were all a little hangry by this time.  We tried stopping at a few restaurants and ran into the same issues we did in Woodstock.  We ended up getting the kids McDonald’s because they needed something fast!  My husband tried out some ribs from a BBQ food truck that had good reviews (Two Neanderthals Smokin’ BBQ).  By the time we got there, they were out of most things, but he was fine with ribs.  They ended up being really good and worth the little detour! 

Chicopee, Massachusetts

From there, we headed to our hotel for the night, which was Hampton Inn Chicopee, MA.  The kids enjoyed the pool for a bit and we watched a movie in our room and crashed pretty early!  We had breakfast at the hotel in the morning and headed back to the airport, which was only around a 30-minute drive.  Our flight with Breeze was great—not too early and smooth!

It was nice to do a quick getaway to see all of the six New England states, but we could easily make this trip a week or more!  It honestly wouldn’t be hard to spend at least a few days in each of those states!  There are so many things we didn’t get to see so we’ll have to head there again soon!

What do you recommend in New England?

Have you been to New England during leaf peeping season?  What are your favorite spots?  I’d love to check it out in other seasons too!  What are the best places to see during other seasons?