Portsmouth NH to Portland ME

WHAT WE DID:

Our route was via ME9 & US1.  What a glorious drive!  Coastal Maine at its best!!

We loved our stop at the Rachel Carson Nature Reserve (a hero of our times!) .  We loved the lighthouses, the deluxe holiday houses, the small ports, the charm of the towns… all movie set gorgeous!  But we were very disappointed with our lunch stop at Mabel’s Lobster Claw (overpriced, under-endowed lobster roll … and serving a fork for eating the melted icecream pie??? But DH was happy with his Lobster Mac & Cheese).

We stayed at the Inn At St John.  As fans of John Connolly crime fiction, we came by this from his website … and I checked it our on TA as well. It was a great choice. Staff were very helpful ensuring we had an accessible room, the accommodation stylish and cosy and the complimentary continental breakfast was the best!  We ate that night at The Great Lost Bear, another suggestion from John Connolly as his fictitious private eye “works” there.  Thanks, Mr Connolly … two excellent recommendations!

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/rachelcarson/

www.innatstjohn.com

http://www.greatlostbear.com

http://www.mabelslobster.com

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE

Not much!  Beautiful scenery and plenty of time to sight see. 

Would choose somewhere else for lunch.  This was one of the shortcomings of the timing of our trip – so many places were “Closed For The Season” (and in fact Mabel’s was closing up a few days later) so we didn’t always have a wide selection to choose from.

Boston MA to Portsmouth NH

WHAT WE DID :

Flew in, arriving at Logan at around 5.15.  Picked up rental car from Alamo.  Headed to Portsmouth via I-95.  It was dark, there was a fair bit of traffic and we were tired and hungry.  Good advice from Alamo counter on exiting the airport and city, and it was good to have the GPS!

Stayed at Port Inn (easy to find, good value, nice roomy room, very ordinary continental breakfast included).  Ate at Jumping Jay’s Fish Café (excellent!  especially their clam chowder).  Next morning toured around Portsmouth (beautiful).

www.theportinn.com

http://www.jumpinjays.com/

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE :

Portsmouth deserved more!  Should have allocated two nights as we were very tired when we arrived and didn’t get the best value out of a fine restaurant.  We saw a little of Portsmouth the next day, but would have like to have explored a lot more.

New England Road Trip

Everyone has different agendas and wishlists, and so, for what it is worth, here is a trip report of our holiday.  I did my planning mainly with the help of Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet Guides (New England & Trips) and lots of great websites (my favourites were http://www.visitnewengland.com/ and http://byways.org/ and http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurants/ )

We are more into history than art, more into photography than shopping, more into road food than fine dining, more into rural than urban.  As the road trip accounted for 19 nights of accommodation, and wasn’t the sum total of our holiday, I was also looking for accommodation that was reasonable in price (and for this in particular Trip Advisor was excellent). 

WHAT WE DID

We did a 1300mi (or around 2000 km) road trip through the New England states from October 23 till November 11.  We did a loop, setting out from and returning to Boston.

We had pre-booked a car from Alamo and all of our accommodation.  We took our own GPS.  I also picked up some maps from AAA.  And I had already planned the road trip on Google.

Boston MA > Portsmouth NH : 1 night

Portsmouth > Portland ME : 1 night

Portland > Bar Harbor ME : 6 nights (last minute change)

Bar Harbor > North Conway NH : 1 night (last minute change)

North Conway > Woodstock VT : 1 night

Woodstock > Great Barrington MA : 2 nights

Great Barrington > Mystic CT : 2 nights

Mystic > Newport RI : 3 nights

Newport > Concord MA : 2 nights

Concord > Boston MA : 1 night

We were originally booked for 5 nights in Bar Harbor and 2 nights in North Conway but Hurricane Sandy gave us reason to wait and see if bigger changes were necessary.  We were lucky and our thoughts were with those who bore the brunt of what was known as Frankenstorm.

WHAT WE WOULD CHANGE

Yes!  We would have loved to have been in the New England for the peak colour!! (This was an add-on holiday to a visit to family on the West coast and that dictated our travel dates).  But not to worry … there were pluses (like no crowds)

With the rental car, I had checked and even printed out the fine detail from the Alamo website, but when we picked up the car they refused the extra driver at no cost (even though site said it was a perk of being in their “Insiders Club”). We were told that our Alamo included insurance (which as Aussies we have to take) didn’t cover it.  An extra driver just about doubled the cost so DH was to be the only driver.  Next time I would get confirmation via email.  The strange thing was that we had just handed in our Alamo rental in San Francisco where we were both listed with no extra charge!!  Someone was wrong but we were too tired to argue the point and needed to be on our way.

We were very happy with what we saw and did on our road trip.  In fact, we are hard pressed to say what our favourite part was.  But we may, when pushed over a wine or two, consider some tweaks, eg Portsmouth : 2 nights; Bar Harbor : 4 nights; Mystic : 2 nights; Great Barrington : 3 nights

READING LIST :

The Witch of Blackbird Pond ~ Elizabeth George Speare
Little Women ~ Louisa May Allcot
The Crucible ~ Arthur Miller
It and others~ Stephen King
Cider House Rules and others ~ John Irving
The Perfect Storm ~ Sebastian Junger (wow! That was a bit prophetic!!)
Mystic River and others ~ Dennis Lehane
Charlie Parker series ~ John Connolly
Caleb's Crossing ~ Geraldine Brooks
The Marriage Plot ~ Jeffrey Eugenides

Empire Falls ~ Richard Russo

Olive Kitterage ~ Elizabeth Strout

In The Heart of the Sea ~ Nathaniel Philbrick

Ethan Frome ~ Edith Wharton

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

ROAD MUSIC : 

with a New England selection:

Connecticut ~ Judy Garland & Bing Crosby

Moonlight in Vermont ~ Willie Nelson

Massachusetts ~ Bee Gees

M.T.A ~ Kingston Trio

Old Cape Cod ~ Patti Page

Whoever’s in New England ~ Reba McEntire

Weekend in New England ~ Barry Manilow

The Last Resort ~ The Eagles

Please Come to Boston ~ Joan Baez

Cheers ~ TV Themes

I Will Find You (Last Of The Mohicans) ~ Clannad

with a little bit of travelling music thrown in:

On The Road Again ~ Willie Nelson

On The Road Again ~ Canned Heat

I’ve Been Everywhere ~ Johnny Cash

Going Up The Country ~ Canned Heat

No Particular Place To Go ~ Chuck Berry

King Of The Road ~ Roger Miller

Rockin’ Down The Highway ~ Doobie Brothers

Ramblin’ Man ~ The Allman Brothers

Travellin’ Man ~ Rick Nelson

America ~ Simon & Garfunkel

Sacramento, CA

San Francisco