New England weekend getaway suggestions?

August 12, 2005 9:14 AM

Recommendations for a New England/upstate NY weekend getaway?

The hitch is that this is short notice (next weekend), so booking places in some of the more obvious places is getting to be a problem. We're going Sat-Tues, would like to stay in B&B's under $200. I'm willing to drive about as far as Cape Cod, and heading south doesn't appeal to me in August.

posted by mkultra to travel & transportation (19 comments total)

Barre, VT? [nytimes article]

I'm also a fan of Shelbourne Falls, MA and the upper Connecticut River valley (Quechee Gorge, etc.) The Upper Valley is about a 4-hour drive from NYC. No B&B recommendations, though, sorry.
posted by strikhedonia at 9:39 AM on August 12, 2005

Apple Picking in the hudson valley is nice, but you're really about a month too early for prime season.
posted by TTIKTDA at 9:42 AM on August 12, 2005

Ferry over to Burlington, then drive north and over the bridges across the pretty little islands at the top of Lake Champlain - and then to Montreal for dinner the last night.
posted by nicwolff at 9:44 AM on August 12, 2005

In the same Hudson valley area, you can find the New York Renn Faire. You can get a discount on tickets online, and it's a big enough event for at least a weekend's worth of entertainment. The best part of it is the setting: Sterling Forest. I've been at Renn Faires before that were nothing more than parking lot or open-field attractions. This location is perfectly co-habitating with a crap-load of big sheltering trees.
posted by thanotopsis at 9:47 AM on August 12, 2005

Rockport, MA- right on the water, so cute. Stay at the Bearskin Neck Motor Lodge.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:51 AM on August 12, 2005 [1 favorite]

[changed strikhedonia's link to one not requiring login ]

I live in the Upper Valley and you can get a room in a B&B across the street from me for $70/night-ish. The fruity place up the street isn't much more. From this area you can get to hiking up on Killington, walking around lovely Hanover NH [Dartmouth, things to do etc] and a short drive to Montpelier, Barre or even Burlington. This page has a ton of listings for the local area ranging from the really fancy to the servicable but plain. What do you like to do on weekend getaways? That might help folks give more specifics.
posted by jessamyn at 10:35 AM on August 12, 2005

Litchfield county, CT is very nice.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:55 AM on August 12, 2005

I second the Rockport idea...in fact, you could make a whole trip to various Cape Ann locations...Rockport, Essex (be sure to head over to Woodman's and the surrounding Antique shops), Gloucester...and Ipswich and Neburyport (and its cool little brick-building'ed downtown).

Staying near these northern coastal towns in a good bet during these hot and humid summer weeks...
posted by tpl1212 at 11:21 AM on August 12, 2005

That would be Newburyport, not Neburyport (which, if it existed, would probably be nice).
posted by tpl1212 at 11:53 AM on August 12, 2005

FYI, if you go to the Berkshires in Mass. or neighborhing Litchfield County, CT, the Tanglewood music fest is going on now, which is nice if you like that kind of thing but made it almost impossible for us to find a room in or around Great Barrington last weekend during a similarly impromptu getaway. (We were not necessarily looking for B&Bs, but if even the crappy motels were full, well, you can imagine.)
posted by scratch at 1:07 PM on August 12, 2005

If you're out on route 2, make sure you stop by the People's Pint in Greenfield for lunch or dinner. That place is awesome. Very organic, very enviromentally friendly (they throw out one or two bags of trash, max on their busiest nights), very supportive of local foods and produce, very affordable, and very tasty.

And they make their own beer, too.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:23 PM on August 12, 2005

(or, after looking at the hours, go there for dinner. They open at 4.)
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:24 PM on August 12, 2005

The only B&B I have personal experience with is the Molly Stark Inn. We stayed outside tourism season (in April) and during the week, and so got bumped up from a room to a cabin. It was simply lovely. No idea how it is in the summer.
posted by Eideteker at 2:17 PM on August 12, 2005

I spent last weekend at the Devil's Den Farm B&B, in Chelsea, VT. Very quiet; no WiFi, and cell phones don't work there. It's the kind of place where people wave when they drive by. Clean and comfortable.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:14 PM on August 12, 2005

Central New York is great, especially the Finger Lakes. Here are my picks.
posted by Vidiot at 9:41 PM on August 12, 2005

In the Catskill area, there is great day hiking and lots of almost all inclusive resorts (a little older as they were really popular in the 40s for mobsters and stars to visit and rejuvenate) but they are really fun and quaint. Three meals a day, usually a pool and/or bar and tennis courts right there, lots of friendly people, and nightly activities (bands, "horse racing", fireworks). these resorts are suaully a little family oriented, but if you are a couple, that can be fun to meet some people from the city cutting back - lot sof characters.
I used to work at one of these and I still love visiting when I get the chance because everything I want to do for a weekend is so easy.
posted by eggerspretty at 6:15 AM on August 13, 2005

And you can stay with Kate Pierson if you go to the Catskills...
posted by Vidiot at 7:09 AM on August 13, 2005

If you're looking to really get away, immerse yourself totally in New Englandness, and be so cut off from regular civilization that you're forced to relax, I recently spent a wonderful weekend at the Maple Leaf Inn in Barnard, Vermont. It's run by a wonderful couple for whom the inn is a bit of "retirement" -- wonderful rooms with king sized beds, three course breakfasts, whirlpool baths, bed turndowns while you're out for dinner. They are two of the most congenial people I've ever met.

I'm a pretty laid back person, and even I was amazed by how relaxing it all was.

Food is a very important part of my travels, and the area did not disappoint. The Barnard Inn is less than 5 minutes down the street and is operated by two chefs that ran restaurants in San Francisco -- dinner was so wonderful that we planned to return a second night, but it was their off day. Down in beautiful Woodstock, 9 miles south, is The Prince and the Pauper, where I had an incredible pastry + pork loin dish that is hard to do justice to with words. We weren't as successful with lunch choices, but I was told when we returned that we should have tried the Simon Pearce restaurant in Quechee.

Harpoon Brewery is nearby, as is two Simon Pearce locations -- at the larger one you can watch glassblowing and pottery work from an overhead walkway.

I'd recommend coming up on route 91 in Vermont, as it's a quick and picturesque journey. You can even take a lunch stop in Brattleboro on your way up. We made the mistake of heading back to Boston on route 89 through New Hampshire, and were greeted almost immediately with the "civilization" we had left almost immediately on the route we took away from the city.
posted by VulcanMike at 10:20 AM on August 13, 2005

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. We actually got a great deal at the Isaiah Jones Homestead in Sandwich, recommended by a friend of my g/f.
posted by mkultra at 7:09 AM on August 16, 2005