Off-season New England Travel Deals

February 29, 2012 1:55 PM

Are there any great off-season travel deals or tips for a weekend in New England in March?

I am planning on spending the last weekend in March in New England. I'm flying into Boston, but want to spend the weekend with my girlfriend somewhere in Maine, Cape Cod, Nantucket . . . I don't really care where, exactly. She loves Maine, but really we both love just about all of New England, so, I'm sure anyplace will do.

Anyhow, I've heard tell of great off-season deals, particularly in coastal Maine, but perhaps elsewhere, where you can get a great deal on hotels or inns because they are all really built for the summer season, and no one wants to spend the week at the beach in March. But I'm having trouble finding a good resource or list for deals. I'm imagining a four-star type place that would be a fortune in July, but is a bargain in March.

Do you know of any great deals? In the alternative, any suggestions on where to spend a late March weekend in New England?

posted by JakeWalker to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

I went to Bar Harbor, ME one year for spring break and it was lovely. It's been a few years, but if it was affordable for two broke college students, I'd imagine it would be fairly affordable to the average person. We stayed in a lovely resort (can't remember the name off hand), but I think we just drove up and found a place kind of on a whim and without a reservation. There were a bunch of really nice resorts, with Google turning up these. There also are some cabins/cottages for rent, though they were more difficult to track down off season.

We spent much of the time hiking around Acadia National Park. Standing on a pebble beach watching fat snowflakes fall on the ocean was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I would go back in a heart beat.
posted by goggie at 2:12 PM on February 29, 2012

Acadia National Park is indeed awesome, but it's a five hour drive from Boston.
posted by dfan at 2:32 PM on February 29, 2012

Chatham Bars Inn is a really beautiful hotel on the Cape; you may want to look into that.
posted by kinetic at 3:52 PM on February 29, 2012

Bar Harbor is in fact a long drive from Boston, but barely populated in March, as opposed to other times of the year. With this non-winter winter, in fact, it probably will be pretty nice then (except for skiers).

There were a bunch of really nice resorts, with Google turning up these.

Remember that much of the town shuts up between Nov-May, which Google might not understand. The Chamber of Commerce maintains a special list of places that stay open all year.

I would guess that Old Orchard Beach or Cape Cod — although lacking, of course, the mountains of Acadia — would be just as nice a March beach experience.

p.s. If I was home you could stay at my place, but it's closed up at the moment because I'm on the 'left' coast of New England (down the street from Lake Champlain) this (non)winter.
posted by LeLiLo at 4:05 PM on February 29, 2012

I spent a long weekend in Provincetown, MA last February, right on the tip of Cape Cod. It was fantastic. We ate a ton of good food, walked the beach, browsed through the shops and art galleries (I was surprised how much was open in the low season), and spent a lot of time in front of a big roaring fire.
posted by xbonesgt at 9:04 AM on March 1, 2012