8 day roadtrip, starting point Stamford Connecticut

[EllenM]

Hello everyone!

I have been living here in Stamford, Connecticut for 7 weeks now and I will stay here a whole year working as an au pair. This spring my parent are coming to visit me and we want to rent a car and drive around from september 16th to 23th. I'm not really formilliar with the area yet so I don't know the best things to visit on our roadtrip. Could you give me some tips on routes we can take and things we should see?
The only thing we know we want to see are the niagara waterfalls and Boston. We love to drive through scenic routes and go for hikes. And it would also be nice if we could visit some places where we can learn more about the history of this area.

all your ideas are welcome!!

ellen

[Mass Tim]

Welcome to the RoadTrip America Forum!

New England has no shortage of scenic drives or places to go for hikes. I could give you an exhaustive list of them, but I'll try to narrow it down.

Since you want to see Boston, I would recommend taking a whole day just to see the city. It is a very walkable city, and has everything you could hope for in a city of its size. And the food...excellent!

In Connecticut, some must-sees are Mystic Seaport and the USS Nautilus. These are easily reached off of I-95. From there, you can head up into Boston, and spend your time meandering around the city.

I would then head up into New Hampshire, through the Presidential Range on I-93. This is an iffy time of year for hiking, due to weather changes, but there are few better places to take a hike in New England than this range.

From New Hampshire, West into Vermont - which has no shortage of great hikes in the Green Mountains. I think that can be redundant - the Green Mountains of Ver(de)mont? I digress...

West from there through the Adirondacks in New York. Notice I am just giving general directions and not specific routes at this point. So many great choices, so little time.

Along the coastline of Lake Ontario (I've not experienced this yet), and to Niagara Falls. From there, you can head back through the center of New York, through the Finger Lakes region. Then down through the Catskills and back into Connecticut.

You have picked a good time for your trip - the kids are back in school, the weather is still quite nice (though quite a bit cooler in the nighttime up North), and winter is still a ways out.

[EllenM]

thank you very much for your response! I think we will keep to this route you described, it sounds great :)
now I have another thing I could use some advice on: hotels. I would prefer it to not make any reservations before we start our trip, but just look for a place to sleep along the way. Do you think this is a good idea in this area and during this time of year?

[Mass Tim]

Outside of the prime travel season there usually isn't much cause for concern regarding making reservations. Even during the Summer months, it can be more of a challenge to find yourself high and dry - I know many times when I end up going to a hotel in the Summer I end up being upgraded to a better room at no cost. Always good for a hot tub soak!

Depending on how the weather is this Summer, that time of year is also a bit early for the "leaf peepers" to be out, so I think you'll be in very good shape to find good lodgings at a reasonable price.

I hope you've been able to take some drives through the Connecticut countryside. There is no shortage of interesting back roads drives in the state. I like to look for side roads with town names on them - these are usually old main roads and even sometimes former turnpikes, dating back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries.