NYC-Montreal-Quebec-Acadia-NH-VT Trip

[splatino]

Hi!

I was thinking about doing a road trip early September, been reading some advice and I come up with a tentative schedule, any suggestions?

Day 1 - From NYC drive upstate, pass Albany (is it worth visiting for a couple hours?). Keep going north and spend rest of the day in the Lake Champlain - Burlington, VT area. (4-5 hours drive)
Day 2 - From Burlington to Montreal (1h30m drive). Is it Route 2 across lake Champlain worth the 30 minutes detour? Visit Montreal
Day 3 - Visit Montreal and take the car in the afternoon, drive to Quebec (2h30m). Night in Quebec
Day 4 - Visit Quebec
Day 5 - Visit the waterfalls near Quebec and heads towards Acadia NP (6h drive). Anything fun in between? Spend the afternoon in Bar Harbor or Acadia NP. Most probably book a camping site in Acadia NP
Day 6 - Visit Acadia NP
Day 7 - Drive Maine coast (Route 1) from Acadia to Portland, ME. (Belfast, Camdem... 3h30 to 4h drive). Sleep between Portland, ME and White Mountains.
Day 8 - Explore White Mountains, NH
Day 9 - White Mountains to Vermont, explore Route 100 across Green Mountains?
Day 10 - Back to NYC.

I know it's a busy road trip. We are used to these kind of trips.
Some possible modifications:
1. Skip Burlington-Lake champlain and take the drive from NYC to Montreal. One extra afternoon in the city.
2. Throw one extra day in the NH - VT area. I think that White mountains deserve a minimum of one full day. When leaving White mountains, we would have 3 days to spend in NH, VT and way back to NY... This is the area where I have more doubts about.

Any help will be appreciated, thanks!

[DonnaR57]

Are you looking to do some leaf-peeping? It just might be a bit early for that.

Also -- I'm not sure where you're getting your travel times from. My husband and I went from Portland ME to Bar Harbor ME, back in 2012, on our vacation. I'm pretty sure it took us a bit longer than 3-1/2 or 4 hours to do that 160+ mile trip. (Check out this thread, post #26, for details of that area.) There were several places to stop and see, and if you're into antiques at all, this was Antiquers Heaven!


Donna

[splatino]

Thanks Donna,

I know we are early for leaf peeping, but we cannot change the dates we're traveling.
Thanks for the advice, I check the driving times from Google Maps. 3h30m drive from Bar Harbor to Portland on Route 1, but I expect doing most of the day stopping along Route 1.

Anyone else helps me with my other questions?

What do you guys recommend for White Mountains and central-southern Vermont area?

[AZBuck]

First, let me point out a couple of discussions that speak directly to some of the areas you're going to be visiting: Albany to Montréal, Québec, and New England in general. There are a lot of great little out-of-the-way sites to see all through your proposed travels.

Secondly, I will reiterate the point that Donna made. Driving time estimates from any mapping software are best case and include actual behind-the-wheel driving time only. For a better handle on how long it will actually take you to get from Point A to Point B, add 20% and any time you plan to spend at stops along the way (including time to get there from and back to your main route).

Finally, if Burlington VT makes your final itinerary, consider taking a ferry across Lake Champlain, either from Essex NY to Charlotte VT or (a bit longer) from Fort Kent NY directly into Burlington. It's then a relatively simple matter to continue north from Burlington to Montréal along the east side of the Lake and the Richelieu River.

AZBuck