Beginners need your help! Boston>Canada Roadtrip September/October.

Hi All,

We really are beginners and would welcome absolutely any help, tips or advice!

We have 4 weeks Mid September>Mid October and would like to do New England and up into Canada. We are really easy on the best way of doing things etc.

Would definitely like to do Boston, Cape Cod, Skiing somewhere…Vermont (will it be too early??)

I know much more about west coast Canada than East Coast. Does anyone have any recommendations of things we shouldn’t miss on the East coast.

As you can tell we are at the very early stages but any help would be appreciated!! Also, about best/cheapest places to fly into and out of?

Amy

If this were me, I'd start by checking all the possibilities for flying in/out of, and seeing which ones have deals for you. We have no idea where you're flying from, and that could make a difference which ones are cheapest. NYC or Newark are probably the most common, with Boston also being fairly common.

Pull out a large map of the area, or an atlas. Look to see if anything jumps out at you that you want to see. Go to the Map Center on this website with the same purpose. Once you get a good idea of what's out there, a route will start to develop. Come back here and we can help you fine-tune it. There really isn't a "best way" of doing things, but this is a pretty common way to start planning a nice trip like that. We at RTA aren't really big on "shouldn't miss" - one man's treasure is another man's "couldn't be less interested".

I'm thinking that it might be too early for skiing in Vermont (it would be here on the west side of the country), but you should get some beautiful fall colors!


Donna

I will be taking a similar trip this summer, so besides all my previous experience with New England, I've also been planning an excursion into neighboring Quebéc. From roughly the area you'll be traveling through in New England, the 'best' destinations in Quebéc are probably Quebéc City, Montréal, and the Eastern Townships. Quebéc City, especially the old walled city has a unique charm and feels the most as though you are in Europe, but at least some knowledge of the French language would be helpful as this is the center of Quebéc separatism. Montréal is a larger, more cosmopolitan and polyglot city, but still its Old Port area will give you the feel of having traveled farther than you have. In between and south of the St. Lawrence River is the area known as the Eastern Townships, a scenic rural area with a number of national and provincial parks as well as a fascinating history.

A couple of other factors in your planning are the timing of your trip and, as Donna notes, where you fly into. We are flying into Albany NY because we got an insanely great deal on our flights and rental car. Other possibilities that you should look into, besides the obvious Boston, include Hartford CT, Providence RI, Manchester NH, Portland ME, Burlington VT, and Plattsburg NY. All are serviced by major airlines or their feeder subsidiaries. Mid-September to mid-October will be too early for skiing, but the later part of that timeframe is ideal for fall foliage (leaf-peeping). That's both good and bad. The driving will be spectacularly beautiful, but you will be sharing the roads with many more people, and reservations will be essential.

AZBuck

Hi,

You've got time and lots of options. If you like national parks then you might consider going up the coast through New Hampshire and Maine (Acadia National Park, Campobello Island), then continue along the coast (Fundy National Park in New Brunswick). After that you could head inland and back down into the US, north to Prince Edward Island or east to Nova Scotia.