Planning a honeymoon roadtrip - NYC to Maine

[catieeye]

Hi there

My fiance' and I will be heading to the USA in June 2018 for three weeks (flying in and out of JFK) for our honeymoon!

Half of our time will be spent in NYC as my fiancé's has never been, but we thought it might be a good idea to spend the other half doing a road trip to Maine.

We have about 10 days for the road trip.

I was thinking:

8 June 2018 - commence road trip from NYC

So far we are thinking to visit (in no particular order)

- Newport (activities include: Cliff Walk)
- Martha's Vineyard (activities include: whale watching)
- Cape Cod
- Maine
- New England
- Salem
- Boston
- (a big shopping outlet on the way home)

We are still very early in our planning. Does anyone have any input or suggestions? Also, we would be looking to do a coastal route on the way to Maine, and perhaps a more inland route on the way home. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which highways etc. we should be taking?

Also, any suggestions on places we 'must' visit. We love architecture, museums and food. We are very much go go go people and like to take in as much as possible while we are on holidays.

Thank you all so very much :)
Cat

[DonnaR57]

Welcome to RTA!

You might be interested in Acadia National Park, and the quaint town of Bar Harbor right at the park boundary, in Maine. Also, depending on exactly when in June you get to Maine and the Atlantic seacoast, you may be just in time for lobster season.


Donna

[Lifemagician]

Look at renting a car from New Jersey, somewhere along the rail line from NYC. You will find it is much cheaper than renting in NY.

For Boston, look for accommodation well out of town, somewhere along the railway line into the city. Check that the accommodation has free parking, so you can leave your car parked there, and take the commuter train into the city. Like NYC, Boston is not a place where you want to hassle having to find a parking spot.

Lifey

[catieeye]

Thanks for your response Donna :)

Acadia National Park is definitely on the list. Do you think 1/2 a day would be sufficient to allocate to the National Park.

Also would be in Maine around the 15th of June I believe.

- - - Updated - - -

Look at renting a car from New Jersey, somewhere along the rail line from NYC. You will find it is much cheaper than renting in NY.

For Boston, look for accommodation well out of town, somewhere along the railway line into the city. Check that the accommodation has free parking, so you can leave your car parked there, and take the commuter train into the city. Like NYC, Boston is not a place where you want to hassle having to find a parking spot.

Lifey

That's a great. Do you know of any places in NY that you could recommend?

Okay that is very good thinking, we didn't even think of that!

[AZBuck]

I suppose you could 'see' Arcadia in a half day, but that's not really doing it justice. Above all, Arcadia National Park is a place to commune with nature on the 'rock-ribbed coast' of Maine. Its highlights are actually its hiking and carriage trails, and there is no single site such as Old Faithful at Yellowstone, or Devils Tower, or Mount Rushmore that is the 'there' there. Add to that the fact that the town of Bar Harbor is itself worth at least half a day and that significant parts of Arcadia National Park are reachable only by ferry and you can easily see that a half day will simply not do justice to this jewel of the Atlantic coast.

There are, however, a few spots that I would recommend that you include that can be done in half a day or so. Included in these would be Mystic CT with its Mystic Seaport, a home-made ice cream shop on US-1 at the bridge over the Mystic River, and Abbott's Lobster in the Rough in nearby Noank. Then in Newport RI, Rosecliff Cottage was one of the locations used in the movie True Lies, and there's a restaurant downtown that shares a building with the International Tennis Hall of Fame and has seating courtside. I'd probably skip Cape Cod due to the fact that it's only reachable by two bridges over the Cape Cod Canal, is out of the way of your main route, and would take longer to get to and from than it might be worth. Salem MA, which is NOT the site of the Salem Witch Trials, is instead worth visiting for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. In Portsmouth NH take a look at Strawbery Banke, and south of Damariscotta ME there's Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site.

AZBuck