An alternative American road trip — through the heart of New England
Cape Elizabeth lighthouse on the coast of Maine
Ask anyone what their dream holiday would be and there’s a good chance they will say, “a road trip across America”. It’s on countless bucket lists.
Well, I’ve just done one. Not the usual fantasy journey of Chicago to LA on what’s left of Route 66, or from the east coast to west coast across never-ending prairies and high mountain deserts.
My trip was 1,000 miles around four of New England’s six states in the north-east corner of the country: Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
There was not a cowboy hat to be seen as I drove through forested mountains, beautiful colonial towns, and along a spectacular rugged coast.
The quaint wooden homes and picket fences, so familiar from a thousand TV shows and movies, were everywhere.
And the towns, being a couple of hundred years older than those out west, have real soul and character compared to the nondescript crossroads that dot so many newer states.
I saw artworks I never imagined, visited museums that would be the envy of New York or London, slept in a log cabin, and sampled oysters while being tossed around on a small boat on the Atlantic.
And the food! A journalist friend once got into trouble in a small Texan town after writing that fresh vegetables appeared to be illegal.
There’s no shortage of fresh produce in New England, famous for its fish, lobster, cranberries, maple syrup, blueberries, and potatoes, and for great restaurants.
I began my journey by flying with Delta direct from Dublin to Boston, the largest city in New England and a huge favourite with Irish travellers.
The city has completely reinvented itself in recent decades, not least by knocking down an ugly four-storey high expressway, putting it underground, and replacing it with the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, an oasis of calm in the city centre named after the mother of former US president John F Kennedy.
Boston is endlessly historic and the best way to see it is on foot. The city was the birthplace of the American Revolution and the Freedom Trail takes you past all the major sites, from the Boston Tea Party Museum to the Battle of Bunker Hill Monument.
I also did the Boston Irish Heritage Trail past the greenway, famine memorial, old burial grounds, and a multitude of monuments dedicated to Irish immigrants.
Shoppers will love walking along stylish Newbury St, the commercial heart of the city, lined with flagship stores, galleries, and restaurants.
They will also get a kick out of bustling Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Quincy Market, both packed with shops and eateries.
I had been to Boston before so the purpose of this trip was to see the rest of New England; my next stop was the wonderful city of Portland, just over one hundred miles up the coast in Maine.
Much smaller than Boston, with a population of 68,500, it is a real fishing town with its ancient and battered wharfs oozing charm.
Old warehouses have been transformed into trendy shops and restaurants but it remains one of the last working waterfronts in the US.
There’s a monument dedicated to movie director John Ford, who lived in the city, and to the six films for which he won Oscars, including our very own The Quiet Man. Prolific writer Stephen King is also from Portland.
I joined a Maine Day Ventures Foodie tour and in Andy’s Pub we saw haddock being delivered straight from the fish market 20 minutes before we tucked into succulent fish corn tacos.
Maine is famous for its beer — Portland has 25 breweries, the most per capita in the world — and we washed our meal down with a locally made sweet, Alagash White.
The signature dish in Gilbert’s Chowder House next door, filled with lobster, clams, shrimp, and fish, belied the humble surroundings.
And no visit to Portland would be complete without a visit to the 1950s fish market, full of atmosphere along with grouper, mackerel, tuna, black sea bass, haddock, squid, live lobsters, and 15 types of oyster.
We had delicious lobster rolls in Rigby Yard, a large bar on Wharf St next to a cafe offering “Coffee and Cannabis”, the latter being legal in Maine.
The next day saw me on the Portland City and Lighthouse Tour on an old-style city trolley, which takes you along the beautiful coastline to Portland Head Light on the spectacular shores of Cape Elizabeth.
A fun morning on the water was spent with Alicia Gaiero, one of the “Nauti Sisters” who run an oyster farm off the coast of Yarmouth, 12 miles north of Portland, while two bald eagles flew over our heads.
After working as an intern, Alicia was encouraged to launch her own farm in 2020 and last year sold 70,000 oysters and planted 180,000.
She buys them from a hatchery at 4-6mm, grows them for up to three years until they are 2.5 to 3 inches and sells them for 90c each. The market sells them on for $2.
“I’m lucky because oysters are hot and sexy right now, with young people going to oyster bars. A few years ago, the market was just for the older population,” says Alicia, who is helped by sisters Amy and Chelsea in the all-woman operation.
They began boat tours to the farm four miles out in Casco Bay last summer as the oyster collection season is so short, from mid-June to mid-July. Boats leave from the Royal River boatyard, Yarmouth.
Just 10 miles north of Yarmouth is the shopping mecca of Freeport, full of outlet and factory stores likes LL Bean, Ralph Lauren, Gap, and J Crew. I bought two pairs of jeans in the Levis shop for $39 each when they cost over €100 in Ireland.
The next day, I turned away from the sea and drove inland to New Hampshire, arriving two hours later in the quaint town of Jackson where I was intrigued to see a large Irish flag hanging outside the beautiful Wentworth Inn.
Built in 1869, the Wentworth was once one of the major resorts in the east with the opening of the railways but eventually fell into decline and closed in 1971.
After years of neglect, it was restored to its former glory by Swiss entrepreneur Fritz Koeppel and his Irish wife Ellie, from Cork, who ran it for 30 years.
Fritz died in 2017 but his wife still lives in the town and the Irish and Swiss flags fly in their honour to this day — although the gorgeous hotel is now owned by a corporation.
Further south is the town of Holderness sitting on Squam Lake where much of the Henry Fonda, Katherine Hepburn, and Jane Fonda movie, On Golden Pond, was filmed.
The Squam Lakes Science Center offers 90-minute cruises around the lake, which has 62 miles of shoreline and 33 named islands. It’s a breeding ground for Arctic Loons and we spotted a few.
Where did I stay? Where else but the homely Inn at Golden Pond.
Next on the agenda, I passed the busy holiday resort of Woodstock and countless trailheads for hikes in the huge White Mountain National Forest.
Crossing the Vermont border the town of St Johnsbury was a revelation with its stunning collection of colonial houses.
The whole Main St was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. A quarter of the buildings in town were designed by local architect Lambert Packard from 1866, although some were lost to fire.
My stay in Vermont was at the Sterling Ridge Resort, a fabulous collection of log cabins in the mountains outside Jeffersonville. Warm and cosy, they come with all modern conveniences such as a fridge and cooker, along with firewood for your own campfire.
I had dinner one night with the friendly owners, George and Barb Salg, who are regular visitors to Ireland. A former engineer, George helped to design pharmaceutical plants in Limerick and elsewhere.
Now he, his wife, and son George Jr run their own maple syrup business, producing 8,800 gallons this year —as well as developing their resort of 23 cabins and three larger houses. This is ski country, so the resort is open year-round.
Before leaving Vermont, I checked out the buzzing university town of Burlington, which sits on the picturesque eastern shore of Lake Champlain.
Look across the water and you see the dramatic Adirondack Mountains in New York State.
The heart of this lovely city is the pedestrianised Church St with cafes and restaurants spilling all over the pavement, part of a great revitalisation of this former lumber town.
Driving south and crossing the border back into Massachusetts, you immediately arrive in Williamstown, a gorgeous university town and home to an extraordinary museum, the Clark Institute — filled with Renaissance and Impressionist masterpieces.
Founders Sterling and Francine Clark, who once lived in Paris, had over 30 works by Renoir alone.
They built the museum in 1955 during the Cold War, fearing New York — where they lived — might be attacked.
It has works by Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro, Sisley, Van Gogh and Degas together with a huge collection of English works by Constable, Gainsborough, and Turner. An amazing place for a town of 7,500 people.
Nearby, in Stockbridge, are two more fascinating museums.
The Norman Rockwell Museum offers studio tours, and houses the largest and most significant collection of almost 1,000 original paintings and drawings.
Chesterwood is the studio of sculptor Daniel Chester French who made the iconic 19ft tall Lincoln Monument in Washington.
His first model was just six inches, on show here along with numerous other versions of the American president.
It was a great way to end my tour as next day I headed back towards Boston, via the busy town of Pittsfield where I spent one more night, vowing to return.
In Boston, Hotel AKA Back Bay was the perfect location, right in the middle of town near the Newbury Street shopping area and many major sights.
I had a wonderful suite overlooking the city. I also stayed for two nights in the comfortable Hotel AKA Boston Common.
On my return I stayed in the Pennyweight Hotel, ideal for the Italian quarter.
In Portland, the chic Aloft Portland (marriott.com) was a modern gem and the Best Western Merry Manor, was great for South Portland.
In New Hampshire the Wentworth Inn in Jackson, with its Irish links, was wonderful.
The Inn at Golden Pond, Holderness.
In Vermont, Sterling Ridge Resort in Jeffersonville, was an unforgettable experience.
Back in Massachusetts, Hotel on North in Pittsfield was a great stop-off place on the way back to Boston. Fashionably converted from a large Victorian store.
- Boston Irish Heritage Trail: irishheritagetrail.com
- Portland City and Lighthouse Tour: portlanddiscovery.com
- Maine Day Ventures Foodie tour: mainedayventures.com
- Nauti Sisters Fish Farm: nautisistersseafarm.com
- Squam Lakes Science Center: nhnature.org
- Clark Art Institute: clarkart.edu
- Norman Rockwell Museum: nrm.org
- Chesterwood: chesterwood.org
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