Vacation Help needed: Boston, New Hamshire, Montreal

julifish

julifish

New member
We are taking our daughters 9 and 13 with us on vacation this summer. Our plan is to fly in to Boston and stay there for a few days in our just outside the city. Then drive to Montreal up through New Hampshire (stay a night or two in the mountains) and then stay in Montreal. I'm looking for ideas of things that the girls would like to do and to keep things interesting. We like a variety of activities, museums, historical places, beach, biking, hiking, animal photography...basically we like to stay busy and not relax too much.

So anyone ever visited these places or do you live there? What do you recommend for a family to do? We are going mid-July. My fear is that it's going to be hotter up there than it will be here in Florida.
 
Boston - things to do. Aquarium, Science Museum, Children's Museum. Duck Tour of the City. My 8 year old wanted to go see the Make Way for Ducklings bronze sculptures in the Public Garden - it was the highlight of the jaunt we had a few weeks ago. Boston is filled with History too - you can see Paul Revere's house and where he hung the light from in the church. You can walk the Freedom Trail - loads of history along it!

You'll need to eat lunch in Quincy Market one day too! Usually there are performers just outside that are fun to watch.
 
I am no help here, but I have to tell you, I was skimming forum subjects, and I swear I thought this said "Vicodin Help." And i thought... "great! Another spam message" LOL

I obviously should've had that cup of coffee this morning!
 
What Celeste said for Boston:thumbup:

As far as going up from Boston to Montreal make sure you look at the road maps before you plan your trip. While it looks as if you can go straight up to Montreal from Boston, in reality there are not many roads once you get north of Concord, NH. You will most likely be going into Vermont before you get to Montreal. You can take I-93 up to Concord, NH, and then you can go in a couple different directions from there.

If you are looking for a scenic route you can go up 93 through the Lake Winnipesaukee region (ever see the movie On Golden Pond?) and the White Mountains. You go through Franconia Notch State Park via that route. Then 93 takes you into Vermont, where you can pick up US Route 2 in St. Johnsbury and takes you to Montpelier and then to Burlington, Vermont via I-89, which is a favorite city of mine (home of Ben and Jerry's ice cream). Right outside of Burlington is Shelburne, which has a cool museum http://shelburnemuseum.org/. I-89 is then a direct shot into Montreal :)

As far as weather goes - who knows - LOL. We hit 90 degrees in April this year and then May has been cold. The weather people up here say we're in for a hot dry summer, which is good - dry is better than humid, which it can get here during the summer. You'll be headed up through some mountainous regions too in NH and VT so make sure to pack long pants and sweatshirts for nighttime and hot weather clothes for daytime.
 
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Celeste - thanks for the ideas. That market sounds yummy and fun!

Marie - My hubby is taking care of the driving route but it's good to know that it might not be the straight shot he thought it was. :) We were thinking of stopping in the Franconia Notch State Park area. Will there be wildlife there and hiking, etc?

Libby - Oh my girl....I think you're sleep deprived brain is playing tricks on you. LOL!!!

Does anyone else have ideas for Montreal or other places within driving distance from Boston to take the kids. I was thinking Maine - but didn't know what there might be to do there.
 
There are tons of hiking trails up on Franconia Notch - click here. The Flume is a gorgeous hike. There is also Clark's Trading Post to visit. My great-grandfather built one of the railroad engines that they use there (not sure if they still use it as I haven't been over in about 10 year). I'm planning on taking Cheyanne over that way this summer for a quick vacation.

There is much more to do if you go the Vermont route up to Burlington after you are in Franconia Notch, as much more north of there in NH you run into old country roads and lots and lots of woods.

I live in Maine currently and where you go depends on what "driving distance" means to you - LOL. Maine doesn't look that big on a map, and it's not huge, but it is spread out. From Boston you could drive about 1-1/2-2 hours and go to York Beach area, which is just over the border. Lots of shops, amusement park, zoo, beaches of course, boardwalk. You could also head up to Maine and cross over into NH from Western Maine. You would want to go up to the Rangeley area and then go west over into Berlin, NH. Or you could go up to the Sebago Lake region in Maine and then cross over to the Conway , NH region and then to Franconia. Conway is a touristy town with tons of outlet shops and no state sales tax ;) If you have more time there is always Acadia National Park/Bar Harbor, which is beautiful but quite a drive from Boston (5-6 hours).
 
What Celeste said about Boston. We just hit Boston Common to get pictures with the ducklings last week! :) Other musts in that area IMO are the Clam Chowdah at Durgin Park and the Cannolis at Mike's Pastry.

The best part of New Hampshire is everything local. The town squares that are pre-Revolution are gorgeous, and I just love driving through small quaint cities. The Mills in Manchester are the largest remaining textile mills in America (although now they are just about everything else). There's a fun little museum all about it, including the fun fact that a female invented the paper bag, and Velcro was invented in Manchester.

To see small towns just search for covered bridges near your route and you should be able to find some little town full of fun things. One of our favorite finds has been Henniker Book Farm, and there was a big beautiful park near there that was really fun.

Portsmith, NH has a ton of history too, and it's right by York, Maine, which I apparently need to revisit. Also the Lakes region is a must. Most places we just drive around and discover...usually without much objective.

And as far as weather goes be ready for hot and humid or slightly cool and rainy. It really depends on the year...every year we've been here has been different, but it always blows me away compared to the desert I grew up in. :) The history and architecture everywhere is amazing!
 
julifish said:
Does anyone else have ideas for Montreal or other places within driving distance from Boston to take the kids. I was thinking Maine - but didn't know what there might be to do there.
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Two of my absolute favorite places within driving distance of Boston are Sturbridge Village and Plimoth Plantation (spelled like that). Both are living history museums. Sturbridge is an early 1800's village and Plimoth is about the Pilgrims. It has been more than 10 years since I've been to either one since I'm far from Boston now, so check their websites to make sure they're still wonderful places to spend an afternoon.
 
yes eat at an italian restaurant in the north end for sure.

i also loved walking through harvard square.

cape cod is only 90 minutes away. you could hit the beach if you like. you can also take a ferry from boston to provincetown.
 
Montreal is beautiful!! Tons of historic places to see there. It's been years since I was there (like..15+) so I can't remember exactly which places I visited, but there are cathedrals and forts and all sorts of things. Ditto for Quebec City which is not far away either. (3 hour drive??)
 
Wow, I didn't know there were so many other New Englanders here :) HI! lol

You mentioned historical.. you can always check out Old Sturbridge Village, it's one of my favorite places to go (it's a living museum) But it's a ways west of Boston, it'd be a good choice if you were planning on going up through Vermont to get to Montreal. In my opinion, it'd be better to go up through VT than thru NH, a little more to do/see- Burlington, Lake Champlain, etc. But that's my opinion, I'm a Vermonter so of course I'd say that :)

hehehe, you could always check out the sights of the Salem witch trials, lol (very close to Boston). They're aren't as fun in the summer though, better near Halloween :)

ETA: Just saw that Rachel mentions Sturbridge too, it's an absolutely beautiful place to go, post card sights and the people that work there are wonderful. They stay in character, it's so fun. And your kids will probably love to see all the animals there too. They have authentic carriage rides and ferry rides that they'll enjoy.
 
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Definately Walk the Freedom trail in Boston. We did that a few years ago as adults. Really powerful. We also drove out to Walden Pond in Masachusetts which is a beautiful spot.
 
As for Maine, I would do a beach and seafood thing. That would be a nice change of pace from a busy historical/museum week.
 
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