WHY GO: Are you into excellent State Museums? State Houses? Old (very old, the oldest) fortifications? Then, visit Augusta ME, which has it all, plus a very charming suburb with great restaurants, bars and shops. Maine’s Capital City might not have the charm of the craggy coastline or adventurous lure …
WHY GO: Did you ever see the movie Big Fish? The scene in which one of the main characters finds a welcoming, beautiful small town hidden in the middle of the woods? That’s what viewing Waterville Valley’s Town Square for the first time feels like. Whitewashed buildings encircle a courtyard …
WHY GO: Why is it that Manchester NH, a former textile mill city, was the hometown of two cool comedians – Adam Sandler and Sarah Silverman? What is it about this up-by-its-own bootstraps city that creates wise-crackers and attracts entrepreneurs and innovators? Manchester, New Hampshire’s Queen City, is a town …
WHY GO: Woodbury, CT and its bordering towns – Middlebury and Southbury, the “Bury’s of Litchfield County – make up what is considered to be the region’s first established Antique Trail. Old colonial homes line Route 6 (Main St.), which was laid out along an ancient Indian trail when the …
WHY GO: Most people come to Middlebury VT for the liberal arts college of the same name. But another college – and a certain kind of horse – are also prominent features of this tidy town. The origin of the sturdy but graceful Morgan Horse can be traced to this …
WHY GO: A tidy downtown anchored by the venerable Woodstock Inn (for 150 years!), Woodstock VT and the surrounding area is not glutted with kitsch or tourist fare. Woodstock was initially a release valve for the Victorian wealthy. They’d take the train from NYC or Boston to White River Junction, …
WHY GO: The lush, green mountains around Bennington VT, just over the Massachusetts border on Route 7, are the defining aspect of this region – inspiration for poets and artists like Robert Frost, Grandma Moses, and Norman Rockwell. And for entrepreneurs, as well. Bennington Pottery, Dion Snowshoes (“performance snowshoes”), and …
Food at The Essex is extraordinary – which is as it should be considering this is a “Culinary Resort.” What does that mean? In this case, it means that this property was once a satellite campus of the prestigious New England Culinary Institute until 2009 (when it was consolidated in Montpelier), …
WHY GO: Though a part of the Great Northern Catskills, Catskill NY belongs, also, to the Hudson River Valley. Right on the Hudson River, this is where our forebears, including the eminent American painter, Thomas Cole, came to revel in the beauty of the Catskill Mountains. You can tour Cole’s …
WHY GO: The lake. The Adirondacks. Camping on exquisite islands. From the more touristy, kitschy, southern end of Lake George – Lake George Village itself – to the island-rich mid-lake Bolton Landing, the 32-mile-long clear, clean, gorgeous lake has been drawing visitors and heat-weary city folk to Lake George NY …