Massachusetts for road trip? (Boston, Springfield: houses, theater, construction)

[Sunbrite]

My husband and I will be taking a road trip the last week of December, right after Christmas. We will be leaving from New Jersey. We will be on the trip for at least one week, including the time to travel back.

I am trying to decide which of the New England states will be our destination. We are on a pretty good budget. I had decided recently to go to Massachusetts, but want to make sure this is the best choice for us:

-We want to see some snow, but not enough where it would make driving dangerous.

-We want to go somewhere with lots of history and historical sites, especially American history.

-We also want to go someplace rich in culture and where we can find a variety of eating places. (As much as we like New Jersey, I am getting tired of Italian food and pizza)

-We'd love to stay in a bed and breakfast, but one more economically priced.

-We have our medium-sized dog who will more than likely be accompanying us on our trip. She's very
well-behaved and clean- it wouldn't hurt if we visited a place that was dog-friendly (in some of our travels, we have come across a handful of places that were decidedly NOT dog-friendly, to put it mildly.)

-I really enjoy college towns as well, so we'd like to be able to see these.

-We'd like to be able to be in a place where there's lots of culture, but then also be able to travel easily to quieter areas such as the country as well.

Does this sound like Massachusetts is the best place? Maybe staying in the greater Boston area?

Any other ideas or feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much.

[lrfox]

It sounds like you can find all of this in Massachusetts.

The Boston area is a great idea. There are college towns (in fact, Boston is a giant college town) all around, and the places are dripping with history. I'm sure you're going to hear tons of fantastic suggestions including (but not at all limited to) Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Sudbury, Wellsely, etc. Almost any suggestion in the Boston area is a good one as you can head into Boston and enjoy everything it has to offer, and then quickly head out into the country and into the suburban college areas (be sure to check out Harvard Sq. in Cambridge if you like the college theme).

For the sake of being different, I'm going to throw two other suggestions out there. First, before heading into the immediate Boston area, Check out the New Bedford area on Massachusett's South Coast. I wouldn't use it at the home base for an entire week's stay, but a night or two before moving onward would be a good idea.

New Bedford is one of New England's most historic cities. It currently is the nation's most valuable fishing port (higher value of catch than any seaport in the US) and obviously the seafood is fantastic. It began as a whaling port and quickly became the center of the world's whaling fleet. Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" is based out of New Bedford and you can tour many of the buildings described in his novel. In fact, a 16 block portion of downtown is a preserved national historic site called the Whaling District National Historic Park ( http://www.nps.gov/nebe/ ) complete with cobblestone streets, fun restaurants and bars and interesting shops. The entire park is centered around the New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford Whaling Museum - Whale History Education Research Humpback Whale Blue Whale ) which is a destination in and of itself.

The city has plenty of cultural options. There is the New Bedford Art Museum ( New Bedford Art Museum ), TONS of private art galleries, a Zoo, a brand new (still wrapping up construction, but it's partially open now) Ocean Explorium ( Ocean Explorium at New Bedford Seaport), you can catch a show at the Zeiterion Theatre (Zeiterion Performing Arts Center) or a concert by the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra ( New Bedford Symphony Orchestra ).

New Bedford has a heavy Portuguese population and as a result, there are plenty of GREAT Portuguese restaurants in town (I'd recommend Antonio's-no website-, Cafe Funchal http://cafefunchal.com/ and Adega ADEGA FINE DINING :: A RESTAURANT & WINE BAR LOCATED IN NEW BEDFORD MASSACHUSETTS :: REVIEWS AND ACCOLADES ). If you want seafood, the Waterfront Grille is spectacular ( Waterfront Grille ) and Cork has great Tapas ( Cork : wine & tapas bar ). You can check out a nice microbrewery and vinyard in nearby Westport: Westport Rivers Vineyard & Winery, Westport, Massachusetts

As far as places to stay go, there are some great B&Bs in the old captains houses. One pet friendly one is the Octagon House ( New Bedford, MA, pet friendly bed and breakfast accommodations at Captain Haskell's Octagon House ) and another good one is the Orchard Street Manor ( The Orchard Street Manor ). New Bedford is only 45 minutes south of Boston so it would be easy to stay here and then move onward to Boston after a few days.

Next, I'd like to throw out Northampton, Ma. It's a bit west of the Boston area, but it's in the epicenter of the major colleges outside of Boston. Northamton itself is one of the cultural centers in Western MA full of restaurants, theater, art galleries, and bars. It's also right near Amherst MA which is the epitome of a college town (it's where the major UMass campus is as well as other schools). In Northampton, you're within a quick drive of Amherst, Springfield (home to the Basketball hall of fame, and Dr. Suess), Pittsfield and even North Adams (home to a large contemporary art museum and more galleries).

So like I said, it's hard to go wrong and there are great places all over the state. Hopefully this info will give you something to start with. Good Luck! any further questions, just ask.

[Sunbrite]

Wow! Thank you for such a detailed response. I didn't realize Massachusetts had so much to offer. It sounds like a little bit of everything. We'll definitely check out as many places that you mention that we can.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate when we drive there shortly after Christmas. We'll also be looking forward to the states we'll pass through on the way there.

Thank you again for your enormously helpful post, helps folks like me who are not familiar with the New England area, this answers many questions for us.

[Sunbrite]

Question- What may be a good "home base" as far as a location in
New England for us to say where they have more economically-priced B&B's? Possibly that allow pets, but not required? Maybe northern Massachusetts?

We'd like to see Rhode Island, will be travelling through Connecticut. Would visit New Hampshire, and then possibly Vermont and Maine.

This way we can still travel and see the rest of New England, but could still control our costs by staying in one location. We'll probably end up staying maybe one night outside of our home base.

Thank you!

[lrfox]

I would say something a short distance west of Boston would be a good home base as it would be sort of centrally located if you want to see MA, RI, CT and ME. Something with easy access to I-95 or I-495 would be good. You could find some nice B&Bs in towns like lexington, concord, marlborough, and even Sudbury which would make for a good centrally located home base for access to the other areas you mentioned as well as being interesting themselves

[Sunbrite]

Thank you Irfox, I have written these towns down and will look up reasonably-priced B&B's in the area. We'll keep in mind proximity to I-95 or I-495, west of Boston.

At this point we're probably going to have our relative care for our dog, so pet-friendly won't be important.
Under a strict budget and want to be able to travel easily.

Hopefully with a good homebase we'll be able to see more New England states in short period of time, while not completely breaking the bank.

Thanks again for your assistance.

[VlyRoadKid]

If you want truly gorgeous scenery, reasonable prices, lots of things to do (including historical places), I'd make your base in the Amherst/Northampton area (W. Mass). Northampton, especially (right on the Connecticut River) is close to main highways, such as the Mass Turnpike and I-91, but the traffic is usually light, once you leave town. From there, you can get to Central VT and NH (great skiing!) in a couple hours, or visit the Mark Twain house in Hartford, CT, head out to the Berkshires or even Adirondacks in a few hours. Amherst has a great website with lots of links to B&B's, but depending on the time, you'll be competing with the student's families and friends. Still, that's nowhere NEAR the volume of tourists you get around Boston, or say, on the North Shore (Gloucester, Ipswich, Salem). Even THOSE places are just a couple hours' drive away WITHOUT negotiating the horrific Boston and "Metro-west" traffic and confusing, badly-signed highways every day. Another good thing about W. Mass is that it's rural, so your dog will have lots of choices where to romp around! There are hiking trails, parks and even a bike path, and cross-country skiing is everywhere. Dogs LOVE to dash alongside you in the snow! If you DO like skiing, or even ski-dooing (is that the right word?), be sure to check out Hawley State Forest in the Berkshires, off Rte. 2 or Rte 8. It has truly spectacular, old-growth forest you won't see anywhere but else in N.England but spots in NH, like Pemigawasset Wilderness.

[Sunbrite]

Thank you VlyRoadKid, for your suggestions, these are very helpful. We should be leaving here in a couple of weeks for the trip. We are really looking forward to visiting Massachusetts, and hope to see all the rest of the New England states, weather and time permitting. Definitely have received very helpful information on this thread, so thank you again for your input!