It always amazes me where in the world people come from to view our beautiful New England fall foliage. Of course maybe it’s to get away from the heat down there but then they do have all those miles of beaches… That would entice me to go visit… Just not in the fall. 🙂

I found this question and I thought I would pop it in here.

I will be arriving with my husband in New York on Oct 5 and leaving Oct 12.
My first question is: 1) should I rent a car from there or fly to Boston and rent from there?

I would love to go around small towns and scenic drives and covered bridges, also planning to spend the weekend
(from 7 to 9) in Stowe, Vermont. Can you give me suggestions? Thanks very much. Greetings from Brazil.

My response:

Greetings from New England!
I had somebody last fall from Brazil purchase two of my fall foliage prints from my online gallery. That wasn’t you by any chance?
You’ll have to weigh the cost of that flight from New York to Boston, or better yet check the cost of flying to Manchester New Hampshire as they have a very nice airport there. You’ll be in southern New Hampshire and you can rent your car and drop it back off their much easier than trying to get into Boston or New York City unless you really just want to visit those two cities.

You’re going to want to draw an imaginary line East to West from North Conway New Hampshire through the middle of Vermont like on this map. For these dates, above that line is where you want to explore.

At the bottom of the map, I’ve pointed out Manchester New Hampshire where you’d be landing, assuming this is what you want to do.
Then I drew a line up route 93 into the White Mountains. For the Vermont locations, you can go up I-89. I’ve tried to number some of the routes that I think you would enjoy.

Number 1: The northeast in the White Mountains should be tackled earlier rather than later. (Routes 302, 110, 16) If you travel on that route, it will take most of a single day especially if you get out of the car a lot to take pictures and explore. You can shorten the route by cutting off the top portion and jumping on route 2 and heading west to Lancaster, then heading south on 302 back into the White Mountains. It’s extremely scenic with lots of colorful mountains and several towns to explore and catch a bite to eat.

Number 2: Stowe Vermont, if you do the loop leaving Stowe and heading up route 108 will take you through Smugglers Notch. Make sure you plan to go through the Notch that you don’t rent a giant vehicle. I’ve taken a full-size truck in there and it was NOT easy to get around some of the boulder-lined turns. There is a reason smugglers notch has earned it reputation as New England’s twistiest road.It’s also one of the most breathtaking.

Number 3: Route 100, Vermont’s most scenic road and probably the most traveled road there is. It is lined with small villages farms and hillsides covered in fall colors.

Number 4: Montpelier Vermont on route 12 or 12 A going south. You will find a small college town called Northfield where one of our military colleges Norwich University resides. You’ll find no less than five covered bridges within a few miles of this town. They are all painted red and make for great viewing and photography opportunities.

I’m going to post a few links to articles that will cover some of these attractions and I will leave you with this final thought. If you have a good map book and GPS you will probably have an exciting time driving through these different areas. In my experience, there are few bad roads to be found in autumn. If you stay off the major roads, keep your gas tank filled up whenever possible, and look for things that will interest you. I’m sure you will have a great vacation.

The first link is my foliage by state page where you can pick a state and see all articles written that talk about that particular state. This is just a small handful of the articles I have done.

https://jeff-foliage.com/foliage-articles/locations-state/
https://jeff-foliage.com/2014/03/15-new-england-fall-foliage-locations-miss-1-october/
https://jeff-foliage.com/2012/06/the-gray-farm-sleepy-hollow-arnold-john-kaplan/
https://jeff-foliage.com/2013/03/the-wonderful-hidden-gems-of-new-england/
https://jeff-foliage.com/2014/01/moss-glen-falls-easy-waterfall/
https://jeff-foliage.com/2015/08/5-covered-bridges-you-may-have-missed/

That should hold you for a while!

Jeff Foliage Folger

Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage

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