Fall Trip in New England
September 23rd-30th 2023
As you can tell from previous posts, we tend to go out west, and seem to neglect the east coast. But our list is long and checking off the northeast was something that needed to be done!
For this trip, Bryce and I went with a couple of buddies. Our plan was to explore the city a bit until venturing out into the wilderness for some leaf-peeping. Obviously, things didn’t go as planned due to weather (seems to be a theme), but we made the most of it and had a wonderful time!
Day 1:
We flew into Boston and immediately started our adventure. We walked the Boston Freedom Trail which is a free self-guided tour leading you past 16 historic sites like the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere House, and the Bunker Hill Monument. We bought a physical map at Boston Common (where we started the trail) for $3. However, I’ve more recently learned that you can download a map on your phone for free. The trail is on the city sidewalks and is about 2.5 miles in total.
We stopped at Quincy Market during the tour to watch the street performers, which I highly recommend. It was so much fun to watch! I believe they have street performers planned throughout the day so it should be easy to catch, plus there are unplanned ones in the area between shows as well.
After our tour, we shot over to our hotel. We ended up staying in an Avid hotel in Revere, MA, right outside Boston. We chose to stay here since we had plans north of Boston and it was a good middle point, plus it was cheaper.
We can never have a short day! Later that evening we headed back to Cambridge and “went to Harvard” (we just drove through so we could say that). Then we met up with my buddy’s friend for some great Brazilian food! The place was called Muqueca Restaurant and it was fantastic! One of the people we met up with was from Brazil so I can’t even tell you what we ordered since we just followed her recommendations. But not one of us had a bad meal!
Day 2:
This was our day to get spooky! The four of us were off to Salem where we had planned to check out Hocus Pocus film sites, old historic buildings from the Salem Witch Trails, Satanic Salem tour, and a ghost tour. Since we were here before October, it was less crowded which was nice. However, we were told that many more street performers come out in October, plus they decorate the place to look a little more haunted. They were just starting to put up some Halloween stuff which was cool, but I would love to see it at peak season!
Fact I learned while in Salem: if you do a tarot card reading, DO NOT give them your information before going. The best ones are walk-ins where they don’t take a card right away. If you give them your credit card, they can just look up your name and information about you and make you believe they are doing a good job.
Satanic Salem Walking tour: $25 a person
This tour was honestly very educational. They recommend you watch a documentary before going to get a little more information on the religion. I did not know much about the Satanic religion (Satanism?) other than the taboo you hear in the media which is mostly fear-based. They shared a lot of history on the tour about the Salem Witch Trials and compared facts to the stories told on other tours. We loved this; however, we did the ghost tour later and it really felt cheesy in comparison…
Ghost Tour:
Do this before the Satanic Tour! It would have been a lot spookier had we not learned so much earlier, but we still enjoyed it. The tour took us past many photographed and well-known buildings in Salem. I also recommend doing it at night to add to the vibe. You had the option to rent ghost hunting gear which some people in our group did. I don’t think they found anything or at least they didn’t share that they did. There were so many different options for ghost tours and sadly, I have no clue which one we ended up doing.
Between tours we shopped around and hit up a food truck festival they were having in the park. One place I remember enjoying was Dire Wolf Tavern where we had fun fall-themed drinks!
Day 3:
The original plan for this day was to drive to Gloucester, Massachusetts for some whale watching with 7 Seas Whale Watch… but a hurricane was coming in and our plans got cancelled last minute. Luckily, they gave us a full refund. After some quick researching, Bryce and I thought the Museum of Science sounded like a good option. Although I would have never planned on going to the museum, we really enjoyed ourselves. My favorite part had to be the Hall of Human Life, but I may be biased because I work in healthcare and find that topic fascinating. Our friends opted to go to a climbing gym while we did this.
For a late lunch, we tried Eataly Boston. It was very tasty! After our meal, we strolled around their market where we got coffee and chocolate to go.
That night we went to a live show from one of our favorite podcasts, National Park After Dark! It was so fun watching people you listen to weekly!
Day 4:
Started our morning off driving to Portland, Maine where we enjoyed a mini donut tour. We found a fun donut tour on Viator, but with us starting out in Boston we couldn’t make it in time. However, we took it upon ourselves to scope out the donut shops and do the tour our own way.
Donut shops:
Eighty8 Donut Café – this was my personal favorite because you can buy tiny donuts and were able to try a bunch of flavors.
The Holy Donut- known for the potato donut!
HiFi - Sadly this shop closed :(
After our sugar high and the unavoidable sugar crash, we drove the 3 hours to Acadia to setup our campsite, but not before stopping at the Thunder Hole. We were there when the sun was going down and we had the place to ourselves.
Day 5:
This day we planned to do Precipice trail and Beehive trail in Acadia that required some rock scrambling and climbing with chains and ladders. I would definitely follow Alltrails because when the trail is crowded it causes back-ups and difficulties getting down in specific areas where ladders are involved. This is mostly an issue if you’re going the wrong way.
After burning off some major calories, we decided grab some lunch in Bar Harbor. We were in Maine so of course we had to have lobster. We stumbled across Stewman’s Lobster Pound where we were able to sit outside on the harbor. The food was really good and the lobster was fresh. Not going to lie, seeing the live lobsters and then eating it shortly after pulled at my heartstrings. But that’s just little ole sensitive me...
While in Bar Harbor, we walked to Bar Harbor Island that is only accessible 1.5 hours before and 1.5 hours after low tide. You can see a bunch of shells and wildlife that gets left behind when the water recedes. Make sure you are paying close attention to the tide. If you don’t return in time, you are forced to buy a water taxi or wait 9 hours until the tide lowers again.
To end the day, we were able to get a permit to drive up to Cadillac Mountain to watch the sunset. Sadly, it was very cloudy and we barely got to see it, but the views were still pretty.
Day 6:
Since we missed the sunset, we decided that we were going to get up early and watch the sunrise. We weren’t able to get a permit which meant we would have to hike up. Luckily, we had head lamps and were able to start our adventure around 5am. The hike was 4.6 miles total, found on Alltrails, and people had the same idea as us so we weren’t alone.
Annnnnnnd of course waking up in the cold and hiking up the mountain in the dark didn’t guarantee sunrise. Naturally, we were met with another cloudy day. We still had a lot of fun and enjoyed breakfast with the clouds.
We then hike back down to our campsite where we packed up our stuff and ventured out to another hike in Acadia, Jordan Pond Path to Bubbles Divide. This was an easier hike, but 5.25 miles, and filled with beautiful views. The trees hadn’t turned quite just yet but there were glimpse of color starting to peak out.
To finish off out day we had a long drive to Littleton, New Hampshire where we camped at a KOA.
Day 7:
The goal was to hike up Mount Washington, but we learned that Mount Washington has some of the worst weather and horrible winds. With the hurricane coming in, the weather was already cloudy, wet, and windy. We assumed it would only be worse on the mountain, so we decided to be smart boys and girls and find a different hike. We came across Franconia Ridge Trail which was a 9.1 mile loop. The trail had a hut at the top for hikers that had bunk beds, bathrooms, and sold some snacks. This has been one of my favorite hikes! To get up to the ridge was pretty brutal. It was one of those hikes where you are in the woods with multiple switch backs and don’t have a great view of your ascent, but when you get to the ridge line, it was nothing but open air and beautiful sights. Again, it was a cloudy day so I can only imagine how it looks when there are clear skies.
Next, we drove to the cute town of Littleton where we had a meal at Littleton Freehouse Taproom and Eatery. It was a really cool place to eat, right on the river. I felt bad that we were in there gross and sweaty but they assured us that they get a lot of people from the AT in there that are so much stinkier.
Day 8:
This was our final day of the trip, but luckily our flight was late in the evening and we were able to spend a little more time in New Hampshire. We decided to go to the Flumes. It’s a paid trail, and although it was very pretty, I am not a huge fan of trails with lots of crowds.
On our drive back to Boston Airport, we stopped in Concord, New Hampshire, for some grub. We got tacos from Dos Amigos Burritos on the main strip and wandered around the little shops and state building.
Last, but not least, we arrived at the airport where our flight was very empty with the added bonus of some upgraded seats. We were spoiled with leg room that I probably will never see again on a plane. If only…
Despite the damp, foggy weather, we had a wonderful time on our trip. If I could go back, I think I would have liked to spend more time in state parks in Vermont and New Hampshire as I found that area to be super beautiful with charming towns.
Photos taken by: Dani Brocar, Bryce Brocar, Shelby Austin, and Hanni Bichir
