Northern New England Coastal Drive

Nine nights in a loop from Boston, self-guided, up the New England coast to Maine, with the flights included.

Nine nights and only six days of car hire is the arrangement worth noting: three nights in Boston at the start without a car, then the coast road north and back.

Boston opens it with the Freedom Trail, Beacon Hill and a food scene that has improved beyond recognition in twenty years. Salem follows for a night, where the witch trials of 1692 are documented in the museum and across the old town. Manchester in New Hampshire comes next for two, with its theatres and museums and the lakes and hills close by. Kennebunkport follows for a night, a coastal village of boutiques and clapboard, then Portland in Maine for two, with the breweries, the working waterfront, the lighthouses and the public beaches along a genuinely wild stretch of coast.

Return flights to Boston, a checked bag each way, six days of car hire with unlimited mileage and nine nights across the five stops are included; fuel, most meals and the attraction admissions are not. The price shown is per person sharing. Late September and early October bring the colour, and summer suits the coast and the beaches. Ten days at this price makes it one of the better value itineraries in the operator’s range, helped by the shorter car hire and the long opening stay in the city. The driving itself is gentle, with no leg much over two hours, which makes it a reasonable first American road trip for anyone unused to the roads over there.