New England Vacation Ideas

bgdriveway

bgdriveway

Pre-takeoff checklist
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bgdriveway
My wife and I are planning a vacation to New England mid August. Maybe just over a week in length. Her idea of a vacation is go somewhere and stay and relax. Mine is to get in the plane and fly places. (Good thing we are going from KY to NC before we go up that way.)

We've never been up there. (Well, actually I rode I95 from VA to RI and back in about 20 hrs once.) We've thought about making it a camping trip, but it'd be nice to be around some small place, less like Gatlinburg and Branson, but still have some small town or something close. Maybe if we feel like staying a night or two in a B&B or hotel, camping the rest.

What's up there? What do you stay away from? (Besides NYC for the small town feel....) Any state/national parks that are great places to fly into and camp?
 
Cape Cod is lousy with airports and New England charm. KPVC KACK KMVY KCQX.

Also Bar Harbor ME and Acadia National Park...


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It doesn't have to be the coast. NH mountains were an idea too. I lived in AK for awhile. I'm partial to mountains, but not stuck on them.... Looking up the park.
 
Saranac Lake (SLK) is the gateway to the Adirondack Mountains.
 
All the above so far are good. In addition.

Sightseeing, places like Newport, RI. If you're up for some historic sites, 6B6 is close to Concord (so is KBED, but 6B6 is smaller, friendlier and cheaper), Plymouth too. All serve as a good base for Boston too, although KOWD would be my choice for that.

For some interesting and artsy downtowns, Northampton (7B2), Keene (KEEN). I've also heard good things about Burlington, (KBTV), but not made it up there yet).

For the mountains, Mount Washington, might be of interest (KHIE).

I'm rather partial to some of the Long Island coast too. KGON for Essex and some of the towns around there. Fishers Island (0B8), Block Island (KBID) and Montauk.
 
North Conway, NH. Fly into KIZG in Fryeburg, ME. Take the cog railway onto Mt Washington. Hike in the White Mountain National Forest. See if you can book a night in the Zeeland Falls Hut, hike up, spend the night do some day-hike stuff and head back down.
 
I would point out that neither the Adirondacks nor Long Island are in New England :p


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Acadia National Park in Maine. Mount Washington Auto Road in NH. Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket. Old Orchard Beach, Maine.
 
gsengle said:
I would point out that neither the Adirondacks nor Long Island are in New England :p


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Ah yes, one of the PoA masters at pointing out people's mistakes. For some reason I thought he said 'northeast' but yeah, maybe I'm just dumb, ya ever think of that?
 
eman1200 said:
Ah yes, one of the PoA masters at pointing out people's mistakes. For some reason I thought he said 'northeast' but yeah, maybe I'm just dumb, ya ever think of that?
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Being from New England you'd think I'm entitled in this case!


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If you decided to go to KBED, let me know.
It would be fun to meet another POA member. I will not be much help with local sights since I have not had too much time to explore since moving here.

Tim
 
tspear said:
If you decided to go to KBED, let me know.
It would be fun to meet another POA member. I will not be much help with local sights since I have not had too much time to explore since moving here.

Tim
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Except I'd avoid BED, high fees :(


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Plum Island, MA is a small pretty cool airport within a mile of Newburyport- lots of restaurants and shops with a New England vibe. Actually BVY (my home drone) is close to historic Salem, MA as well as Cape Ann, which has a real nice coast line with iconic fishing towns like Rockport and Gloucester.

Honestly, you really can't go wrong with most everyone's suggestions, it's just what you want. I would suggest that there is a big variance in things to do here- and with an airplane why just stick to 1 place while you are up here? You can easily start in the mountains of Upstate NY or NH and camp, fly to the coast of ME or MA within a hour or 2 and hang out there for a day or 2 staying at b and b, then tackle Boston if you are interested in history or sports (Fenway on a nice summer night is about as good as it gets) and stay at a hotel.

Most importantly when you decide where you are going to go let us know and we can give you the local low down on the airport and the area- restaurants, cool things to do, etc and keep you out of the tourist traps!
 
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tspear said:
If you decided to go to KBED, let me know.
It would be fun to meet another POA member. I will not be much help with local sights since I have not had too much time to explore since moving here.

Tim
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We get together semi-often. I'll let you know next time we decide to fly in somewhere!

Also paging @Cajun_Flyer - she flys out of your airport as well.
 
Block Island (BLD) The Crab Cake Eggs Benedict at the airport diner are worth the trip. Bring your own fuel no AV gas there) ,
Fishers Island (OB8) - You get one free bicycle when you land and you can rent another ($9.00). Ride all over the island, picnic, see how the rich folk live. :)
Lake George\Fort Ticonderoga (4B6), lots to do there.
Stewart International (SWF) or Dutchess County (POU), rent a car, drive down to West Point. See the museum, walk (lots of walking, all up and down) the campus. Visit the grave yard, seriously.
Wurtsboro (N82) - Take a ride in a glider at the school there.
Sullivan County (MSV) Visit the Woodstock Museum.

Minuteman (6B6) - Rent a car, drive into Boston. See the Aquarium, Take a Harbour Tour. Have bubble tea in Chinatown. Take any of the walking tours.
My wife and I usually stay outside Boston and take public transportation. Driving in Boston is a PITA.
If you are really flush, stay at a hotel near the Prudential Center, and walk that area. If your wife is a shopper, get ready for credit card meltdown.

Any airport near the water in Maine and have the lobsta.
 
Love 6B6 if you can get in. It's like 2500 feet. For Boston there are a number of closer/more substantial airports...


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I'll second Mt. Washington and Bar Harbor I've done that combo as a vacation before (though by airlining into PWM and driving all over).

The area around Wiscasset is nice too for some New England-ish sightseeing stuff like lighthouses, but I don't know the availability of rental cars if you fly into IWI (and you'd need one). I'm no B&B fan but there's one there where the chef is a retired executive chef from some high end resort in Bermuda, best breakfasts I've had in my life. Snow squall inn or something like that.

For a city, Portland is actually a cool place too.
 
Another idea that no one has mentioned is Lake Champlain, which from the VT side really is New England though very different from almost anywhere else in New England. You can land at Basin Harbor to access the lake, and the runway might even be dry by August. You can also land at Burlington, a GA-friendly Class C, and rent a car to explore the city (another nice one) or drive out to the islands.

Also in VT: you can land at KMVL (Morrisville-Stowe) and get a ride or call Uber (check on that though) to a trailhead for some excellent mountain hiking, if you are into that sort of thing. The highest summit in VT, Mt. Mansfield, is close by, as is one of the ruggedest, Mt. Hunger.
 
gsengle said:
Love 6B6 if you can get in. It's like 2500 feet. For Boston there are a number of closer/more substantial airports...


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I've taken an Arrow into places shorter than that no problem. I think I will be in a 182 for this trip. Not sure, yet, but likely. As long as I don't have to rent a Cirrus, I think we'll be ok there if we decide to do Boston. We need to sit down and plan some.

I like the Ft Ti, Lake Champlaign ideas. Of course, there are no other historical areas in NE either. Thanks for the ideas. We'll be googling for awhile.
 
If you tell us what you're looking to do, we can provide suggestions.
 
Why limit yourself to New England? Continue on to Nova Scotia and PEI. Some nice flying there in the Summer.
 
bgdriveway said:
I've taken an Arrow into places shorter than that no problem. I think I will be in a 182 for this trip. Not sure, yet, but likely. As long as I don't have to rent a Cirrus, I think we'll be ok there if we decide to do Boston. We need to sit down and plan some.

I like the Ft Ti, Lake Champlaign ideas. Of course, there are no other historical areas in NE either. Thanks for the ideas. We'll be googling for awhile.
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Yes but why? There are like 5 better choices if you're going into Boston....


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I think one question is, what airports have camping on site that we could maybe spend a couple days at? Anywhere from NY to Maine. I don't know that Canada is a good option for this trip just with plane permissions and such.
 
Northampton and Block Island are two of my favorites.
 
New England is a great summer vacation spot. Mountains and lakes in NH, NY and VT. Basin Harbour hotel has its own grass strip right on lake Champlain. The Coast has KPVC out on the tip of cape cod or up cape you have Chatham. Marthas Vineyard is one of my favorites.
 
KLRG has a campsite at the north end of the runway you can taxi to. Right on the river.
 
I beleive you can camp on the beach adjacent to the airport on Fishers Island. I love the other Islands, especially Block Island. Portsmouth and Hampton New Hampshire are great places to visit...one has a really long runway, one relatively short. Someone mentioned Poughkeepsie, NY...visit the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. (may not be New Englnad...but it is New Englandy). What are your goals? History, shopping, aviation sites, hiking, beach, etc.? Might help to point you to more specific locations. Places like Fishers are good for a short stop, Portsmouth can be a good base for days. Block Island might be great for a day of touring or a week of R and R. Cape Cod is similar....or you may stay a lifetime. This thread reminds me of how much we take for granted in our own locations.
 
Don't pass on KHIE either for the COG Railway up Mt. Washington . . . stay at Bretton Woods resort - not that expensive and really close by. Don't do the car road in summer - every idjit with a camper or an underpowered Minivan is doing 10mph.

KPWM - Portland. Great little town, some great beach towns nearby - and great scenery usually in the FBO. There was this one green eyed redhead - only woman [she was 20] I've ever met who would make me question my wedding vows.

The Cape is the Cape - and the Islands. Easy pickin's with an airplane.

Do Boston when the Sox are in town and take in Fenway - if you like baseball or history - Fenway is not to be missed.

If you have done a border crossing before - Halifax is wonderful plus you can overfly most anywhere and fly to an international airport not in Maine to clear- I'd strongly recommend BDL if you do that since they don't get much in the way of GA and are pretty cool about it.
 
I'd love to do some seaplane flying in Maine's lakes. The pics I've seen of the area look amazing.
 
CMongoose said:
KGON for Essex and some of the towns around there.
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Lots of good ideas here but if you are heading to Essex KGON is not the closest airport. Consider Goodspeed Airport 42B in Haddam, and Chester Airport KSNC in Chester. Both sleepy airports so call ahead to verify crew cars/rentals. Stay in the Copper Beach Inn in Ivoryton. Essex is a sailing location: stop at the Griswold Inn for some raucus apres-sail. Take in a Broadway bound show at thw Goodspeed Opera House.
 
So right now I think we are leaning towards something in the Adirondacks/Lake Champlain area for some of the time and ?maybe? coastal Maine. There's some places between Portland and Belfast.

A day trip to Mt Washington Cog rail and or Acadia Nat. Park sounds good. Those seem pretty likely at this point. I like the history stuff. Cities are eh.... I could do without. But that's also where most of the history is. I am blessed that my wife doesn't go crazy shopping. Hiking type things, outdoors, are good. Fenway could be nice, but I don't think my wife would like it. Cape Cod/Block Island/ NE proper sounds good, but at some point we run out of time. I keep going back and forth between Maine and the normal NE. The only downside to small towns is not all of them know how to deal with her food allergy (gluten) easily. It just depends.

To me, anything North of Philly is New England. Yes I know some of you all are aghast at such a thought. But it's also like people distinguishing between Norfolk/VA Beach/Hampton Roads. Or parts of Chicago. Or the Wasilla/Palmer from Anchorage. Or......... At some point, if you're not from the area the differences don't matter that much to you. It's close enough.

Options I have took note of, include camping or Lodge right by Piesco, K09. There's also camping at Wentworth, NH96, a private strip, but seems pretty easy to get permission to land/camp.

On the Maine coast, IWI has camping right next to it. I'm thinking we camp in one spot, pay for lodging in another. Whether we camp in the mountains and stay somewhere on the coast, or vice versa. I don't know yet. Belfast, ME had some nice spots on Air B&B. Hadn't even looked at hotels there. And going to Acadia is not too far out of the question from there.
 
I'd go KLKP before KSLK, closer to everything, lots of fun to be had.
 
@bgdriveway , lemme know if you come up to Maine. I'm based at Wiscasset, KIWI. Also the Bar Harbor airport has a loaner car that you can have for two hours, without having to rent for the whole day. So if you just wanted to go into town, that's a really easy option for lunch. If you come this way, Rockland (KRKD) is also a very good option - cool town and really nice folks at the airport. Portland also has a crew car and easy town access.
 
Island/beach hopping trip. Mauntauk, Block, Newport, Mathas', Nantucket, and the cape. Fly early, explore/beach all day,
 
So we're hanging out in Rockland starting tomorrow, for a week or so. Maybe some day trips. We will see.


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back in the day you could find someone on the board or person in power and land at Falmouth airpark and have a rent a car waiting for you . some fellow pilots could call you a guest if you behave and don't overdue it there used to be 3 tiedowns in a common area. downtown is the best on the cape .at the end of season and many places to stay I found a bab and went for many years a few times a year. from hto to 5b6 was like 20 minutes .eta in looking up the identifier is appears there is a fbo there now call 508 548 9617 and find out .some of the best times were there especially if you get weathered in a few extra days.
 
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