Road trip round New England part 2 - The leaf peeping bit...

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• Location: USA
• Holiday Types: City break, Family holidays, Sporting

• by: JosieDriver
• on: Thu 09 Feb 2012

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We left the coast and headed for Lenox, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires area. We stayed at the fantastic Brook Farm Inn.  The welcome from Phil and Linda could not have been warmer. They patiently answered all our questions about the area and recommended places to go. They could have kept us busy for a week. Add to that the choice of several excellent rooms and tea and scones at 4pm and a guest kitchen where you can make your own drinks at any time and there was nothing more you could ask for. 

 If in the area, be sure to visit the Shaker Village site and the Norman Rockwell museum. There are lots of good eating places in Lenox too which is a surprise for such a small town out of season. Talking of season, the leaves were just beginning to turn but not in full colour yet. It was a pity Mount Greylock was shrouded in mist when we drove north.

After this we moved on to Killington, Vermont, in the Green Mountains.  This felt like a ski resort out of season, which of course is what it was. We stayed at the Inn of the Six Mountains.  I am sure this is great in season but a bit soulless out of season and the restaurant was closed. The customer service however could not be beaten. Ed on reception when we arrived recommended places to eat within walking distance. We duly set off. While we were eating the heavens opened and Ed appeared, left us his phone number and said to call when we were ready to leave and he would drive up and collect us – which he did!  The leaves by this time were getting more fall like and there were lots of photo opportunities. Particularly good was the drive up route 100 north from Killington.
After two nights we moved eastward to Meredith, New Hampshire. Here we stayed at the Meredith Inn run by Janet who takes care of a B&B we can highly recommend, as it was excellent and the breakfasts were not to be missed.  We were a bit disappointed by Meredith though, a major road running through it along the waterfront sort of spoils the place. Also many of the restaurants in the town seem to be owned by the same company.  The exception was the excellent Italian restaurant, the Andemonte.

The Kangamagus Highway from Lincoln to Conway across the White Mountain National Park was worth the drive, the colours were fabulous.  Also do visit the Castle in the Clouds on the north side of the lake, a mansion built in 1917 and really worth the trip – apart from the Arts & Crafts house there were fabulous views from the gardens.  We really began to feel we were getting the best colours now.
On the day we left, we drove round the lake before heading north to Franconia, still in New Hampshire.  The fall colours were at their best.  We stayed at the Lovetts Inn just outside Franconia. Again we would recommend this inn and it has its own restaurant – Jim runs the front of house and Janet is the chef.  We were surprised to find such an up-market restaurant in such an out of the way place. The menu was a little restricted but you have to expect that with such a small clientele, and there was enough choice to satisfy any taste. 
We drove north eastwards back into north Vermont for more of the fall colours and went right up to the Canadian border (not much to see!). Franconia itself and the immediate area didn’t seem to have a lot to offer. We felt we were almost leafed out by now and so we're ready to head to the coast again…  

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