New England in autumn, from Boston to Maine
Twelve days on a loop from Boston, just as the maples turn red. The road takes in the white villages of Vermont, the White Mountains, the lighthouses of Maine and the towns where the American Revolution began.
A road through the colours
The loop starts in Boston and heads inland first. In the north, the maples are usually at their best in early October; on the coast and further south, from mid-October to the end of the month.
In Vermont, the valley roads pass white steeples, red barns and wooden covered bridges: the state still has about a hundred of them. Route 100, very busy in autumn, follows these valleys to Stowe. Further east, the Kancamagus Highway crosses the White Mountains for 51 kilometres, without a single shop, over a pass at 870 metres. Then a toll road climbs to the summit of Mount Washington, at 1,917 metres.
Then comes the sea: the lobster ports of Maine, the lighthouses on the granite and Acadia National Park, where you go up Cadillac Mountain for the sunrise. The way back goes through Salem, the mansions of Newport and Plymouth.
From the Puritans to the Revolution
In 1692, in Salem, witchcraft accusations led to twenty executions: nineteen people were hanged and Giles Corey was crushed to death under stones. The Witch House, home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, is said to be the only building still standing with ties to the trials. The writer Nathaniel Hawthorne was descended from another judge, John Hathorne. He drew on a house built in 1668, still standing near the harbour, for his novel The House of the Seven Gables (1851). Today, Salem celebrates Halloween for the whole of October.
In Boston, the Freedom Trail, a line of red bricks in the pavement, links sixteen sites of the Revolution over about four kilometres. On 18 April 1775, two lanterns were hung in the steeple of the Old North Church to signal that the British soldiers were leaving by water. Moored in Charlestown is the USS Constitution, launched in 1797, the oldest warship still afloat and in service.
On 19 April, the militiamen of Concord fought the British at the North Bridge: with Lexington, this was the start of the War of Independence. Concord is also a town of writers. Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women at Orchard House, and Thoreau lived for two years on the shore of Walden Pond.
A bright, cool autumn gives the finest reds.
Indian summer, the phrase and the colours
In English, Indian summer has nothing to do with the leaves. The phrase means a few warm, dry days that come back in autumn, often after the first frosts. In France, it is best known from the song by Joe Dassin, released in 1975. For the colours of the leaves, Americans say “fall foliage”.
In autumn, the green chlorophyll breaks down and reveals the yellow and orange carotenoids that were already there. The red of the maples is made at that moment: these are the anthocyanins, which form with clear days and cold nights without frost. A bright, cool autumn gives the finest reds.
Cape Cod National Seashore
Sixty-four kilometres of beaches and dunes on the ocean, protected since 1961. In October, the summer crowds have gone and the salt meadows turn a coppery colour. Allow one more night.
Practical notes
- When to go
- From late September to late October. On peak weekends, the Kancamagus and the Vermont villages are jammed with traffic.
- Getting there
- Direct flights from Paris to Boston. Pick up the van on your way out of Boston.
- Access
- Everything is tarmac. The Mount Washington road does not allow motorhomes or vehicles with dual rear wheels. In Boston, avoid Storrow Drive in a high-top van: its bridges are very low. Smugglers’ Notch is narrow and closes in winter. Tolls are electronic in Massachusetts; cash or E-ZPass in Maine.
- Sleeping in a van
- Campsites in the White Mountains and around Acadia. Inside Acadia, you can only sleep at a campsite, and they all close in mid-October.
- Worth knowing
- The Cadillac Mountain road must be booked on Recreation.gov until the end of October and does not allow vehicles over 21 feet (6.4 metres). Since 2026, foreign visitors pay a surcharge at Acadia. The Cannon Mountain cable car is closed until it is replaced.
- Allow
- Twelve days for the loop, one more night for Cape Cod.
What not to miss
- 1Franconia NotchEcho Lake, the Flume Gorge and the memorial to the Old Man of the Mountain, a granite profile that collapsed in 2003.
- 2The Mount Washington Auto RoadTwelve kilometres of climbing to a summit where a gust of 372 km/h was recorded in 1934.
- 3Cadillac MountainFrom about 7 October to 6 March, the first place in the continental United States to see the sunrise.
- 4WoodstockIts covered bridges and a national historical park devoted to conservation.
- 5Portland Head LightThe oldest lighthouse in Maine, first lit in 1791.
- 6NewportThe Breakers, the Vanderbilts’ 70-room mansion, and the Cliff Walk above the ocean.
New England in pictures
A red covered bridge over the river near Bennington, Vermont.
New England food
On the coast, you eat lobster by the water, at a lobster pound. The lobster roll is served cold with mayonnaise in Maine, warm with butter in Connecticut. In Boston, order a clam chowder, a creamy clam soup. In Acadia, the Jordan Pond House serves popovers, light puffed rolls.
Autumn is orchard season: apples to pick and cider doughnuts. Vermont produces about half of the maple syrup in the United States. It adds its cheddar and the creemee, a soft-serve ice cream often flavoured with maple.
Loop from Boston
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+39stops- 1Old State House · Faneuil Hall · Old North Church · USS Constitution
- 2Minute man · Orchard House · Walden Pond · Quechee Gorge
- 3Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park · Lincoln Covered Bridge · Braley Covered Bridge · Stowe Community Church · Moss Glen Falls
Free, no account needed — start from its places and make it yours.
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