Lured by the prospect of stunning autumnal colours and historic towns and villages, Tim Ware set off for New England in the Fall .

As summer draws in, and before winter casts its gloom, my holiday advice is: Go west and enjoy New England in the fall.



The timing of fall foliage, as the Americans call it, is unique to the north east corner of the United States – but precisely when it happens is down to the whim of the weather. This staggering free show only takes place when Mother Nature decides to trigger the miraculous chemical process needed for the leaves to change colour.



We made our plans around the second week of October and were in luck. As we drove down the freeway from Boston, the riot of colour visible covered every shade: orange and scarlet flicker like flame from the sugar maple, gold flashes from aspen and birch, and purple and red show from dogwood – all set off against the soothing evergreen pine backdrop.

Here, under the sweet embrace of autumn sun and the gentle overhead traffic of emigrating Canada Geese, is the ‘God’s Garden’ of Mrs Dorothy Frances Gurney’s much-recited verse.

Even Rudyard Kipling, who lived in Vermont for a while, was lost for words over the beauty of New England’s autumn colour. He wrote: “No pen can describe the turning of the leaves – the insurrection of the tree people against the waning year.”

We were on a self-drive tour of New England, starting and finishing in Boston. In a little less than two weeks, we motored past comforting, English-sounding places like Hancock and Burlington to definitively North American-sounding ones like Ogunquit and Kennebunkport, which was where George Bush senior installed his ‘summer White House.’

The six New England states are named not because of any scenic similarity to the old country, but because the early colonists wanted to create a new and different England.

The US was born here and the area is full of historic reminders of the nation’s beginning.Landmarks of the battles for nationhood and liberty are carefully preserved and, in the countryside, the colonial architecture – no better exemplified than by the gleaming white clapboard houses set amid a sea of flowers – is still very much in evidence.

Village greens are a reminder that, as in England, settlements were built around a central focal point, not strung out along a trail in the best American tradition.

But our first impression of America on this tour was gleaned not in the countryside, but in a city. Although metropolitan Boston sprawls around Massachusetts Bay, the centre of the city, with its twisting streets around the Common, reveals that this was the birthplace of the nation, the early colonists tipping tea into the harbour in a protest against a three per cent tax imposed by the British parliament.

Boston is one of the few American cities it’s possible to explore on foot. Picking up a leaflet at the tourist information office, we decided to explore the city in our own time along the Freedom Trail, a red-line route in the city centre that takes you to some of the most historic landmarks.


State House, Boston

These include the gold-domed State House; Quincy Market, with its shops, open spaces and food halls; and Faneuil (it rhymes with Daniel) Hall, once known as the Cradle of Liberty because it was where the early American Revolutionaries met.

Boston is great for shopping – and for eating out. As you’d expect, seafood is a speciality here. There are any number of superb seafood restaurants, where you can enjoy lobster, clams (dipped in butter and served in steamers) and scrod, the generic term for young, white-fleshed fish.

I was pleased to discover that Jimmy’s Harborside restaurant, overlooking the water, was still in business more than 30 years after I made my first trip to Boston in the 70s. It was here I enjoyed the fattest and best oysters that I’ve ever tasted.


Mount Washington

Soon we were heading west out of the city, out into the Massachusetts countryside and on into New Hampshire, past little resorts like Meredith and Gilford to Mount Washington. At 6,300 feet, Mount Washington is the roof of New England.

The mountain is known not just for its views but for its climate. The weather here is extraordinarily severe. On more than 100 days a year the wind here exceeds hurricane strength and on the summit you have the remarkable sight of buildings held down with great chains to prevent them blowing away.

Mount Washington’s dangerously erratic weather resulted in its recording, on 12 April 1934, the highest wind speed directly measured on the earth’s surface – an eye-watering 231mph.

You can drive to the top in your own car or be driven on a sightseeing tour, but nothing can quite compete with a trip on the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway. Whatever your mode of transport, on a clear day, there are great views north into Canada and east to the Atlantic.

As a geographical entity, New England is small by Texan standards – but you need to plan your tour carefully to maximise the available time. Friends recommended we headed north into Vermont to Burlington – and we weren’t disappointed.


Burlington countryside

We fell in love with Burlington. With a population nudging 40,000, this is Vermont’s largest ‘city’ – and it’s one of the most enjoyable places in New England.

It sits on Lake Champlain and is a happy, relaxed sort of place – an outward-looking university town with great views out across the water to New York state.

It’s a place for exploring on foot, particularly on a balmy autumn day, with the sun dropping down behind the lake and boats providing a picture-postcard setting on the waterfront (Montreal is only 80 miles away.)

Outside the town we discovered the Inn at Essex but – in an English connection – the word “inn” scarcely does it justice. Sitting in 18 acres, this is one of New England’s prime resort hotels and we spent two days just chilling out in the hotel’s sumptuous rooms and spa and enjoying fine food.

We could happily have spent more time here, but we had plans to see at least something of Maine before returning to Boston. It’s a long drive – but Interstate 95 helps ease the pain.

We crossed on to Mount Desert Island and explored the Arcadia National Park, before making our way south to Ogunquit, the last stop on our tour. Maine’s finest beach is separated from the ocean by a three-mile spit of sand and from here it’s only a short distance to George Bush Senior’s summer retreat at Kennebunkport.

What was good enough for the former president is clearly good enough for the thousands of visitors who come to gawk at the Bush family home and maybe do as the former president does… go fishing, play a round of golf and enjoy some of New England’s finest coastal scenery. Some, ourselves included, had the added bonus of fall foliage thrown in for good measure…

For more information please visit: www.visitnewengland.com