After almost a year of talking about marking more states off our lists, Megan and I finally went on our New England Road Trip. Besides a previous trip to Boston for a George Strait concert on his farewell tour, neither of us had been to any states north of New York.
Planning the Trip
We decided to meet up in Boston and start our adventure from there. I am definitely a planner, but also love to go with the flow, so that means I had done some research on great roads to drive, created a spreadsheet of drive time, miles and possible stops along the way. But I also realize that those are all just really options and if we come along other things we want to see, then great.
I even found a fantastic website to help with the planning, Roadtrippers. While I didn’t end up loving the app as much since it wouldn’t connect to Apple Carplay, the website is super helpful. It allowed me to easily create a route avoiding highways and showcased possible stops along the way, even categorized them based on your interests.
Stop 1: Newport, RI
Once Megan picked me up at the airport in Boston, we hit the road for Newport, RI. We had no real plan for Newport other than stopping for lunch. We ended up in Bannister’s Wharf and Bowen’s Wharf, checked out some of the cute shops and had lunch at The Lobster Bar.
I didn’t realize that there were so many mansions in Newport. After lunch we drove by some of them and stopped at The Breakers, the summer cottage of the Vanderbilt Family. We didn’t really have time to do a tour, so we parked, took some pictures of the front and then walked part of the Cliff Walk that goes between The Breakers and the water.
Stop 2: Mystic, CT
From there we hit the road for Mystic, CT. I really just wanted to say that I had seen Mystic Pizza. I liked the movie with Julia Roberts, so I felt like I had to stop by the actual place.
Stop 3: Yale University
After snapping a picture of the sign, it was on to Yale! This became a scavenger hunt for something that said Yale University that we could take a picture of from the car. It felt like we had circled campus multiple times and we were about to give up, when we finally saw large banners spelling out YALE on one of the buildings. SUCCESS!
Stop 4: Washington, CT
Our last stop in Connecticut was the town of Washington. While I don’t think this is a stop for most people, this is the town that fictional Stars Hollow from the tv show Gilmore Girls in based on. And to be honest, outside of a little sign saying Stars Hollow in one of the shop windows, you wouldn’t know from stopping in the town. Unfortunately, everything in the town closes super early, so we didn’t get a chance to make it into the coffee shop, but we did check out the market.
To finish off the day, we ended up back in Massachusetts in the Berkshires.
| Route for Day 1 | Roads | Time | Miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston, MA – Newport, RI | I-90W, I-93S, MA-24S, RI-24S, RI-114S | 1 Hour 30 Minutes | 75 |
| Newport, RI – Mystic, CT | US-1N, I-95S, Hwy 614 | 1 Hour | 50 |
| Mystic, CT – Yale University | I-95S, I-91N | 1 Hour | 55 |
| Yale University – Washington, CT | CT-313W, CT-67W, US-6E, CT-47N | 1 Hour | 35 |
| Washington, CT – Pittsfield, MA | CT-47N, CT-45N, US-7N | 1 Hour 40 Minutes | 65 |
| TOTAL | 6 Hours 10 Minutes | 280 |
Leave a Reply