Hidden Gems of New England

Tour begins: 5:30 PM, The Westin Copley Place, Boston. A transfer is included from Logan International Airport to The Westin Copley Place, Boston. Please join us this evening for a welcome reception at the hotel, followed by a welcome dinner at a local restaurant in the heart of Boston.

In his films Baseball and The Tenth Inning, Ken Burns offers a glimpse into the soul of our “national pastime”; for many, it lives at Fenway Park, America’s oldest ballpark and home of the Boston Red Sox since 1912. Past glories come alive on a walking tour of the stadium that may include some its most famous landmarks, such as the Triangle, Pesky’s Pole, the former location of Duffy’s Cliff, and the legendary Green Monster of left field. Next, an orientation tour of the city follows the historic Freedom Trail from the Back Bay’s Copley Square to Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ memorial to Col. Robert Gould Shaw in Boston Common, the State House, the Old North Church, the Old State House and the South Meeting House. 

Depart the city of Boston for the nearby flashpoint of the American Revolution, the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. First, travel to the Lexington Battle Green, where the “shot heard ‘round the world” that signaled the beginning of hostilities was fired; and Concord’s Old North Bridge and iconic Minuteman statue, cast from the bronze of Civil War cannons, in Minute Man National Historic Park. Head west across the center of Massachusetts, stopping for lunch en route to the city of Pittsfield in the Berkshires, for a late afternoon arrival at your boutique hotel created from a pair of 19th-century commercial buildings on the National Historic Register.

Aglow with blazing foliage in autumn, the Berkshires of western Massachusetts have long been a retreat for artists and writers. Begin today's discoveries in Stockbridge at the Norman Rockwell Museum, dedicated to the beloved illustrator whose hundreds of covers for the Saturday Evening Post depicting scenes from small-town America – including here in Stockbridge, where he spent the last 25 years of his life – illuminated the lives of ordinary people with humor and pathos; view many original works by Rockwell, and visit his preserved studio. Next, head to Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield for a private “Lunch, Grace & Song” tour of this former Shaker settlement, founded in 1783 and active through 1960. Today it’s a living-history museum featuring 20 authentic Shaker buildings, costumed interpreters, rich collections of Shaker furniture and artifacts, a working farm with extensive gardens and heritage-breed livestock and more. Continue on to Manchester, Vermont, for an overnight at a historic New England mountain resort, The Equinox Golf Resort & Spa.

Depart your Vermont resort and drive into the New Hampshire countryside for an exclusive insider look at Ken Burns’s private film studio in Walpole, where his Florentine Films was founded, and some free time in town. When railroad executive Frederick Billings (for whom the town in Montana is named) retired in 1871 and returned to his Woodstock, Vermont, roots to start a dairy farm, he opened a book called Man and Nature by George Perkins Marsh. Embracing its ideas of sustainable land use and forest conservation, within a few short years Billings had created a model farm whose cows and produce gained national attention. Hop back into Vermont and meet the Jersey cows at Billings Farm and Museum, and get a firsthand look at its farming and forestry methods, which changed ideas about farming in turn-of-the-century New England. Have lunch in town; in fall, indulge in autumnal panoramas of New Hampshire's White Mountains, arriving for a two-night stay at a true New England classic since 1902 – the spectacular Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, a National Historic Landmark.

Your day in the beautiful White Mountains starts with a “New Hampshire Maple Experience,” and a tasting of maple syrup, other maple sugar products, and homemade sour pickles. Back at the Omni Mount Washington, enjoy lunch and a free afternoon; if you wish, take a hotel history tour of your famous Bretton Woods resort, where you’ll have dinner at your leisure tonight.

A wildlife talk at your White Mountains resort this morning offers an appreciation of the ecology of the glorious landscapes, summer and autumn, that you’ll journey through today as you wind your way to Maine. You'll arrive midday at Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, named by the Abenaki tribe, because the word means “beautiful place by the sea."  The area is known for its stunning walking trails – you'll have an opportunity to explore this quintessential coastal Maine region with a walk along the famed Marginal Way trail that hugs the sea. Originally developed in 1925, the trail is only 1.25 miles – with spectacular breathtaking vistas and iconic scenery. Arrive for an overnight stay at your oceanfront hotel; join us for a farewell reception and dinner.

Tour ends: Boston. Drive directly to Boston’s Logan International Airport from Stage Neck Inn after breakfast. Allow a minimum of two hours for flight check-in; flights should not be booked before 2:00 PM. The group transport will drop guests off at the airport and then drive 3.5 miles to drop off at Boston South Station (for trains).