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By Mary Moore Mason In Essentially America (2003)
Although 48th in size among the 50 states, this beautiful little New England state is large in history and culture. Particularly worth a visit are its waterfront towns overlooking Long Island Sound and various rivers. All have handsome old houses, built by sea captains and merchants as early as the 17th century; each also has its own unique claim to fame, ranging from Stamford's Presbyterian church, built in the shape of a fish, Bridgeport's museum to circus tycoon P T Barnum - once the town's mayor - and Old Lyme's American Impressionist-rich Florence Griswold Museum, to New Haven's prestigious Yale University, Essex's fascinating Connecticut River Museum, and Groton's USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine.
The state capital, Hartford - also known as the world's insurance capital - encompasses a jewel of a State Capitol, one of America's oldest and best art museums (the Wadsworth Atheneum) and, in its suburbs, the neighbouring homes of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe (whose Uncle Tom's Cabin sounded the battle cry for the abolition of slavery). Other sites of note range from the beautiful Litchfield Hills, home to the rich and famous, to a state park displaying dinosaur tracks laid down 200 million years ago and America's largest Native American museum, funded by the world's largest casino, Foxwoods, both on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation. (Another tribe runs the nearby Mohegan Sun casino.)
UNMISSABLE: The picturesque seaport town of Mystic, once the centre for whalers and for clipper-ship construction, is now home to the Mystic Seaport living history museum where you can watch ropemakers and ship builders in action and climb aboard the Charles W Morgan, the only wooden whaling ship left in the USA, and the Amistad slave ship, reconstructed for the Stephen Spielberg film about the 1839 slave rebellion on board the ship. Nearby is the interesting Mystic Aquarium, a base for an underwater exploration programme which located the wreck of the Titanic, among other things.
POSTCARD: "The Mystic Seaport Museum is just about the best maritime museum in the wide world. You shouldn't miss it!" - Stewart Wild.
In the old days, when the British Navy needed tall, straight masts, they used pine trees from Maine. The 'Pine Tree State', as large as the New England states put together, is still covered in thick forest, while tumbling rivers provide thrills for canoeists, kayakers and white-water rafters, and a rugged coastline, punctuated with lighthouses, appeals to painters and photographers.
'Unspoiled' applies to pretty villages both inland and on the coast - Castine and Camden, Bethel and Bar Harbor. Although the coastal drive is a must, an even better bet is to sail (from half a day to a week) aboard a windjammer or schooner, a Maine speciality. Sunbathe on deck or make like a sailor and help with the sheets and sails. More sedentary pleasures include eating lobster - for a ridiculously low price - at a wooden table outside a 'lobster shack'. As well as coves, bays and rocky points, resort towns such as Boothbay and Kennebunkport (the Bush family's vacation residence) have provided relief from Southern heat for more than a century.
One Maine surprise is the bargain outlet shopping in Kittery and Freeport. Another is the wilderness inland, with grand mountains that provide classic climbs, hikes and, in winter, terrific skiing. Top town? That has to be lively, revitalised Portland, with an array of restaurants, museums and inns.
UNMISSABLE: Acadia National Park, the second most visited park in the USA, is stunning at any time of year, gloriously juxtaposing ocean and mountain. The Rockefeller family helped Mother Nature by building 45 miles of easily-graded carriage roads. Today, these are perfect for walking, cycling, and in winter, cross- country skiing.
POSTCARD: "Potter around the islands by ferry. From Portland, the regular run round Casco Bay is a watery local bus service and postal delivery combined. Passengers range from summer holidaymakers to chattering children en route from island homes to mainland schools. Farther north, Vinalhaven is busy with lobster fishing, while isolated Monhegan has no roads, a small hotel and a few resident artists and fishermen. Magic!" - Paul Wade.
Virginians may disagree, but this is where America as we know it really began. Although you can relive the Bay State's history through costumed 'interpreters' at Plimoth Plantation (depicting Puritan life in the 1620s) and Old Sturbridge Village (rural life in the 1830s), genuine reminders of the past are everywhere, especially on road signs: Boston and Cambridge, Sandwich and Chatham, Worcester and Manchester. Three-hundred-year-old houses built of clapboard abound, alongside elegant churches and low-ceilinged taverns. One of the prettiest towns - Concord, west of Boston - is one of the most significant. This is where the 'shot heard 'round the world' was fired in 1775 in a skirmish that led to American independence.
Massachusetts also boasts splendid scenery. The beaches and dunes of Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket - all summer playgrounds - are equally appealing off-season, with welcoming antiques-filled inns, often set in grand sea captains' mansions. Inland is the Connecticut River Valley and Historic Deerfield's perfect 18th-century main street. Nearby, the roller-coaster Mohawk Trail leads to the classic college community of Williamstown, with its excellent art galleries. To the south are the rolling Berkshire Hills (the Burk-shers in local lingo), home of summer festivals such as Tanglewood (music) and Jacob's Pillow (dance).
UNMISSABLE: Boston has it all - the sea on the doorstep and beautiful mountains a short drive away. Among dozens of colleges are Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), two of the world's best. Also world class are the symphony orchestra, the art galleries and museums. The T (public transport system) works well, the parks and the Charles River provide relaxation, and America's oldest and newest buildings are straight out of an architectural text book.
POSTCARD: "To understand America, you have to walk Boston's Freedom Trail, linking 16 historic buildings and sites from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Listen to echoes of anti-British rhetoric and anti-slavery speeches and discover who went to the Boston Tea Party and why the USS Constitution is nicknamed 'Old Ironsides'. It's the easiest history lesson ever! - Kathy Arnold.
New Hampshire couldn't be more different from old Hampshire. The English county has barely a hill, while the coast is entwined with Britain's naval history. By contrast, New Hampshire has the massive White Mountains and only 17 miles of coastline, wedged between Massachusetts and Maine.
A century ago, the 'Granite State' was New England's Number 1 tourist state, where city folk escaped the summer heat at grand resort hotels. Several of these survive, restored to their former glory. Among them is the Mount Washington Hotel where rocking chairs along the porch look straight at Mount Washington (6,288 ft), the highest peak in the north-east.
In winter, there's top-class cross-country and downhill skiing and snowboarding; in autumn, the leaves change to spectacular colour in mid-September, next to the Canadian border, and continue south, peaking in mid-October. New Hampshire is, though, still farm country, with covered bridges and picture-perfect villages, such as Jackson, Bath and Hancock. Each has classic New England B&Bs, crammed with antiques and quilts. Waterfalls tumble from cliffs, moose pop out of the dense Great North Woods and making maple sugar is an annual tradition. For a feel of the past, visit Portsmouth where Strawbery Banke, one of America's finest living history museums, takes you back to 1695. For special presents, head for the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen shops. And remember, New Hampshire has no state sales tax! As for the ruggedly individualistic people, the car licence plate says it all - 'Live Free or Die'
UNMISSABLE: Hike the well-marked trails of White Mountain; drive the steep toll road to the summit of Mount Washington, or, even better, take the huffing, puffing 134-year-old cog railway (wrap up even in high summer). And don't miss New Hampshire's inland sea. Lake Winnipesaukee, at 72 square miles, is the sixth-largest natural lake inside US borders. See it from the deck of M/S Mount Washington. Or paddle a canoe on nearby Squam Lake, the setting for the Fonda-Hepburn classic, On Golden Pond.
POSTCARD: "Base yourself in a classic village, such as Hancock, which was founded in 1779 and is named after the famous signer of the Declaration of Independence. We stayed in the Hancock Inn, the oldest hostelry in the state, with beams and log fires, Shaker Cranberry Pot Roast and 19th -century murals." - Paul Wade.
The smallest state in the Union was supposedly named for Rhodes in Greece but is not an island, though it does have 400 miles of coastline. Historic Newport and Providence, the state capital, are two of America's most attractive cities. There are also attractive beaches and quaint small towns.
Settled in 1639, Newport's layers of history range from 18th-century colonial homes to the 19th-century Gilded Age mansions built a century ago by the Vanderbilts and Astors. Newport is also fun. Summer brings one of the world's great jazz festivals. You can play on grass tennis courts older than Wimbledon's at the International Tennis Hall of Fame or sail in a yacht that competed in the America's Cup, held here for 132 years.
Nearby Providence has blossomed in recent years. Stroll along Benefit Street, the 'Mile of History' with its handsome 18th-19th-century houses; shop in the 1827 Arcade (perhaps America's first shopping mall) and watch the WaterFire display of music and floating bonfires (May-October). The Ocean State is also a bucket-and-spade place, with sandy beaches in South County. Cosy villages, such as Wickford and Little Compton, are reminders of Olde England; tiny Block Island, reached by ferry, is a throwback to the slower pace of the 1950s.
UNMISSABLE: Newport; old Providence; the Blackstone River Valley (industrial heritage); South County's beaches; Block Island.
POSTCARD: "Nowhere else in the world is like Newport: a stunning waterside location, a host of 'firsts' and 'oldests', an array of romantic bed and breakfasts, festivals all year long … and those glamorous mansions, the stately homes of the USA." - Kathy Arnold
Set on the western edge of New England, picture postcard-pretty Vermont is particularly well known for its charming towns and villages, such as Woodstock, Bennington and Middlebury, with their white-spired churches, welcoming old inns, prestigious colleges and impressive art and history museums. A close second are the ski resorts such as Stowe, Sugar Bush and Killington.
Other notable attractions include the beautiful Green Mountains in the centre of the state, the spectacular autumn foliage and more than 400 lakes and ponds, the largest being immense Lake Champlain. Sited on the New York State border, it is overlooked by Vermont's only city, attractive Burlington, and - just to the south - by Shelburne's museum, with its outstanding collection of Americana.
UNMISSABLE: A visit to poet Robert Frost's grave in Bennington's Old First Church cemetery as well as to the Bennington Museum's Grandma Moses paintings and other collections. (You might also want to drop by Rutland's Norman Rockwell Museum or Rudyard Kipling's home, Naulakha, near Dummerston.) A stroll past the old houses and churches of exquisite Woodstock; a gondola ride up Vermont's highest peak, 4,393ft Mount Mansfield; or a soar down the slopes of the nearby Stowe ski resort. And don't forget to stop by for a tasting at Waterbury's world-renowned Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory.
POSTCARD: "Whether taking in the bountiful farmland or a forest brilliant with the warmth of autumn you should pair your sightseeing with an event not 'invented' for tourists such as an agricultural fair, live music festivals or an arts and crafts exhibition. Among them are the displays at the Vermont State Craft Center at Frog Hollow, Middlebury, and the Vermont Mozart Festival which features world-renowned musicians at venues throughout the state during July and August." - Lisa Peiffer.
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