Holiday to New England in Oct 2023: Day 15 – Summary

By Nige on October 26, 2023 at 11:35 am
Type: Post
Story: Holiday to New England in Oct 2023 Category: Travel
Tags: BOS | Boston | British Airways | Hilton | Holidays | LHR | London Heathrow | Massachusetts | New England | USA

Another really enjoyable holiday, tinged with a longing to be back with our pussy-cats. This is a summary of our holiday.

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We didn’t find the New England trees in their very best level of redness – I’m not sure it’s easy to say whether we were a week or two too early or too late. It’s a bit of a lottery as to what you get when you visit. However, some of the pictures we took of the New England Fall were stunning.

British Airways

• Always offer a decent service. They are never the best when compared to other airlines, but we know what we will get and BA normally hits that mark. Good opportunity for us to test out BA’s newer aircraft: 787-9 and 787-10.
• Worth a quick note about BA’s trial of their Group 0 boarding process, which seemed to work pretty well on the Boston route. These ideas are great as long as BA staff are diligency in sticking to their boarding policy and don’t slip into announcing groups 0 and 1 together, or even worse, announcing groups 0, 1, 2 and 3 all together!
• Also worthy of note is BA’s initiative to try harder to get their aircraft away on time from Heathrow.
• We were pleased with the slightly refreshed Concord Room (CCR) at Heathrow T5. It’s a comfortable lounge that offers a lovely meal out on the terrace.
• BA’s Boston lounge was very comfortable too, with a nice dining area and a dedicated boarding gate in the lounge. We liked it a lot.

Heathrow Parking

• First time we switched our really easy, but expensive, T5 Meet & Greet booking for a significantly cheaper T5 Long Stay booking. We didn’t need to save the £100, but we were not in a big rush heading in either direction. The savings covered the cost of one or two of our meals out.

Hertz

• It was an easy pick up at the Park Plaza, Downtown, which saved us a packet compared with picking up at the airport.
• We ended up with an Audi A4, which had seen better days. The sat nav in the Audi was hopeless at finding a lot of basic places.
• Some issues with initial rental, but they soon sorted it out. On the downside, we dropped the car back a couple of days early and didn’t get any follow up (e.g. receipt).

Hilton

• Doubletree Boston Downtown – on our first visit, we received a complimentary upgrade into a nice corner suite, which was much appreciated. It’s a comfy hotel, with a good location and has a nice breakfast service.
• HGI, Portland – nicely position near the harbour. HGIs are always a nice place to stay.
• Hampton Inn, Bar Harbor – it’s one of the nicest hotels in the area, perched up on a hill.
• Hampton Inn, Littleton – we got a spacious 1 bed suite and the hotel is comfortable enough.
• Homewood Suites, Burlington – good quality hotel. Having a separate kitchen area with a big fridge was helpful for us.
• Hampton Inn, Manchester – another spacious room with everything we needed.
• Hampton Inn, Cape Cod, West Yarmouth – our studio suite was very comfy, although we had problems with WIFI.

Boston, Massachusettes

• Always great to visit the big city on the coast.
• The Freedom Trail is a great tourist attraction to start with – it gets you around the city.

Portland, Maine

• Portland is an attractive place, with a lot of personality and a good selection of restaurants and bars. It looked like a good night out! If you are in to eating, drinking and being merry – who isn’t?

Bar Harbor, Maine

• Very touristy – reminded me of Blackpool for the number of people we came across!
• Good selection of restaurants, but the best ones need to be reserved well ahead. Naturally there is a lot of fish on the menu!
• Acadia National Park is easily accessible from here – it’s a must-do attraction.

Littleton, New Hampshire

• An odd, stop-off sort of a place. But it had some nice restaurants.

Burlington, Vermont

• An attractive town, which is convenient for visiting Ben & Jerry’s in Waterbury.
• Too many homeless people to feel entirely comfortable walking around some of the less celubrious areas of the town.
• Hosts a segway tour which was good fun.

Manchester, Vermont

• We were surprised by this place. It’s got a lovely main street, some fab restaurants and good trails.

Cape Cod, Massachusettes

• We spent three nights here, so it became the highlight of our holiday.
• Hyannis had some nice restaurants and there’s a JFK museum to boot.

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Holiday to New England in Oct 2023