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[Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Here's what it's like to take the ultimate fall road trip through New England. This road trip takes you through mountain views, coastal cliffs, and more cider donuts than we could count. From sunrise hikes in Aadia National Park to winding roads to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and cozy towns in Vermont that feel like a Hallmark movie, this is the perfect 10-day itinerary through Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont for peak fall colors.
If you guys are new here, we're Jazelle and Steven, also known as the Lovers Passport, and we're taking you on a new bucket list adventure every single week. This week, we are getting ready for fall colors, which is one of our favorite times of the whole year. And out of everywhere we've gone in the world, this is one of our favorite road trips to do in September and October. So if you're looking for the best place to see fall, I hope that you're ready. Let's dive into the video.
So first up, you're going to be flying into the Boston Logan airport. We thought this was the best spot to fly into cuz the first spot that we're going to be driving to is Portland, Maine. Portland, Maine is known for its craft coffee, seafood, and its super creative culture. We thought it was the perfect spot to go if you guys, like I said, are a coffee fanatic. If you're looking to have some of the best lobster rolls of your life and also grab some delicious donuts on your way up to northern Maine.
So, if you had the extra time in your itinerary, I definitely recommend spending a full day or two here in Portland, Maine. But if you're just stopping through like we are, we definitely recommend doing the next few things. Number one is you have to grab the donuts from Holy Donuts. The apple cider canoli. So it has some cream in the middle. They're made from main potatoes. So we're going to give you a little rating on all these. Speed test. All right.
Got a little cream there, buddy. I'd give this an 8.5 out of 10 to start off with. Next, we have the apple sugar here. No cream in it. A little lighter than the last one. I'd give that a 6.8. Next, we have the lemon. This was the person that was serving us recommendation. I give that one 7.9. This is their most famous one. This is the salted chocolate. Oh, by the way, that one is really good. Ooh, the salt comes at the end. I'd give that one a 9.1. Not 10. Definitely take the lead.
Took the lead. We have the maple. Old reliable. This one might be the heaviest one, though. Maple. We're going to give an 8.9. I put that at second. Now, we have the crumble. I put that one right above the canoli one. That was number three. Then holy donuts. Pretty savage. We went there and the line was luckily not too bad, but I've heard horror stories of it getting insane here. It's so delicious. They're like cake donuts, so they're not your typical fluffy doughnuts. They're a little bit heavier, a lot more delicious, and very, very flavorful. So, make sure you stop there in the morning on your way through Portland.
Another one of our favorite spots was Bard Coffee. It's a super cute coffee shop downtown. It has really delicious flavors. It's a great spot as well if you're working uh remotely or if you need a spot to go and relax for a little bit. They have really fast Wi-Fi, delicious coffee, and is located in the heart of Portland.
You have to try a lobster roll. Maine is known for their lobster and it was absolutely phenomenal. We started at the High Roller uh last night. Now, keep in mind this is probably the most famous of the lobster rolls here in Portland, so expect a wait. We went about an hour before closing, and we were able to get sat pretty quickly within like 10 minutes. Just know that a line does form. It's a really cute diner. We did a lobster flight and a lobster burger, and they were phenomenal. So, definitely recommend checking out the High Roller.
The last spot here is called the Portland Headlight. We went there during sunrise and it was insane. The east coast of the US is known for having these beautiful oldtimely lighouses. So, if you guys are looking to check out a beautiful sunrise in the morning, we would definitely check out this spot. I will say that it was quite busy there. So, if you guys are looking to grab some beautiful photos of the Portland headlight or if you're just looking to go and enjoy it peacefully, I might try sunset as well, just cuz sunrise was very busy.
Next up, we visited the beautiful Acadia National Park. This national park has been on our bucket list for years, and we truly believe that fall is the best time to explore here. The temperatures were perfect for hiking. The fall foliage was just incredible up here, and it definitely made its way into one of our favorite national parks in the US.
So, the first thing that we did there was the famous beehive trail. We out here at Acadia National Park doing the beehive trail for sunrise. It is stunning out here. The fall patches behind us with the ocean right here. We had a beautiful like pink glow on the horizon this morning. We definitely recommend doing this for sunrise. This is actually one of the first sunrises out in the US because we are so on the eastern side of the country. And so, yeah, definitely get here at sunrise because it's way less busy. There's a really small parking lot and it does get pretty crazy on the weekends after like 7:00 a.m. We're actually here on a weekday, too. So, that definitely helps. But, if you guys are planning on coming at all for sunrise, make sure to get here early. Also, the Beehive Trail is so much fun because there's a ton of little rungs and a little bit of climbing and scrambling. And so, if you're looking for a little more adventurous of a hike, this one is super fun. Make sure if you're going to do it for sunrise that you pack some headlamps and layers with you, though.
Alternatively, you can also do the Cadillac Mountain Hike. That's another great option if you want something a little bit harder and more challenging.
Now, the one thing to note about this place is it is stupid busy. We tried three times to get a sunrise permit and failed every single time. And this was during the weekday. Sunrise permits come out at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time or 7:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, 48 hours before you want to hike. So, unfortunately, we didn't get that, but we did get sunset permits. So, we are up here at sunset. We got to watch it go down over the over the lake and the mountains over there. And the last thing I will say is that if you guys are coming up here, you want to make sure you have a parks pass. So, make sure you bring your America's Beautiful pass or make sure that you guys get your online digital reservation. But yeah, make sure you add it to your Acadia bucket list.
Another thing that you have to do while you're visiting Acadia is driving Park Loop Road. We did this a couple of times throughout our stay here and it was gorgeous. It's a 27mi scenic drive featuring Sand Beach, Thunderhole, Gora Mountain, the Bubbles, Bubble Rock, and Cadillac Mountain. And there's a ton of really good leaf peeping terrain here. Make sure to go check out the bubbles while you're driving along this route. It they're super easy little hike. So, we're currently doing the bubbles trail next up in Aadia National Park. This one is a quick little one as well. Very similar to the beehive trail. It's about a mile and a half and 500 ft of elevation gain. So, extremely similar in terms of terrain and everything. You can either do the north and the south bubble or just one or the other. Depends how long you want to make the trek. Right now, we're heading up to North Bubble, which gives you a beautiful panoramic view over the lakes in Acadia. and we're already starting to see a ton of really nice fall foliage.
Right next to Akadia National Park is Bar Harbor, and that's probably the spot you're going to be going if you're looking to eat out anywhere along this trip. It's a super cute little spot known for delicious lobster homie vibes, and it has such a fun vibe throughout the town. The best spot to grab a lobster roll in Bar Harbor is going to be known as Bar Harbor Lobster Pound. A close second is also going to be Stumman's. They're both right off the main drag and honestly it was really hard to tell the difference. I think between the two they both had similar flavors. Both of them had very fresh lobster. I think it's just a difference in the atmosphere that you're going to get. And if you're looking for a spot to go for breakfast, we would recommend going to Two Cats Diner. It's a super cute little spot. It does get busy though, especially during this time of the year. So, make sure you guys get there early enough to where you don't have to wait too long. I think when we got there, we waited around 10 or 15 minutes for a table for two, and the food was delicious. Just think of your typical diner food, comfort food. Good morning.
We stayed out here at the Mount Desert Campground. It's a beautiful campground. We got to put our tent directly next to the lake over here. And the nice thing is it's about a 10-minute drive from Acadia National Park and about 15 minutes from Bar Harbor. So, we really love this spot. It's got a little area that has coffee. It has Wi-Fi so we could go and get some work done. We got these nice wooden platforms. It dumped rain a ton yesterday. As you can see, our tent mostly dry. We have some nice tree protection. It dries out really quick here. But great little camp spot, especially if you guys are heading up here to Acadia National Park. We are going to be packing up though. We spent our two days up here exploring. Ate some amazing food. Got some great lobster and blueberries. Acadia National Park was absolutely beautiful. Really fun to be able to visit during the fall. But now we're getting ready to head over to Vermont. We've never been there, so we are really excited to take you along. It's a long drive. It's about 6 hours, but we are hopefully going to be stopping in New Hampshire on the way over there.
Before you get to the border of New Hampshire, there's a stunning state park in Maine called Grafton Notch State Park. We accidentally kind of stumbled upon this area on our drive. We hadn't seen it mentioned in any blogs or any prior research. And just as we were driving across the border, the fall colors there were incredible. That was probably our favorite little stretch of driving from Maine to New Hampshire. And the colors were just so vibrant. There were no crowds anywhere. So, we definitely recommend if you're hitting the White Mountain region at the prime time to go head up here because it was great leaf peeping without all the crowds that you can find on the can.
After your drive through Maine on your way to New Hampshire, you are finally going to arrive in one of our favorite states. We actually have a full guide to New Hampshire that specializes in all the best hikes, all the best things to do. So, if you want to check that out, I went ahead and put it right down below. We're going to narrow our full time in New Hampshire down to three things you have to do. Number one is you need to drive the Kinkagus Highway through the White Mountains. This highway alone will leave you speechless during fall and I think it's the best spot to see the fall colors because you get a wide range of them. Typically fall colors move pretty quick through areas and this hour-long drives gives you some good mixes of the northern area where you're going to get really good fall colors, mountainous areas where you're also going to get cloud inversions and fall colors and nice easy valleys next to the river where you can stop, jump out and get some beautiful landscape images. So, I would definitely recommend adding that. We drove it basically every day and it's how we got between all of these other spots.
Another spot to check out is called Artist Bluff. This is a perfect spot if you want to go for sunrise. It's a pretty short hike up. You get these gorgeous views over the lake and sometimes you can even get cloud inversions. It takes around 30 to 45 minutes to do the hike and I'm warning you, it will be busy. Make sure to check the weather cuz this area is also known for getting rain and thick clouds. We've hiked up there many times and seen nothing because it was just covered in clouds. And the last spot I want you to check out is Crawford Notch or Dicksville Notch. Both these have so many hikes to do. It's a stunning area that offers these massive cliff edges you can go and explore. So, if you are in this area, check out your hiking ability. There's easy, medium, and hard hikes. We talk about multiple of them inside our full New Hampshire guide, which I'll go ahead and link down below. But in our opinion, out of the three states, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, New Hampshire probably had the best fall foliage. So, if you guys are looking to go and just see fall colors, this is where we would recommend spending most of your time.
We stayed at the Lumen Nature Retreat here in Woodstock, New Hampshire. This is actually our second time staying here. We stayed here in the Huga cabin. This is the exact same one we had last time, and it's such a beautiful little area. You're surrounded by the river. You're right in the middle of all the fall foliage and it's pretty close to the can. So, that's why we loved it here. The service was great, the amenities were great, and anytime we come back to New Hampshire in this area, we'll definitely stay here again. It comes with an air conditioner and heater, a Marshall speaker, kettle, pots and pans, coffee and tea, an indoor fireplace, a fridge, an outdoor fire pit, two sitting chairs by the river, two saunas that you can reserve once you check in. And it's honestly such a nice facility. And although we stayed here twice, I got to say the fall was especially magical. So, if you can book it during fall, make sure to do it pretty far out in advance. I'll link it here with a QR code as well as in the description box down below.
During our time in New Hampshire, we also decided to make a spontaneous stay at the Omni Mount Washington Resort and Spa, which was a little bit past peak by the time we got there, but it ended up working out perfectly. This place was definitely like old money luxury and perfectly located in the White Mountains where we could get to basically anywhere along the Kink and the adjacent highways into the neighboring state parks fairly quickly.
If you're a big Gilmore Girls fan, then you're going to love this section because both of these cute little towns in Vermont felt straight out of the TV show. First up, we visited Stow. Stow is a quintessential Vermont mountain town known for its maple, beautiful views, and craft fair. Make sure to stop at Butler's Pantry for a great maple themed breakfast. But the number one thing that most people do here during the fall is of course stop for some cider and donuts. So you can head over to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. We've made it to the famous Cold Hollow Cider Farm and it is so cute. Come on in and check it out.
There's a big parking lot which is nice. The crowds here do get a little crazy so we would recommend definitely getting there on the earlier side of the morning rather than in the afternoon. The traffic can get pretty crazy. There's people directing traffic. The parking lot fills up pretty quickly. And then enjoy the cider and donuts. After you visit the cider mill, we recommend you go and visit the von trap brewing and beer hall. This is the family that inspired the sound of music. And so, as a sound of music fan, I was excited to go and explore this estate. We just got some beer and we got some pretzels and some food from the restaurant. It did get a little crazy up there, but it had a nice little seating area both indoors and outdoors with some fire pits on the patio. If you're looking for a fun little short nearby hike in Stow, we checked out Glen Moss Falls. It was a short little jaunt with a beautiful waterfall and we did it early in the morning and there was hardly anyone else out on the trail. So, if you're looking to get a little extra time out in nature since you're exploring in the city of Stow, then this is a great option for you.
Another area you have to explore in Vermont is called Smuggller's Notch. You've probably seen insane photos of this very, very windy road driving up into the mountains. It took us around 90 minutes to drive all the way up it just because there's lots of close corners. There's people coming up and down. There's going to be a lot of traffic, but it is so worth it. The fall colors here are magnificent. And to make it even more beautiful, the fall colors are located in between these two massive mountains that you drive through to get through the pass. And that's where we saw the most fall colors on both the mountains and in the middle of the road. Cuz typically what you'll see is during fall, either the low section or the high section will have fall colors. But it's not very common to find them both on the mountains and in the valleys just cuz the temperature changes so fast in Vermont. But you definitely want to add smuggler's knots to your bucket list. I would recommend 2 to three hours to drive through the area and explore it in full and grab some photos cuz you don't want to be just stuck in traffic the whole time. We went during the morning, the afternoon, and the evening. And I definitely think the best time to go is about an hour to 3 hours before sunset. There wasn't as many crowds. You had really nice, beautiful lighting, and you could still capture the stunning fall colors.
After we watched the sunset and Smuggler's Notch, we actually headed over to Pyaso, which is our favorite spot to grab food there. We ended up meeting up with some friends, but it is a delicious spot. It serves pizza. It's very, very nice because a lot of places in the area will close early during this time of the year, and Picasso was open pretty late, so make sure you add that if you're looking for a nice dinner to do right next to Smuggler's Notch.
Next, we visited the cute little town of Woodstock. And this was personally my favorite town of the whole fall road trip besides maybe Bar Harbor. I also loved Bar Harbor. Woodstock is a cute and quintessential New England town and it is adorable. It really feels like a storybook hallmark movie like we were saying and this is probably the busiest area that we saw outside of the Kank in New Hampshire. So once again, during peak fall foliage, you're going to want to make sure you all lot some extra time for parking uh and walking around because you probably won't get a super ideal parking spot and there could be a bit of traffic. Also, something to note is in Woodstock in particular, we were with our group of friends, Ian and Anna, and when we separated and tried getting in communication with them, the cell service was awful because there were so many people there. So, if you're traveling with a group or meeting people there, make sure you have a game plan before you get into town during Peak Foliage.
One of the best things to do here is try a famous maple creamy, which is a local sweet treat in the fall, and they are so good. So, if you're a big dessert fan, you'll love maple creamies. And of course, there are some gorgeous drives around Woodstock as well. You can do the Green Mountain Scenic Byway, which has some perfect fall foliage views if you time it right. We also loved stopping along the side of the byway at this little spot called Dream Maker Bakery and I had some amazing breakfast options and pastries and coffee. So, it's perfect if you are just going out for a little jaunt in the morning and want to grab some treats. And my favorite thing that we did here too was going to the Sugar Bush Maple Farm. So, today we're here at the Sugar Bush Farm and we are doing a maple and cheese tasting. They also let you do a little walk around the property so you can go in and around the maples. It's about a 15-minute walk. And to get here, it's about a 10 to 15 minute drive outside of Woodstock. And it's super beautiful, but make sure to get here early, especially if you're coming here for Peak Foliage because it will get super busy. There's lots of parking. You go down a little dirt road, so uh take it easy if you don't have a high clearance vehicle. But yeah, we're going to go walk around the property and then we're going to go do some cheese tasting. The maple here was so good. So, we're probably going to go get some of the amber uh maple syrup that we tried right before this. We got to walk around, see how all the maple trees are tapped, and kind of get a good look at the difference between Vermont maple versus traditional maple syrups, and see how much better the Vermont maple syrup is. So, we did a couple of maple syrup tastings, and then they also have some other fun themed maple stuff on the property there. I feel like this is a must do fall activity is visiting a maple farm, and we loved our time at Sugar Bush.
If you're looking to do this exact road trip, we would recommend breaking it up into 10 days. Days one to two, you're going to be spending time in Portland, Acadia, and Bar Harbor. Day three, spend the whole day exploring Acadia National Park. Day four, you're going to drive into Grafton Notch and into the White Mountains. And days five and six, you're going to be doing hiking in New Hampshire and exploring the Kank. Day seven, you're going to be traveling to Stowe and starting to explore Vermont. Days eight and nine, you're going to be exploring Smuggller's Notch, Woodstock, and the Southern Vermont Loop. And on day 10, you're going to have a nice, easy morning and drive back to Boston airport. It's a super easy 10-day trip. You can also make it 12 days if you want to adjust for weather. But in our opinion, like I said, this is one of our favorite trips that we've ever done in the US, especially during September and October. And that is it for our ultimate 10-day fall foliage road trip around Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. I hope you guys have a fantastic time doing this itinerary. It was one of our favorite fall foliage trips that we've done. Also, check out our previous fall foliage road trip guides. We have one dedicated to New Hampshire alone as well as Connecticut, and I'll link both of those down below in the description box for you. And with that, we'll see you back next week with another adventure. [Music]