Tea, Mansions & Maritime Trails: A New England Journey

Ten nights from Boston to New Haven, self-guided, through southern New England, with the flights included.

Ten nights across five stops and only six days of car hire tells you the shape: this is a city and coast trip with short drives between them rather than a touring holiday, and the car is handed back before the end.

Boston opens it for three nights, with the Freedom Trail, Beacon Hill’s gas lamps and brick, and the Italian North End. Providence follows for two, a small city with a serious food reputation and a good deal of art. Newport comes next for two, where the Gilded Age families built summer houses the size of palaces along the cliffs and the Cliff Walk runs behind them with the Atlantic below. Mystic follows for a night, a seaport town with a whaling history, then New Haven for two, with Yale and its Gothic quadrangles, and the departure from Hartford.

Direct flights out to Boston and home from Hartford, a checked bag each way, six days of car hire with unlimited mileage and all ten nights at the named hotels, some with breakfast, are included; fuel, most meals, the mansion and attraction admissions, resort fees of 125 euros and a one-way drop-off fee of 46 euros, both payable locally, are not. The price shown is per person sharing. Late September and early October bring the autumn colour, which is the obvious window, though Newport is at its best in summer. Eleven days with only five bases and short legs between them is a gentle itinerary by the standards of American road trips, and the car being handed back at Hartford keeps the cost down.