Coastal New England in the Summer

Fifteen nights along the New England coast, self-drive with the flights included, from Boston round to Cape Cod.

Boston takes the first two nights, with the North End and a trolley tour that passes the pub the television series Cheers was based on. Lincolnville follows for two in Maine, by way of Owls Head, with a climb in the Camden Hills for the view over Penobscot Bay.

Bar Harbor comes next for three nights beside Acadia National Park, with the Millionaires Row houses on West Street, the Abbe Museum of Wabanaki history, an early start along Ocean Drive for the sunrise, which arrives here before anywhere else in the country, and a trip out on a traditional lobster boat. Kennebunkport follows for two, with lighthouses and a guided food walk from Dock Square, then Newport for two, where the Gilded Age mansions were built as summer houses by New York families and Rosecliff stood in for Gatsby’s house in the 1974 film. Chatham on Cape Cod takes the last three.

Flights, fully insured car hire, all the accommodation and round-the-clock support while travelling are included, and the price is quoted per person. Sixteen days with two or three nights everywhere is an unhurried pace for a coast this short, which is the point: most of the stops are about boats, seafood and houses rather than driving. Whale watching goes out from Cape Cod in summer, and no sighting can be promised. Summer is also when the coast works: Maine out of season is beautiful and largely closed, and the lobster boats do not run for visitors in winter.