I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do an epic Northeast (or just somewhere “up there” slash New England-y-ish) trip and I just knew that this year (2016 ) was the year. And thanks to a few fun partnerships and things that fell into place, we were able to make it happen this year and I’m so excited to share all that we did and experienced with y’all in this blog post!

Buckle up, this is a long one! But hopefully, you’ll find this blog post informative or helpful if you’re planning on doing a similar trip in the future. But as always, PLEASE feel free to bring up anything I forgot or ask ANY questions related to this trip or road trips in general!

We got back a few weeks ago and I feel like I’ve learned so much – from how to think about planning a road trip versus any other trip (link to road trip) to how difficult it is to predict when “peek” leaf season time going to be (it’s different every year depending on a number of things).

Choosing the Route of Our Road Trip

There were several variables that went into play to deciding where we were going and the specific places to stop along the way. The only thing I really cared about was that we were in the NE and stopped at a few “must see” spots when it comes to seeing the prettiest fall colors. After doing a bit of research, we knew we HAD to visit Vermont to see the best of the best.

I wanted to start the road trip as EARLY as possible because I knew I’d be craving Fall weather after the heat of August in Dallas. And plus, I knew I’d have all my new Fall goodies from the #NSALE and would be ready to shoot fall content for the blog. And even though the leaves sometimes are already turning towards the middle of September (and we were leaving on the 26th), we wanted to have the best leaf-peeping experience given the early stages of the season. Which meant we had to go as far op North as possible.

When looking at the map of the best Northeast’s airports to fly into from Dallas, our options were limited to Bangor Maine airport and Burlington, VT unless we wanted to start in Canada (which we also considered!).  The plan was to start up north and drive down one of those famous highways with all the pretty leaves and make a few stops in fun towns along the way.

Lisel and I did A LOT of planning and after lots of thought we decided to make 3 stops and span our road trip over the course of 10 days, which I’ve later learned is just at my travel limit. We narrowed it down to 2-3 major cities we wanted to tackle on this go round  and decided there will for sure be more NE road trips in the future – there’s just so much to see and do up there!

We flew from Dallas to Burlington in order to get to our first stop, Stowe, VT which is about a 45 minute drive away (so, not bad!)

Stop No. 1: Stowe, VT

We partnered with Land Rover so they had conveniently left a vehicle for us to drive upon arriving. We picked Stowe, VT as our first stop on the trip because we had heard such amazing things about their mountains and foliage. So a little about Stowe; I’ll share a few highlights, but for the comprehensive city guide, check out the Stowe , VT Travel Guide blog post I posted a few weeks back too! In a nutshell, the town is adorable!

How cute is this store front we found on Maine Street in Stowe, VT?! The entire town was decorated come mid September and it was so adorable!

We stayed at The Stowe Mountain Lodge – a gorgeous, winter-esque hotel that makes you want to snuggle up with hot coffee and a good book (or wish it were snowing to hop on the chair lift and ski down!) The lodge is surrounded by mountains and has it’s own ski village, which is so cute (you can see a little bit of the village in this outfit post).

Overall, the grounds of the Stowe Mountain Lodge alone could easily keep you entertained without heading into town. However, if you are visiting Stowe you do not want to miss out on visiting the adorable little town surrounding “Main Street”. We were able to spend one of our days exploring the town and we found so many cute shops and restaurants.

Read more in my Stowe City Travel Guide blog post that includes everything I’ve mentioned here and more!

Other Stowe-Related Blog Posts: Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Stowe VT, Photos of wearing White Jeans After Labor Day in front of the Stowe Country Store on Maine Street, and BTD Weekly Round Up Post October 2016

Stowe to Manchester & The Stops Along The Way

After spending 3 days in Stowe we drove on to Manchester. The drive is only about 2 hours but we spend 4 just stopping and exploring the small towns along the way. I knew I wanted to take some shots under covered bridges and hike some creeks while in Vermont and the drive did not disappoint.

We stopped around the town of Bennington and found so many cute places to take photos. We had lunch at Madison Brewing Co. and tried out their flight of local beers. If you follow on snap, then you might remember us being OBSESSED with the pumpkin-flavored one with the cinnamon-rimmed glass?! SO yum!

Also while in Bennington, we visited the local pumpkin patch and apple orchard. I shared a few photos from that over in this blog post! In addition to the cute little town of Bennington, there are lots of fun spots to stop along the way to The Berkshires and several of the famous iconic highways are in this area too (like highway 100 for sure!).

We also stopped at a few covered bridges including the “Cilley Bridge” in Tunbridge, VT along highway 110 (another beautiful highway!). If you’re interested in exploring any of the covered bridges yourself, you can find a list of all of all the covered bridges here!

We took the photos from this Monday’s blog post (where I shared 5 things I’m loving right now) at one of the cute little creeks we stopped at on the way to Manchester!

Stop No. 2: Manchester, VT

We spent a large chunk of our week exploring in Manchester and had SUCH an amazing time!

Among many other fun things, Manchester is home to one of the only 3 Land Rover Driving experiences in the US. We were lucky enough to take a half day course while there and it was AMAZING. THIS adventure alone is enough to convince you to visit Manchester, but there’s plenty more to do up in Manchester if you need any more reasons to visit!

Read & see more about the Land Rover Driving Experience in Manchester, VT in this blog post!

For all you ladies that like to shop till you drop Manchester is known for their designer outlets and they are no disappointment! Orvis also has their headquarters there in Manchester and offer an array of outdoor classes including fly fishing, archery and falconry. With all of these great options you could easily spend a whole week in Manchester soaking up the northeastern air.

We stayed at The Equinox Hotel in Manchester, VT and it was beyond compare! I loved the atmosphere here and the back patio/fire pit was too hard to avoid every night for cocktails.

Related blog posts: Equinox Hotel in Manchester, VT

One nights in Manchester, we had dinner at the Taconic hotel down the street which had more of a modern vibe than the Equinox but equal parts adorable!

Outfit Details: Free People Knit Turtleneck Sweater// AG ‘The Legging’ Ankle Jeans// Sam Edelman ‘Blake’ Ankle Suede Bootie// Sam Edelman ‘Blake’ Ankle Bootie

Outfit Details: Echo Stripe Reversible Cape// BP. Long Sleeve Tee//Sam Edelman Suede Ankle Boots//AG ‘The Legging’ Angle Jeans

Making the drive to Weston, VT to visit the iconic Vermont Country Store.

Stop No. 3: The Berkshires

We then spent the rest of our trip driving through and exploring The Berkshires.

This area is full of beautiful rivers, trees and wildlife. I didn’t want to leave and could have spent so much more time there. Besides the scenery there wasn’t much I found interesting about the towns in the area. They all kind of have the same look and feel to it which were hard to compete after leaving Manchester.

We stayed at The Federal House Inn and that was such a treat. Every night the adorable owners (they’re the cutest couple!), host a wine and cheese little happy hour with local wines, cheeses and sweets all home made. They were so accommodating and the house was gorgeous it made it hard to get out for dinner.