Boston & Stowe in the Fall | Personal Travel

This was the trip of a lifetime! My friend Erika plans out her travel years in advance, so when she was telling me about everything she had planned for this trip, I jokingly invited myself along. “Why not?!” she replied. So over a year later, October rolled around and we found ourselves headed to Boston, Massachusetts and Stowe, Vermont!

The draw of the trip was to visit Stowe, a city ranked #1 in the U.S. for viewing fall foliage. Since there’s not a great way to get there, we flew into Boston and explored the city for a couple of days. With 6 kids between us, we mostly just walked around, stopping in small parks on our way to the site of the Boston Tea Party. The kids, all 7 years and younger, were not too thrilled about the historic markers, but loved riding the subways and playing in the dirt on a peaceful pathway next to the Boston harbor. Okay, I don’t actually know if it was technically part of the harbor, but it was part of the river near MIT where we could watch the sailboats. My Boston highlight was HANDS DOWN the lobster roll 🤤 No pics because I ate it too fast.

Day 3 was road trip day! We stopped in New Hampshire at Carter Hill Orchard. I have never been apple picking, but it was such a fun quintessential fall activity! Emery “doesn’t like apples”, but apparently she does, just only if they are fresh off the tree. The road trip brought more and more fall colors! Even though we were there a few weeks past “peak” foliage, it was still so beautiful!

Now. This is where it gets too good to be true. We had booked a two-bedroom suite at The Lodge at Spruce Peak in Stowe, which we were super excited about. The day before, we got a call asking if we would like a complimentary upgrade to a four-bedroom private residence! You guys. We got on the elevator, which opened up to a window wrapped, spacious living area surrounded by the fall colors we had come to see! Pictures cannot do it justice, but it was truly magical. Some of the best times were sipping maple lattes by the fire, looking out on the kaleidoscope of color.

Other highlights were riding the gondola up to the mountain peak (we didn’t get good views since it was cloudy up there, but we did get the best waffles ever), swimming in the heated pool, and strolling the quaint downtown of Stars Hollow, I mean, Stowe. We sadly had to switch hotels for the last two nights because Erika and her boys needed to get back. We decided to try out a cute downtown inn, and y’all… it was a dump. The smallest stairway up to the room, uneven and creaky wood floors. We tried to have a positive attitude, but it was a rude wake up call going from our luxury residence to a 440 sq. ft. 1 bed and a pull-out couch hotel with a broken fireplace 😂 BUT, because of said fireplace, we got another free upgrade! This time to a much newer and nicer 2-bedroom suite! I can’t believe the two rooms were even part of the same Inn (which I won’t name here because of my negative comments) but our second room was a nice place to stay, close to downtown and a lot of delicious restaurants!

We ended our trip by renting bikes and taking on the Stowe recreation path. I highly recommend this! I give it 9/10 stars. A 10 would’ve been renting the e-bikes. Pulling the girls on the uphill parts were no joke 😅 We also stopped at Cold Hollow Cider Mill on our way back to Boston.

As I said, this was a trip of a lifetime. I’m not sure I’ll ever go back– you can’t beat two free upgrades in one trip! But it was the perfect fall trip with friends. I’ll let Erika plan more of my vacations moving forward 🙂

P.S. Addie took her first steps in Boston! This was the week before her first birthday, so it was fun to capture some photos of my fall baby in a fall setting!