Purely Escorted Tours

Day 1: Welcome to Boston

Tour begins: 5:30 PM, The Westin Copley Place, Boston. A transfer is included from Logan International Airport to The Westin Copley Place, Boston. Please join us this evening for a welcome reception at the hotel, followed by a welcome dinner at a local restaurant in the heart of Boston.

Lodging: The Westin Copley Place, Boston

Dinner

Day 2: Historic Boston and a foodie tour along Charles Street

Begin today's exploration of America's "Cradle of Liberty" at Boston Common, where you'll see famed sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ stirring memorial to Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the Harvard-educated son of privilege who led the first African-American regiment in the Civil War; the bronze memorial, which took Saint-Gaudens 14 years to complete, is startling in its detail, and has been acclaimed as the greatest American sculpture of the 19th century. From the Common, continue your discovery of Boston landmarks that figured prominently in America's early history, including the Old North Church, the Old State House and the South Meeting House. Next, head out on a walking tour of Charles Street in Beacon Hill, lined with elegant Federal-style townhouses, gas lamps, and brick sidewalks, where a local food expert takes you on a tasting excursion through the neighborhood’s most exciting eateries. The afternoon is yours to explore more of the city as you wish. Tonight, you’re free to dine on your own in Boston; trendy Back Bay and its fabulous restaurants are at your doorstep. 

Lodging: The Westin Copley Place, Boston

Breakfast

Day 3: Fenway's "field of dreams," Lexington & Concord and on to Hartford

In his films Baseball and The Tenth Inning, Ken Burns offers a glimpse into the soul of our “national pastime”; for many, it lives at Fenway Park, America’s oldest ballpark and home of the Boston Red Sox since 1912. Past glories come alive on a walking tour of the stadium that may include some its most famous landmarks, such as the Triangle, Pesky’s Pole, the former location of Duffy’s Cliff, and the legendary Green Monster of left field. Depart baseball’s field of dreams and the city of Boston itself for the nearby flashpoint of the American Revolution, the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. First, head to Lexington Green, where the “shot heard ‘round the world” that began the Revolution was fired. Next it's on to Concord where, after lunch at a historic inn, you'll visit Concord Bridge, site of Emerson’s hymn, and the iconic Minuteman statue, cast from the bronze of Civil War cannons, in Minute Man National Historic Park. Continue on to the day's final destination, Connecticut's capital city, Hartford. Have dinner tonight at your leisure in your downtown hotel.

Lodging: Hartford Marriott Downtown

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 4: From Mark Twain & Harriet Beecher Stowe's Hartford to Vermont

In his film Mark Twain, Ken Burns says of Samuel Langhorne Clemens: “He was a tireless wanderer who lived in a thousand places all around the world. He would call just two of them home: the Missouri town of his childhood... and the magnificent Connecticut house he built for his wife and children, which he hoped would shelter them from hardship, but where heartbreak found them nonetheless.” At the Mark Twain House & Museum, Twain’s beloved homestead on Farmington Avenue, architect Edward Tuckerman Potter designed a “house fit for a poet” – a Victorian Gothic masterpiece of function and fantasy; its rooms, decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany, brighten with stories as a docent guides you on a private tour through the Clemens family’s inner life. Clemens flourished here as a writer, producing works including The Gilded Age, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. And despite a series of tragedies endured by the family, he counted his years in Hartford (1874-91) as the happiest of his life. To him, the house was a beloved family member; “Our house had a heart, and a soul, and eyes to see us with... We were in its confidence, and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benediction.” Only steps down Farmington Avenue from the Mark Twain House, visit the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe. When Clemens built his home here, it was partly to be near his publisher but also to be a member of the Nook Farm community, an enclave of writers, artists and radical thinkers that included the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. A private tour of Stowe’s modest Victorian home offers insights into “the little lady who started the Civil War” (as Lincoln called her), a mainstay of the influential literary circle that they considered their extended family. Depart Hartford and cross into central Massachusetts and the scenic Pioneer Valley of the Connecticut River, dotted by towns surrounded by unspoiled forest and fertile farmland. Arrive in historic Deerfield, where the 18th century returns to life among the town’s restored homes and period furnishings; you'll enjoy lunch at the restored Deerfield Inn. Push further north into the wilds of Vermont and settle in at the fabulous Jackson Gore Okemo Mountain Resort.

Lodging: Jackson Gore Okemo Mountain Resort, Ludlow

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 5: Vermont and New Hampshire, Ken Burns's Backyard

Cultural treasures beckon this morning as you travel from Vermont to Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire – the home of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the pre-eminent sculptor of Beaux Arts-era monuments commemorating Civil War heroes, who bought the property in 1885 from a man who persuaded him that the area was full of men who looked like Abraham Lincoln (he needed a model for his Standing Lincoln at the time). The sculptor’s estate eventually became the center of an influential artists’ colony whose residents included Maxfield Parrish and Thomas Dewing, but whose reach extended across the nation, drawing to itself artists like Daniel Chester French and Frederic Remington, as well as actors, writers and celebrities like Edwin Booth and Isadora Duncan, Woodrow Wilson and Finley Peter Dunne. Visit Saint-Gaudens’ studio and gardens,  displaying many of his works including sculptures, reliefs and coin designs. After lunch, continue through the New Hampshire countryside where Ken Burns, as Dayton Duncan says, “put down roots in the 1970s when he set out to transform the telling of American history through documentary films.” Get an inside look on a visit to Ken’s private studio in the town of Walpole, where his Florentine Films was founded. Return to Vermont and take a trip back in time at The Vermont Country Store in Rockingham, an emporium harkening back to the general stores of bygone days. Home to “purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find,” this family business has been famous for its mail-order business since 1946, and you can lose yourself here in its vast inventory of housewares, toys, penny candy, delicacies, dry goods, and rural New England nostalgia. Then head back to your Vermont resort for dinner and time spent as you please this evening.

Lodging: Jackson Gore Okemo Mountain Resort, Ludlow

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 6: Billings Farm and the White Mountains

Begin the day with perspectives on the evolution of the New England landscape and efforts to balance agriculture and conservation in the region from Steve Taylor, a dairy and maple farmer, scholar, journalist and former New Hampshire Commissioner of Agriculture. When railroad executive Frederick Billings (for whom the town in Montana is named) retired in 1871 and returned to his Woodstock, Vermont, roots to start a dairy farm, he opened a book called Man and Nature by George Perkins Marsh. Embracing its ideas of sustainable land use and forest conservation, within a few short years Billings had created a model farm whose cows and produce gained national attention. Meet the Jersey cows at Billings Farm and Museum, and get a firsthand look at its farming and forestry methods, which changed ideas about farming in turn-of-the-century New England. Have lunch on your own in town; in fall, indulge in autumnal panoramas of New Hampshire's White Mountains en route to the glacier-carved pass at Franconia Notch (a place of dramatic waterfalls and rock formations, once home to the legendary Old Man of the Mountain); then arrive for a night’s stay at a true New England classic since 1902 – the spectacular Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, a National Historic Landmark.

Lodging: Omni Mount Washington Resort, Bretton Woods

Breakfast, Dinner

Day 7: Explore Maine's stunning coast

A wildlife talk at your resort this morning offers an appreciation of the ecology of the glorious landscapes, summer and autumn, that you’ll journey through today as you wind your way to Maine. You'll arrive midday at Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, named by the Abenaki tribe, because the word means “beautiful place by the sea."  The area is known for its stunning walking trails – you'll have an opportunity to explore this quintessential coastal Maine region with a walk along the famed Marginal Way trail that hugs the sea. Originally developed in 1925, the trail is only 1.25 miles – with spectacular breathtaking vistas and iconic scenery. Arrive for an overnight stay at Cliff House, where spectacular ocean views astound; cap your tour of New England with a farewell reception and lobster bake dinner at your resort tonight.

Lodging: The Cliff House Resort & Spa

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 8: Journey home or extend your stay

Tour ends: Boston. Fly home anytime after 2:00 PM. A transfer is included from The Cliff House Resort & Spa in Maine to Boston's Logan International Airport. Allow 2 hours for flight check-in.

Breakfast