Insight Guides - New England

How To Use This E-Book

Getting around the e-book

This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to New England, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with detailed features on history, people and culture that paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, hotels, activities from to culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in New England are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of New England. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors who use their on-the-ground expertise to provide the very latest information and extensive historical and cultural background. All the reviews in an Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are selected to guide to you the best places to stay and eat, so you can be confident that when we say a restaurant or hotel is really special, we really mean it.

Like all Insight Guides , this e-book contains hundreds of beautiful photographs to inspire and inform your travel. We commission most of our own photography, because we strive to capture the essence of a destination using original images that you wont find anywhere else.

2012 Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Introduction: Yankee Country

Old World traditions blended with New World experiences have melded together to create a region with unique character

No region in America has a longer or more impressive history than New England. Archeologists say the first New Englanders were living here as early as 9000 BC, and the Vikings stopped by briefly in AD 1000. But for most people, New Englands history begins with the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620. In the next 200 tumultuous years, it saw the faltering steps of tenuous settlements become the firm strides of healthy colonies and the creation of an education system unmatched in the other colonies or Mother England. Those led to the desire for self-determination that was so strong, it led to a revolution that created a new country and a new form of government.

The symbols of that history are all around: Plymouth Rock, Lexington, and the Old North Church; the whaling ports of New Bedford and Mystic, the fishing fleets of Maine. The literary world stretches from Mark Twains Hartford home to Walden Pond and Robert Frosts Vermont cottage. And historic names: Adams (Sam and both Johns, and dont forget Abigail), Ethan Allen, and Nathan Hale.

While other areas respect their history, when a conflict arises between preservation and development the practicality of abandoning the old often wins. Not so much in New England, where theres an appreciation that the old is what gives the current world its value. Every town has its historical society, protecting its past and telling its story. It relishes the stereotypes that charm visitors: vivid autumn leaves, patchwork quilts of farms, trim colonial towns, sailboats on its bays, crashing waves against the coast, lighthouses sending their beams of safety into a fog-shrouded night.

But while rooted in the past, New Englanders reach for the future. Its cities are testaments to reuse and renewal; its schools are magnets for innovation and intellectual achievement; its cultural venues pride themselves on their creative visions in music, dance, and theater.

Though small in size compared to the rest of the country, New England offers a vast range of experiences for visitors to enjoy.

New Englands Top 10 Attractions

The regions dramatic past is imaginatively re-created, while the land and sea provide a wide range of outdoor recreations