Acadia is the tits. Bar Harbor it up. Portland’s on the way, highly dog friendly town, good if you’re into the bar or live music scene, gorgeous weather in September. its very residential however, from what we explored most of the visitor shit is down on the water.
Boston has some cool shit but you can’t exactly take pups into museums and the like. Salem is not really going to be full swing in September and it’s actually a much smaller scene than you’d expect but there’s cool ass walks through the memorial grounds and down along the water. A lot of the museums are scammy/tourist trappy though, lots of old ass diorama wax models thatve been the same since I was a kid.
If you’re looking to walk something that is quintessentally New England city experience that isn’t Boston, you could try College Hill in Providence. Still cobble streets in some places, classic Victorian architecture (it’s where Lovecraft and a bunch of salty ass sea captains lived.) Pretty rarified being that it’s been taken over by the Brown university endowment sprawl in the last 10-15 years or so. Italian you gotta do federal hill, but they’ve also got some bitchin Korean restaurants if you’re into Asian. Stay away from the bus station.
Newport’s Newport. Insanely overpriced and the main drag’s tourist trap heaven. If you didn’t get to do the cliff walk it is a genuinely beautiful stroll, especially the far end of it.
I would never recommend going there otherwise, but if you’re into war history or boats Battleship Cove in Fall River is a cool stop off with the USS Massachusetts and submarine museum. (wouldn’t recommend going that Far East on 95 unless you’re heading to the Cape/Martha‘s Vineyard otherwise.) The Cape is literally just rich people, dunes and Provincetown, the last of which is pretty fun if you’re into homosexuality or browsing weird art objects. Again very dog friendly.
Stay away from inland population centers like Springfield MA, they’re shitholes.
There‘s not much in CT except drug habits, Mystic, and Foxwoods.
It’s off the beaten track from the way up to Acadia, but if you want some beautiful vistas do the drive up through new hampshire’s White Mountains. From Conway north to Mt. Washington is a beautiful drive. You can take a train or your car to the top of Mt. Washington if you don’t want to do the trek from base, and it’s the best mountain view you’re going to get in New England outside of Cadillac mt. in Acadia (or Mt. Katahdin, but that’s a dangerous mountain and way too remote to be a van trip destination unless you specifically want to do the end of of the Appalachian Trail.)
