When you travel many hundreds of miles in search of the best old inns in New England, it’s hard to narrow the list down to only ten. Here’s our list of the seven runners-up. Blue Skye Farm Waldoboro, Maine In this gem of a house, the two-story central stairwell is patterned in a green-and-red pineapple […]
At home in Providence with Chris Van Allsburg, the author of The Polar Express, one of the most beloved holiday tales of all time.
Escape to a distant time at one of these New England historic inns, where 18th century ambience is preserved with style and comfort.
If you picked up the July/August issue of Yankee Magazine, I hope you took time to peruse the photo essay, “Summer on the Lake,” in which Richard Schultz captured the essence of lakeside living in a stunning array of photographs. I certainly did and was intrigued not only by the images, but also the description […]
Dating back to 1790, Bay School farm overlooks Lake Winnisquam and miles and miles of mountains to the east and north. Everyone has his or her own idea of what heaven looks like. For us, however, a certain 13-plus acres, surrounded by neighboring farms, on a ridge overlooking eight-mile-long Lake Winnisquam as well as the […]
Let’s begin with the kitchen. No, it’s not the biggest we’ve been in, not even close. But how many kitchens have massive oriel windows that extend up two stories on three sides? When you stand there, you’re surrounded by granite counters with old-fashioned tiles depicting English nursery rhymes, placed randomly along the sides. There are […]
Terry John Woods and Dale West extended their Vermont farmhouse sensibility to Down East Maine to create what they consider “the perfect summer home.” The familiar things have their place here: a well-used table; an old cupboard, scraped and painted, awaiting a new round of memories; a scattering of reclaimed boards, smoothed and finished into […]
BEST WATERFRONT RESORT Basin Harbor Club, Vergennes You’ll want to pack a trunk and spend all summer at this plush, 125-year-old Lake Champlain retreat. Golf, watercraft, formal dining, and cottage or lodge accommodations. Rates: rooms from $232, $332 with American meal plan; cottages from $369, $448 with American meal plan. 4800 Basin Harbor Road. 800-622-4000, […]
BEST ISLAND LIVING Oceanic Hotel, Star Island For the first time in a long time, the 19th-century hotel on this grand rock in the Isles of Shoals (off the coast of Rye) is open to the public, complete with family-style meals, candlelight walks to the 200-year-old chapel, and plenty of ghost stories. Rates: from $148 […]
You don’t believe anyone could get behind a beehive oven? Well, you have to realize that General Lafayette (you know, that French guy who helped us win the Revolution) was a skinny man. Most histories don’t tell us that. And, well, in all truth, the story that he hid from the British after the Battle […]
As a travel writer, I have stayed in fine hotels. But really, how could any place, no matter how swank, be worth those prices?
The heat-storing properties of bricks have been utilized to keep people warm for centuries, and a Russian fireplace takes maximum advantage of this capacity. By slowing the passage of hot gases through the stove without having to slow the intensity of the fire, you have maximum combustion without the extreme fluctuations of temperature resulting from […]
