Northeastern USA honeymoon suggestions?

johnscottandkatya

My bride and I are both grad students in the Boston area and we are on a bit of a budget.  Does anyone have any not-too-sky-high-expensive suggestions for any specific honeymoon/wedding-night venue in or near the New England area? 

Thanks SO much for any pointers you can give!!!

dmartineau1

What time of the year are you looking at?

ali79ger

Have you ever visited North Conway, NH?  Just beautiful up there any time of year!  And from Boston, probably 2.5 hours away???

swoodso464

The Berkshires offer a lot of good vacation spots.  If you want something really rural, there are plenty of options in the north county, but if you want to be a in a little New England town, Great Barrington or Stockbridge can be fun.  Some areas are more expensive, but depending on when your wedding is, you can probably find a good deal if you hunt around. Depending on what you're into, there's always hiking and canoeing available.  In the winter, there's some (prettty bad) skiing and other winter sports.  And there are lots of art and theatre events all year round (mostly in the summer, but there is always at least something going on the rest of the time).  It's a quick drive from Boston down the MassPike.  Good luck!

thielemm

When I was younger, we drove up to Maine from NY and took an overnight ferry to Nova Scotia... I have no idea how expensive it was, but it was beautiful and a really special place that stands out over lots of roadtrips!

KWats2011

I went camping in Acadia, Maine this summer- it was INCREDIBLE. Excellent food, beautiful hikes and the ocean right there. Lots of outdoor activities and cute hotels around as well!

Brodie and Chevelle

The White Mountains are absolutely beautiful any time of year. Also, Cape Cod is a great honeymoon place. Good luck with choosing! New England is beautiful

ivyrose13

I'm getting married at Fort Popham, it's a state historic site, so my venue is FREE. There are tons of state parks in Maine and New Hampshire, most of which only require a letter of intent to the department of conservation or a meager site fee ($100 or less). 

As for a honeymoon site, we are going to Quebec City. It's in Canada, about six hours north of Portland, ME. but it has all the flavor of Europe without the plane ticket and jet lag. 

benmel31

Lake George, NY!  It is one of my favorite vacation spots ever!  There's hiking, the lake to play in, wineries, and cute towns with restaurants and shops.  There are also a number of B&Bs in the area.  

We have even camped out on islands in the middle of the lake.  The camping is cheap, the expensive part is renting a boat to get out to the islands.  But that is part of the fun.

mbcdefg

Ditto PP about Lake George. We spent our honeymoon there and it was great Here's the B&B where we stayed: http://www.boathousebb.com/

Some other places we looked into, within driving distance from our home in New Jersey:

Camden, Maine
Bar Harbor, Maine
Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket
Newport, Rhode Island
The Poconos in Pennsylvania
Cooperstown, NY
Finger Lakes, NY

Canadian locations if you have passports:
Niagara Falls
Montreal
Toronto
New Brunswick

You could drive to New Jersey and get a Shore house or a hotel room (Long Beach Island is nice); stay in a B&B in Cape May (very quaint and Victorian); go to Atlantic City for shows, gambling and fancy dinners (you could stay at the Borgata, which is probably the nicest place, and then grab a cab if you want to go to the boardwalk area).

Sometimes you can fly to Vegas for a good price. MH and I went a few years ago, and round-trip flights from Newark plus about 3-4 nights in MGM only cost us $1K. Have you looked online at flights? Or is flying out of the question?

Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire is supposed to be nice, although I never looked into it for our honeymoon. Or maybe you could go to the Narragansett Beach area in Rhode Island?

If you want, you could stay local in Boston but get a really fancy hotel that you'd otherwise never pay for. And maybe do some side trips to places like Salem and Plymouth, if you've never been there.

jonchrissy

I agree with mbcdefg, Vegas can be really cheap. FI and I went 2 years ago, the hotel and airfare was 350 per person and we stayed at the NYNY hotel which is right on the strip. We spent less than 1000 including food. 

As for honeymoons in New England, the Cape would be so so nice. FI and I also vacation up on Winnepesaukee (sp?) the Church Landing hotel is beautiful, we almost had our wedding there. 

If you do Portland, ME, I highly recommend the Portland Harbor Hotel, it's beautiful.