New England and the Appalachian Trail by road

Trip Planning
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We have stated planning for a road trip in Sept/Oct next year. I know I’m getting ahead of myself but it will take a fair degree of concentration on my part.
There are a few things to note for those interested in commenting.

  1. We are coming from Australia via Hawaii or Vegas to Chicago or Boston.
  2. We live in sub-tropical Australia so we are adverse to cold.
  3. We prefer to do the trip in a Class B.
  4. We avoid large cities as much as we can, but we always do half or full day city tours with independent operators when the opportunity is there.

At the moment, I’m leaning towards starting the New England trip from Boston.
I found this site The Ultimate 10-Day New England Road Trip Itinerary that looks appealing.

I’d like to pick up the Appalachian Trail at some point but I need a bit of assistance with that. I really don’t want to be back tracking to Boston so I’m thinking of ending the driving in maybe Nashville and then heading back by air to Vegas to prepare for the long haul back home.

I’m also having trouble sourcing a Class C (probably one-way) out of Boston with a dedicated rental company. I’ve looked at RV share and the stuff on there is OTT expensive for what it is. Any pointers on this would be very welcome. It may well dictate where we start from - Chicago or Boston. If it’s Chicago, the trip will involve Upstate NY and traveling down through VT.

So, I have a task ahead of me and any advice from readers will be very much appreciated. I can return the favour and if you look at the Yellowstone topic in this forum, you’ll see I can probably help someone in their travels.
Thanks.
gjcee

2

Correction
I’m looking for a Class B, not a Class C as I stated.

3

Definitely recommend this portion of the AT should you decide to route down through Nashville - will ponies off the trail are pretty neat, and the trail should be seasonable that time of year too: [Grayson Highlands State Park, Mouth of Wilson | Roadtrippers](https://Grayson Highlands)

Visiting the Northeast region during that time of year should provide a delightful demonstration by mother nature by way of Fall foliage. To make the most of this, I recommend keeping your destinations a bit loose if possible (maintaining a general ‘region/state of travel’ would be fine), then once your trip creeps closer, it would be worth it to research the season’s foliage prediction maps/data and decide your accommodations by that. In the Northeast you should have too much issue with campground reservations that time of year!

4

G’day Liz
Thanks for the info. Very interesting that there are prediction sites. I guess it is all about environmental conditions that have occurred leading up to the season and I assume they are current for this upcoming season.
We have time on our side. Still grappling with the RV/Camp thing vs Car/Hotel/Motel/Guest House/etc thing. Pros and cons for each method but sourcing the Class B is proving extremely difficult so now leaning toward car rental.
The private RV rental method (RVshare, Outdoorsy, and the like) presents far too much risk and is very costly.
However, time is on our side. More to come later.
Thanks again.