New England Travel and Vacation Gazette and Other Wicked Good Content

Articles and photos by Eric H. There's an interesting discussion forum going on right now at City -Data.com entitled, "What is the prettiest suburban downtown in Greater Boston?" Participants have been offering some great comments, mostly focusing on obvious choices like Concord, Hingham, Newburyport, Marblehead, Salem and Rockport. Each and every one of these communities deserves to be mentioned for their great downtown districts. Although the question begs for specificity (how do you define a pretty downtown?), the detailed, thoughtful feedback amongst participants was enough to make up for the perhaps overly general inquiry. I regard a pretty downtown as having a pleasing-to-the-eyes town common, a well-defined business district, big old homes, churches with tall white steeples and historic municipal buildings. What really makes a downtown pretty, however, is seeing it be utilized with events and community gatherings -- this showcases the vibrancy of a community. T...

Article and photos (top to bottom: Walpole, Newburyport, Walpole and North Attleborough) by Eric H. I received the following e-mail from a reader interested in moving to a vibrant, small town within an hour to Boston, MA (we'd appreciate your reader feedback on this posting): I hope you can help. My husband and I love New England and want to call it home. We recently visited Northampton and love the small town feel with the eclectic mix of old and young; however, we need to be a little closer to Boston Airport (within an hour). Can you recommend a small town that has the same feel as Northhampton and would also be suitable for raising a three and six year old and a quaint "Main Street" without the chain restaurants, etc.? While it's entirely possible to find a small town with character and a quaint Main Street close to Boston, I'm not aware on any suburbs that have the eclectic mix of old and young within a college town setting (Northampton is home to the estee...