New England Travel and Vacation Gazette and Other Wicked Good Content

 Pizzeria Regina, in the North End of Boston, often "tweets" on Twitter! (photo by Eric H.) Bring your appetite to our Boston restaurants updates list on Twitter.  We have, at this writing, compiled a list of 205 Boston restaurants updating you on their most recent news. This includes, but is not limited to, daily specials for breakfast, lunch and diner, as well as entertainment, menu changes, events, gift certificate info, customer feedback and media reviews. From the upscale French restaurant to the North End pizzeria, we have made sure that virtually all cuisines are included. You'll find many well-known Boston restaurants, along with a generous portion of hidden Boston restaurants. The live time, social media reporting is, many times, quite informative and entertaining. I wish we had this type of information at our fingertips when growing up many years ago in the Boston area. It's great to have arrived in the 21st century isn't it?

Charley Manning featured a great topic yesterday afternoon on his WRKO Boston radio talk show, focusing on the challenges restaurants face in today's tough economy. I caught a few segments where many callers and restaurant employers felt  that good service was as important  as the food. I don't know about you, but too many restaurants I've been to have average service, at best. It seems like either the management is too busy to pay attention to its customers, the often transient wait staff disinterested and lacking good listening skills -- or both.  Several restaurants, however, come to mind when thinking of offering a pattern of excellent service. This includes waitress or waiter friendliness from start to finish, bringing the food out on time, and a host or manager that interacts well with the customer.  In no particular order, here are some New England dining spot where we have found a  general commitment to excellence when it comes to "service with a smile...

If you enjoy the Boston and New England of yesteryear, we think you'll enjoy our newest VisitingNewEngland publishing network blog addition, Old School Boston . Here, we will take a reflective and sometimes humorous look at some of the Boston restaurants, retail stores, local media, television and radio commercials, travel attractions and events, town and city icons, etc., that warmed our hearts and minds when growing up in the 1960s and 1970s.  Some subject matter you'll find in our first several articles include Rex Trailer, Willie Whistle, Grover Cronin's Department Store, the Cottage Crest restaurant, the "Famous Jim Sands" radio show,  legendary sports anchor Don Gillis, the Dave Dinger Ford radio jingle and the Zayre retail chain. Much more is on the way!  As always, feel feel to contribute your Boston and New England memories to this new Blog!

It takes some getting used to, but Putnam, Conn., ultimately grows on you. The old Montgomery Ward building (pictured here; Montgomery Ward, however, is long gone), the many locally-owned antique stores, head-on parking, a leisurely pace and a growing restaurant and retail scene help make Putnam unique, serviceable and with a rough-around-the-edges but pleasant personality.  We recently spent some time here and really enjoyed the antique stores and the modest but nice Christmas decorations around the downtown area.  If you need some other place to shop than the big box stores, Putnam is surely a worthy New England destination. For more information on this small New England town located in the northeast sector of Connecticut, please visit read our Putnam CT travel article at VisitingNewEngland.com.

The southwest Boston suburban town of Wrentham, Mass., always comes up with a fantastic Christmas lights display at its beautiful town common. Although the look of this town common is classic New England year-round, things just seem to come alive even more during the holiday season. With a gazebo all decked out in white lights, big trees with multi-colored lights and places to stroll along this multi-acre open space, the holiday spirit is always alive and well at this pleasant, little downtown spot. We'd love to hear your comments on the Wrentham town common Christmas lights display, or any other holiday travel attraction that you enjoy in New England!

If you're looking for the latest New England fall foliage reports online, state agencies in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont offer excellent web site updates (with resources listed below). We couldn't find one for Rhode Island, but you can call 800-250-7384 to find out information on the fall season in the "Ocean State." Enjoy the great colors, but be sure to stay up to date as conditions constantly change! Connecticut   http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2222&q=320738&depNav_GID=1631 Maine  http://www.maine.gov/doc/foliage/index.shtml Massachusetts  http://www.massvacation.com/fallfoliage/#/driving-routes New Hampshire  http://foliage.visitnh.gov.ns1www.silvertech.net/index-flash.html 1 Vermont  http://www.vermontvacation.com/vermont%20by%20season/fall/current%20foliage%20report.aspx Tweet

Chris Leadbeater, of the Daily Mail, just wrote a fantastic article on his recent  New England fall foliage trip . His writing, is no doubt, as colorful as the foliage leaves of New England, taking on almost a child-like awe of this special time of year in our region. Perfectly capturing the fall essence of the New England highways and byways, small quaint New Hampshire and Vermont towns (Woodstock and Grafton Vt., Jackson, N.H.) and scenic areas like the Berkshire County region of Massachusetts, Mt. Washington in New Hampshire and the Androscoggin River in Maine, reading this article makes one feel that they are alongside the traveler. The journey ends in Boston "where the leaves, stoked to an orange inferno around the perimeter of the Common, give an extra tint of majesty to the redbrick masonry and the shining dome of the Massachusetts State House." Beautiful writing, with detail that you don't always find in general New England fall foliage articles! Fall foliag...