So the last couple of weeks upon retuning from my winter sits in Scotland and England i took a couple of sits in New England before jetting home to California. I know a lot of sitters have “NYC” high on their list, but I thought I’d share some insights on options. My first sit was in Boston in one of the southwest suberbs. Boston has many beautiful suberbs , and there are commuter trains which can get you into the city center pretty quickly if you opt to not have a car. Boston is a beautiful city, and not nearly as hectic as NYC and a great place to explore. The Boston harbor has many attractions as well as ferries to both Rhode Island and Marthas Vineyard a popular tourist destination. Traveling in New England is fairly easy as the States are very close together. From Bsoton by train to Providence Rhode Island takes less than an hour. My sit was in Dedham, a small town with a quaint downtown and multiple eateries and coffee cafes roughly 25 minutes by commuter train to downtown Boston.
My 2nd and current sit is in Bridgeport Connecticut. Bridgeport is a port city and not all that pretty, in fact it’s rather gritty and industrial. However, it’s close proximity to NYC about an hour by train or if you prefer there’s a ferry from Bridgeport to Port Jefferson on Long Island, and you can hop on a bus into the city. I took the ferry yesterday , and had a wonderful afternoon in Port Jef as locals call it. It’s a village with great restaurants, shops and beautiful beaches and a mere hour and 15 minutes on the ferry, a great way to spend the day or afternoon. In addition, nearby Fairfield Connecticut the next town over from Bridgeport exudes the epitome of small town " Americana " and new England. Quaint eateries and a town square is the personification of what typical New England small towns are like. Westport also close by is a sprawling area with beautiful farms, parks, gorgeous homes, hiking trails to explore and a bit upscale. So if you’re looking for sits in NYC and you find yourself frustrated with the popularity and not landing the ideal sit, consider Connecticut or Boston. You can still get into New York fairly easily without having to deal with the hectic aspect of it. Just food for thoughts. I’ll share some images and a few links as well.
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That you for the wonderful info Catgoddess_99! I’ve bookmarked your post for future reference as this area of the U.S. is on my list of places to visit.
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We spent two months in the fall of 2022 travelling around New England and we absolutely loved it! Boston was brilliant as was a tiny place called Lincoln where we stayed in a wooden hut amongst the maple syrup trees. Staying by a lake in a boathouse was a truly spiritual high point … we plan to go back one day soon.
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@BonnyinBrighton That sounds heavenly 
have you been to Vermont and Maine? My two favorite New England state’s. Vermont is considered to be one of the most rural states in the country, it’s largely city Burlington is only 45,000 people and a university town. Vermont has beautiful mountains and loads of farms and small towns. Most of Maine is coastal and has the east coasts only National Park, Acadia. There are many National Historical parks but not purely National. Portland Maine is the largest city and roughly 60,000. It’s beautiful and there are ferries to Nova Scotia from there.
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Hello,
Born and raised RI resident here. Everything in the tinest state is close, I pull out my driveway take a left I’m in a busy business area, take a right, I am in the middle of the woods all within 2/3miles. RI mentality is any trip over mins requires a stop for lunch and anything over 30 mins requires overnight accommodations. Everything is close, note while some areas of RI have some what public transport most local buses and locations is pretty limited. RI has some great trails for hiking, lots of beaches, lots of free stuff to do. We have several colleges including RISD, Brown, Bryant, Roger williams university, Salve regina etc. We have that small town feel on a state level and yes everyone knows everyone. RIer are very proud of their state although we love to complain about everything. PS check out the weiner, coffee milk dels lemonade along with our great seafood!
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Yes we drove around all the NE states for 8 weeks staying in Airbnb. We also went on Lake Champlain for sunset dinners, staying in Burlington. The whole experience was wonderful. I’d certainly go back. RI was great as was Cape Cod, and Portland Maine. Vermont was stunning in the fall……On the other hand we’ve been to NYC a few times over many years but won’t go back now.
Rhode Island is wonderful. While visiting some friends in Mystic last year we went over to a state park/besch on Narragansett bay, i cannot remember the name, but there were great hiking trails and beautiful views. After I left them I spent a couple of day’s staying at an airbnb in Providence. The 2nd day i spent the day meandering around Newport and admring the Guilded Mansions. I did utilize the public transport while there, but yes, it’s limited.
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Yes I try to warn people in general when they get here, if you stay in providence or newport its generally decent but once you leave major parts of city there is no buses and with RI being so small it leave out a lot of great places like Arcadia, many trails, Scituate where the reservoir, in addition to ocean we have quite a bit of fresh water beaches that are equally gorgeous. Anyone ever in town please reach out to me love to show you around or meet up : )(im learning to be more extrovert signed a very much introvert)
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I’ll have to return and I’ll reach out to to you when I do 
🩵:heart_eyes:
Here’s a few photo’s from when I was there. Including the beach area i went with my friend’s Doug and Claire.
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Thanks for your post New England is definitely on my bucket list. Working on touching all 50+ states and also starting to plan an international house sit!
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Sounds fabulously exciting!
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