The hostel is closed to individuals during the day for cleaning and maintenance, but there are loads things to do around here. Within 10 minutes of the hostel is the tiny New England town of Harvard with summer outdoor concerts, spectacular fall foliage, sledding on the common in the winter, and orchards full of apple blossoms in the spring. Learn about Shaker communal life and Native Americans at Fruitlands in Harvard. There are miles of country roads suitable for bicycling as well as hiking and mountain biking) trails, some bike rail trails and wildlife conservation areas in Harvard and adjacent towns as well as canoeing or kayaking on the Nashua River with Nashoba Paddler.
Thirteen miles from Friendly Crossways, you can take a Literary Tour of Louisa May Alcott's and Ralph Waldo Emerson's homes, and Thoreau's Walden Pond and Lyceum, and visit the site of the "shot heard `round the world" in Concord; browse through the DeCordva Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln; check out suits of armor and American art in Worcester; and visit Lowell, home to national museums featuring the American Industrial Revolution and American Quilts.
An hour's drive leads you to north of Boston to Gloucester, Rockport and Newburyport for whale watching, windswept beaches, or turn back the clock at Salem and its historic Peabody Essex Museum, Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge MA or Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth NH. Of course there's loads of things to see in Boston.
Much of New England, including the seacoast from artistic Portland, Maine to America's Home Town Plymouth Rock and Cape Cod's white sand beaches in Massachusetts and the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, Green Mountains of Vermont and White Mountains of New Hampshire can be reached in less than two hours.
For children, there is a neat "Leathers" park and climbing structure about 5 miles away in Littleton; and the Discovery Museums, seven miles away in Acton. The National Plastics Center and Museum in nearby Leominster has lots of cool hands-on activities and neat information appropriate for both children and adults. The Davis Farm in Sterling has a petting zoo and crop maze and a whole lot more. Great Brook Farm Park in nearby Carlisle has a working dairy, icecream stand, and walking paths which are used for cross country skiing in the winter.
Folk and Family Festivals: NEFFA (New England Folk Festival Association) is 45 minutes away in Natick in April. The FREE Lowell Folk Festival is 20 minutes away and held the last weekend in July. There's also the Three Apples Storytelling Festival held Oct. 15-17 this year, right here in Harvard. Wachusett Moutain holds several fall festivals featuring kids, beers, classic cars and R&B, and downhill skiing (not all at the same time). Berlin Orchards has pick-your-own fruit and fruity festivals.
Pick Your Own: blueberries, apples and pumpkins at Westward Orchards (978/456-8363), Carlsons Orchards (978/456-3916) and Doe Orchards (978/772-4139) in the town of Harvard.
Email Us: info@friendlycrossways.com
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