SOUTHEAST LIGHTHOUSE (RI): To find the most commanding views of the New England coast and ocean, look to a lighthouse. From their windswept homes on cliffs and headlands, they invite visitors to come see what they see—which on Block Island, sitting just a short ferry ride from the Rhode Island mainland, means sharing the Southeast Lighthouse’s lofty vantage atop Mohegan Bluffs.
Photo Credit: Block Island Tourism/Ross Draper
A few miles north of Kingfield, Maine, there is a curve in Route 27 where the trees edging the narrow roadway suddenly part. People call this the “Oh my gosh!” corner—because when faced with the spectacular visage of Sugarloaf Mountain rising out of the North Woods, what else can you say?
That kind of exclamation, that catching of the breath, is one way we know we are experiencing beauty. We have all felt it, and indeed it’s one of the reasons we travel to new places. We grow more alert, we look more closely, we await being astonished. We are open to all that we find.
These pages will take you to the grand sweep of the ocean, to skies burnished by sunset or speckled with stars so bright they seem to burn a hole from another world. You will soar above craggy bluffs rising from the sea, and over a tiny island in a shimmering lake. There’s a covered bridge, too, inviting you to see beauty in an enduringly simple, perfectly engineered way for villagers to get where they needed to go.
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More than anything, look through these photos and then find their equal wherever you may travel in New England: villages, cities, woods, waterways, orchards, farms. Be alert for even the smallest moments of beauty, as when you stroll through a green and lovely cemetery and then there you are, by the tomb of the poet Longfellow, and you are in two worlds—his and yours. Such encounters are waiting for you throughout this region, where travelers have come for generations to find themselves seeing with wide-eyed wonder and the inevitable “Oh my gosh!” —Mel Allen
12 Beautiful Places to Visit in New England This Year
SOUTHEAST LIGHTHOUSE (RI): To find the most commanding views of the New England coast and ocean, look to a lighthouse. From their windswept homes on cliffs and headlands, they invite visitors to come see what they see—which on Block Island, sitting just a short ferry ride from the Rhode Island mainland, means sharing the Southeast Lighthouse’s lofty vantage atop Mohegan Bluffs. Photo Credit : Block Island Tourism/Ross DraperMOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY (MA): Inspired in part by English landscaping tradition and Paris’s parklike Père Lachaise, the nation’s first “garden cemetery” (opened in 1831) welcomes the public into its tranquil heart every day of the year. Mount Auburn‘s 175 acres in Cambridge and Watertown pay tribute not only to those laid to rest here—including Julia Ward Howe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Isabella Stewart Gardner—but also to nature, eternally restorative in all its forms. Photo Credit : Robert BensonSQUAM LAKE (NH): In contrast to the busy summer playground that is nearby Lake Winnipesaukee, Squam Lake has an unhurried, almost romantic air—a loch amid the New Hampshire highlands. Take a boat tour to be charmed by its scattering of islands and stretches of undeveloped shoreline, and keep an eye out for the loons, bald eagles, and great blue herons that nest here. Photo Credit : Will ZimmermannBURT HENRY COVERED BRIDGE (VT): “Covered bridges weren’t built to star on calendars,” writes New Hampshire author Howard Mansfield in his 2016 book, Sheds. “They weren’t built to be pretty.” Yet the same structures that once were practical solutions to 19th-century problems—including this classic Town lattice truss bridge in North Bennington—are now scenic lures for 21st-century visitors. Photo Credit : Briana LyonsGRACE FARMS (CT): A mere 10 minutes from Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, you’ll find another gorgeously unconventional building: the River, whose metal-clad roof floats like a silver ribbon above the contours of the land. But where Johnson’s iconic window-walled structure brings the outside indoors, the River helps immerse humans in the natural landscape of Grace Farms, where all but three of the 80 lush acres at this culture and humanitarian center are protected habitat. Photo Credit : Sahar Coston-HardyACADIA NATIONAL PARK (ME): As a largely rural state, Maine offers some of the most pristine night skies imaginable. This celestial bounty is celebrated each September at the Acadia Night Sky Festival, one of the East Coast’s biggest and best-known night sky events. You don’t have to wait till fall, though, to get a front-row seat to Acadia’s cavalcade of stars: The curtain goes up every night. Photo Credit : Nate LevesqueALYSON’S ORCHARD (NH): A steep, west-facing hillside at this 350-acre property in Walpole gives its trees abundant exposure, which in turn produces exceptional fruit. That same hillside gives Alyson’s visitors abundant views—of the Connecticut River Valley and onward to Vermont—which in turn produce exceptional memories. Photo Credit : Michael PiazzaBREWSTER TIDAL FLATS (MA): It’s the little things that make North America’s largest tidal flats so perfect for sunsets—namely, the ripples and runnels in the sand that create the illusion of molten stained glass right at your feet. The flats extend nearly 10 miles along the coast of Cape Cod, which means viewing spots are ample, but Paine’s Creek Beach is hard to beat. Photo Credit : Betty WileyNEWPORT MANSIONS (RI): The sheer amount of money that went into Newport’s Gilded Age estates (The Elms, shown, cost $1.4 million in 1901, or more than $50 million today) is impressive. What inspires real awe, though, is the exquisite artistry and craftsmanship on display here—a tribute not to the wealth made by some, but to the beauty created by many. Photo Credit : Courtesy of the Preservation Society of Newport County/Gavin AshworthSILVER SANDS STATE PARK (CT): Habitat for wildlife, buffer against ocean storms, and just plain lovely to look at, tidal marshes lend a quiet appeal to New England’s famous coast. At Silver Sands State Park in Milford, a three-quarter-mile boardwalk ensures this delicate ecosystem leaves a lasting impact on the viewer, not the other way around. Photo Credit : Joe ParskeySHELBURNE FARMS (VT): In a region of rocky soil and notoriously changeable weather, few things say resilience like gardens whose roots go back decades. Among New England’s horticultural gems are the gardens at Shelburne Farms, sited between Lake Champlain and the property’s 19th-century mansion turned inn. Created by the former lady of the manor, Lila O. Webb, they’ve been extensively restored—much to the delight of visitors to these verdant grounds more than a century onward. Photo Credit : Adam SilvermanARAGOSTA (ME): The reservations-only Hillside Greenhouse at Aragosta, chef-owner Devin Finigan’s destination restaurant and inn on Deer Isle might be the prettiest dining room you’ll ever see. (The nearby Forest Greenhouse, added in 2023, could be a close contender, though.) Photo Credit : Alissa HesslerBASH BISH FALLS (MA): Immortalized in paintings by Hudson River School artist John F. Kensett, this 60-foot cascade draws wonder-seekers literally right and left, from Massachusetts’s Bash Bish Falls State Park and the adjoining Taconic State Park in New York. Photo Credit : Kat Carney/Cavan Images
What would you add to our list of beautiful places to visit in New England? Let us know below.
This feature was originally published as “The Beauty of It All” in the May/June 2025 issue of Yankee Magazine.
