The Ultimate Road Trips
We’ll get you from five major cities to five amazing destinations—on one tank of gas By Peter Greenberg
The Mount in Massachusetts
Distance: 130 miles
Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
per capita than any other
U.S. city. Buy a book,
then enjoy a rich Middle
Eastern–style coffee at
Café Algiers (617-492-
1557) on Brattle Street.
Boston
Lenox
; THE TRIP: If you love the
classics, you’ll love Lenox.
This quaint New England
town is the summer home
of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra’s Tanglewood
Music Festival, and Shake-
speare & Company offers
year-round performances
at the intimate Elayne P.
Bernstein Theatre. Be
sure to visit The Mount
Estate & Gardens—better
known as The Mount—
designed by author Edith
Wharton. The stately
mansion and its elaborate,
European-style gardens
were recently restored,
and you can stroll through
Wharton’s bedroom suite,
where she wrote some of
her best-known novels, in-
cluding The House of Mirth.
Distance: 47 miles
Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Kennedy
Space
Center
Orlando
; THE TRIP: Yes, it’s touristy.
But the Space Coast—a
72-mile stretch of beaches
that includes the Kennedy
Space Center and Cape
Canaveral—offers a unique
blend of relaxation and
rockets. An astronaut talks
with guests each day at
the Space Center (if you’re
lucky, you might even see
a shuttle launch), and you
can take your own wild
space journey on the Shut-
tle Launch Experience (tip:
don’t eat first). The coast
is also a popular outdoorsy
spot, with bird watching
and flat hikes at the Canav-
eral National Seashore and
the Merritt Island National
Wildlife Refuge.
