SALLY PECK

WFour hundred years ago, a band of 102 English outliers took a big risk, braving the stormy Atlantic to found their New England. They sailed from Plymouth to Plymouth in pursuit of religious freedom. Of course, many of them were less God-fearing than economic opportunists, and the virtuous folk forming their City Upon a Hill also performed a land-grab from the native people.

In 2020, to mark the anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage, the usually reserved and really rather British people of New England – the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, in America’s north-east – are pulling out all the stops to celebrate. The Wampanoag Ancestors Walk, regattas and the relaunch of Mayflower II, a full-scale replica that

has undergone an £8.5million restoration, will offer context to the pilgrims’ arrival. Visitors can also seek history along the Freedom Trail and by the Tea Party ships in Boston. Beyond historic re-enactment (most thrillingly seen at Plimoth Plantation, where actors portray particular Puritans), any visit to New England requires a walk along the golden sandy beaches where the pilgrims first set foot. For this is the greatest pleasure of North America’s original colonies: here you’ll find the playground of the American elite.

From the gaudy Italianate Vanderbilt mansion in Newport to the low-slung beaches of Kennedy territory on Cape Cod to the quintessential shingled

houses of Martha’s Vineyard, where the Obamas go each summer, New England has a particular beauty that holds appeal year-round.

Travel between these popular destinations, and spend time in ancient taverns in tiny villages, filled with clapboard houses clustered near white-steepled churches around a central green.

While “leaf peepers” arrive for the foliage season each autumn, you might brave the crowds a bit earlier, in August, to take full advantage of the beach scene.

How to go Abercrombie and Kent (01242 386474; abercrombiekent.co. uk) offers a 16-night self-drive Classic New England holiday from £2,995pp. This customisable itinerary typically takes you from the Freedom Trail in Boston to classic clapboard inns in New Hampshire and Vermont, along the wild Maine Coast, to the beaches of Cape Cod and then south to Rhode Island, to which the original European settlers fled when puritanical living became too much. The price includes economy flights, car hire and accommodation on a B&B basis.

Sally Peck is an expert on family travel who has been to New England every year for the past four decades. standing on the breezy seafront with gilded and stuccoed interiors, contrasting with designer Nini Andrade Silva’s modern extension to the new Torel Palace Porto (torelboutiques.com), housed in architecturally romantic Palacete Campos Navarro. Centrally located, its frescoed ceilings are crowned by a magnificently ornate skylight under which 24 bedrooms are

‘The star of the show will be Portuguese wines from north to south’