While May should be pleasant April in much of Ne England is mud season - snow gone but noting solid yet. Trees won;t have leaves and flowers will be minimal. You might want to consider coming a few weeks later for better weather and a lot more scenery. As for the coast, you are talking the North Altantic - and you can of course visit the coast and walk the beaches - but no going in the water until at least Memorial Day (and probably July 4th if you're not used to a cold ocean.

What are your major interests? Scenery? Hiking? Museums? Historic houses? fine dinng??? History?

Some info would help people make useful recos.

Thanks for the reply!

I just found out that it wont be possible to arrive few weks later- anyhow, that shouldnt be a major problem! Its going to be the last week of April, so...not too worried about that.

Major interests are definetely dining, hiking, museums and historical sites...some shopping wouldnt hurt as well..

If you will be here over Patriot's Day weekend, that would be a good time to visit historic Lexington and Concord.

Daffodil Days in Bristol RI should be going on. Combine that with a visit to Newport to view the mansions.

Check for various maple festivals.

High end shopping - Newbury St in Boston. Grab some chocolate at LA Burdick while you are there.

Mud season is in March and doesn't matter unless you are driving around on dirt roads. Hiking is another matter. Check all trail conditions before setting out and make sure to pay attention to weather and how you dress. Spring and fall can have rapid weather changes. It snowed Halloween 2012 and we've had late April blizzards.

Put Portland ME on your list. It's the foodiest city in America. The food tour of the Old Port Area is fun and so are the tours in Boston's North End and China Town. They include a lot of local history. It will be too early for the lobster shack kind of places but you'll find plenty of restaurants with a good selection of seafood.

I enjoyed the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland ME about 2 hours north of Portland because it features Maine artists including all three Wyeths.

I think the Daffodil Days plus Newport mansions would be fun. The Native American museum at Foxwoods Casino (but a completely separate building) is fascinating.

To me, spring is the most beautiful time of year in New England. Apple orchards in central NH bloom around May 15 so you should find earlier bloom in southern areas. When trees start to leaf out, there's an assortment of colors, not just green but also reds.

Assuming it's not raining (which can happen any time of the year), the last week in April is beautiful in all but the very northern section. There should be flowering bushes and trees and tulips/daffodils everywhere.

With 12 days I'd spend at least three in Boston at either the beginning or end. Are you flying in? Is that where you will start the trip? Assuming that, I'd do a loop - up the coast of NH and Maine. Highlights are Portsmouth NH, York, Ogunqit, Kennebunkport and Portland Maine. Some people would then have you turn west and go inland but I think the coast is New England's best feature - it has coastal scenery but also all the quaint towns and flavor of the rest of New England. So I'd keep going at least as far as Camden, ME and possibly as far as Acadia (New England's only National Park).

There are a couple of different routes you could take across NH - either through the White Mountains or the Lakes Region. Both good. Then in Vermont you would turn south, also a couple different routes. There are plenty of quaint towns, covered bridges, etc. Google the Vermont tourist site and you'll find lots of driving route suggestions.

In Mass I'd go down the Pioneer Valley which runs along the Connecticut River. Historic Deerfield and Northampton are worth stops. In Conn. Mystic Seaport is good (also in Mass, Sturbridge Village is a 'living history museum' with more to see and do than Historic Deerfield but with my suggested route you'll be going right by Historic Deerfield and it's in a beautiful setting). Then in RI Newport is the most interesting.

Late April is a bit late for northern New England, but it can often be pleasant - however there may still be patches of snow in the woods. The Connecticut River Valley area of NH and Vermont is usually a bit milder than the high mountain areas, and is quite scenic and rural. A few of my favorite towns in this part of New England would include Hanover NH, Norwich Vt, Lyme NH, Woodstock Vt, Walpole NH(a beautiful winery here). Other very nice areas might include Sunapee-New London NH, Grafton- Chester Vt, Warren-Waitsfield Vt.
Although southern New England is more urbanized, it still has some beautiful areas like the Litchfield Hills of Ct, Mystic Seaport, Concord-Lexington Mass, and Newport Rhode Island. Southern New England also offers much more in the way of shopping and museums.
Of course there is the whole New England seacoast with hundreds of miles of beaches, lighthouses, inns, etc. There is plenty to explore!

Yikes I meant a bit EARLY for northern New England!

Precisely - I was stuck overnight at Logan due to an ice storm in late April. It was supposed to be rain, but got a little colder and after the plane circling around on the tarmac for a couple of hours - being de-iced twice - they finally pulled back to the gate and said they had to get a new crew - this one had worked too many hours. By that time it was already 9:30 and the new crew was going to be at least another hour - and who knew if the plane wold take off or not. So I just headed for the Hilton attached to the airport and took the 6 am shuttle the next day.

If you have no choice of time, it is what it is, but you had better appreciate museums and historic houses.

It is generally too muddy to walk in the woods and too foggy to enjoy the ocean, much less get out on it. If you are a good skier and don't mind hiking, Tuckerman Ravine will have skiing, but there is no lift: you have to hike up the three or four miles to get there.

Try to do the Boston part of your trip early, after Patriots Day when the Boston Marathon raises hotels out of sight and the first ten days in May when graduations do the same. The later you go to the country, the happier you will be, though much will still be closed in traditional tourist areas. The good side is that what is open is likely to be at off-season prices.

Places that will be good whatever the weather: Portland, ME, as above; Mystic-Stonington, CT; Newport-Bristol-Providence, RI; Boston-Concord, MA; Marblehead-Salem-Gloucester, MA; Portsmouth-Concord-Manchester, NH; and Burlington, VT.

You will almost certainly get some good, perhaps hot, weather despite all our gloom, and the leaves will actually be coming out on the trees, especially in southern New England. But don't count on hiking, skiing, kayaking, sailing or anything at the beach.