My New England Antiquing Guides: Antique Stores, Thrift Stores, Vintage Markets & Road Trips

There’s nothing quite like a day spent antiquing in New England—following a back road to an old barn, wandering through a sprawling antique center, or finding a small-town shop you’ll want to visit again. These antiquing guides bring together the places worth knowing, from favorite antique stores and thrift shops to vintage markets, seasonal sales, and road trips throughout New England.

Use these guides to plan a day of antiquing close to home, build a weekend around a favorite shop or market, or map out an entire road trip filled with vintage stops. And when the road takes you beyond New England, you’ll find a few of those adventures here, too.

Start Here: My New England Antique & Thrift Shopping Guides

Planning an antiquing day or weekend in New England? Start with these favorite guides to antique stores, thrift shops, flea markets, barn sales, and vintage markets, with routes, maps, shopping tips, and plenty of stops worth adding to your list.

Best Antique Stores in New England: A Local’s Guide to Shops, Flea Markets, and Road Trips

→ Start planning here, with favorite antique stores and flea markets across New England, plus maps, scenic routes, hours, and tips for turning a day of antiquing into a weekend away.

Best Antique Stores in Maine: A Local’s Guide to Vintage Markets, Barn Sales & Thrift Shops

→ Heading to Maine? Explore favorite antique stores, barn sales, vintage markets, and thrift shops from the coast to the countryside, with mapped routes and plenty of stops to add along the way.

Plan the Ultimate Thrift Store Road Trip: A Seasonal Antique Stores and Vintage Markets Guide

→ Turn a day of thrifting into a road trip with seasonal routes, favorite stops, what to pack, and tips for finding antique shops, flea markets, and secondhand home decor along the way. As featured in AARP’s Hit the Road for a Thrift Trip.

Favorite New England Antique Stores, Barn Sales & Vintage Markets

Some antique shops are worth planning a whole day around. From sprawling antique centers and seasonal barn sales to architectural salvage yards and small-town favorites, these are some of the New England stops I return to again and again.

Explore antique stores and markets throughout Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, including Cabot Mill Antiques, Chandler & Co., Old House Parts Company, Sage Farm Antiques, Stone House Antique Center, and more. Each visit offers something different and plenty of ideas for where to go antiquing next.

Vintage Market Days Vermont: Plan Your Visit, Shop the Market & Make a Weekend of It

Vintage Market Days Vermont is one of those events worth building a weekend around. Held in the spring and fall in Vermont, the market brings together vintage dealers, antique vendors, creative booth displays, and plenty of one-of-a-kind finds, all surrounded by the kind of New England scenery that makes the drive part of the fun.

Planning a visit? Explore my Vintage Market Days Vermont guides for where to stay, how to plan your weekend, what to expect at the market, favorite vintage finds, and booth display ideas gathered from years of shopping the event.

Best Thrift Stores in New England for Vintage Home Decor

Goodwill Northern New England stores are some of my favorite places to thrift for vintage home decor. With locations throughout Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, these aren’t your average thrift stores. Many feel more like a department store filled with secondhand finds—larger, well-organized, and often more curated, with everything from vintage dishes and artwork to baskets, linens, furniture, and unexpected home decor.

I shop Goodwill Northern New England throughout the seasons, always curious to see what has just come through the doors. Browse my favorite finds and decorating ideas below, then check out the full list of Goodwill Northern New England locations and plan a thrift store trip of your own.

Antiquing Road Trips by RV: New England & Beyond

There’s something especially fun about combining an RV road trip with a day—or several days—of antiquing. We’ve followed the backroads of Maine and Vermont, traveled through Quebec and Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, and headed south to Pennsylvania’s Amish Country, always leaving room in the RV for whatever vintage finds turn up along the way.

Some trips are planned around a destination, while others start with little more than a route and a few promising antique shops on the map. I’ve even taken the RV out on my own for solo antiquing adventures throughout New England. Explore these road trips for antique stores, flea markets, vintage markets, places to stay, scenic stops, and ideas for planning your own RV antiquing trip.

Want to map out your next trip? Visit my complete Antiquing Road Trips and Vintage Travel Finds by RV guide for all the routes and adventures in one place.

Thrifting with the Gals: Monthly Vintage Decor Finds from Across the Country

Thrifting with the Gals is my most popular blog series and one of my favorite ways to share the fun of antiquing beyond New England. Every third Thursday of the month, I join a group of vintage-loving friends from around the country to share what we’ve been finding at antique stores, thrift shops, flea markets, estate sales, and vintage markets.

I bring the New England antiquing finds, while the other gals take us shopping in their own corners of the country. You’ll see what we found, what we paid, the shops and markets we discovered, and plenty of ideas for decorating with old and secondhand pieces at home.

Explore the complete Thrifting with the Gals series and check back every third Thursday for our newest finds.

As Featured in Veranda: My antique shopping tips were featured in Veranda’s “12 Mistakes People Make When Shopping for Antiques—and How to Avoid Them,” where I shared one of my favorite pieces of advice: buy the antiques you love rather than simply following what’s trending.

How to Shop Estate Sales for Antiques & Vintage Home Decor

Estate sales can sound expensive, especially when they’re held in beautiful, high-end homes, but they can be surprisingly good places to find affordable antiques and vintage home decor. From furniture and artwork to dishes, linens, and unexpected treasures, knowing what to look for, and when to shop can make all the difference.

In this antiquing guide, I’ll take you inside a luxury estate sale and share how I shop, what I look for, and the budget-friendly finds I brought home.

Antiquing in New England: A Shop, A Stay & A Find

What if an antiquing trip was about more than just the shops? My Antiquing in New England series turns a day of antique shopping into a getaway, a shop worth the drive, a charming place to stay, and a vintage find to bring home.

These antiquing guides take you through small towns and favorite destinations across New England, with antique stores to explore, cozy inns and hotels, local restaurants, and the finds that make each trip memorable. Whether you’re planning an overnight escape or an entire antiquing weekend, start here and choose your next destination.

Press play for a quick look inside one of my Antiquing in New England getaways, then explore the guides below to start planning your own.

Antiquing in Paris Guide: Flea Markets, Vintage Shops & French Finds

New England may be home, but sometimes antiquing takes me a little farther away. In Paris, that means wandering open-air flea markets, discovering tucked-away antique and vintage shops, visiting a beautiful French paper atelier, and even stepping inside the oldest flower shop in the city.

My Paris antiquing guides bring together favorite places to shop, memorable finds, travel tips, and the little discoveries that make antiquing in Paris feel completely different from anywhere else.

Explore the full series: Paris Flea Market Travels: Vintage Finds, Travel Tips, and Secret Spots

The fun of antiquing is never quite knowing what you’ll find—or which shop, market, or back road will become a new favorite. I’ll continue adding new antiquing guides, road trips, overnight stays, and favorite shopping stops throughout New England and wherever the road takes me next, so there will always be somewhere new to explore.

And once you know where to shop, the next question is what’s actually worth bringing home. Open up The Secret Cupboard for the vintage finds I’d buy again, the ones I regret buying, and plenty of lessons learned from years of antiquing and decorating with old things.

Pin it for later!