New Hampshire – Exhilarating Foliage in the White Mountains
Beautiful New Hampshire is full of unique mountainous natural sites in the northern Appalachian Range, charming towns, and breathtaking countryside. The state has a few characteristic nicknames and is called “The Granite State” or “White Mountain State.” The gorgeous White Mountains range is one of the most popular natural and ski sites in New England, drawing tourists and hikers all year round.
- In winter, the mountains host excellent ski resorts that transform into stunning nature and hiking sites in the summer
- In spring, you can come see the streams flowing with snowmelt water
- Fall in New Hampshire is likely the highlight of the visit, as the mountain forests turn into mesmerizing fall colors ????
How many days are needed for a trip to New Hampshire?
For a comprehensive road trip in New Hampshire, it's recommended to dedicate at least five days.
There's a wealth of fantastic places to stay in New Hampshire, including romantic B&Bs, motels, or excellent resort hotels.
Click here to check availability and prices for hotels in New Hampshire…
10 Must-See and Do Things in New Hampshire
- Skiing, hiking, nature and fresh air in the White Mountain Range
- Rubbing shoulders with the famous at Bretton Woods
- Crossing the White Mountains on the Kancamagus Highway
- Strolling through Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch State Park
- Boating on the lake in Mount Sunapee State Park
- Riding the steam train up to Mount Washington's shoulder
- Swimming at the Lido Beach in Hampton Beach
- Learning about space at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in the capital city of Concord
- Discovering the Shakers at Canterbury Shaker Village or Enfield Shaker Museum
- Museums and college vibes at Dartmouth College in Hanover
What is New Hampshire?
- The province of New Hampshire (now the state of New Hampshire and part of Vermont) was one of the 13 founding states of the USA and the first to declare separation from Britain
- The size of the state is 24,239 square kilometers (just a bit smaller than the island of Sicily in Italy), roughly the size of its neighbors Vermont and Massachusetts, which are slightly larger, and it is home to only 1.3 million residents
- The state is named after Hampshire County in southern England, a county with the major port cities of Southampton and Portsmouth
- The largest city in the state is Manchester, home to over a hundred thousand people. Not far from there is the state's capital, Concord, where less than fifty thousand people reside
- Most of the population of the state lives in rural areas, in towns, small cities, and villages. The state is considered to be very white, with over 92 percent of the population of European descent
- Originally, New Hampshire was an agricultural state, primarily in cattle, sheep, and dairy production. The state is home to many farms reminiscent of the almost nostalgic European character that founded it. In the 19th century, the textile industry developed in the state, but today it mainly relies on high-tech industry on one side and tourism on the other
- New Hampshire has a state tax of 0, which attracts industries and businesses from across the Northwest and, of course, many who come for shopping mainly from New York, where state taxes are high
- New Hampshire is bordered to the east by the state of Maine. It has an Atlantic Ocean outlet along a short strip between Maine and Massachusetts. Its entire southern border touches Massachusetts, skirting the Boston metropolis. The entire western border of the state is adjacent to Vermont, and to the north, it borders the French-speaking Quebec province in Canada.
Click here for the audio guide to the Kancamagus Highway tour…
How to get to New Hampshire?
How to get to New Hampshire by plane?
Logan International Airport in Boston – BOS
The main gateway to New Hampshire is Logan International Airport in Boston. There are quite a few direct flights from Ben Gurion Airport to Boston, both with El Al and Delta. The airport has about four terminals, with Terminal E serving international flights. The Silver Line bus stops at all four terminals and continues to downtown Boston. There are also free shuttles to the Blue Line subway station. The station is located about half a kilometer west of the terminals at the intersection of Highway 90 with Highway A1 branching towards the center.
Logan Airport in Boston is easily accessible with transfer flights in Europe, which can significantly reduce the cost of the flight from Israel. The airport is adjacent to Boston to the east, in the East Boston district just a five-minute drive from downtown. The travel time from Boston Airport to Manchester, the largest city in New Hampshire, is less than an hour.
Manchester–Boston Regional Airport – MHT
The largest airport in the state is located south of Manchester. The small airport also serves passenger traffic to nearby Boston, which is about a fifty-minute drive away. The small airport receives domestic flights from New York, Chicago, Orlando, and more. For those planning to start their trip in New Hampshire, it's possible to reach it with a transfer flight, mainly from Newark Airport. The airport is about a fifteen-minute drive from downtown Manchester. You can also hop on bus line number 1 that goes to the city's main street – Elm St.
How to reach New Hampshire by car?
The two main transportation routes that cross New Hampshire are the 93 expressway from Boston and the 91 expressway from New Haven, Connecticut. Along the 93, you'll find the state's major cities – Nashua, Manchester, Concord, and the town of Lincoln, which is the base for tours in the White Mountains.
The I-91 runs from south to north across the state to the Canadian border (in northern Vermont) and continues to the city of Sherbrooke. The I-89 connects Manchester with Lebanon and continues north along the eastern shore of Lake Champlain in Vermont up to the Canadian border and further on to Montreal.
Click here for all the info on car rental in the USA + helpful tips and significant discounts…
Map of New Hampshire
When to Visit New Hampshire?
- New Hampshire is a classic northern state where visiting depends on the weather
- There's something to do in New Hampshire in every season, with winter fully dedicated to skiing at several resorts and sites in the White and Black Mountains. The winter in the state is snowy and cold, and apart from skiing, there's not much reason to visit.
- Summer in New Hampshire is the perfect season for hiking in the alpine forests and enjoying stunning views of the state's northern ranges
- The countryside towns and southern cities are also inviting during the summer, including even excellent beaches south of Portsmouth along the Atlantic coast
- The transition seasons in New Hampshire are the highlight of visiting the state. Spring is characterized by the melting snow waters, and the natural sites awaken with stunning blossoms
- But fall is something special????. In the fall, the state's unique foliage attracts a massive number of tourists, and it's necessary to book accommodations in advance. The foliage is one of New England's famous attractions and probably reaches its peak around the White Mountains in the state
How to plan a trip itinerary in New Hampshire?
The hiking trails in New Hampshire are naturally aligned with the two main highways running from south to north across the state.
- Interstate 93 serves as the gateway into the state from Boston and New York in the general direction of the big city in Quebec – Montreal. Along this highway, you'll find many must-see places, including Manchester, the largest city, Concord, the capital, and of course, the White Mountains range to the north.
- Interstate 91 is the main transportation route of the western part of the state, running along the Vermont border, providing easy access to the charming towns in the southwestern part of the state, near the small city of Keene. The I-91 and I-93 intersect north of the White Mountain National Forest, allowing you to visit most attractions in the state by traveling in the triangle formed by these two highways: start on the I-93 heading north and return south on the I-91.
Highway 89 connects Manchester and Concord with the city of Lebanon in the western part of the state via the beautiful Lake Sunapee. This route allows visits to all the major towns and cities of the state while bypassing the ridge to the north. Generally, it's highly recommended to visit the national parks of the White Mountain Range. Therefore, this route is suitable only for those who want to experience the state in a condensed way.
Click here to plan your trip to New Hampshire and get professional advice…
Everything to See and Do in Southeast New Hampshire
Manchester
The city of Manchester reached its peak fame at the beginning of the 18th century when it was one of the world's important centers for textile production. In 1807, Samuel Blodget established a mill in the city that utilized the power of the Merrimack River to operate weaving machines. Blodget wanted to turn the small town into the textile and industrial center of New England, akin to the city of Manchester in England, hence the city's name. The textile mill reached its peak at the beginning of the 20th century, and since then, the industry has withered, and the city's prominence has declined.
Today, Manchester is home to over a hundred thousand people and is the largest (and possibly the only) city in the essentially rural New Hampshire. The city's center is Elm Street, which crosses its downtown from a north-south axis. Along the street, there are restaurants, hotels, bars, and entertainment venues, and it's one of the few thoroughfares in New Hampshire where you can feel any sort of urban vibe.
Currier Museum of Art
The Currier Museum boasts an impressive collection of art from the former governor of New Hampshire, Moody Currier. The museum opened in 1929, showcasing the governor's private collection, mixing modern European art with almost classical works by important American artists. The museum's collection includes paintings and works by European artists such as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, and more, as well as significant American artists like Georgia O'Keeffe, Andrew Wyeth, and the father of modern architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright. Adjacent to the museum is the Zimmerman House, a 1950 home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, showcasing the American architect's groundbreaking modern style.
Address: Ash St. 150, Manchester, NH
Click here for information on opening hours and museum ticket purchase…
Concord
The capital of New Hampshire is just a twenty-minute drive north on Highway 93 from Manchester, the state's important city. The city is also situated along the Merrimack River and has a population of around 40,000 people. The center of this small city is the Main Street, running south to north, slightly east of the 93.
The center of the small city is also a charming spot for a short stroll, full of restaurants, hotels, and other places of leisure. On the northern part of Main Street stands the New Hampshire State House, an impressive neoclassical building from the early 19th century considered one of the oldest statehouses in the US.
McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center
Just north of downtown lies the center named after McAuliffe and the state's native astronaut, Alan Shepard. The impressive museum building focuses on the American space industry and commemorates Christa McAuliffe, a local teacher who had the honor of being the first citizen to fly into space, following President Ronald Reagan's declaration to send a teacher to space.
McAuliffe boarded the Challenger shuttle for launch on January 28, 1986, and perished with her fellow astronauts in the shuttle explosion about a minute after liftoff. The explosion occurred during a live national broadcast in front of the entire nation, which is still considered one of the defining tragedies of modern America. The center hosts a planetarium, displays related to the American space industry, and more.
Address: Institute Dr. 2, Concord, NH
Click here for information on opening hours and ticket purchase for the center…
Canterbury
The Shaker Village of Canterbury is located in the northern part of Concord. The village was founded in the late 18th century and served as the home of the devout communal sect that grew out of the Quakers in England and migrated like many Christian fringe groups to New England. The village comprises about 25 public buildings and former private homes that are now open to visitors.
No members of the sect reside in the village anymore, but it serves as a kind of museum preservation, allowing visitors to deeply understand the devout and ultra-conservative lifestyle of this religious group. You can visit the communal dining hall, dairy, and clinic (kibbutz members among us might relate) as well as a model residence with preserved artifacts.
Lake Winnipesaukee
The large town of Laconia is located a half-hour drive from Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, and fifty minutes north from Manchester. The town serves as the gateway to Lake Winnipesaukee and the upscale resort town of Meredith, just slightly north. Meredith is a collection of vacation homes, small hotels, restaurants, and various places for vacationers to enjoy at the lake. The lake is the largest among the state’s lakes and is considered a popular leisure and vacation spot for the residents of New England.
Around the lake, there are several small towns that serve as a base for touring the surrounding mountains or for activities and cruises on the lake itself. The lake has about 274 small islands and a long shoreline that includes bathing beaches. A half-hour drive east from Meredith, in the mountains above the lake, lies Castle in the Clouds, a rather ornate mansion now open to the public. From the estate's gardens, there is a stunning view of the lake.
Portsmouth
The relatively large city of Portsmouth is located a forty-minute drive east of Manchester. Just as Manchester is named after the great industrial city of northern England, the heart of the Industrial Revolution and textile industry, Portsmouth is named after the great and important port city in Hampshire in southern England.
The city is home to about twenty thousand people and it's like a gateway to the neighboring state of Maine, with its beautiful coastal towns by the ocean bays, river estuaries, and of course, excellent lobster restaurants. Its buildings are situated along the mouth of the Piscataqua River, and its center is the Memorial Bridge, the beautiful gateway (you can also reach Maine via the highway 93 bridge and the unique Sarah Mildred Long Bridge of Highway 1) to the state of Maine and the neighboring town of Kittery.
For a guided bike tour in Portsmouth (app), click here…
The heart of Portsmouth is undoubtedly the beautiful Market Street. This street was once home to wealthy sea captains who, in the 19th century, built urban-style homes along it above the city's harbor.
Click here for a guided app tour in Portsmouth…
Today, the street is a mix of cool shops, restaurants, characterful hotels, and a few preserved homes you can visit. The most notable of these is the Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden. The city's maritime tradition is also present at the funky site of the USS Albacore Museum, where you can explore a submarine from 1953. Just a ten-minute drive south from downtown on Highway 1, you'll reach Water Country, one of the largest water parks in New England.
Strawbery Banke Museum – an open-air museum
The large open-air museum is located just south of the small downtown Portsmouth. The museum preserves the first settlement houses and includes about forty wooden and brick houses, the earliest of which were built at the end of the 17th century. The houses preserve the period in which they were built, including period-appropriate furniture and everyday items.
The interesting part of the houses is actually the nature of the gardens surrounding them, including ornamental gardens and gardens where food was grown for the household. Next to the open-air museum is Governor John Langdon House, a magnificent example of late 18th-century Georgian architecture in the USA. On the other side of the museum is the elegant Prescott Park, with well-kept gardens overlooking the river's estuary and the small islands opposite the city.
Hampton Beach
While beaches aren't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of New Hampshire, the state's short coastline between Massachusetts and Maine features some fantastic beaches. Hampton Beach is a quaint little seaside town at the northern part of Hampton Beach State Park.
The town boasts a wide and impressive beach lined with a casino, shops, hotels, video games, and various leisure activities that are a bit reminiscent of the 1990s. The beach is one of the most popular and beautiful in the northeastern USA, and the water isn't too cold at the peak of summer. At the southern end of the national park stretches the lovely Seabrook Beach, a natural beach next to dunes topped with townhouses.
Exeter
The small town of Exeter is located a fifteen-minute drive west of Portsmouth, heading towards Manchester (if the geography doesn't seem right, remember we're in America, not England). Historically, the town is associated with Reverend John Wheelwright, who founded it with his community in the mid-17th century. The radical clergyman rebelled against British rule as a precursor to the American Revolutionary War, and the town has always been recognized in American history as a place where the seeds of rebellion against the British were sown.
The entire western section of the town includes the buildings of the large university complex, Phillips Exeter Academy. This prestigious institution is one of the most significant private pre-university schools in the USA, serving as a stepping stone to studies at Yale or Harvard, located to the south. The center of the town is Water Street, where there are restaurants and hotels. The street meets the String Bridge, which crosses waterfalls connecting the Exeter River with the Squamscott River.
America's Stonehenge
Since New Hampshire is like a copy-paste of England, it’s no surprise that even one of the mythical sites of the British Isles would mysteriously appear here too. America's Stonehenge is essentially similar to the druid complex in the Salisbury Plains of southern England, and it's likely also a kind of calendar trying to track the movement of the sun. The site was probably built by ancient Native American tribes and was part of a large ceremonial complex.
Canobie Lake Park
This large amusement park is located on the western outskirts of the town of Salem (not to be confused with Salem, Massachusetts of the witches, or Salem, the capital of Oregon). The park is situated on the shore of the small Canobie Lake and offers a wealth of rides such as roller coasters, attractions for young children, and more. It's located in the greater Boston metropolitan area, and most visitors are from the city itself.
Click here for park opening hours and ticket purchase…
Everything to See and Do in Southwestern New Hampshire
Keene
The small town of Keene is the gateway from the south to the rural areas of southwestern New Hampshire. Unlike the relatively urbanized east that is partly linked to the broader Boston metropolitan area, the southwest of the state is characterized by natural sites, charming small towns and cities, lakes, and forests loved by camping and birdwatching enthusiasts.
The main street of the small town is the wide Main St. On the street, you'll find hotels, restaurants, and shops. The little town was once a significant center of the American glass industry and is still considered an important hub for art sales. In the countryside around the town, there are dozens of beautiful covered wooden bridges spanning streams, brooks, and rivers. There's an impressive collection south of the town itself, the most famous being the Sawyers Crossing Covered Bridge, also known as the Cresson Bridge.
Monadnock State Park and Rhododendron State Park
The unique summit of Mount Monadnock is just an hour's drive west of Manchester and half an hour southwest of Keene. This gently sloping mountain stands almost a kilometer high and is entirely composed of exposed granite amid plains formed by glacial movements. The hard rock wasn't worn down by the glaciers, so the mountain stands in a somewhat surreal way above the plain.
The mountain is very popular with climbers, and you can reach its summit with a roughly four-hour hike (not too challenging) along trails that start from Camp Monadnock to the southeast. From the summit, you get a breathtaking panoramic view stretching towards the Atlantic coastline. Around the mountain, there are trails that extend over a hundred kilometers through the nature reserve's forests.
The neighboring national park is located south of Mount Monadnock. The park is famous for its rhododendron bushes, which bloom in June and July, turning the park into a spectacular celebration of pink and white colors. Apart from the bushes, the slopes of Mount Monadnock are full of New England's nature in all its glory, and the park is filled with hikers throughout the summer, coming to witness the breathtaking bloom of various wildflowers.
Mt. Sunapee State Park and Sunapee Lake
The Mt. Sunapee State Park and the beautiful lake are located almost an hour's drive north of Keene. This popular recreation area for New Hampshire residents is just a short twenty-minute drive south from the city of Lebanon, the large urban center of the state's west, near the Vermont border. Mount Sunapee, standing at 830 meters, is located at the southern end of the lake and serves as an active skiing site during the winter.
The lake is very popular with the residents of New Hampshire, who live around it in cabins or houses during the summer. The lake offers a plethora of water sports activities such as sailing and windsurfing. The village of Sunapee is the lakeside vacation hub and features a large boat harbor. North of the lake lies the town of New London, where the main street (Maine St) is lined with beautiful early 19th-century houses. The highlight of the town is the impressive building of Colby-Sawyer College.
Lebanon and Hanover
The small city of Lebanon is a large urban center right on the border with Vermont. It has a population of about 15,000, and its center is Colburn Park, a green space surrounded by hotels, restaurants, and shops. North of Lebanon, on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River, the border between Vermont and New Hampshire, lies the town of Hanover, which is essentially a large college town with several surrounding streets.
Dartmouth College is the northernmost of the eight private academic institutions of the Ivy League and the only one considered a college rather than a university. To the south of the college stretches the main street (Maine St) of Hanover, featuring entertainment spots, restaurants, and shops for the benefit of the (wealthy) students of the college.
Nearby is the Hood Museum of Art, which, alongside the standard collection of classic American and European artists, also features art considered primitive from African and Native American tribes.
East of Lebanon lies the Enfield Shaker Museum. This museum is one of the unique sites of the British-origin cooperative sect. It remains from the Shaker community that lived in Enfield during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Shaker village is located on the western shore of Lake Mascoma, across from the present-day town of Enfield. The village was founded in the late 18th century, and today 13 preserved buildings remain. At the open museum, you can learn much about the Shakers' way of life and their distinct architectural style.
Northern New Hampshire and White Mountain National Forest
The expansive area of the White Mountain National Forest is among the most beautiful foliage sites in New England and all of the USA. With the start of the leaf-peeping season, the roads of the national forest become packed with visitors (including traffic jams and a shortage of accommodation). Within the national forest, there are hundreds of miles of hiking trails, camping sites, small lakes, charming forests, and streams.
The Kancamagus Highway, cutting through the national forest from the south, is one of the most beautiful roads in New England, and some claim it's among the prettiest in all of America. The road stretches from the town of Conway in the east to Lincoln in the west, along Highway 112. It crosses the White Mountain National Park and is probably the ideal place to experience the unique and iconic fall foliage of New Hampshire.
