New Hampshire Travel Guide

Picturesque from top to toe, New Hampshire may be small but it punches well above its weight with spectacular scenery, cosmopolitan cities and bountiful opportunities for outdoor adventure.

You can drive up the USA’s oldest manmade attraction, the Mt Washington Auto Road, pedal through covered bridges and white-clapboard villages, wear out your phone battery snapping autumn leaves, or gaze up at star-sprinkled skies.

New Hampshire’s thickly forested mountains, crystalline lakes and sugary beaches are a magnet for outdoor adventurers. The long-distance Appalachian Trail snakes through the state, or you can choose from 1,900km (1,200 miles) of hiking paths in the White Mountains National Forest.

Find your Zen on the water with a stand-up paddleboarding yoga class on Lake Winnipesaukee or meet rapids head-on via kayak on the Magalloway River, home to ospreys, moose and black bears. In winter, skiers and riders rip it up at Cannon Mountain or down the backcountry slopes of Tuckerman Ravine. If that’s not challenging enough pack an ice axe and claw your way up frozen rock faces.

While New Hampshire’s coast may be minute, what it lacks in size it makes up for in sandy shores and gently pounding surf. Hampton Beach dishes up old-school seaside entertainment with its sweeping sands, picturesque boardwalk, weekly fireworks and summer concerts.

If you’re craving a little culture, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester shows work by the likes of Monet, Picasso and O’Keefe, and runs tours of the fabulous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Zimmerman House. Thirsty? You’re in luck. Nano-breweries are opening faster than you can pour your first pint, and New Hampshire makes a pretty mean honey wine too. Cheers to that.