New Hampshire Region Guide

New Hampshire puts serious mountains within a couple of hours of the sea, and the White Mountains are the real thing rather than hills — Mount Washington holds weather that kills unprepared hikers in summer. The state also has no sales tax, which is why its highway outlet malls and state liquor stores draw traffic from every neighbouring state.

The friction is that everyone visits in the same three weeks. Autumn foliage in the notches is one of the most concentrated tourist events in the northeast, and the Kancamagus Highway and Franconia Notch become slow-moving queues with nowhere to pull over.

The better plan is to come midweek, or to shift a week either side of peak colour — late September in the north, the third week of October further south, when the crowds thin and the lodging halves in price. If the mountains are the point rather than the leaves, summer and winter are both quieter and the trails and the snow are better.

If you travel slowly

Base in one notch and walk from it. Franconia or Crawford gives a week of trailheads within a short drive, and the Appalachian Mountain Club huts allow a genuine multi-day traverse without carrying a tent.

If you want to see the essentials

Mount Washington by cog railway or auto road, the Kancamagus Highway end to end, Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch, and Portsmouth for a day on the coast.

If you seek local character

Stop at a working sugarhouse in March, eat at a town diner rather than on the highway strip, and visit a state liquor store — a genuinely odd institution sited on the interstate for the benefit of out-of-state drivers.

If you want to go beyond the obvious

The Great North Woods above the notches see almost no tourist traffic, and the New Castle and Rye stretch of coast is quieter than the beach strip a few miles south.

Mount Washington is dangerous, and the warning signs on the trails are not decorative. People die on this mountain in every season, usually from hypothermia in summer weather that was fine at the trailhead. Check the higher-summits forecast, carry layers regardless of the valley temperature, and turn back early.

Above treeline the White Mountains hold rare alpine plants growing in a few centimetres of soil that take decades to recover from a footstep. Stay on the rock cairns and the marked trail — this is why the cairns are there.

Foliage season concentrates enormous traffic onto two-lane roads with no shoulders. Park only in marked areas; the roadside pull-offs fill by nine in the morning and stopping anywhere else blocks a road that emergency vehicles use.

Carry out everything, including food waste, and use the AMC huts and campsites rather than dispersed camping in the heavily used notches.

Late September to mid-October is the headline season, with colour arriving in the north first and moving south. It is spectacular and it is the busiest, most expensive time of year.

Summer is the best hiking window, with long days and the huts open, though the high summits stay cold and unpredictable. Lakes are warm enough to swim from July.

Winter is a real season here: the ski areas run from December, and the mountains are genuinely serious in snow. March brings sugaring season and open sugarhouses.

Late April and May are mud season, with trails closed at elevation to prevent damage and black flies arriving in late May. It is the one stretch with little to recommend it.

Relative cost index vs state average

No sales tax takes a few percent off everything bought here, which is a genuine saving on a large purchase and the reason the outlet malls sit where they do. Lodging in the notches roughly doubles for the three weeks of peak colour.