Travel Diary: New Hampshire

Today I'm excited to share part one to my New Hampshire travel guide! Katie, Grace and I had been talking about doing a fun fall road trip and we decided on New Hampshire because none of us had ever been! This is a very photo-heavy post, so keep scrolling!

Getting There

New Hampshire is a smaller state, so it's easy to drive from area to area in just a few hours. New Hampshire's border is really close to Boston (Portsmouth is about an hour drive from Boston). I know I have a lot of Boston readers and this would make for the perfect weekend road trip.

From Pittsburgh, there was a direct flight to Boston via Jet Blue. We landed in the early morning and then headed to pick up our rental car. From the Boston airport, we drove about about an hour and a half to Peterborough in the Monadnock region.

Overall, I found New Hampshire to be very drivable and very easy to get from town to town. Plenty of direct highways, not too much crazy traffic, and most of the driving is very beautiful and scenic.

Monadnock Region

As we arrived in Peterborough, we had worked up an appetite and decided upon Harlow's Pub which was the cutest casual restaurant with plenty of outdoor seating. It was warm and sunny so we decided to sit outside and enjoy lunch. They had SO many choices- everything from salads to burritos to sandwiches and more. This is must-stop while in Peterborough... it was crowded for lunch and I can certainly see why; it was delicious!

After lunch, we walked over to Ava Marie's Handmade Chocolate. We all definitely have a sweet tooth and this is the place to visit if you also fall under that category. The shop was so charming and filled to the brim with beautifully decorated chocolates and sweet treats. Not only did we sample some of the delicious chocolates but we also got to try out the #1 most outrageous sundae in America (as named by Bravo), The Mt. Monadnock Sundae. It had 35 scoops of ice cream in it! Yes, 35. I think my favorite flavor was the pumpkin and oh my goodness, the hot fudge was delightful. It was definitely the biggest sundae I've ever seen and just holding it, it was SO heavy! Writing about it now is making me wish I had a scoop or two ;)

With very full bellies, we drove a few miles and checked into The Hancock Inn- one of the oldest inns in New Hampshire. It opened in 1789 (George Washington was president back then). The porch is bedecked with cozy rocking chairs and a bright red door making for a very inviting entrance. The owners, Marcia and Jarvis, welcomed us with open arms.

Marcia showed us around the inn which is just chalk full of history. My favorite part had to be the antique furniture. I'm super into antiques and the pieces all throughout were incredible. This is such a great place to unplug and just enjoy your surroundings. They had a beautiful, large backyard with patio seating and an area for croquet. 

Once we had a bit of a rest, we drove a few miles from The Hancock Inn to check out the covered bridge. It's called the Hancock-Greenfield bridge (on Forest Rd) and stretches over the Contoocook River. When I think of New England, this is the type of scenery that comes to mind. It's classic and so beautiful, don't you think?! 

We then drove back to Peterborough to end our evening at Waterhouse. It was located right on a babbling brook with beautiful outdoor seating right near the water. The food was absolutely excellent and sourced by local farms. I had the absolute best salmon. The service was also very well done. It has a more upscale-casual vibe so it would be great for a date night or celebration! After dinner, we retired to our rooms to get some work done for the week and get some sleep!

White Mountains 

From the Monadnock Region, we drove about 2 hours north to the Mountain Region. While en route to the White Mountains, we stopped at Dimond Hill farm. We saw it from the road and couldn't pass it up. It had so many pumpkins and the cutest farm stand set up! Not to mention the view of the pastures were beautiful, too! I had so many apples while on this trip and they were some of the best apples I have ever had. At Dimond Hill farm, I bought 5 apples- each a different kind. YUM.

Once we left the farm, we were all in a fall mood (and so glad we picked up apple cider donuts to munch on during the drive). We then stopped at Carter Hill Orchard- I have actually never been apple picking so I was really excited about this one. We wandered in and out of what seemed like endless rows of apple trees. The apples were all different shades of red, yellow and green. It was misty and foggy so I was really glad we all brought appropriate footwear!

After the orchard, we drove a bit more and ended up at Flume Gorge, which is a beautiful New Hampshire State Park. There are tons of picturesque hiking trails, a classic covered bridge, and (obviously) the Flume that you can check out. It would be a great place to hike then have a picnic at the base! We opted out of hiking- none of us had brought the proper outfits/footwear (typical).

We then got to Littleton, which was kind of an accident. We passed through and just had to stop because it had the most wonderful small town vibe. Shops and restaurants lined Main Street, and behind it sat the absolute cutest brewery, Schilling Beer company. The brewery had a view of the Ammonoosuc River and another classic covered bridge.

We got to Lincoln, NH to check in at RiverWalk Resort at Loon Mountain. This resort was huge and situated right in the center of Lincoln. The rooms had living rooms, multiple TVs, spacious bathrooms, and even a kitchen. Pretty sure my room was larger than my apartment! I'd love to come back during the snowy season because this was the perfect ski town!

For dinner, we headed to the neighboring town of Woodstock where we ate at Woodstock Inn, Station and Brewery. The brewery part was absolutely huge and it was fun to see the many fermentors throughout the restaurant. We opted to sit outside because it was such a lovely evening. The entire sidewalk around the outdoor seating is covered in beautiful flowers. I couldn't get enough! You know what else we couldn't get enough of?! The food. Seriously, if you saw on Insta stories, the three of us order so. much. food. We didn't have much of a lunch so we were ravenous. We started off with nachos and a bloomin' onion, I got french onion soup and then a pulled pork sandwich with...wait for it... brie.  The food was amazing and we really enjoyed our night there. It was a Monday and we could not believe how packed it was!

Lakes Region

The next day, we were supposed to travel to the Lakes Region. But, the night before, Grace got an alert from her airline about hurricane Jose flight cancellations/delays. So we decided to cut our trip short. However, had we had time to visit the lakes region, we would have stopped at Stone Brook Hill Farm, Lakehouse Grill, Hermit Woods Winery, The Naswa Resort for a boat cruise, and Lake Opechee Inn and Spa. 

What to Wear

I'll have another post where I share all of my outfits and outfit sources with you. But overall, New Hampshire had a very casual vibe. We were fine in jeans everywhere we went. Sometimes functional clothing was necessary such as puffer vests, fleece jackets, bean boots, hunter boots, etc. 

All in all, I'm so glad I got to visit New Hampshire. It was so much fun road tripping with Katie and Grace taking in the beautiful fall foliage and exploring locations new to us! 

Thank you to the New Hampshire Division of Travel and Tourism, Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce, White Mountains Attractions, Lakes Region Association, and Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth for the wonderful complimentary experiences. Next up, I'll have my guide to Portsmouth and an outfit recap!