New Hampshire's Lakes Region (Summer)

Sprawling Lake Winnipesaukee is the centerpiece of the lake-strewn region in the middle of New Hampshire, large enough to have its own 230-foot cruise boat and a mail boat to serve its many inhabited islands. Popular family entertainments dot its shore, along with beaches, a scenic railway, resorts and busy harbor towns. Overlooking the lake is Belknap Mountain, home to a sports center that offers camping, horseback riding and scenic rides to the top of the mountain on the chairlift. Other lakes dot the region, including Squam Lake, best known as the setting for the movie On Golden Pond. A nature center offers interpretive trails and ...

Sprawling Lake Winnipesaukee is the centerpiece of the lake-strewn region in the middle of New Hampshire, large enough to have its own 230-foot cruise boat and a mail boat to serve its many inhabited islands. Popular family entertainments dot its shore, along with beaches, a scenic railway, resorts and busy harbor towns. Overlooking the lake is Belknap Mountain, home to a sports center that offers camping, horseback riding and scenic rides to the top of the mountain on the chairlift. Other lakes dot the region, including Squam Lake, best known as the setting for the movie On Golden Pond. A nature center offers interpretive trails and experiences with wildlife, as well as nature tours on the lake, where loons are a common sight. In the hills surrounding the lakes are attractive towns: Sandwich is a post-card-perfect cluster with a well-known craftsmen's center and Tamworth is home to the nation's oldest summer theater group, the Barnstormers. June brings the annual Bike Week to Laconia, filling the region's largest town with thousands of motorcycles, and nearby Loudon is a major auto racing venue.

About the Expert

Lura Seavey is the author of Fun with the Family in Vermont and New Hampshire and she has contributed to several Thomas Cook guidebooks, including Drive Around Catalonia, Travellers Mallorca, and Travellers Barcelona.