How to Spend a New England Weekend
If you are a skier or hiker like myself, or just want to enjoy a weekend away from the busy cities, here is a great way to spend a weekend up north. This trip will take you through 2 different states, with many ways to add-on more, 4 different mountains (again, with ways to add-on more), and through many different small towns.
This post is all about the best New England weekend getaway, the best New England weekend road trip, the best New England weekend getaways in winter, the best New England weekend destinations, and more.
This post is all about New England weekend.
New England Weekend:
In February of 2022, my dad and I took a trip to Sunday River ski resort in Newry, Maine and then to Cannon, Bretton Woods, and Mount Willard (hiking) in New Hampshire. We had the intention of just skiing, however, due to snow conditions, we added on a hike, but if you are more of a hiker there are PLENTY of other trails to hike in New Hampshire, during the winter and summer time.
The snow wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t fantastic either, when we went in late February. The snow year for 2022 on the east coast was not the greatest. Thus, we adjusted our plans a little bit due to the snow. This trip took us five days and four nights, but again, you could make this shorter or longer, depending on how much time you have.
Where to Start
First, we drove to Sunday River ski resort in Newry, Maine, which was the farthest away from us, coming from upstate New York. We decided to stay at a nearby small town in New Hampshire, Gorham. Gorham is about 30-40 minutes away from Sunday River, and about 4 and a half hours (261 miles) from the capital region of New York.
This being our first time to New Hampshire and Maine, we quickly realized, like Vermont, there is no easy way to get to New Hampshire or Maine from New York, it is mostly all backroads. However, if you’re coming from Boston, it is so MUCH easier. The majority of your time you will stay on I-93 and Route 3 (driving). Which makes the trip only about 3 hours total and 181 miles total.
Once we arrived in Gorham, we checked into our hotel, the Top Notch Inn. Since it was late at night, we just ordered some food, then went to bed. The Top Notch Inn was top notch! Sorry for that but it really was a great place and not too expensive, I really enjoyed my time there.
{Related Post : The Best Ski Resorts in Maine}
Sunday River, Maine
The next day we drove to Sunday River. The drive really isn’t bad, however, the day we went, it had been snowing all morning and was expected to snow the whole day, thus it took us a little longer than usually to get there, because the roads were snowy.
Once we got to Sunday River, we parked, then brought our stuff inside to gear up. You can change inside the lodges, however, you leave your stuff in their outdoor cubbies. My dad and I parked in the South Ridge parking area, but there’s parking all around, specifically at Barker Mountain as well. Once we geared up, we got our lift tickets then hit the slopes.
Sunday River is a MASSIVE mountain, especially for the east coast. It has 8 different peaks (skiing areas), 135 trails, and the steepest/longest trail in the east on White Cap Mountain. It truly is an impressive mountain. However, when my dad and I went, the snow was not good even though it had been snowing the whole morning and that whole day, there was still a ton of ice underneath everything.
They must have lost a lot of snow previously, because when we skied, there was a layer of powder, but then right underneath it, was just sheer ice. And not your typical east coast ice patches hidden everywhere, it was just thick, straight up solid ice. It was not the best experience. Also, the previous day, their gondola had shut down because one of their gondolas fell off the cable (and people were in it). So again, kind of a sketchy experience.
{Related Post : The Best Ski Resorts in New Hampshire}
Hiking Mount Willard
This really bummed us out, because we had heard SOOO many good things about this mountain, and I still believe if I went on a better day, it would have been AWESOME, but that just wasn’t the case when we went. Thus, after that experience and since it was a Saturday the next day, we decided to hike instead of go to another ski resort. However, if you wish to ski instead, you could easily go to Wildcat Mountain which is only 12 minutes away from Gorham, if you want to ski/snowboard at another mountain.
Or if you prefer to do some hiking, snowshoeing or cross-country skiing, there are a TON of places in Crawford Notch State Park (where we went) to go. And Mount Washington staring right in front of you wherever you drive. Although, we decided to walk a more moderate and heavily trafficked path to be on the safe side since it was our first time hiking in the White Mountains, and we still had a great experience.
We hiked Mount Willard, which is a BEAUTIFUL hike. It’s like the Indian Head (Adirondacks) of the White Mountains (view wise). Also, it’s not nearly as long as Indian Head but is just as crowded and beautiful.
Some other popular places to hike in Crawford Notch are, Arethusa Falls and Frankenstein Cliff Loop (advanced but short), Mount Tom Mount Field Mount Willey and Mount Avalon Trail (3 out of 4 of New Hampshire’s 48s, above 4,000ft, difficult), Ripley Falls (easy), Mount Crawford (moderate), and Mount Jackson (difficult but short). Also, North and South Twin Mountains (difficult) are more peaks apart of the New Hampshire 48 located fairly close to Gorham, NH.
Driving to North Conway & Skiing at Cannon
After our hike, we drove to another place to stay in North Conway about 30-40 minutes away. On our way, we drove by Bretton Woods and Attitsh ski resorts. We also passed by the OMNI Mount Washington Resort. It was a blue bird day when we were driving, so we pulled over to take pictures of the resort, because it really is spectacular. The resort itself is nice, but the real WINNER is Mount Washington in the background, they couldn’t have picked a more picture perfect spot to have the resort, which may be a bad thing for the environment, but it looked beautiful.
After we took our pictures, we continued to North Conway. North Conway has a lot of different shops, eateries, hotels, and much more people in general than Gorham. They also have a little bit of a downtown area that you can walk and explore different shops if you wish. We stayed at the North Conway Mountain Inn. Again, I really enjoyed my time here and our room even came with a view. However, if you are an avid hiker, then the town you really want to stay at is, Lincoln, New Hampshire.
The next day we skied at Cannon Mountain. This mountain is also located on a 4,000 footer (Cannon Mountain hiking trail). I really enjoyed Cannon, my dad and I spent a lot of time on the lower mountain because there was a lot more snow, we even spent some time at the terrain park. We began the day at the top of the mountain, put it was so wind swept, that we decided to explore the lower mountain and had a great time. Cannon Mountain was about an hour away from North Conway and about sixteen minutes from Lincoln, NH.
{Related Post : The Best Vermont Ski Resorts}
Skiing at Bretton Woods
After skiing we went back to our hotel and ate at one of the local restaurants there. Some good places to eat in North Conway are The Muddy Moose, Barley and Salt Tap House, Abenaki Trail Restaurant, and many more. The next day we skied at Bretton Woods, but you could ski at or add on another day at Attitash ski resort. Attitash and Bretton Woods are very close to one another and located on the same road, just farther down from one another. My dad and I skied at Bretton Woods and had a GREAT time, it was our favorite mountain of the three, they had the best snow by FAR.
Bretton Woods is also where the famous olympic skier, Bode Miller learned how to ski. They even have a trail named after him there, Bode’s run. It’s short, STEEP, and sweet, I’m guessing like Bode himself. Anyways, Bretton Woods was the only mountain I felt safe enough and had enough coverage to ski in the glades, which I had a blast in, over on West Mountain. On the other Mountain, Rosebrook, they had what looked like a lot of FUN glades, but they were not open when we were there. I still had a great time and would love to go back!
Final Thoughts
After our final day of skiing, we headed back to upstate NY. I had a really fun time on this trip, and it was a great way to explore New Hampshire, which I had never been to before. I got the feeling that New Hampshire is a very low-key, hidden gem kind of place, and that the locals want to keep it that way. Thus, writing this post might be bad publicity for this quiet state. Regardless, as long as you stay respectful and follow the rules of skiing and hiking (Leave No Trace), you and the state of New Hampshire should be alright. Thank you so much for reading, take care, and go explore!
