We just got back from the loveliest 3 days in New Hampshire and Lake Winnipesaukee, and I wanted to put together a quick little travel guide for those of you thinking about visiting the lakes region. It’s a great place to travel with a family, and if you haven’t been I highly recommend a trip. It’s the perfect place to travel in the summer, but it would be really beautiful in the fall as well, when the foliage is turning. I’m going to share where we stayed, and what we did, but there’s so much to do in this area, we’ll definitely be going back again!
Where we stayed:
We love to camp and be outside and active as a family. We really wanted to do at least one camping trip this summer, but since I’m also almost 5 months pregnant I wanted to find a way to do it comfortably (you know, with a bed, and such…) so we reserved a Glamping tent at the Strafford/Lake Winnipesaukee KOA. I wasn’t sure what to expect since we’ve never stayed at this campground before, but it was a huge hit. It’s seriously such a great place to stay with a family, and we all had tons of fun. It’s about a 25-30 minute drive to the southern tip of Lake Winnipesaukee, and only 10 minutes from Rochester which has basically everything you need if you need to run into town or just want to grab dinner instead of cooking over an open flame. Ethan ripped his swimsuit open playing Gaga ball the first evening we were there, and we were able to grab him a new one in about 10 minutes the next morning in Rochester.
The campground is beautiful, pristine and has tons of fun stuff to do. They’ve got their own pretty little 6 acre pond you can swim in or rent paddle boards or paddle boats, there’s a really nice pool, a big water slide, a park for kids, a Gaga ball pit, a camp store, and even a fun center with arcade games, air hockey, foosball and other fun things to do. You can rent golf carts to drive around camp while you’re there. They have camp events and activities every day and the kids had a ton of fun playing manhunt with the other camp kids at night (basically hide and seek camp style with flashlights). It’s such a fun campground for families and the staff was super nice and very helpful.
The campground has a variety of options for camping, everything from tent sites, camper site, cabins, and glamping tents. We rented one of their glamping tents while we stayed, and it was so awesome. It came with a full size bed, a set of bunk beds, and a futon that folded out into a bed. It also had a half bath (which was so nice and so convenient), a dresser with a TV, full power including lamps and plugs for charging, a back deck overlooking the pond with a potbelly stove, and a fire pit and BBQ out front. They include all your linens and towels, which made packing for the trip even easier. It fit all six of us with plenty of room to spare, was super charming and is honestly one of our favorite places we’ve ever stayed. We all had so much fun, and will definitely be heading back again. We didn’t bring Max, but dogs are allowed in the campground.
Towns we visited:
Meredith: We explored Meredith on the first day out and about. It’s a totally cute little lake town. We ate lunch and had a treat there (more on that later), we also popped into the Linen mills a perfect place to find a Lake Winn sweatshirt or hat, and explore all the little shops inside. It’s an old converted linen mill and is so cool inside. I popped into Waukewan Antiques, for a bit, it’s an awesome antique shop with tons of great stuff and really reasonable prices. The docks in Meredith are so lovely, tons of pretty flowers around them and a great place to walk around and look at the lake. There are also places to rent paddle boards, kayaks and boats right there from the docks.
Alton: We drove through Alton in the evening and it’s a darling little town right on Alton Bay. They were having an evening concert right in the park downtown, and it looked like a great place to spend an evening. It’s definitely on our list for when we go back.
Wolfeboro: We spent a morning and afternoon in Wolfeboro and it was probably my favorite town we visited while we were there. It was completely darling. There are tons of great little shops, lots of places to eat, it’s right on the edge of the lake with public docks to walk along, or pull a boat up to, and the houses are so lovely. I can’t wait to go back and spend more time there.
Swimming in Lake Winnipesaukee:
We went swimming at Weirs Beach in Lake Winnipesaukee. It’s definitely a touristy beach location, with a boardwalk, drive-inn theater, and lots of places to grab a bite. The beach was nice and fun. It was only semi-crowded the day we were there, but I imagine it’s packed most days in the summer. There are multiple places to park right around the beach, and cost to park is $5-10.
The water at Lake Winn is seriously so beautiful, deep blue, and fairly warm. We all enjoyed swimming and splashing the afternoon around. Ava even got some serious air. I chatted with our server (a local) at lunch that day and asked about the best beaches at Lake Winn, he said a lot of the very best beaches you can only get to by boat, so bringing a kayak or renting a boat for the day would be an awesome idea.
Where we ate:
We cooked breakfast in the mornings and barbecue dinners at camp each evening, then ate out for lunch while we were out and about each day. It was the perfect combination. Our favorite place we ate was Town Docks in Meredith. It’s a fun restaurant right on the edge of the lake, and you can eat right there on the water. The view is gorgeous, the food great and the atmosphere is super fun. The floor is even covered in lake sand (yes even inside the restaurant). We all loved it. The favorites at Town Docks were the Lobster corn chowder, and the pulled pork sandwiches. The fries were super good too. After lunch we grabbed ice cream at their ice cream window and walked along the edge of the docks. The ice cream was super good too.
The day we explored Wolfeboro we stopped in at Yum Yum a great little pastry shop and grabbed some treats. They’ve got tons of donuts, pastries, cookies and other treats. We dried the raspberry and lemon triangles, cheese danishes, tarts and cream puffs. Everything was so good. The shop is decorated really cute and you can sit and eat your treats with the prettiest view of the lake. Hannah and I loved the blueberry wallpaper.
There are tons of great little places to eat in Wolfeboro, and but we were so stuffed from a big breakfast and a bunch of pastries, we ended up skipping lunch. When we go back I’d like to try Wolfe’s tavern which several people recommended, and a couple of the cute little cafe’s.
Things we’d like to do when we go back:
When we go back next we definitely plan to rent a power boat for the day and explore the different lake towns and beaches you can only reach by boat. I’d also like to spend more time in Wolfeboro because it was such a cute town. We had planned to go up to Mount Washington and drive to the summit, but it was rainy the morning we planned to go, and we didn’t think we’d be able to see much so we skipped that. Mount Washington is about 2 hours from where we were.
What I packed for the trip:
Since we spent pretty much the whole trip outside, swimming in the pool or lake, or just exploring, everything I packed was super casual and comfortable. Good walking sandals are a must (I wore my born sandals the whole time), of course a good swimsuit, and a hat for hair ease. I wore this jumpsuit twice while we were gone, and it’s one of my favorites. Super cute, but still casual and so comfy for traveling. You can find my trip MVP’s below:
Ah no way! Hi from your reader who lives in Rochester! So glad you enjoyed your trip! NH is so magical. I have suggestions if you ever come back! Lone oak ice cream is not far from the KOA and has really good homemade ice cream-especially mocha chip! Not even 5 minutes away from the KOA is a very short and easy hike with a very spectacular view, little blue job. Also around the corner is butternut farm for picking all sorts of fruit and berries or cider donuts or hard cider. Or mount major is a easy/moderate hike with beautiful views of winnipesaukee. If you liked wolfeboro you must must must go to Portsmouth if you come back! I’m biased but Portsmouth is magic :) anyway, I could go on and on but so glad you found fun things to do and enjoyed yourself!