If you go down to the woods today................. ..................... (New Hampshire)

Member Name: ScottishWestie

Product:	New Hampshire
Date:	23/06/09 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Scenery, wildlife, food, shop prices

Disadvantages: Some people come over as being snobby

After spending a week travelling around Maine as part of trip around New England (See my previous review) we were now heading for New Hampshire for a couple of days. This review is solely on New Hampshire in the White Mountain National park region & the town we were heading for, North Conway.

INFORMATION ON NEW HAMPSHIRE

New Hampshires are fiercely proud of their independence, their motto is 'Live free & or die' this motto is often seen stamped on car license plates. Six months before the declaration of independence on 4th July 1776 they formerly declared independence from Great Britain.
Around 90% of the state is underdeveloped & 75% of the state is covered in dense forest. North of the Connecticut river is wild country, great for canoeists & mountain climbers.
In the north of the state is the White Mountain National Park which straddles into Maine. It features thousands of miles of lakes, rivers, large ponds, 770.000 acres of pine forests & waterfalls. A beautiful site is the trees particularly in late September when the foliage changes colour.
You see mile after mile of flaming red maples, golden birch & maroon oaks, very popular with 'leaf peepers'.
New Hampshire borders Massachusetts, Vermont & Maine & has a very small section on the south eastern tip with a coast line.
Locals pay no income tax & sales tax isn't levied on all goods which is most beneficial to tourists.

NORTH CONWAY

You'll find North Conway on the map about half way up the state on the east side close to Maine. It's a small town dominated by its main street featuring 200 shops/stores of high quality, they sell many designer goods which tempt buyers due to lack of sales tax. Other streets run parrarell with the main street & house local residents. We arrived in North Conway on a Saturday afternoon from Portland in Maine searching for the guest house we had booked previously in the UK.

It's called the Darby Field Inn & is located in the heart of the White Mountain region, in fact it's located in the middle of a forest & it was going to be the highlight location of our holiday.

DARBY FIELD INN

The directions we printed off their website were accurate & we found the place quite easily, you turn off the main road south of North Conway & drive about half a mile into deep forest.
As you drive up the scenic narrow road there are a few wooden homes nestled in the forest, charming in daylight but I would imagine in the pitch black of night in the middle of an electrical storm they have their disadvantages.
All of a sudden we came across a large three storey blue coloured wooden building, it's the Darby Field Inn & it looks quite impressive.
We check in & the owner takes us to our room, it cost us $125.00 a night when the exchange rate was $1.80 to the pound. It was the most expensive place we stayed during the whole trip but because of its location we thought it was worth it for the short time we would be there.

Our room is painted a similar blue to the outside but tastefully done & mixed with the dark brown fittings. We had an en-suite bathroom, TV & other basic needs. It had no air conditioning but did have a huge electric fan above the roof lamp which was very effective.

By American standards the bed was quite small, about king size in the UK, the best feature of the room was the view. We never drew the curtains at night & kept the windows open, a fine mesh net covered the window in case bugs tried to fly in.
You would wake up in the morning lying in your bed overlooking the mountain range, the forest & blue sky, what a way to start a day!!
We booked a bottle of champagne for our arrival but they forgot to supply it, however we eventually got it when we walked down to the bar area. The bottle cost the equivalent of £25.00 but wasn't worth the effort, I have tasted better sheep dip!!

The room next door was larger than ours & more expensive; the door was open as it wasn't booked up that night. We peeked in & saw a much larger bed, flat screen TV & a huge bath big enough for four people overlooking the beautiful scenery.

Breakfast is served in the dining room downstairs which has the same view as our room; you can have a hot meal or help yourself to the buffet table.
Evening meals are served in the same dining room, the menu is rather good & varied, it includes traditional meals & vegetarian dishes too. Food was good, service was good but the atmosphere was a little stuffy to say the least. No back ground music & just a little pretentious. Prices were about the same as U.K. & thus expensive by U.S. standards.

The staff in general were a little snobby & stand offish, not what you expect, as everyone else we came in contact with out with the hotel was the complete opposite.

Notes: Darby Field Inn, 185 Chase Hill, Albany, New Hampshire, 03818. Tel 603 447-2181. www.darbyfield.com

My partner was determined to see a moose whilst in New England & this is the ideal place to see them. Unless you know where to find them during the day, such as in swampy ground & close to quiet sections of river your only hope of seeing one is at dawn & dusk. They do straddle onto the main roads at night & it's in your interests not to hit them, they are huge & you'll come off worst if you collide with them in a car.
The first morning at the guest house my partner decided to stay in bed whilst I went down for breakfast, whilst munching into my corn flakes a woman sitting close to the window gasped out "Look a moose!". We ran over to see this huge male moose with massive antlers slowly & coolly wandering over the front lawn at 9'o clock in the morning.
The owner came running in & asked if anyone had got a picture, sadly no. He stated that in 25 years this was the first time he had a moose walking over his garden in daylight. Unfortunately for my partner, she had slept though it & missed her opportunity, she was gutted.

Despite watching out the bedroom window each night & early morning she saw nothing but the odd raccoon. On our last night around 10pm we travelled back from North Conway & just as we were driving up the road that leads to the guest house we saw a moose in front of us.
I stopped immediately & cut the engine but left the lights on. The moose stopped & looked round, saw it was just two humans & then slowly walked on until he disappeared into the woods. Our sighting lasted about 10 seconds & it was the last moose we saw that week.

CONWAY SCENIC RAILROAD

There used to be a regular train service to & from North Conway until the U.S. Government (Just like the U.K.) axed it in the 1960s. Forty years on the trains are still running but just to take tourists into the New Hampshire countryside.
We booked a couple of tickets one lunchtime & would get lunch on board. I can't remember the prices but it was good value for money for the 3 hour run including a rather fine lunch.
The views from the train were mainly of forests & lakes but it was very pleasant indeed & more scenic than the 07.45 from Kings Cross to Peterbourgh on a soggy Monday morning in November!

The ticket office at the station is just as it was all those years ago, the wooden construction dominating the interior. Part of the station is used for selling train related gifts & information on the history of the route. Picture # 2 is of the station & picture # 3 is the train we used.
You can still book the train just for the ride without the meals & they provide a timetable.
Notes: Conway Scenic Railroad, Route 16, P.O. Box 1947, North Conway, Maine, 03860, Tel either 603 356-5251 or toll free on 800 232-5251.

One afternoon we travelled north to Jackson a short distance from North Conway, you enter the small town via a covered bridge, it looks in the picture like the covered section of the bridge has been erected squint, but that is how its meant to be & looks rather impressive.

Jackson is off Route 16 & used to be a favourite place for the tourists until the depression in the 1930s. It was rediscovered in the 1980s & looks all the better for it. In winter it's popular with skiers, there are around 110 ski runs close by & ample hotels to cater for their needs. The surrounding countryside is spectacular & has to be seen to be believed.

Back to North Conway, the main street is full of shops selling all types of goods & prices that suit everyone. There was even a Scottish gift shop selling good quality Scottish stuff from Scotland including Scottish beer & Heinz baked beans!!!

I had a postal order in my wallet for $25.00 which I guy from Texas sent me for payment of goods on EBay. No bank or post office in the U.K. would touch it so I decided to cash in it whilst I was in America.
I walked into a bank in North Conway & asked to cash it in, no problem said the cashier, I need two items of I.D. No problem there, I thought my Tesco Clubcard probably won't qualify so I flashed my passport & driving license. "Thank you sir" she said & then took from under the counter a little box & asked me for my finger prints!!
I thought this was a little over the top, but she took all my prints including my thumbs, all this for a miserable $25.00!!
I got my cash, cleaned my fingers in the cloth she provided & she wished me a good day.
In was in the back of mind that the FBI would be waiting for me at the airport of my departure to arrest me for some technicality on my postal order but thankfully nothing happened.

One afternoon we were in a pet shop looking around, the owner was telling us he & his wife were just back from holiday in Scotland & London & how they enjoyed themselves apart form the prices we charge for everything. A local elderly lady came into the shop & asked him for the bag of food for her bear!

Whilst he was looking out the food she told us how she has been feeding a bear which comes to her house every day. I didn't think much of it as bears are a common site here but when she left the owner explained that she lives in a built up area close to the woods. If the police find out she would be arrested.
The bear is likely to come to the house one day & if it can't get fed its likely to wander around the neighbouring houses. What if a child was playing in the garden & this bear wandered in, perish the thought. She has actually enticed the bear to her house which is really irresponsible.

On the subject of bears the owner of the guest house told us to watch out because a female bear with two cubs was apparently in the woods close to the guest house & they get very protective of the cubs at this time. I also had to watch where I put my feet as bears are famous for depositing something in the woods which you don't want to tread on!!

There are so many rivers & lakes around the national park where you park up & wander around, surrounding by trees they prove to be a cool & shady place to stay for a while on a hot day.

A smaller town simply called Conway lies south of North Conway & close to our guest house, it's a nice place to visit but doesn't have so much to offer as North Conway. Most of the local restaurants provided a good selection of dishes at reasonable prices with great service.

At the start of the holiday a work colleague provided me with a plastic strip with yellow arrows on it, you wrap it around the steering wheel & it locks together with Velcro & the arrows allegedly remind you to drive on the right hand side of the road. After a scare driving onto the wrong side of the road as we drove out the rental car office, all has been fine since. Maybe he's right, maybe it does actually work.

Overall we loved our short time (Saturday to Monday) in New Hampshire & were now moving on to our ultimate destination in Vermont. The road trip across New Hampshire to Vermont provided similar scenery with mile after mile of forests. However the towns, although nice were no match for North Conway, a place I would highly recommend.

However, it's Vermont or bust & judging by the noises come out of the rental car, it maybe will be bust!

To be continued...........................

Summary: A great place to spend a few days