New Hampshire - Arts and Culture

This week on the Travel Show – New Hampshire. You are going to love it here! It’s ideal for family vacations, romantic getaways, outdoor adventure and fine dining.

You’ve heard about New Hampshire’s mountainous and coastal beauty, its intense winter sports and its trains and ziplines. Now hear what makes New Hampshire truly New Hampshire – its culture. Theatre, artists, festivals, and historic attractions abound.

From cinema to community theatre, summer outdoor theatre, live music and dance, New Hampshire theaters put on quite a show. In Portsmouth, for instance, The Music Hall is the region’s centre for the performing arts, literature and education. It features curated on stage and on screen entertainment from around the world in its Historic Theater (a landmark 1878 Victorian building) and the intimate Loft around the corner. The Music Hall is a “must see”! The acclaimed “signature series” brings top authors and artists for concerts, plays, movies and independent film, book readings and festivals. A radio show broadcast on NH Public Radio also originates here.

From local coffee shops to large stadiums, New Hampshire has a wide variety of Music venues, and a wide variety of artists to play them. September through May the Granite State Symphony Orchestra, based in Concord, provides professional concerts at very accessible prices.

Galleries all around New Hampshire offer arts, crafts, and more. New Hampshire keepsakes are also available at one of the many League of New Hampshire Craftsmen gallery stores or a New Hampshire Made store. Great art is just the beginning at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, where you can enjoy family friendly programs along with great works by world renowned artists like Picasso, Monet, O'Keeffe and Warhol.

New Hampshire conjures the image of authentic New England communities and a rural heritage going back hundreds of years. This is true of many New Hampshire towns. However, New Hampshire history also spans, for instance, the driving progress of industrial mills in Manchester.

As well as offering amazing outdoor opportunities, the New Hampshire State Park System maintains several Historic sites and homes. For instance, the farm of famous poet Robert Frost is in Derry. And in Mount Washington State park the Cog Railway allows you to experience New England's highest peak on the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway! Since 1869, this National Historic Engineering Landmark has been a vacation highlight.

New Hampshire Festivals are too numerous to mention! Here’s just a small sampling. Festivals in June and July include “Bike Week” in Laconia - a mecca for motor cycle enthusiasts - and the “Hampton Beach Sand Sculpture Festival”. In July there’s a big party in the charming New Hampshire coastal town of Portsmouth as it celebrates its 250th Anniversary. And July also brings the Blues Festival in Rochester. Amongst many summer arts festivals, in August there’s the “White Mountain Art & Artisan Festival” in Jackson and “On The Green 2 Arts & Crafts Festival” in Wolfeboro.

Go to www.Visitnh.gov for travel ideas to New Hampshire this summer. This small, diverse State offers both beaches and mountains. Play golf or pamper yourself at a spa. And there are Festivals galore! Your outdoor adventure can take you kayaking, biking or hiking - or on a tour of farms and gardens. www.visitnh.gov also has ideas for itineraries around New Hampshire this summer. Travel the “50’s Retro Tour” on historic Route 3. Or discover New Hampshire’s wine, cheese and beer along your way. For instance in Portsmouth the New Hampshire Brewery trail visits the Smuttynose Brewing Company, The Portsmouth Brewery, and Redhook Ale Brewery.

New Hampshire Trip Showcase


New Hampshire is less than 3 hrs drive from Montreal and 7 hrs from Toronto.
  • Stay at the stunning lakefront Mill Falls Resort in the village of Meredith. Mill Falls was a historic mill town that was losing its industry until it was given a complete new life by tourism. Each of the 4 inns is named after an original restored building and its function, and the character is still preserved in ingenious ways. In addition to boasting the finest hotel accommodations in the Lakes Region, the Inns offer the world class Cascade Spa, seven restaurants, numerous shops and eateries along Main Street and twelve boutiques in the Mill Falls Marketplace.

  • Get outdoors in summer, winter and fall at Gunstock Resort which offers downhill skiing, tubing, professional level cross country trails, snowshoeing, camping, the longest zipline in the US, canopy tours, extreme Segway courses, mountain bike rentals and aerial lift rides. They also host huge endurance events such as the Boston ToughMudder.

  • A “must do” is an historic steamship cruise with Mount Washington Cruises that began operations in 1872. Nowadays the m/s Mount Washington sails with a capacity of over 1200 passengers and cruises between five ports on all sides of New England’s third largest lake and around 200 hundred islands. Fun fact - over 700 couples have got married on this cruise.

  • Visit Tom and Olive Plant’s mountaintop estate, “Lucknow”, built in 1914 high atop the Ossipee Mountain Range. Known as Castle in the Clouds since its opening to the public in 1959, this house is a unique example of Arts & Craft architecture in New England. Tour the 16 room mansion, stroll through the beautiful gardens and examine local artists’ work in The Art Gallery. You can explore 5,381 acres of land, on foot or guided horseback ride, traversing a spectacular series of waterfalls and along Shannon Pond.

  • Eat at The Corner House Inn, originally built in 1849. It is found in picturesque Center Sandwich - the epitome of what it means to be an authentic New England town. The town is filled with local art galleries and craftsmen. The Corner House Inn was converted to a restaurant in 2000 and hosts wildly popular storyteller dinners from late fall to the end of the spring season. On Monday nights you can enjoy “Wine Not? Dinner” - a great value menu which includes a bottle of wine. The restaurant uses as many ingredients as possible from local producers.
 
   
The Chris Robinson Travel Show
Saturday May 11, 2013
11:00 am – 12:00 pm EST
new hampshire
 
   





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