Coming for Business - Staying the weekend

Yes, go up to the Lake Winnipesaukee region. It's a real nice area. And what the hey, take a nice hike up Mt Washington.

 

www.northeastexotic.com

 

There are many nice things to do in the Lake Winnipesaukee region:
-- Rent a boat from Thurstons Marine or other Wiers Beach location and go out on the lake for a couple of hours or a day,
or go out on the Mt Washington, a largish tour boat that docks at several locations
-- There are many shorter hikes, e.g. Mt Major (http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/MtMajor_0000.asp) and sites that
will point you at what to do;
-- There are a large number of smaller places to stay -- no Marriott/Hilton types places. Margate in Laconia
is probably among the most upscale, although it certainly isn't fancy;
-- Visit small towns in the area -- Wolfeboro is among the nicest New England communities on the lake.
Good luck.......................................

 

i dont know too much about hiking in the whole of nh, but the other day i did mount lafayette (5260 ft) via the green leaf trail. its 3.8 miles to the summit, about 3200 ft elevation gain i think. park at the cannon mountain tramway station and walk back under the highway overpass, turn left up the northbound ramp, and the trailhead is on the right about 100ft ahead. had a lot of fun doing this one. otherwise a nice looking hike which i plan to do next time is to park at the visitor center for the Franconia Ridge State Park and take the old bridal path up to mt lafayette, then the franconia ridge trail accross mt lincoln to little haystack, then you can take the Falling Waters Trail right back to the parking lot. this path looks great because that sections of the Franconia Ridge Trail is around 5000 ft elevation the whole time. Not sure on the distance of this but I cant see it being more than 12 miles total. Not sure if this is the area you are going to be in but Franconia Notch has some amazing hiking. heres the trail map in PDF
http://www.franconianotchstatepark.com/franconiahikingfinal.pdf