Attitash Bear Peak is one ski resort, however two mountains with their own trails and lifts that interconnect by a trail. Between the two, there are a total of 70 trails (45 at Attitash and 25 at Bear Peak) with six lifts at Attitash and…Read More

Attitash Bear Peak is one ski resort, however two mountains with their own trails and lifts that interconnect by a trail. Between the two, there are a total of 70 trails (45 at Attitash and 25 at Bear Peak) with six lifts at Attitash and three at Bear Peak. During our stay, Attitash only was open with four lifts and 25 - 30 trails open. The season here runs from mid November to mid April with the hours being Monday - Friday 9am - 4pm and Saturday, Sunday, and holidays from 8am - 4pm. Our stay the first week of April produced snow each and every evening, between 3"-8", providing plenty of fresh snow atop the already 60" base they had.

The vertical drop at Attitash is 1,750’ with the elevation at 2,350’. Trails consist of 20% easiest, 47% more difficult (blue), and 33% most difficult. The green slopes here compare to the blue ones at Bretton Woods down the road. This mountain is more vertical. They have snowmaking capabilities on 98% of their slopes, but annual snowfall averages 142" per year.

Along with the typical ski slopes, in the middle of the mountain is also a new superpipe noted as the longest in New Hampshire. The superpipe is a 500’ inground pipe with its own special grooming machine. There is also a freestyle terrain giving those interested in jumps and tricks plenty of choices with ramp jumps, rail slides, spines, banks, and rollers.

For lift tickets, the pricing is adult $49, teen $44, and juniors $32. Check out their website here for specials such as a $5 savings per ticket by purchasing them online. There was one day they told us of a four for one special that was Internet only. The local video store in North Conway has internet access for .15/minute and any copies for .25/each. It took less than five minutes to get on the website and place the order to get three free lift tickets. Then instead of going to the ticket window at the mountain, you go inside to Guest Services for any Internet orders and they give you your lift tickets there.

At the window they were running an end of season special of $39 per adult instead of the normal $49. To rent skis, pricing is $26 for adults and teens and $19 for juniors with snowboards running $33 for adults and teens and $27 for juniors. If you only rent equipment for one day and decide later you would like to extend your rental, go to the ski rental desk prior to the end of the day and ask to do so because it will save you money instead of renting again the next day. To do this, however, you must take the ski equipment with you. So if you do not have a vehicle it will fit in or anywhere to store the skis, this option may not work for you.

Also by logging onto their website, you can check out their calendar of events. While we were there they put on their Annual Red Parka Pub Regatta. In this event, individuals and teams use whatever items they can to get down the mountain the quickest. We saw kayaks, plastic kiddie pools, and a lot of home made vehicles. Everyone dresses up crazy and has a really good time. The most entertaining was the Flintstone Mobile with Fred driving and Wilma, Barney, and Betty as passengers! They didn’t do very well…their car toppled over!

Over the past eight years, the resort boasts it has spent $35 million to improve and expand the resort and mountain. The lodge at the base of the mountain is nice. They offer a cafeteria, pizza station (get your sodas in the cafeteria and not at this station – they are twice the price here for some reason), and pub. The cafeteria offers grilled cheese, burgers, fried egg sandwiches, fries, onion rings, and other items. To give an idea of price, at the pizza station three slices of pizza and two sodas were $16.

There are plenty of hotels and inns in the area, but if you want to stay "slopeside" you’ll need to reserve space at either the Attitash Mountain Village directly across the street or the Grand Summit Resort and Hotel at the base of Bear Peak. If Bear is closed though, you’ll have to drive over to Attitash.

Attitash is a family friendly mountain that boasts uncrowded slopes and short lift lines with great skiing and riding, fantastic service and snow so good it’s guaranteed! Feel the Attitash experience.

The ski resort can be found on Rt. 302 in Bartlett, NH, 603/374-2368 or 877/677-snow (24 hour snow phone).

A nice feature of New Hampshire that we were not aware of prior to our visit is the tax free shopping. Not only do the local stores have reasonable prices, there’s no added tax to contend with.Most of the towns around the White Mountain area…Read More

A nice feature of New Hampshire that we were not aware of prior to our visit is the tax free shopping. Not only do the local stores have reasonable prices, there’s no added tax to contend with.

Most of the towns around the White Mountain area are within a 10 - 20 minute drive of each other. If you’re staying in Bartlett, the first town you will encounter to the east is North Conway. From there if you go south you will end up in Conway, or going north will send you to Jackson. Both Conway and Jackson have small stores and restaurants, but we found North Conway to have most of what you needed.

Bartlett

This town houses mainly resorts, small hotels, and the Attitash Bear Peak ski mountain. The resorts found here are the Attitash Mountain Village, Attitash Marketplace Motel, Grand Summit Resort, and Hotel and Sky Valley Motel and Cottages. For shopping and eating, a trip into North Conway is necessary.

North Conway

Coming from Bartlett, the stores line Rt. 16 with most of the restaurants just past them. This is where most of the action is for eating and shopping, but there are also plenty of hotels and small inns. There is a small grocery store on 16 just as you enter North Conway where you can pick up food and supplies. But be aware this is a small town and nothing is open 24 hours – they close at 8pm sharp!

Mountain Tops – a clothing store (t-shirts, sweatshirts) that is the only store we found offering t-shirts showing the White Mountains and ski phrases such as "White Mountains – Live fast, ski hard" and "White Mountains – Ski naked, it adds color to your cheeks".

Zeb’s General Store – The owner of this establishment also owns the restaurant in town called Decades. This is an old fashioned store selling 100% New England products. They have a 67’ long candy counter with chocolate fudge the kids kept coming back to buy. The first floor is comprised of mainly food items, teas, maple products, syrups, fruit spreads, honeys, soups, pasta, spices, condiments, Zeb's bottled sodas (the vanilla cream soda and root beer are great and are a $1 a bottle), and of course candy. They also have a room upstairs comprised of souvenirs like t-shirts, mugs, and plenty of items with "Zeb’s" imprinted on them.

The Five and Dime Store – this is a bit of a cheesy store but some items in the front were nice. They have several types of small cedar boxes for keepsakes and cards and old-fashioned heavy cotton dish towels. We purchased a few for $3.99/each with the Coca-Cola emblem and designs on them.

Dondero’s Rock Shop – If you’re a rock enthusiast, you will enjoy this shop. Rocks of all sizes, shapes, and price ranges of your choice. We purchased a beautiful blue rock wind chime for $25. The most entertaining part of the visit, however, was the owner. He performed a few tricks with us using different rocks. These were optical illusions of a sort and gave us a good laugh for the day.

Tanger Factory Outlets – These outlet stores are open until 6pm every evening. The outlets found here are those such as Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Zales Jewelers, Bass, Hanes, Liz Claiborne, Brooks Brothers, plus many others, too many to mention.

Restaurants in North Conway

There’s a wide variety of cuisine offered here. My other journals tell details of the restaurants we dined at, but here’s a list to show what all is offered and the choices you have.

Banner’s Home Cookin'; Bellini’s Italian Restaurant; China Chef; Decades Steak and Seafood; Delaney’s (variety); Fandangle’s Steak, Seafood, Sandwiches; Flatbread Pizza; 1790 Homestead Restaurant (variety); Horsefeathers Pub and Eatery; Maestro’s European Cuisine; Mario’s Italian Restaurant; Merlino’s Steakhouse; Muddy Moose (variety); Red Parka Pub Steakhouse and Pub. They also have a couple of chain restaurants such as Applebees and Friendlies, but with the other options, we had no time for either of these. I suggest picking up a Dining Guide in town at any local store. This will give you a map showing the location of each restaurant with a menu and pricing.

Everything you need on your stay is within your reach between these towns. Familiarize yourself with the main roads of 16 and 302 and you’re all set to go.

Bretton Woods is known as New Hampshire’s largest ski area and very family friendly slopes. The drive from Attitash in Bartlett to Bretton Woods is 20 miles to the northwest. It’s a bit colder and more snow as you head there since the elevation is…Read More

Bretton Woods is known as New Hampshire’s largest ski area and very family friendly slopes. The drive from Attitash in Bartlett to Bretton Woods is 20 miles to the northwest. It’s a bit colder and more snow as you head there since the elevation is higher. We found a lot of powder to ski and the runs were fairly wide. As a comparison, blue intermediate runs at Bretton Woods were more like green (easy) at Attitash and black diamonds at Bretton Woods more like blue at Attitash. It was definitely an easier to ski mountain, but we liked it because there were many runs to choose from and you could really enjoy yourself.

The elevation at Bretton Woods is 3,100’ with a 1,500’ vertical drop. There are 76 alpine trails and glades (31% beginner, 41% intermediate, and 28% expert). They have snowmaking capabilities on 95% of their trails. Their hours are 8:30am - 4pm, however, during the peak season they also offer night skiing to 9pm on a few green runs and their terrain park on Friday, Saturday, and holidays. The half pipe and terrain park here is much smaller than Attitash, but gives plenty of opportunity for freestyle skiing or snowboarding. It even has its own lift that goes directly to the top of the terrain park (the B Lift Double Chair). The resort offers six lifts with three of them being high speed quads.

Pricing here varies by weekday and weekend. The ranges for lift tickets are $49 - $57 for adults, $39 - $46 teens, and $29 -$34 juniors (6-12). Make sure to ski here on Wednesdays because they have a two for one special that runs each and every Wednesday. Night skiing is $19 for adults and juniors with a twilight ticket (2pm - 9pm) running $39 for all. Ski rental prices are $28 for adults and teens and $22 for juniors. If you’re interested in snowboarding, it will be $33 regardless of your age.

The base lodge is currently undergoing renovation and expansion but is still open for business. The first part of the expansion was completed in December of 2002 with the remaining due to be finished the Fall of 2003. In addition to expanding the lodge, they are opening more runs with 12 trails and another high-speed quad. There is also future expansion planned to take place on the mountain next door (Mt. Stickney). The lodge offers both indoor and outdoor fireplaces/pits to warm your chilled bones. There is a cafeteria and restaurant indoors with plenty of seating and glove warming machines everywhere for .25/two minutes to get your gloves toasty warm before venturing out in the cold again. The cafeteria offers burgers, fish, pizza, fries, mozzarella sticks, plus other items. For a family of four, we spent $45 for lunch each day.

If you intend to stay in the Bretton Woods area, I suggest checking out the Mount Washington Hotel. It is across the street and a few minutes drive to the slope, and is a large, exquisite, grand hotel. They have plenty of amenities here such as massages ($40 - $70), kids kamp, snow tubing ($5 per hour), indoor swimming pool, ice skating ($5 per hour), and sleigh rides ($45-$70).

This ski resort has received many accolades in magazines and ski reports. Child Magazine rated Bretton Woods in the Top 10 for skiing families. Ski Magazine rated them #1 in the East for weather, #1 in NH for grooming, snow quality, and lifts and #2 in North America for family programs. They have, however, began to add more challenging terrain in recent years in an attempt to appeal to a wider range of skiers.

Something unique about this mountain is the "Top o’ Quad" restaurant serving lunch. Take the Bethlehem Express high speed quad to the top of the mountain for lunch with an out of this world view.

For beginners to intermediate skiers, I highly recommend Bretton Woods. It’s a beautiful area, plenty of ski acreage and pleasant slopes.

Bretton Woods is located on Rt. 302 in Bretton Woods, NH, 603/278-3320.

My family and I took our first ever Christmas Week Vacation. We gave the children some ski and snowboard equipment as a Christmas gift and we were anxious to let them try it out. We stayed at the Attitash Mountain Village in Bartlett, N.H., directly…Read More

My family and I took our first ever Christmas Week Vacation. We gave the children some ski and snowboard equipment as a Christmas gift and we were anxious to let them try it out.

We stayed at the Attitash Mountain Village in Bartlett, N.H., directly across the street from the Attitash Ski area. Our unit was so much better than we had anticipated; we had been warned by a family that had stayed here before us that the units were quite small, and had been worried about that since we'd invited some friends to stay overnight and didn't know if we would all fit. Everything worked out well, however, as our one-bedroom was quite large and one of the newest units. My 8-year-old son was thrilled with the big screen TV in the bedroom and the in-bedroom two-person jacuzzi.

The murphy bed and pull-out couch fit our friends and their three children, while the king-size bed and twin pull-out couch fit my family perfectly. I wouldn't recommend doing this for more than one night though--it was a little crowded but no one had to sleep on the floor!

Mother nature graced us with a foot of snow on Christmas Day and the kids had a blast snowshoeing and making snow angels. We spent one day skiing at the Attitash ski area but spent the other days skiing at Bretton Woods ski area about 20-minutes away. Attitash was a little steep for beginners but Bretton Woods is an outstanding family ski area, with a beginners' slope that kids can ski on all day for free with a paying adult. It was just the right size to satisfy my son and I could watch him from my cozy perch at the lodge.

If you do go to the Attitash Mountain Village, ask for a Phase II unit--they're the newer and more spacious ones. They obviously did alot of planning when building them, as the room layout was great for entertaining and it was well insulated for sound--there were other families in neighboring units, but we didn't hear a thing! The heat was controlled by gas fireplaces on both floors, which was nice, though once the rooms met the thermostat temperature, the fires went out. The staff was very friendly and helpful as well. We will definitely stay here again.

Having dropped off the kids at day camp, we drove to Portland, ME. Living in Pennsylvania, this is the furthest north we've been in the U.S. so we thought we might as well. Unfortunately, we got lost a bit. From Bartlett to Portland you…Read More

Having dropped off the kids at day camp, we drove to Portland, ME. Living in Pennsylvania, this is the furthest north we've been in the U.S. so we thought we might as well. Unfortunately, we got lost a bit. From Bartlett to Portland you take Route 25 most of the way. We wanted to head straight for the harbor.

Once there, we parked the car and got on the first boat trip we saw. On vacation, timing is everything and we ran with tickets in hand before the small boat sailed off. I'm sorry, but I can't remember the name of the boat, but it was 90 minutes of knowledgeable and interesting stories about Portland harbor. The highlights were the Portland lighthouse which graced the cover of my AAA Maine Tourbook and an up-close look at a group of seals.

On land again we looked for a place to eat lobster. Why else would someone go to Portland? When in Rome... The obvious place was DiMillo's which is a ship restaurant. It's huge. A street hawker told us that you can get lobster anywhere and steered us to a hole in the wall two blocks down. We sat in the back outside where there was an outdoor deck. My wife had a lobster with the works and I had a lobster roll with huge onion rings. We split a seafood chowder in a bread bowl which was out of this world. My lobster roll probably had as much meat or more than my wife's lobster so while I was finishing my onion rings, she was still trying to get at the meat. So a word to the wise, get the lobster roll. Sorry but I can't remember the name of the chowder house.

We jumped back in the car and were an hour late getting the kids. Thank goodness the camp counselor was gracious. My advice is to go very early and stay very late. There was so much more to see. I hope we get to go back soon.

Whether you like to ski, hike or just enjoy nature, this is the place to check out. You can get it all, the mountains, the slopes, the hiking the biking the ability to get lost and be alone. We look forward to our week in…Read More

Whether you like to ski, hike or just enjoy nature, this is the place to check out. You can get it all, the mountains, the slopes, the hiking the biking the ability to get lost and be alone. We look forward to our week in October every year. You can choose to follow the tourist and drive up to Mount Washington, which is a must. I would suggest that you pay the extra money and take the van up. That way you can enjoy the scene without worrying about the driving. Pack a set of warm clothes for the top, because the temp will be at least 15 degrees cooler at the top.Close

We took the auto road up to a parking area near the Alpine Garden trail. My husband, son, and I walked through the Alpine Garden and decided to climb up to the summit along the Lion Head Trail. After going through some…Read More

We took the auto road up to a parking area near the Alpine Garden trail. My husband, son, and I walked through the Alpine Garden and decided to climb up to the summit along the Lion Head Trail. After going through some brush, we reached a point where the trail was marked by cairns of stones on a steep slope of boulders. It wasn't easy but we all made it to the summit. The next day my husband and son decided to return for the 9-mile round-trip on Lion Head from the Visitor Center at the Notch. The weather was clear, and there was little wind; it was an ideal day for the hike. Since this type of weather is rare for Mt. Washington, we considered it a real blessing.

My husband slipped and bruised his forearm while descending, but other than that, it was a great day for them.

This is a great hike if the weather is good, you are in very good shape, and you have the right gear and footwear.

I found best week for winter vacation. Right after MA school vacation and New Hampshire vacation. No lift lines, no crowds. The weather was perfect most days. The snow was holding up. The accomondations were great! I love having a full kitchen - even though I…Read More

I found best week for winter vacation. Right after MA school vacation and New Hampshire vacation. No lift lines, no crowds. The weather was perfect most days. The snow was holding up.
The accomondations were great! I love having a full kitchen - even though I instist on eating out at least 3 times during the week.Close

My husband and I bought our unit last winter and encouraged some friends to go up and check the place out. They liked it and ended up buying a unit in the summer. This winter they came up to visit us during our stay in…Read More

My husband and I bought our unit last winter and encouraged some friends to go up and check the place out. They liked it and ended up buying a unit in the summer. This winter they came up to visit us during our stay in February. They had not skied in years, but after spending a couple days with us skiing and just hanging out in Bartlett, Conway, etc., they ended up upgrading their unit and trading it for a ski week. So next year we can each invite friends and have a really great time!!!Close