There’s always something new to do in the White Mountains. A popular playground for more than a hundred years, every season yields new adventures and new reasons to visit. The small towns team up to make sure there’s a little something for everyone.

The mountain range covers about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a portion of western Maine. As part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England and a popular vacation haven for their proximity to Boston and New York City. This time of the year, skiers, snowboarders and snowshoers are having the times of their lives.

New Hampshire, specifically, features a slew of small towns, each interconnected with area events. Here is a smattering of some of the area’s most popular attractions:

Bears in Parade
A variety of businesses have each decorated, adorned, embellished and painted 36” tall dancing bears. During the February School Vacation Week in February, 2011, the bears will be having fun playing up at nearby Loon Mountain. They will be skiing, hibernating in the lodges and playing hide and seek around the mountain, among other fun activities. The bears will be auctioned off on Thursday, February 24, 2011 at Loon, proceeds will go to support local community programs.

The Washington Cog Railway
Ride to the top of Mt. Washington on the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway! This round trip journey is New England’s most unique vacation experience. Step aboard an authentic coal-fired steam train or one of the new biodiesel locomotives to climb the Northeast’s highest peak. Enjoy the view and watch the trains from Marshfield Base Station featuring a museum, restaurant and gift shop.

Alpine Zipline
Hang on for dear life atop two unique zip-line canopy tours. Choose from, 13 different zip-lines, ropes bridges and platforms. This is the longest and highest course in the Northeast. You may also choose to race on the “Sky Rider” tour, which features side by side zips.

Clark’s Trading Post
Popular among younger visitors, is Clark’s Trading Post, an amusement park of sorts. The main attraction is a bear show, where trained bears balance on balls and perform dazzling tricks. Other attractions include a slanted building called Tuttle’s Rustic House where everything is topsy-turvy, and a half hour steam train ride through beautiful countryside, among many others.

WHERE TO STAY
New Hampshire and Maine are two mountainous states dotted with charming bed and breakfasts. Here are three B&Bs where you can hang your hat:

The Buttonwood Inn. This 10-room, 1820′s Inn is nestled on six secluded acres on Mount Surprise and is minutes from the North Conway and Jackson. Hike, snowshoe, or cross-country ski right from the inn’s backdoor. Most rooms feature fireplaces and Jacuzzi tubs. Full gourmet breakfast with sweet or savory entrees are prepared daily. Afternoons are marked with home baked treats, English teas or hot chocolate.

The Snowflake Inn Bed & Breakfast. Lavishly appointed king suites, two-person Jacuzzis tubs and fireplaces provide a romantic escape in the heart of Jackson, New Hampshire. A beautiful “mountain hamlet” this inn is soothing place where afternoons are spent with a cup of tea and evenings bring roasted marshmallows. The inn also features a tropical indoor spa.

Harmony Mountain Abode. This cozy bed and breakfast is located in New Hampshire’s Twin Mountains, in the center of the White Mountains with easy access to ski and hiking trails. The B&B also offers views of majestic Mount Washington. A wood-burning fireplace greets and warms guests in the formal dining room. Tea and coffee are always available to guests. Breakfast is served daily.

Being a popular vacation spot, there are too many bed and breakfasts to choose from – each more beautiful and welcoming than the next. To narrow your search by amenity, use the advanced search feature on BnBFinder and find a White Mountains bed and breakfast or a New Hampshire bed and breakfast that best suits your own personal style.

Tweet this

Move over chicken soup, if you’re seeking some comfort food this chilly winter, reach for some apples instead. Yes, apples.

The Thomas Shepherd Inn in Shepherdstown, West Virginia has been making Farmstand Apple Soup for years, thanks to the inn’s previous innkeeper, Margaret Perry. Served hot with breakfast, this soup is a popular must-have among returning guests.

The innkeepers say the secret is to use a mix of apples, like one tart and two sweet.

Here’s how to make Farmstand Apple Soup:

Ingredients:

• 3 medium apples—peeled, cored and chopped (consider using a mix of tart & sweet—for example, 1 Granny Smith and 2 Fuji)
• 2 cups apple cider
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon lemon peel
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/8 cup sugar (or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• vanilla yogurt for garnish

Directions:

• Place all ingredients (except yogurt) in a medium saucepan and simmer until the apples are mushy, about 45 minutes.
• Puree in blender at low sped. Adjust seasoning if necessary, to taste.
• Serve hot. Garnish with a dollop of vanilla yogurt and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

May be made the day before and reheated.
Yields: 4-6 servings (makes about 4 & 1/2 cups)

This recipe is easily doubled or tripled to serve a larger crowd. With six rooms at the bed and breakfast, innkeepers Jeanne Muir and Jim Ford, usually make a triple batch to serve 12 people as a starter course for breakfast, accompanied by coffee, cake or muffins.

For more recipes, visit the BnBFinder bed and breakfast recipes page.

Tweet this

Want to meet a former Superbowl champ? No better time than at the playoffs. In fact, you can stay the night in Pittsburgh, check out a former Steelers’ Super Bowl ring and score tickets to the playoff game at Heinz Field.

Chukky Okobi is an ex-football player and currently an actor, He’s also the owner of The Mansion at Maple Heights, a bed and breakfast that doubles as a high-end event space. Chukky earned a Super Bowl ring with the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL when they defeated the Seahawks, 21–10. The history-making Steelers then joined the ranks of the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys as the only franchises to have won five Super Bowls.

This weekend, the Mansion at Maple Heights will offer a special Steelers’ Package ($800). Spend two nights at the inn, enjoy chef-prepared gourmet breakfasts and get tickets to the afternoon game (section 128) at the Pittsburgh Stadium. And the kicker – meet Chukky too!

If you can’t make it out to the Superbowl in Texas next month, might as well meet someone who’s been there, done that and has the ring to prove it.

Tweet this

If you’re like most people, you want to donate money to an eco-friendly charity or a green cause but you also could really use your hard-earned cash toward a much needed vacation. So, why not do both? Use your money for your getaway and stay at a bed and breakfast that will donate a portion of it to an environmentally-conscious cause.

Here are two bed and breakfasts where you can enjoy your stay and the inn will donate a portion of the proceeds to charity:

Explore the Valley. The Mt. Washington Valley Green Team is part of the Mt. Washington Valley Preservation Association in New Hampshire. It works to encourage sustainable green business practices and tackle issues like recycling, sustainable foods, and community conservation issues. Stay two nights at the Cranmore Mountain Lodge in North Conway and the inn will donate 10% of your lodging fee to The Green Team. The package also includes full breakfasts cooked-to-order each morning, a unique DVD by a professional photographer that showcases local wildlife, a pocket naturalist guide to help you recognize fauna during mountains hikes, petroleum-free soy candles, and a $30 dinner voucher to a local steakhouse. If you arrive to the inn by hybrid car, you’ll also get a $20 voucher toward a future stay, valid up to 6-months. Those wishing to stay a third night receive an instant 10% discount.

Carbon Neutral Package. The Natural Resource Defense Council is the nation’s most effective environmental action group. It works to protect wildlife and wild places and to ensure a healthy environment for all life on earth. When you book the two-night Carbon Neutral Package at the Red Bud Manor in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the inn will make a donation to the NRDC. Drive up in a hybrid vehicle or Vespa and receive a $20 discount off your bill too. The inn will also give you trolley passes so you can hop on and hop off around town and skimp on gas, though you may want to trek from place to place. Eureka Springs was named one of the most walkable towns in the U.S. by PBS. Full county breakfasts are included each morning. There’s also a take-home souvenir –compact florescent bulbs.

Another option is to look for environmentally-friendly inns with eco-friendly housekeeping policies or those that actively look to keep their communities green by purchasing area products and locally-harvested foods.

Here’s an example:

Green Holladay. The Holladay House Bed and Breakfast proactively takes steps to lessen its impact on the environment. The Orange, Virginia, inn limits how often it changes linens, towels and robes, unless guests request otherwise. The inn always opts for locally-grown ingredients. The coffee brewed at this inn is single-source, fair trade and locally roasted. Holladay House is part of Virginia’s Green Lodging Program, a rigorous initiative designed to inspire the hospitality industry to make greener choices. They’ve also joined the Dominion Green Power Program, where more than a third of the inn’s power is generated from green sources. If you’d like to stretch the inn’s green power usage a $10 donation to Dominion will supply the inn with 655 kwh of renewed energy.
Countless bed and breakfasts made contributions to better the earth one way or another. Several offer discounted tickets to nature conservatories or habitats. To find a list of green getaways and environmentally-friendly bed and breakfasts visit the Going Green Specials where you’ll find many guilt-free travel destinations.

Tweet this