You probably already know it. Conway and the Mount Washington Valley in New Hampshire is Eastern America’s playground where you can do pretty much any outdoor activity ever invented by the humankind. Hiking, rock climbing, biking, mountain biking, kayaking, rafting, snowshoeing, cross country skying, alpine skiing, horse riding and surely some others.
In a peaceful setting, just fare away enough to not be in the crowded main street of Conway, but close enough to act as your base for your activities, the Snowvillage Inn might be the place you want to stay. The inn is cozy and will also be a place to stay on a romantic getaway with your significant other. You will be 15 minutes away from the cozy little Conway downtown and it's very walkable maine street and the Settlers' Green Outlet. White Mountain is 45 minutes away.
The Inn has three building for a total of 17 rooms and most of them offer a spectacular view of the Presidential Mountain Range.
My room was big, VERY big, clean, and with my private balcony. With such a small place, the owners Jen and Kevin are very dedicated and have the time to help you with anything.
You will also want to experience a fine dinner at the Snowvillage Inn. I started my meal with chef Brian Anderson’s sausages and white beans soup, which is toped with aged shaved parmesan. Anderson was recently named best new chef in New Hampshire and I could see why with this innovative opening. Innovative, but also absolutely delicious.
I continued with my main course, a pulled pork sliders with roasted truffle sea salt potatoes. The pork was delicious as it could be and the side of potatoes was exquisite.
Chef Brian surprised me again with the desert when I tasted my sundae brownie, probably one of the best I had of this classic. And the portion was huge.
I really liked my waitress Sue, which is actually Brian’s wife. On top of being able to describe her husband’ meal in such a way that you want to try everything, she knows the area very well and I could hear her during the evening giving tips to patrons on where they should go and what they should see. “Heading this way tomorrow? Make sure to stop there. You are coming back in September? It is the best time of the year for that.” She is a tourism bureau all by herself.
Excluding drinks, my dinner costed 28$, which is more than faire for what I had.
As a quick and cheap other option for meal, you can try the Eaton Village Store, just down the hill. My Sausage Gravy & Homefries was delicious and very cheap at only 6 bucks. All their lunch options are under 10 dollars.
The next day, I hopped in Marc Martin’s Good Look Touring van. Marc, who speaks perfect French if you come from Quebec or France, is one of the most enthusiast guy I ever met. Think of him as a kind of outfitter who will bring you wherever you want to do whatever the activity you want, adjusting his offer to your need and experience. Not in shape but you want a nice view up in the mountains? Ask him to bring you, like he did with me, to Cathedral Ledge. Spectacular.
He also developed a tour of the Redstone Quarry ruins. It is just new and you really should try it out. The quarry used to help build the finest building of New York and Boston up until the late 1940‘s. The machineries decaying there and dating from the 1800’s is a marvel of industrial archeologically that will fascinate people who love history, architecture, engineering, gemology or photography.
http://www.goodlooktouring.com/