Compiled by Steve Taylor, farmer, writer and lifelong scholar of the state’s culture

Back in 1995 Steve Taylor assembled a list of places, activities, events and diversions that afford insight into the culture and values of the Real New Hampshire. He was seeking to single out aspects of the state that are distinctive and different from the homogenized, mass-market rest of America. Put together just for fun, the list has been widely reproduced and shared and occasionally updated, The last tune-ups happened back in 2006 and 2020. Much has changed in the years since, but there’s still plenty of stuff to amuse, inform and entertain folks today. Here’s the 2025 edition.

Most of these things don’t cost a dime; the rest can all be done for just a few bucks.

  1. Decide for yourself: what’s the best foliage ride in the whole state? Bet the Kancamagus Highway will top a lot of lists.
  2. Break the early spring doldrums with a visit to the New Hampshire Farm, Forest and Garden Exposition at the Deerfield Fairgrounds.
  3. Lots of fine small-batch ice cream is being made in New Hampshire these days, but Sanctuary Farm in Sunapee actually uses cream from their own cows to churn an incredible array of great flavors. And, yes, you need to be 21 for their rum-raisin or bourbon-maple concoctions.
  4. Time was when thousands of Model A Ford roadsters, sedans and pickups swarmed New Hampshire roads. Go see some beautifully restored specimens at the October extravaganza of vintage A wheels and of about every other make imaginable at the Canterbury Shaker Museum.
  5. Jump on a sled and join a poker run sponsored by a local snowmobile club.
  6. Feast on raccoon, bear and venison at a wild game dinner.
  7. Hold on tight when all those “Frost Heaves” signs appear on the roadsides along about Feb. 1. And pity that bigshot journalist up from Washington to cover the Presidential Primary who wondered why Candidate Heaves hadn’t been getting any coverage.
  8. Listen to the distinctive rural accents and figures of speech around you as you watch the horse pulling at Lancaster Fair.
  9. Ride the boat out to the Isles of Shoals from Portsmouth Harbor on a sunny afternoon.
  10. New Hampshire’s last hand-crank telephone exchange expired in 1973, but the Telephone Museum in Warner shows how folks communicated in the days long before dial and digital.
  11. Watch the hand-mowing competition at North Haverhill Fair and see Don Elder, one of the masters, wield scythe and snath in a perfect rhythm.
  12. You enjoy motorized mayhem and destruction? Take in the Demolition Derby at Hopkinton Fair.
  13. Put on warm duds and slip into a bob house for some ice fishing.
  14. Have a soda from Newfield’s Squamscot Beverages, the state’s last indigenous soft drink bottler. They offer 27 different flavors .
  15. Summer bandstand and lawn concerts abound. Get a folding chair or a blanket and enjoy the sounds.
  16. Bring your kayak and a sandwich and quietly paddle Grafton Pond at dusk as the loons make their mournful calls.
  17. Plan to spend a day seeing all the artistic and creative talent on display at the League of Craftsmen Fair at Mount Sunapee in early August.