Dartmouth – Lake Sunapee Region:
The Dartmouth–Lake Sunapee area of New Hampshire ranges from Bradford, northwest along Interstate 89, to New Hampshire’s border with Vermont at the city of Lebanon. There are two distinct regions encompassed in the Dartmouth–Lake Sunapee area. The Upper Valley region is the northwest-central area, including Lebanon, a commerce and manufacturing center, and Hanover, home of Dartmouth College, an Ivy League university. Surrounding towns are tourist and agricultural centers and bedroom communities for the main centers of activity.

The central and southeast portion of this area is Lake Sunapee and the town of Sunapee, a popular summer recreation and resort area, with many celebrities living on the shores of the lake. The “Dartmouth–Lake Sunapee” moniker is largely a convenience for visitors to the area; residents of the Upper Valley and Sunapee consider themselves to live in two separate regions of the state.

Great North Woods Region:
The Great North Woods Region, also known as the North Country, is located at the northern tip of New Hampshire, north of the White Mountains Region and is part of the larger Great North Woods. The Great North Woods is a tourism region of New Hampshire and is located in Coos County. The dividing line is loosely defined as running from Cushman, a hamlet within Dalton, to south of Berlin and east to the Maine border, roughly following US Route 2.

The region has around 30,000 permanent residents with Berlin being the largest community in the sparsely populated region by a sizable margin with more than one-third of the population of the region. Lancaster, the county seat, is the second largest community and of the remaining communities in the region, only Milan, Stewartstown, Colebrook, Northumberland have more than 1,000 people.

Unlike the more commercially developed White Mountains Region to the south, most of the tourism in the Great North Woods centers around backcountry hiking and camping, as well as outdoor sports such as fishing and hunting. The central portion of the region is part of the White Mountains National Forest, including the Pilot Range and Mount Cabot, the highest peak of the Great North Woods. North of the Pilot Range is the Nash Stream State Forest. The Connecticut Lakes, headwaters of the Connecticut River, lie at the northern tip of the region.

Lakes Region:
The Lakes Region of New Hampshire is located in the east-central part of the state, south of the White Mountains Region and extending to the Maine border. It is named for the numerous lakes in the region, the largest of which are Lake Winnipesaukee, Lake Winnisquam, Squam Lake, and Newfound Lake. The area comprises all of Belknap County, the southern portion of Carroll County, the eastern portion of Grafton County, and the northern portions of Strafford County and Merrimack County. The largest municipality is the city of Laconia.

Besides the lakes, there are also two small mountain ranges, the Belknap Mountains which lie to the southwest, and the Ossipee Mountains to the northeast.

The area is a popular tourist destination in the summer time, with the activity peaking during the annual Motorcycle Week and races at Loudon’s New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Other tourist destinations include Funspot in Weirs Beach, the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in Holderness, the children’s museum of Center Harbor, Gunstock ski resort and Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion at Meadowbrook, both in Gilford, Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough, and the town of Wolfeboro, which claims to be the nation’s oldest resort town. Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in the state, and is home to numerous vacation homes. Several motion pictures have either been filmed or set in the region, including the 1981 classic, On Golden Pond (filmed on Squam Lake in the town of Holderness) and the 1991 comedy What About Bob?, which was filmed in Virginia but (fictitiously) took place in Wolfeboro.

Merrimack Valley:
The Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region along the Merrimack River of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Merrimack is one of the larger waterways in New England and has helped to define the livelihood and culture of those living along it for millennia.

Major cities in the Merrimack Valley include Concord, Manchester, and Nashua, all in New Hampshire, and Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill, all in Massachusetts. The Valley was a major center of the textile industry in the 19th century.

In New Hampshire, the Merrimack Valley Region is an area of the south-central part of the state, about 35 miles wide, centered on the Merrimack River, and running from Canterbury south to the Massachusetts border. Henniker marks the western extent, and Nottingham the eastern. It includes parts of Hillsborough, Rockingham and Merrimack counties. The state capital, Concord, and the state’s two largest cities, Manchester and Nashua, are in the valley. In addition, Manchester has a large regional airport, with scheduled commercial services.

Monadnock Region:
The Monadnock Region is a region in southwestern New Hampshire. It is named after Mount Monadnock, a 3,165 foot isolated mountain, which is the dominant geographic landmark in the region. Although it has no specific borders, the Monadnock Region is generally thought of comprising all of Cheshire County and the western portion of Hillsborough County.

In addition to the frequently hiked Mount Monadnock, the region offers abundant opportunities for outdoor recreation, including four New Hampshire state parks. Pisgah State Park consists of 13,300 acres of forest, seven protected ponds popular for fishing, and six trails that may be used for hiking, mountain biking, ATVs, and snowmobiles. The Monadnock Region also boasts four recreational rail trails, lakes with public swimming beaches, and three ski areas.

The largest municipality, and only city, in the region is Keene with over 23,000 residents. The nearby town of Peterborough is famous for the MacDowell Colony and for being the setting of the Thornton Wilder play Our Town. Other notable landmarks in the region include Cathedral of the Pines and Franklin Pierce College, both located in Rindge.

Seacoast Region:
The Seacoast Region is the southeast area of New Hampshire that includes the eastern portion of Rockingham County and the southern portion of Strafford County. The region stretches 13 miles along the Atlantic Ocean from New Hampshire’s border with Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the Piscataqua River and New Hampshire’s border with Kittery, Maine. The shoreline alternates between rocky and rough headlands and areas with sandy beaches. Some of the beaches are bordered by jetties or groins, particularly in the towns of Rye and Hampton. The Seacoast Region includes some inland towns as well, as far west as Epping and as far north as Rochester.

The city of Portsmouth is the cultural and commercial hub of the region, with numerous historical landmarks and tourist attractions including Strawbery Banke, the Moffatt-Ladd House, and the John Paul Jones House. Dover in Strafford County is the largest city in the region by population and is the oldest permanent settlement in New Hampshire. Dover is home to the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire and the renowned Woodman Institute Museum. The Seacoast Region was the first area of the state to be permanently settled by Europeans in the early 17th century.

Straddling the maritime border New Hampshire shares with Maine are the Isles of Shoals – White, Seavey, Lunging, and Star Islands. From Portsmouth, they are a short ferry ride out into the Gulf of Maine.

White Mountains Region:
The White Mountains Region is a tourism region designated by the New Hampshire Division of Travel and Tourism. It is located in northern New Hampshire and is named for the White Mountains, which cover most of the region. The southern boundary of the region begins at Piermont on the west, and runs east to Campton, then on to Conway and the Maine border. The northern boundary begins at Littleton and runs east to Gorham and the Maine border. The region to the north is known as the Great North Woods Region, which should not be confused with the larger and more general Great North Woods.

The region includes the southern part of Coos County and northern sections of Grafton County and Carroll County. Important settlements in the region include: Littleton, Whitefield, Bethlehem, Gorham, North Conway, Conway, Lincoln, and Campton.
The region is bisected into east and west portions by Interstate 93 (from Campton to Littleton). Other major highways in the region include U.S. Highway 302 (Woodsville to Conway), New Hampshire State Route 16 (from Gorham to Conway), State Route 10 (from Littleton to Piermont), and U.S. Route 2 from Lancaster to Shelburne. U.S. Route 3 parallels I-93, except north of Franconia Notch, where it branches off to Twin Mountain and Whitefield.

In addition, the Cohos Trail and Appalachian Trail both traverse the White Mountains region.