Looking for some advice.
 

Greetings all! This is my first post. I have been reading for a while and decided to jump in.

My wife and family are looking for some advice. We are considering relocating to the Lakes Region in the next several years. I will be retired but my wife will still be working. The youngest kids will be entering middle school. Here's what I need a little help with. Are there any towns or areas that I should be looking at? I realize that with the Summer activities there is much to do in the region but I don't want to end up in a town that boards up it's doors after the Summers folks leave town.

Thanks for any input. :D

Come on up
 

Quincy,

None of the towns board up for the winter but life does slow down. I enjoy the ebb and floe personally. I will say that you must embrace winter if you are going to live here- you will need a hobby, whether it be skiing, snowmobiling, or ice fishing.

We live in Moultonborough- great schools services and low taxes.

PM me if you want to talk offline.

I have never lived up there, but vacationed up there for weeks both summer/winter.

The wife and I love Meredith. Small town, good people, good food. But you do need to love the winter and some activity associated with it big time. Plenty to do up there, but you just need to love it.

Learn to love to drive. N Conway, Lincoln, Concord, etc. Either for activities or supplies most likely a drive is involved.

off season events
 

Our home in Meredith is still our second home, although we are getting closer to becoming full time. We never would have made the investment in a second home twenty years ago for a one season region. Some of the plusses of the off season to us are:

Fewer people/traffic
Great hiking
Downhill skiing. Meredith is within 1/1/2 hours of many of New England's finest resorts, and 2 hours from even more.
Cross Country skiing. Either at one of the several groomed sites, or right out on the frozen lake
Hundreds of snowmobile miles
Ice skating
Ice fishing
Meredith hosts an annual ice fishing derby that is a very well attended event
Meredith hosts its third annual pond hockey tournament in 2012 which has become a huge event
Zip line courses
Winter indoor golf at Funspot
Splitting wood
Christmas in the lakes is beautiful, Wolfboro has a winter carnival event
Ice races on Berry Pond

And I am sure that there are others that I just can't think about in the middle of July. If you are bored in the winter, it's your own fault.

Go Visit
 

Coming on 2 years of researching my own relocation to the lakes region, I would highly recommend visiting the area as much as possible. As many folks on this forum can tell you, I have switched my town preference several times (Meredith, Gilford and now Wolfeboro). The reason for the change in towns has been because I actually spent time in the area and got to know local year-round people. That has been a tremendous help in getting a vibe for an area.

I have also learned that it takes about an hour and half to drive around the entire lake and it is ALWAYS a pleasure. So it's possible to visit several lake towns in a weekend. Each town has unique characteristics that make choosing purely subjective.

Visit as often as you can during all four seasons and you will get the best sense of where you and your family would be happy.

GREAT job! You listed all the stuff we love about being at the lake year-round. We are so fortunate; our house in Moultonborough wasn't always winter-friendly. For the past three years, we've rarely missed a weekend. My husband loves to say, "It's always different...and it's always beautiful."

I agree with the poster above (VitaBene?) who recommends Moultonborough.