Rustic Seclusion in New England Country Home

Once visitors step past the elaborate curlicues of a wrought-iron gate, the Adair Country Inn & Restaurant property reveals more than 200 acres of rolling slopes and lofty evergreens nestled in the ridges of the White Mountains. Built in 1927 as a father's wedding gift to his daughter, the tranquil inn's slate-hued mansard roof now shelters city escapees and the hospitable innkeepers, Ilja and Brad Chapman. Cozy companions can unwind hearthside within the rough-hewn walls of the common taproom, or melt beneath the ministrations of experienced massage therapists, who can be summoned for in-room spa treatments.

Four rustic Fireplace rooms—each named for a nearby peak—cradle dozing dreamers beside gently crackling grates as flames filter through double stone chimneys. Antique and replica furniture, from four-poster beds to cast-iron-stove fireplaces, hearken to a bucolic, electronics-free past, and maple syrup and maple cookies hide from clingy pancakes in a goodie basket. In between whipping up elaborate breakfasts and afternoon tea spreads, the chef at the in-house restaurant home-churns ice cream, home-smokes meats, and concocts New England–inspired cuisine on the frequently rotating dinner menu. Guest gourmands will nibble one of either an appetizer or salad, each of which abound with seasonal flavors, before sampling entrees such as the free-range chicken, which is roasted to a fine crisp and nests atop a bed of wild mushrooms and leeks. Paying tribute to the full-foliage verdure outside the inn, Adair Country Inn's stewards enact a dedicated green policy, which comprises dining with reusable cloth and porcelain, recycling, composting, and raising seedlings as a registered tree farm.

Scenic Splendor and Adventure in the White Mountains

Innkeepers Ilja and Brad are firsthand curators of the local landscape, happy to unveil prime hiking and snowshoeing paths and nearby wildlife-sighting hotspots, such as Moose Alley. As explorers venture slightly farther afield into Franconia Notch or Crawford Notch State Parks, they'll fall under the shadow of the White Mountains—a chain of 48 Appalachian peaks more than 4,000 feet tall, including the colossal Mount Washington. Each idyllic journey along the winding spines of the summits allows hikers, bikers, and equestrians alike to administer Mother Earth a much-needed muscle rub, or meet up with the grand Appalachian Trail as it wends along Mount Webster and Mount Wiley.

Autumnal blazes of foliage set slopes aflame in color, and winter snowfall transforms the panorama into a skiing and dogsledding paradise. During summer, aquatic adventurers on Long Pond, Streeter Pond, and Echo Lake can glide over crystalline, mountain-mirroring waters in kayaks and canoes, or careen over level I and II whitewater rapids on the Gale and Ammonoosuc Rivers. Historic covered bridges with crosshatched beams or latticed siding near Bath, Lincoln, and Lancaster lure pedestrians to imagine life as a presidential dog walker. Other pieces of the past lurk in Bethlehem's smattering of antique stores, which offer New Hampshire's tax-free shopping.