Summer on Lake Winnipesaukee

Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in New Hampshire: around 72 square miles of water, dotted with more than 250 islands, ringed by towns that each have a genuinely different personality. That’s the thing that trips people up planning a first visit: “Lake Winnipesaukee” isn’t one place. It’s a whole shoreline, and where you land on it changes the trip.

The shoreline towns, briefly

Weirs Beach, on the western shore, is the boardwalk-and-arcade version of the lake: waterslides, a marina, and Funspot, reportedly the largest arcade in the country. It’s the right answer if you want a classic, slightly nostalgic lake-town evening.

Wolfeboro, on the eastern shore, bills itself as the oldest summer resort town in America, dating to an 18th-century governor’s summer estate. It’s quieter, walkable, and built around its own harbor and downtown rather than a boardwalk.

Meredith and Center Harbor, toward the northern end, are smaller and more residential, with their own marinas and a slower pace.

Tuftonboro, between Wolfeboro and Moultonborough on the eastern side, is largely residential and wooded, less a “destination town” in its own right, more the kind of place you base yourself to be near several of the others without being in the middle of any of them.

Getting out on the water

The classic way to see the lake is still the M/S Mount Washington, which runs scenic and dinner cruises roughly late May through October, connecting Weirs Beach, Wolfeboro, Meredith, Alton Bay, and Center Harbor: genuinely useful as transportation between towns, not just a scenic loop. The same operator runs the U.S. Mailboat Sophie C., a real working mail delivery route to the lake’s island communities that visitors can ride along on.

For something slower, the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad runs out of Meredith along the western shore through Weirs Beach: a good option for a lower-key afternoon, especially with kids.

Thinking about where to stay

If your trip is genuinely centered on one town (Wolfeboro’s harbor, Weirs Beach’s boardwalk), staying right in it makes sense. But because the lake’s towns are all within a reasonably short drive of each other, basing yourself somewhere quieter on the eastern shore and driving in for a Wolfeboro dinner or a Weirs Beach afternoon is a completely normal way to do a Lakes Region trip, and it tends to be a calmer way to spend the nights.