Where to Stay Near Bretton Woods and Crawford Notch

The AMC Highland Center sits at the head of Crawford Notch, a few miles south of the resort on Route 302. The Appalachian Mountain Club opened it in 2003 on a site it bought in 1979, and designed it to resemble the old Crawford House hotel. The lodge has 37 guest rooms, ranging from private rooms with their own bathrooms to rooms for two to six people with shared baths, and there are bunks in the separate Shapleigh Bunkhouse.

The Highland Center is built for hikers. Guided hikes and naturalist programs start from the lodge, and trailheads for Crawford Notch and the southern Presidential Range are close by.

Zealand Falls Hut is one of the AMC's backcountry huts and one of the few open year-round. In summer it is reached by the Zealand Trail, a 2.8-mile hike from the end of Zealand Road. Zealand Road is usually closed from mid-November to mid-May, which adds about 3 miles each way in winter.

In winter the hut runs on a self-service basis: guests carry in their own food and cook in the hut kitchen. It is meant for hikers and skiers prepared for bunkrooms and a walk in, not for travelers looking for a hotel room.

The Mount Washington Cog Railway has run up the western slope of Mount Washington since 1869, climbing about 3 miles to the 6,288-foot summit. Its Marshfield Base Station is about 6 miles from Route 302 along Base Road, near the Omni resort. For travelers whose main plan is the Cog or a summit day, the resort and the Highland Center are a short drive from the base station.

The towns to the north and west of Bretton Woods hold most of the area's inns. In Bethlehem, Maplewood Golf Resort has an 18-hole course Donald Ross designed in 1914, with the Inn at Maplewood in its 1889 Casino building. In Whitefield, The Mountain View Grand is an 1865 resort hotel facing the Presidential Range, with the Tower Spa and a golf course.

Littleton has a walkable Main Street with Thayer's Inn, an 1850 Greek Revival hotel, and The Beal House Inn, an 1833 Federal farmhouse that reopened after a year of renovations, with 7 suites. Farther west, Sugar Hill and Franconia have the Sugar Hill Inn, Hideaway Inn Franconia Notch and the Franconia Inn, closer to Cannon Mountain and Franconia Notch than to Bretton Woods. The Bretton Woods town page lists everything in this directory nearest the resort.