Area Guide
COLLEGES & SCHOOLS | LOCAL EVENTS | MUSEUMS | SPAS | WALKING TOURS | GOLF | SHOPPING
The town of Exeter affords the guests of the Inn the casual quiet setting of a small New England town for walking, biking, canoeing and taking in the sights of New Hampshire’s colonial capital. Founded in 1638 by Reverend John Wheelwright, Exeter was one of the colony’s four original towns.
For information about our community please visit the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce’s website at www.exeterarea.org
Colleges & Schools
Phillips Exeter Academy
Exeter today continues the commitment to unite knowledge and goodness. It seeks students who combine proven academic ability, intellectual curiosity, and tenacity with decency and good character. At the Academy, exacting inquiry and thoughtful discourse foster the life of the mind, instruction and activity promote fitness and health, and the daily interactions of a residential school nurture integrity, empathy, and kindness. Because learning and growth at Exeter arise from each individual's engagement with others, the richness of education here requires diversity in all its dimensions; students and faculty value the differences they bring to the community they share.
The challenges that students meet at Exeter and the support they receive have a common purpose: to stimulate their development as individuals and as members of society. Exeter seeks to graduate young people whose creativity and independence of thought sustain their continuing inquiry and reflection, whose interest in others and the world around them surpasses their self-concern, and whose passion for learning impels them beyond what they already know.
Exeter originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teachingin 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, Exeter offers a free education to any admitted student whose family income is $75,000 or less. The school meets all demonstrated financial aid needs of its admitted students.
The founder of Phillips Exeter Academy defined its mission more than two centuries ago. "Above all," John Phillips stated, "it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care; well considering that though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind."
University of New Hampshire
Main st
Durham, NH 03824
Ph: 603-862-3885
About UNH
UNH is a vibrant place: a land-, sea-, and space-grant university where undergraduate and graduate students engage in daily discovery and the intellectual excitement of doing research with their faculty mentors.
Founded 1866
Land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant charters
Located in Durham, NH and Manchester, NH.
Additional Colleges and Schools
College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
College of Health and Human Services
College of Liberal Arts
College of Life Sciences and Agriculture
Thompson School of Applied Science
The Graduate School
University of New Hampshire at Manchester
Whittemore School of Business and Economics
Restaurant Week Portsmouth is a bi-annual culinary event
which spotlights Greater Portsmouth as a culinary and cultural destination.
Wine & dine, shop & gallery hop, visit the theatre, and make it a getaway.
Come stay with us from Nov 3rd thru November 12th and enjoy special
prepared three course dinners for $29.95.(not including beverages, tax or gratuity)
Stay multiple nights and enjoy dining at participating restaurants in Exeter,
Portsmouth and the Seacoast of NH.
For more information http://www.portsmouthchamber.org/restaurantweek.cfm or call
603-772-5901 for reservations and details for The Exeter Inn and Epoch Restaurant and Bar.
Museums
While staying at The Exeter Inn, take the opportunity to acquaint yourself with the rich surroundings of Exeter's past and historic sites in New Hampshire.
American Independence Museum
1 Governor's Ln.
Exeter, NH 03833
603-772-2622
Open mid-May to the end of October, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10am to 4pm. Guided tours offered on the hour, with the last tour begin at 3pm. Self guided tours available anytime during the day; last tour admission sold at 3pm.
The American Independence Museum campus includes the Ladd-Gilman House (1721), a National Landmark property that was home to a signer of the U.S. Constitution, a Governor's mansion, and the NH State Treasury, as well as the Folsom Tavern (1775), a site for political discourse during the Revolution. Visitors will hear the extraordinary stories of the ordinary people who worked and fought for America's freedom, as well as learn about the Society of the Cincinnati, the nation's oldest veteran's society. Collection includes founding documents, American furnishings, and military ephemera. Museum Gift Shop features books, gift items, educational toys, and decorative items. American Independence Festival is held the third Saturday in July and commemorates the arrival of the Declaration of Independence in Exeter in 1776.
For more information visit www.independencemuseum.org or call (603)772-2622.
Exeter Historical Society
Museum and Research Library
47 Front Street; PO Box 924
Exeter, NH 03833
Ph: 603-778-2335
Their collections illustrate Exeter's rich and fascinating history, its residents, and ultimately its place in the larger history of both the state and the nation. The research library acts as a resource for genealogical research. Open Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-4:30; Saturdays 9:30-Noon.
For more information visit www.exeterhistory.org
Children's Museum of Portsmouth
280 Marcy Street,
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603-436-3853
Great place for kids to explore, create, and experience the wonders of science.
For more information visit www.childrens-museum.org
Fuller Gardens
10 Willow Avenue
North Hampton, NH 03862-2228
603-964-5414
Fuller Gardens is a turn of the century public botanical garden, located on the ocean featuring rose bushes of hundreds of varieties, formal English perennial borders, Japanese Garden and Conservatory.
For more information visit www.fullergardens.org
John Paul Jones House
Middle and State Streets
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603-436-8420
Open to visitors June 1 to mid-october, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Admission.
John Paul Jones, the legendary sea warrior roomed at this house frequently. Houses 18th and 19th century artifacts.
Strawbery Banke Museum
Marcy St.
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603-433-1100
Open May 1 to October 31, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; November 1 to April 30 Thursday though Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Closed January and during holidays. 90 minute Winter Walking Tours offered on the hour starting at 10 a.m., last tour leaves at 2 p.m. Admission. Museum set where colonists settled on the Piscataqua River. Buildings restored to different historical periods. A tour of the complex brings a visitor from 1690 to 1955.
For more information visit www.strawberybanke.org
Tuck Memorial Museum
40 Park Ave.
Hampton, NH 03842
603-929-0781
Open Wed., Fri., and Sun.; June to September. 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Collection of early furniture, farm equipment, and pictures. Recreated 1850's school house and firefighting museum.
Woodman Institute Museum
182- 190 Central Ave.
Dover, NH 03801
603-742-1038
Open Wednesday through Sunday, 12:20 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays only December through January, closed February 1 through March 31. Admission.
The museum is located mainly in the Dame Garisson house, which is a hand-hewn log cabin that was built with defense from natives in mind. Animal exhibits, Civil War exhibits, historical items from abolitionist times and New Hampshire senator John Hale.
For more information visit www.woodmaninstitutemuseum.org
Spas
Several independent spas are near by, along with full service health club facilities. Ask in advance for group arrangement or upon check-in for individual use.
Synergy Health & Fitness
For more information visit www.synergyfit.com
Planet Fitness Stratham
For more information visit www.planetfitness.com/ClubOffers.aspx?clubid=10381
Walking Tours
Exeter's retention of so many early landmarks has made the town a leader in the historic preservation movement in the twentieth century. Due to the efforts of both the Chamber of Commerce and the Exeter Historic Society, several Walking Tours of the town are mapped. Please inquire at the front desk.
Golf
Exeter boasts one of the nation's oldest Country Clubs. The clubhouse is open to the public, and a challenging nine-hole course can be played for daily green fees. Exeter Country Club can be reached by calling (603) 772-4752. Many other championship 18-hole courses are near by in East Kingston, Greenland North Hampton, and Portsmouth.
Exeter Country Club
For more information visit www.exetercountryclub.com
Sagamore-Hampton Golf Club
For more information visit www.sagamoregolf.com
Breakfast Hill Golf Club
For more information visit http://www.breakfasthill.com
Apple Hill Golf Club
For more information visit www.applehillgolf.com
Shopping
Specialty shops located in downtown Exeter along Water Street are just a short pleasant walk away. Shops along the waterfront in Portsmouth are fifteen minutes away. Twenty minutes from the Inn is the Fox Run Mall in Newington, NH. Shoppers will find the Kittery Outlet Malls; one of the country’s largest shopping destinations located on US Route in Kittery, Maine is thirty minutes away.
Fox Run Mall
For more information visit www.shopfoxrun.com
Kittery Maine Outlets
For more information visit www.thekitteryoutlets.com
