By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONWAY – North Conway has been named “Best Ski Town” by USA Today in its 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards for 2024.
The winners were published Wednesday by the national publication, beating out places like Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Vail, Colorado and Stowe, Vermont which all made the top 10 list.
The newspaper’s readers also named Cranmore Mountain Resort in North Conway as fourth best for snow tubing, making it the highest-ranked tubing hill in New England on the list.
It is a berth that the small ski town in Carroll County has held in the past, but it is a welcome sign for the upcoming ski season where snow this week already caps Mount Washington, the northeast’s highest peak and where snow guns are already hissing in the night mountain air.
The publication said readers picked North Conway as a “classic” with lots of history related to origins of the sport in North America, its setting and the many things that can be done outside of skiing in the area from the Mount Washington Auto Road SnowCoach to the Cog Railway. The variety of lodging options was also highlighted.
“North Conway has been a mainstay on USA TODAY’s 10 Best Ski Towns list every year since 2016, earning first place in 2016, 2017 and 2020. This year, it secured the coveted top slot against notable ski resorts such as Stowe, Banff, Aspen and Jackson Hole,” according to a press release boasting the top spot from publicists for the Mount Washington Valley.
“As the home mountain of the beloved ski town, Cranmore has played an integral role in trailblazing East Coast ski culture since 1937.
“In addition to easily accessible skiing and snowboarding opportunities for all ages and abilities, there is an array of rides at Cranmore’s Mountain Adventure Park, along with New England’s best tubing destination (which earned the number four spot on USA Today’s 10 Best for Best Snow Tubing—the only destination in New Hampshire on the list, beating out Vermont’s Mount Snow),” it read.
USA Today has Mammoth Lakes, California in second place, Stowe in third, Banff, Alberta in fourth, Jackson Hole in fifth, Red River, New Mexico for sixth, Vail, Colorado in seventh, Steamboat Springs, Colorado in eighth, Taos, New Mexico in ninth and McCall, Idaho in tenth.
The New England Ski Museum has one of its museums there in the center of town offering free information to visitors of the area, with the other in Franconia Notch State Park.
The marketing group for North Conway said the town is also the perfect basecamp for a host of winter recreational activities. Visitors can enjoy scenic hikes throughout the famous White Mountain National Forest, as well as snowmobiling, ice skating, ice climbing, dog sledding and snowshoeing.
The many hotels and bed and breakfasts are considered quaint, sandwiched by surrounding mountains in a valley and some offer sleigh rides.
And then another factor for visitors is tax-free shopping, a wide selection of restaurants and breweries.
