Start from 21 curated places around Peterborough, NH, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Bantam Grill
Peterborough's top-rated sit-down restaurant anchors the Monadnock Community Plaza with upscale-casual New American and modern Italian dishes built around local ingredients. The French onion soup and Buffalo cauliflower have cult followings, and the kitchen handles both a solo weeknight dinner and a celebratory group meal with equal ease.
Pearl Restaurant & Oyster Bar
Pearl brings a Southeast Asian pantry to the Monadnock region — Moroccan-spiced tuna, duck confit lettuce wraps, and oysters from both coasts on a menu that rotates with local farms. The setting is a dressed-up strip-mall dining room that undersells the kitchen's ambition, which makes the food land as a genuine surprise.
Trails & outdoors
Wapack Trail and Marion Davis Trail
The signature hike at Miller State Park — a 2.7-mile loop that climbs Pack Monadnock through hardwood forest and open ledges to a staffed fire tower with views to Mount Washington on clear days and the Boston skyline at night. Well-marked, clearly maintained, and a genuine summit rather than a walk-up viewpoint.
Mount Monadnock via White Dot and White Cross Trails
Grand Monadnock at 3,165 feet is one of the most climbed mountains in North America, and the White Dot / White Cross loop in Jaffrey (about 20 minutes from Peterborough) is the classic 4-mile circuit. The summit is fully exposed rocky terrain with 360-degree views across four states — spectacular on clear days and still compelling in cloud.
Things to do
Peterborough Players
A fully professional Equity theatre operating since 1933 in a converted 18th-century barn three miles from downtown, the Players runs a summer season from late June through September plus a winter series. The 250-seat intimate house has excellent sight lines, the productions draw directors and actors from the regional circuit, and the price point is a fraction of comparable Boston work.
Sharon Arts Store & Galleries
New Hampshire's oldest operating craft gallery at Depot Square, Sharon Arts carries rotating exhibitions plus a shop stocked by over 200 New England artisans — ceramics, glass, fiber, woodwork, and functional objects the gallery has championed for decades. The collonade gallery rotates in new work weekly, making return visits worthwhile even on a short stay.
Landmarks & sights
Depot Square
The commercial heart of Peterborough — a compact, walkable block of owner-operated shops, galleries, and restaurants tucked between the Contoocook and Nubanusit rivers. The Toadstool Bookshop anchors one end, the diner and Waterhouse anchor the other, and the dozen specialty shops in between reward slow browsing. The river benches outside are a proper small-town people-watching spot.
Mariposa Museum of World Cultures
A hands-on world cultures museum in a historic Baptist church on Main Street, where instruments are meant to be played, masks to be held, and artifacts touched rather than viewed behind glass. The rotating exhibits cycle through folk traditions the region rarely sees, and the gift shop carries folk toys, puppets, and children's books from around the world at prices well below what a city museum charges.