Franconia: 85 miles N of Concord; 115 miles NW of Portsmouth; 150 miles N of Boston

More than a century ago, Bethlehem was as populous as North Conway to the south, a home to numerous resort hotels, summer retreats, and even its own semiprofessional baseball team. (Joseph Kennedy, patriarch of the Kennedy clan, once played for the team.) Bethlehem subsequently lost the race for the riches (or won, depending on your view of outlet shopping), and today it is again just a sleepy town high on a hillside that's occasionally "discovered" by city folks.