Everything worth doing.Within 20 minutes.

Seasonal seafood shack at the foot of the lake, open Memorial Day through Labor Day only. The building itself is a piece of local history — it's the original 1945 Shackett's Super Market location before the family moved up the road in 1960. Outdoor seating only, which is the right call on a lake with this few dedicated waterfront tables.

Stagecoach stop since 1840 on the old Boston-to-Montreal route, now a 28-room inn with a dining room (Pasquaney Restaurant) and a roof deck (SAL's Birch Bar) angled at the west-shore sunset. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 3 to 9; lunch runs Friday through Sunday in season. Book the roof deck ahead in summer — it's the closest thing this lake has to a reservation you need to plan around.

One-barrel operation in the basement of the Abel Block, tucked under Central Square with the Newfound River running behind the building. Jon Shackett started homebrewing in 1991 because he couldn't find the styles he wanted; four flagships stay on year-round — Bristol Blonde, Pasquaney Bay IPA, Newfound Nutbrown, and West Shore Stout. Malt-forward over hop-forward, which is unusual enough in this region to be the point.

New Hampshire's largest freshwater public beach, on the southwest shore at 614 West Shore Road — sandy entry, a peninsula nature trail with plant markers and lake overlooks, and a park store that rents kayaks and paddleboards by the day. Open 8 to 6 in season; $5 for adults, $2 for kids 6-11. Arrive before ten on a July weekend or the lot's done for the day.

NH Audubon's Newfound Center — 43 acres and 3,500 feet of unspoiled shoreline on the lake's north end, nine miles up Route 3A from Bristol. Trails, loon-watching, and a nature center built in 1969 on land the Elwell family donated; the same site rents single and tandem kayaks and canoes by reservation or walk-in. The quietest paddling put-in on the lake.

The only marina on Newfound Lake, family-run since 2001 and voted the state's best three years running in the mid-2010s. Pontoon rentals from a 25-horsepower boat at $375 a day up to a 140-horsepower at $450, with pickup around nine and return by five. Renters need to be 25 with a license and, for anything over 25 horsepower, a boater safety certificate.

A National Register historic district since 1985, centered on Hebron's town common near the lake's northwest tip. The town hall occupies a former 1909 chapel; the public library sits in a converted 1915 grange hall. Thirteen buildings, most from the first half of the 1800s, wrapped around 24.8 acres — the whole thing takes ten minutes to walk and is worth every one of them.