The list nobody Instagrams. Where to grocery-shop on a Saturday afternoon. Which gas station's open at 11. Where the pharmacy is at six on a Sunday. The closest urgent care if the kid hits the dock the wrong way.
We list the boring stuff so the vacation works.
The real grocery run, about twenty minutes south of Holderness on Tenney Mountain Highway — full aisles, a pharmacy counter, and hours that stretch to 9 p.m. if the week's provisioning got pushed to a Sunday night. Squam itself has nothing at this scale. Budget the half-hour round trip once at the start of the week rather than making it a daily habit.
Gas and a full deli counter in one stop, off Route 3 — the closest fill-up to the lake itself, open from 6 in the morning. Breakfast sandwiches and a pizza oven cover the meals nobody wants to cook on a boat day; regulars order the pizza over the sandwiches. Sunday through Thursday it closes at 8; Friday and Saturday it stays open to 9.
Ashland's Irving station, a few minutes past Holderness on the way in from I-93 — regular through diesel, propane for the camp grill, and a convenience counter for whatever the marketplace back on Squam doesn't stock. The Mobil on Main Street is the backup if the pumps are busy on a Saturday changeover morning.
Plymouth's CVS on Highland Street runs until 9 most nights, the latest pharmacy hours in the area — useful if an urgent-care prescription needs filling after a hiking mishap. Rite Aid on Main Street is the backup if CVS is out of something specific; both sit about twenty minutes from Holderness, the same drive as the Hannaford run.
Plymouth's second pharmacy option, a few blocks from CVS on Main Street — worth calling ahead if a prescription needs compounding, which not every chain location handles the same day. About twenty minutes from Holderness, close enough to fold into the same trip as the Hannaford grocery run rather than making it a separate errand.
Walk-in urgent care in Hatch Plaza on Tenney Mountain Highway, the practical stop for a fish-hook hand or a kid's fever that doesn't need the ER. Open to 8 p.m. on weekdays and until 5 on weekends — hours worth saving before a boat day, since cell coverage thins out on parts of the lake. A second location in Meredith covers the Winnipesaukee side if that's closer.
The real emergency room for the area, open 24 hours on Hospital Road in Plymouth, about twenty minutes from Holderness. Small hospital by city standards — under 12,000 ED visits a year — which in practice means shorter waits than a bigger regional center. Save the address before a boat day or a hike past cell range; Squam itself has no urgent-care or hospital presence at all.