Check out the towns where there are hospitals and start from there. NH doesn't have any small towns with public transportation. There are several very nice independent apartment facilities throughout NH for the older adult (not sure if that's you or not) in which transportation is provided to medical appointments, shopping, etc.

dfishdf~ I answered on your other thread... I think Brattleboro, VT if you live in town would suit what you ask for.

It is in fact a bit of a logistical problem, not driving, and wanting to live in a small New England town.

Back to OP, it's not really an either-or choice unless you want it to be. As people have noted, you have to drive through one to get to the other. I have a mild preference for NH because of the lakes/mountains combination, but it's true that no matter what you do, you're going to encounter peeper traffic.

dfishdf,
Middlebury VT is great little college town with an excellent hospital, library, downtown post office, good grocery stores and public transportation.

Check out www.midvermont.com.

samm111,
My vote for your foilage trip is Vermont. From Maine, drive through the beautiful White Mountains of NH to reach VT. Let us know when you make your decision if you would like more specific suggestions. Do decide soon, as reservations that timne of year are an absolute must.

We visited both Vermont & New Hampshire a couple years ago.
Great beauty and history in both. My husband's favorite place was the Shelburne Museum outside Burlington, VT. Mine was the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, NH.

Have driven extensively in NH and VT and much prefer VT. We travel the back roads looking for interesting small towns and were in the state last less than a year ago. Hop onto smalltowngems.com to see the thousands of photographs to guide your choices.

NH was not very friendly to us - had some trouble getting rooms as we were traveling with a pet.
Happy Traveling!

I have lived in CT, MA, ME, and NH and have visited in all of them. I much prefer NH to visit. New Hampshire is real. Vermont is full of tourists and NYers except where you may not want to visit. My friends who are dairy farmers and live outside of White River Junction love VT but have a very hard life that is not conducive to tourism.

New Hampshire and Vermont are both beautiful states. I'd say they're about equal but as someone else said, New Hampshire has less tourists and New Yorkers and as many know, one loud mouthed New Yorker or shall say New Yawker can wake up the dead.LOL. The people in New England are nice but a bit reserved and sheltered.

I can understand shaz60's point of view. I don't really enjoy visiting Woodstock VT because it's full of tourists and, boy, our pickup truck sticks out like a poorly dressed relation. However, we do enjoy finding some great places in VT like Pizza on Earth, a small pizza parlor on someone's farm, and touring back roads. I think NH actually has more tourists but they blend in better since so many of the residents in the southern third of the state are new comers.

Personally, I think VT has a more distinct feel from Maine than NH does so if you are looking to vary your New England experience head to VT.

With that being said, my friends and I and pretty much anyone I trust almost universally agree that VT is a cooler place to go than NH. Think Ben and Jerry's and Phish as opposed to stuffy Yankees and people who voted for Pat Buchanan with pride.

Just did both this summer (along with Maine). I would choose Vermont but I think you can sample both. Distances are short once you get there from Maine. As others have said, it isn't easy going east to west but you will get off the interstates and see the real world--much more interesting.

corli, do you really want to start dealing with regional stereotypes? I don't know where you live, but I'm 100% sure we can find someone who has a sweeping negative comment to make about people there, how they speak, what they talk about, how they act socially or in business...

Ditto anyone else with comments like "stuffy Yankees."

Corli33 made that comment in March 2009. I am not sure why MachoFrankieBones felt the need to bring up this old post, but the rest of us learned to ignore Corli a while ago.

Woops - not very alert today. Thanks vjplovesitaly.