Best college town in New Hampshire? (Dover, Keene: home, construction, schools)

[summer grace]

What would you say is the best college town in New Hampshire overall? I am not asking about whatever college, but about the towns in general, if there are best in specific categories, please post those. I also don't mind hearing about them in general. If anyone has info, please post.

[Mustard]

Either Plymouth, Durham, or Hanover. I've only ever visited Hanover.

[OCCASparky]

Durham is a nice quiet college town, but has Dover and Portsmouth nearby so it's not totally dead.

[Eddy G]

Don't forget about Keen, there is a lot of development going on.

Plymouth is pretty cool.
I'm a fan of UNH but can't say much for the town its in.

I'd say Hanover is my favorite. It's a really well kept town with a lot of old town charm but modern conveniences.

[rockyhillgal]

I live in Durham and have never visited Hanover. I moved from a college town in CA 1 1/2 years ago. Durham's downtown is about 3 blocks long, if that. It really doesn't have any of the quaint features that I associate with college towns, such as coffee shops that are open at night or used book stores. The only thing that it does have is the annoying and overwhelming student pedestrian traffic when school is in session. On the other hand, the university itself offers the region many opportunities. My husband and I have attended hockey games and just last weekend went to a wonderful choral concert for free.

I think Durham's benefit is it's proximity to other things. Boston is approximately 2 hours away and Portsmouth, where most of the nice restaurants are in this area, is only 20 minutes away.

[NorthernNH313]

Well this could be biased but Plymouth is a great college town, depending on what you like, for instance your 10 minutes from any beautiful hiking,rock climbing, kayaking or canoeing site in the White Mountains, it also has a good community feel and the main street is larger than that of Durham's(UNH) and has a student population of about 1/4 to UNH. The Campus is up on a hill and blends in with the downtown area. There are a few things to warn you about though such as this is central NH and stores, banks, post offices, close really early here, sometimes I had to wait until the next day to cash my check because banks up here close before 5 pm!

[tao777]

Hanover. More sophisticated, more "urban". Plymouth is a good college town- but outside of that, forget it. I lived in Lincoln for a while. -well, unless you're a real outdoorsperson. I just prefer the atmoshere of Lebonon/Hanover (great Hospital too! -and shopping!)

[Earthangel1776]

Hanover is definitely the nicest college town. It's got all the right stuff ~ culture, the arts, and plenty of charm and a really nice, yet upscale area. My second choice is Keene. Plenty to do there too, and beautiful town at the foot of Mount Monadnock.

[gordonfan]

I think that Durham is the best college town in NH. It is home to University of New Hampshire. Durham has a population of over 12,000 people.

[Torrey]

So... what would you all say is the average population in towns/cities of New Hampshire?

I am very tired of where I live (big city, over 1 million people, way too much construction going on 24/7 etc) and we are looking to move to New Hampshire eventually. I don't want to move to a town of 20 where there isn't even a starbucks or equivalent nearby, but don't want the big city again either.

Sorry I kind of hijacked the topic. On topic though from what I have read Hanover sounds like a great college town. Dartmouth is there, which is one of the Ancient Eight Ivy League schools.