My MIL lives in Jaffrey, so we've spent a bit of time in nearby Peterborough. The artsy side of me likes to *visit* there (would love an extended visit to the macdowell colony)as long as I could return to regularly scheduled programming
I'd call the whole downtown area 'crunchy granola' like Wanna said. If you have a hippie side, you will appreciate it, and if you don't, you probably won't. The river running through the town makes it interesting, especially coming from SoCal, where you only see man made reservoirs! I have some pics from Peterborough. Let me know if you'd like me to attempt posting them to the picture thread.
Can't comment on the other towns since I haven't been to them.