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🌲The Perfect New England Retreat Looking for a storybook New England getaway? After tuning into this podcast, you’ll find one. In today’s show, I sat down with Jeff Czaja who has been venturing to the Franconia Inn his entire life. During the show he provides his insight on: 

📃 things to do in the area

🍽️places to eat

🥾his favorite hiking trails

🫎and moose tours

After the interview, you’ll see why he keeps wanting to go back!

Franconia Inn: Franconia Inn - Home

All trails flume trail: Mt. Liberty and Mt. Flume via Liberty Springs, and Franconia Ridge Trail, New Hampshire - 413 Reviews, Map | AllTrails

Echo Lake NH State Parks - Franconia Notch State Park - Echo Lake Beach

Restaurants

Common Man Lincoln | The Common Man Family in New Hampshire (thecman.com)

Gordi's Fish and Steak (gordisfishandsteak.com)

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

 

Transcript:

all right everyone welcome back to the travel path podcast I'm Tyler Hespeler I have Jeff Czaja with me if you missed his first episode part one he talked about his incredible story where he quit his job he didn't like because he just wanted to get out and travel he works full-time as a trucker um anybody who's who wants to travel is not sure exactly how to do it doesn't want to work remotely or not sure how to save up for a long vacation definitely tune in it's something I didn't really think too much of but I learned a ton listening to it so definitely take a listen um part two is called travel tips this is a segment where we have the guests come back and talk about one destination they know best so Jeff what's the destination today Franconia New Hampshire Fran it's a beautiful area it's a good getaway it's for everybody involved like your you know you could take anyone they have Cottages I we go to the Franconia Inn and uh it's a beautiful place sell service is a little lacking up in that area but we like that we put our phones away and just enjoy life great things to see and do up there canot say I've been there yet how much time have you spent there uh actually we go just about every year my family actually we have uh even my parents back in the day started going there and they're the ones that actually opened our eyes to it but now as adults even my sister and I we take our families we've been going for a long time uh probably every year somebody from my family has been there for at least 20 years or so I would say now it's just one of those locations that you just find a lot of Peace relaxation and and rest which we all need sure and having the no service definitely helps out with that sometimes you need to your phone it does there are some areas CU they have Lincoln nearby uh that's a t bigger town in that near Woodstock the Woodstock area or where geographically whereabouts is further north and it's up near Lincoln is the biggest town I think that they have up there I imagine it's a big ski town in the winter time oh they have skiing but it's also big in the summer for hiking you cuz they do have big mountains you know like the White Mountains but yeah skiing gondolas they have all kinds of stuff you can do kayaking they even have gliders that you can rent is that when you just jump off the mountain with a like hang no no no it's actually a plane but it just floats I I don't know it has no motor like you throw it like no no you get in it and you I think they call them gliders I'm pretty sure they call them GL probably yeah yeah and uh you just like float until you land I do believe they take somebody you got to go with somebody I'm not saying you go by yourself but uh yeah they have those right outside of the Franconia Inn right out in the front in the field there sounds like you sign a waiver for that I mean yeah you know a lot of areas though even when you do the hiking they have the Lost River up there and the uh The Flume if you're a nature lover you'll see a lot of animals they even have moose uh you know bus trips that go to look for moose that's the one thing we didn't see in our road trip we saw Al plenty of elk black bear we never saw a moose what else for wildlife have you seen black bear up there and bald eagle and black yeah tons of birds they have all kind Lon bald eagles they have a nice Lake the Echo Lake so you know you can do fishing I think there you can definitely take out kayaks take out P paddle boats and that's a nice um for scenery again if you're a nature lover it's you know or you're one of those people that just needs to get away from it all I'm telling you this is the place for you because I I I hate to sound like a commercial right now do they have a good mix of like day hikes shorter hikes as well as backpacking and overnight hikes yeah yeah I know New Hampshire's pretty famous for the backpacking scene oh yeah I know yeah they got they got they got them all like they even have Caverns that you can walk through at at the Lost River I mean even crawl they it's a great place to bring kids they say you know because the kids like to go in and you know hunt around and stuff because a lot of the parents they get their back start breaking and stuff when they try to get into some of these places that they call a cavern they have good food up there what are some of your favorite Trails hiking trails I like The Flume it's called the the great Flume I think it's called but that one always gets me because it's a nice it's a big loop I think it's a five mile Loop and uh you can cut it short if you wish to they even have I think a some sort of transportation that can catch you if you're you know halfway up and you don't think you can make it back if you need to cut it short and walk back down cut it short walk you know I think it's interesting that you know we're there's like all these hikers on these trails and and you always there's like this one roadway and you always see these people get brought down and I'm like come on you know like you got you're out here for a reason aren't you like some people underestimate it yeah no they did they don't they don't understand their own ability I guess that's my favorite place to go when I'm up there is I do like that Flume and the Echo Lake is nice too cuz you get out on those p boats or even the uh kayaks it's just nice to be with your lady or family even in the summertime hiking Wildlife fall time obviously foliage hiking as well in the springtime and then the winter time you've got big ski town what time of year do you typically go we like I like to go on the summer with my girl yeah cuz we're hikers we we like to hike we we just like getting out and and just walking and uh you know breathing the fresh air in the winter we we've gone they got sleigh rides and stuff if there's snow I don't know if we're ever going to get snow again though that was fun fun you know they they do dress it up and make it nice for winter and there are things you can do decorations kids yeah downhill yeah they got decorations they got the downhill skiing cross country skiing that you can do but again snow has been it's been a little rough lately yeah we went every Year's Hit or Miss we went to New Hampshire a while ago to Mount Washington I think that's New Hampshire and we uh we went to go rent snowmobiles and there wasn't any snow yet there was a Christmas Christmas Day we went a couple years after that and there was a ton of snow so it it's always it's always back and forth I just remember every Christmas was a white Christmas though you know like I said I've lived in Connecticut my whole life and I just think it's funny that sometimes you yeah you don't even have to snow by Christmas yeah if somebody wants to come visit Franconia how much time would you recommend they spend there to get the full experience we'll go for 3 Days sometimes sometimes we'll stay for like a week or two it all depends you know how much hiking you want to do how much you want to see even going on Echo Lake and such I do like that it's not a it doesn't have to be a week thing it could be a long weekend or even sometimes we like to go between like Monday and Wednesday in terms of of where you actually stay are you in a camper Hotel Airbnb oh no it's a it's an inn it's an in so they have separate rooms they even have a restaurant that if you want to have your breakfast and dinners there you can put that into your whole total as far as the stay at franconian we usually actually like to go visit some of the restaurants around town usually we'll get like the breakfast plan because we we eat breakfast there but then we hit the road and we'll do dinner somewhere else wherever we head any favorite breakfast lunch dinner dessert spots you want to give away well we love Gordies for romance and then uh the Common Man the common man is the one where if you it's if you're bringing a family that's where you want to go because it is loud in the Common Man the common man is a very loud Place lots of activity and action going on good food though for a relatively cheap price Gordies is more of your uh if you want to have a romantic evening with your lady and you want to spend a little more awesome breakfast Hotel lunch Common Man dinner Gordies any dessert spots well desserts actually they they actually have a lot of places like bakeries up there so they actually do have some nice little like Mom and Pop joints uh I can't name one in particular because we actually like stopping at a lot of them they have like fudges and you know they they give out some stuff that are it's all homemade but yeah they got some good desserts I mean we usually take an apple pie home or something you know nice so no shortage of good food cool I know you mentioned it's kid-friendly they have you know like The Flume you had mentioned and then there's Christmas time decorations they have things to do slay rides and Y do you see a lot of pets as a dog friendly area that I I honestly can't say I've ever seen a pet yeah yeah I don't think they they allow pets they do have new ownership though that just happened in the last year or so so I'm not sure if they changed that but it's weird though because they have a horse stable right outside the end so you can go hor so I I don't know why you wouldn't be able to bring a pet they also have um so you can stay in the Inn which has rooms and then a restaurant they got a fireplace you can sit and read there's a game room for the kids which is nice and it's a small smaller place there's not like hundreds of visitors at the same time it's more like I think they have maybe 20 to 30 rooms I want to say it's a big yeah yeah and they're um you know each room is actually a different price basically based on what you want out of the room you know they have one with a jacuzzi each room is a little different which I we like that too we try every room every time we go and stuff tennis courts are over there though if you want to do some tennis they have a nice little sitting room for people who like to read books in front of the fireplace type stuff uh they do have a nice porch where you can sit and it is small if you do try to make reservations you're going to want to call ahead though because in the summer especially uh from July to August it it gets packed like you got to call ahead to even try to get in that place at least in the old days now they do have new ownership we're still kind of feeling our way around this new or they actually try to get people up there in the winter which is why they've tried things like the sleigh rides and such is it like a log cabin feel is it it used to be like a big farm or was it always an inn I don't know what it used to be in the old days but it's not a log cabin I mean it's a nice it's an older looking place it looks like a big house that was on a lot of land so it could have been a Farmland I'm guessing they have walkways right outside on the property they have a INR pool and such you know you can go hiking right on the property and such um and that's where their horse trails are too are those trails that you mentioned previously is that all on the francone in property The Flume and the lake no no no see that's that's that's why we love it though again we're hikers my my lady and I we we love hiking yeah if you want to stay right there have your breakfast and just relax by a pool during the day and go for a hike you can they don't necessarily name those Trails they do their horse back riding right there too like I said my parents still going they're in their 70s I think it's a good place for all ages really sure are there campgrounds nearby I'd imagine there are there must be I mean I can't say I look for them but I'm sure there are because there's a lot of Wide Open Spaces up there you know and and like you know going back to your question yeah The Flume they have named trails nearby that aren't on their property per se so The Flume the Lost River great place to go Echo Lake you got to make a little drive but it's not like you're not driving forever you might have answered this question already but three things to do in or around the Franconia Inn well The Flume is is a the number one I think for everybody I think everybody should do the F they should try to make the entire hike too they have ventes all the way throughout the whole thing cuz people do have to sit down cuz it's it's a lot of uphill you know it's a lot of uphill but it is nice they have a where wolves used to den SE any wolves up there not yet than God I don't I don't ever want to run into a wolf myself but uh yeah I'm good with that moose moose is enough for me we we ran into one of those on the street driving one night and uh yeah how far away I guess thought we were going to get lifted up by the guy's horns and tossed on the side of the road when they get in the Rut season that that's uh they don't mess around yeah that's fall I think yeah I've not seen one I've seen elk and I know they're bigger than elk big they are 9 ft tall some of them it's like holy moly yeah if you don't want to CH seeing them by yourselves trying to find them yourself which you can do they do have the tours that will put out the meat we think three or 4 hours ahead of time and then you know you will see but yeah we've done those too we did we did we have actually paid and and take take the easy route cuz you see cuz every time they stop amazingly enough that there's one sitting there you know which is why we know it's a little bit of a setup but at least you get to same moose you know CU they are rare sighting right it's not like you're guaranteed to see one if you spend a weekend or anything right like my family has been up there for you know like I said every year for a long time now I would say we've seen on our own maybe six it's not like we run into them every year but they are up there you know so two things that they're not necessarily complaints about Franconia in but they're two things that somebody might not consider that you might want to prepare them for oh definitely the phone reception yep you're you're you're not going to unless they put in a new tower some up there you're not gonna get good phone reception up there I mean you can make phone calls I don't don't feel like you're going to be out in the middle of nowhere but you will have to like find like their Town services and stuff do they have Wi-Fi in the whole in or local coffee shops that have Wi-Fi yeah they do have Wi-Fi in the areas that you can uh connect to um I don't know if they have any in though I don't know if that I've been to ins before in the north and they say they have Wi-Fi and sometimes it's not the best Wi-Fi yeah make sure you have all your conversations that our business you know taken care of before you go on your vacation that's all I'm going to say on this trip you know you want to have plenty of changes of clothes the walks you sweat then you got the uh you never know what you're going to run into as far as you know sap or I mean there's all even when you get on the horses you know like you want to have plenty plenty of clothing uh on the trip uh Echo Lake too you know you want to be prepared take you learned that the hard way didn't have enough clothes the first time and well yeah cuz like everything you do is like you know you want to change God I'm one of those people you know are there laundry facilities there no no I don't really have laundry I think they have a laundr mat but it's in town like you got to drive down the road but you know that's about that I think that's about it though awesome man other than that the reception is the worst thing I would say yeah I can't say too many negatives about the place you know other than the reception sure that's what you want to prepare for but at the same time you're not going there to work so it's it's it's a curse and a blessing that's why we love it yeah you really are trying to get away from it and just be at peace and with nature type thing you know I know some people aren't into that but that that's what we like last question what is the one thing you cannot leave the frankone in without doing there's so much to do and I really feel like that's part of the whole experience why we keep getting drag like we keep wanting to go so there isn't really one thing that brings us back to that place it's like everything and we like doing it over and over and over again it's hard it's hard to really pinpoint one thing well that is a good enough answer for me that sounds like an awesome place of Franconia in in New Hampshire not been to it haven't heard of it hope you guys learned a ton listen to this episode I'm looking forward to making it part of our agenda hopefully next year we'll get up there and check it out and um yeah anything else you want to add to it uh no Tyler I I do thank you for this experience though I always like trying new things this is my first podcast I'm sure everybody watching realizes that it was a good talk awesome man hey did a great job thanks for sharing the Franconia in and you guys if you haven't tuned into the first episode where he started his journey he left his job he didn't like started Trucking so we could travel and explore definitely check it out Jeff thanks again for coming on thanks for Tyler it was good being here