New Hampton NH to Richmond VA.

[Tim J]

Would like to avoid the big cities as best I can

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

I've driven most of this route several times as I used to live in the Portsmouth area while most of my family was in Wilmington DE and Washington DC. No matter how you go, this is going to be a day-and-a-half to 2 day drive. The easiest route to follow would be to head over to Lebanon and take I-91 south to Hartford CT (not bad as cities go) then I-84 to Scranton PA, I-81 to Staunton VA and finally I-64 into Richmond. Note that such a route is very roughly 150 miles longer than the direct route (through New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington) but as I say, it's going to be a day-and-a-half to 2 day drive no matter what, so that would be my preferred all-Interstate route. If you would like to spend some time on smaller back roads we could also suggest something along those lines, but I would caution you that the one time I had a passenger on a trip from Portsmouth to Wilmington, she accused me of driving over people's lawns (not true!)

AZBuck