If vacation happiness entails exhilarating outdoor activities amid sweeping scenic splendor, New England’s mountains are sure to please.

Soaring granite peaks, serene glacial lakes and charming country hamlets — set against a backdrop of dramatic seasonal change — account for the wide range of outdoor pastimes in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts.

New England’s vacation calendar is sprinkled with seasonal pleasures. Summer brings world-class performers to theater and music festivals at Williamstown and Lenox, Mass. In spring and fall, there are major outdoor antiques and crafts fairs, along with home shows, quilting bees, horse shows and cross-country runs. Thanksgiving is celebrated with gusto. Winter is wild with downhill and cross-country skiing and other snow sports.

Throughout the year, enjoy exploring towns with neat village greens surrounded by whitewashed wooden churches and red brick town halls, or visiting historical society museums or browsing through country markets and antiques shops.

While traditional Yankee atmosphere and character permeate all of New England, each state has its own charm and attractions.

Maine: New England’s largest state is geared for tourists. Its license plates read “Vacationland.” A delightful 13-mile loop itinerary through the state’s western mountains begins in Rumford and takes you to covered bridges, year-round chair lifts, state parks, waterfalls, caves and a natural bridge.

In central Maine, 5,267-foot Mount Katahdin, centerpiece of the 200,000-acre Baxter State Park, is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. Nearby, the Penobscot River offers whitewater rafting and angling for large mouth bass. The river’s West Branch is a raging torrent that drops more than 70 feet per mile through granite canyons. The East Branch’s flow is lazy as a lake, ideal for coasting, casting or canoeing.

New Hampshire: The Granite State promises first-rate mountain climbing, especially in White Mountains National Forest where you’ll find 6,288-foot Mount Washington, the East Coast’s highest peak. If you don’t want to climb, ride to the summit on a cog railway. Also within the forest is Franconia Notch and other scenic mountain passes; the Flume, a spectacular walk through a natural chasm, past waterfalls and over covered bridges, and Polar Caves Park, with nature trails, wildlife exhibits and a maple syrup museum. Attitash, New Hampshire’s premier ski area, offers year-round recreation.

Vermont: The 340,000-acre Green Mountain National Forest is the state’s biggest wilderness area and centerpiece to other attractions scattered throughout the small state: Near Barre, Rock of Ages is the world’s largest granite quarry. Vermont Institute of Natural Science’s Raptor Center, near Woodstock, is an outdoor living museum with 26 species of eagles, hawks and owls. Near Bellows Falls, the Green Mountain Flyer, a vintage train, steams along steep gorges and over trestle bridges for great panoramic views. Similarly, the year-round high-wire gondola at Stowe offers inspiring vistas.

Massachusetts: The gentle Berkshires are steeped in culture and history. Visit the homes and studios of Edith Wharton, Herman Melville, Norman Rockwell and other artists who sought inspiration from idyllic surroundings. Investigate Colonel Ashley House, built in 1735, and other intriguing historic buildings that remind you of New England’s colonial past, and Hancock Shaker Village, “The City of Peace,” re-creating the way Shakers lived and worked in simplicity from 1790 to 1960.

Maine Office of Tourism, 189 State St., State House Station 59, Augusta, Maine 04333. Telephone 1-800-533-9595.

State of New Hampshire Office of Travel & Tourism Development, 172 Pembroke Road, P.O. Box 856, Concord, N.H. 03302-0856. Telephone 1-603-271-2655.

Vermont Department of Travel & Tourism, 134 State St., Montpelier, Vt. 05602. Telephone 1-802-828-3443.

Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism, 100 Cambridge St., 13th Floor, Boston, Mass. 02202. Telephone 1-617-727-3201.