Hampton Beach

Hampton Beach main beach provides year-round recreation, with Atlantic ocean-front facilities situated along miles of sandy beach. The Seashell complex includes a band shell amphitheater, public information services, comfort station and first aid. Metered parking is available along Ocean Boulevard.

Hampton State Beach

Route 1A, Hampton Beach, 603-926-3784. State run, located just by the Hampton Beach Bridge, this state park offers convenient parking, rest rooms, convenience store and snack bar. The beach sand is soft and white and often experiences tide pools which are great for the kids to play in or look for sea urchins on the massive natural wall of rocks. RV camping with full hook-ups in the campground. Call 603-436-1552 for more information on RV availability. Check parking information here.

North Beach

Route 1A, Hampton Beach. North of Hampton Main Beach, often referred to as “The Wall.” North Beach offers limited metered parking, bathhouse facilities and lifeguards. North beach is now handicap accessible across from 18th street.

North Hampton State Beach

Route 1A, North Hampton. Metered parking and bathhouses available, as well as lifeguards for ocean swimming. Restaurant and Ice Cream Stand close-by.

Wallis Sands State Park

This 700-foot long sandy beach is 150 feet wide at high tide. Ocean swimming on the open seacoast. Lifeguards, daily parking $10 per carload. Bathhouses and snack bar near the beach.

Rye Harbor State Park

Route 1A, Rye, 603-436-5294. Admission $3.00. Offers a picnicking area, a public dock with a boat ramp, saltwater fishing and commercial wharf with excursion boats. Parking in the summer is limited.

Jenness State Beach

Route 1A, Rye. Bathhouses nearby and very limited metered parking. Lifeguards staff the beach in season. Convenience store and snack bar near beach.

Salisbury Beach

Located just across the border in Massachusetts, Salisbury Beach offers a variety of amusements rides, games, food stands, shops, sailing, boating and fishing, go carts, activities, and accommodations.

Odiorne Point State Park Rye

A Scottish fisherman landed here in 1623 and created the first permanent white settlement in New Hampshire. A United States Army military base called Fort Dearborn was built on the point to protect Portsmouth harbor from possible attack during World War II. A part of the 137 acres of protected coastline, Odiorne has unique and varied vegetation unchanged in more than 300 years. Interpretive programs by the Audubon Society and the University of New Hampshire are of special interest to naturalists, botanists and students of marine life. Picnic facilities available. Parking fee enforced.

Call 603-436-7406 for more information or visit their web site at Odiorne Point State Park.

Isles of Shoals

The Isles of Shoals are a group of nine islands seven miles off the coast of Rye (Duck, Appledore, Star, Smuttynose, Malaga, Cedar, Seaveys, White and Lunging Island). Once a popular resort, most of the islands are now privatley owned and utilizied in the summer by Unitarian and congregational conference groups. You may take a scenic ride around the islands by contacting the local fishing & whale watch charter boats or take a 3 hour tour of Star Island throught the Isles of Shoals Steamship company in Portsmouth. To visit Celia Thaxter’s (a famous Thoreau style poet of the 1800’s) garden on Appledore, contact Cornell University at 603-255-3717.

Portsmouth Maritime Museum & Albacore Park

The USS Albacore submarine, built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1952 was the Navy’s experimental sub for the next 20 years. Enter the 205 foot submarine and see for yourself what life aboard a sub was like.

Visitors board at the Visitor’s Center, view video and have an escorted tour of the sub. Admission.

600 Market Street, Portsmouth, NH. Call 603-436-3680 for more information.

Rye Harbor State Park

Rt. 1A, Rye. Picnicking, fishing, information, seaside strolls, parking fees May 1-Oct. 15.