Hampton Beach: Best Beaches in the Northeast

ByLisa Dworkin Hours

Photo courtesy of Lisa Dworkin. All rights reserved.

Beach Personality: Excellent Beach, Excellent Amenites, Excellent Price

Photo courtesy of Lisa Dworkin. All rights reserved.

Hampton Beach

Hampton Beach has something for everyone. There’s a long, wide swath of soft, light tan sand; clean water; waves ranging from minimal to surfing quality; a boardwalk with all the food, shopping, and entertainment you could want; and multiple free entertainment options on the beach itself.

The free entertainment on the beach is unmatched. There are nightly concerts, weekly movies, weekly fireworks, and multiple festivals and contests. These include a sand sculpting competition, a beauty pageant, a children’s festival, a talent competition, a seafood festival, and a Harvest Moon Festival. For entertainment schedules and other Hampton Beach details, go to http://www.hamptonbeach.org/.

In addition to everything else that’s great about Hampton Beach, it boasts two more especially unique things. One is fried dough. It’s a local delicacy consisting of a big rectangle of dough, fried and topped with your choice of toppings. Toppings range from mild, like cinnamon sugar, to wild, like pina colada. The other is what a great value Hampton Beach is. As one longtime local put it, “Where else can you park at the beach for $5 a day (summer 2011), enjoy so much free entertainment, and pay no sales tax?” He has a good point.

Beach Activities:

  • Lounging
  • Swimming
  • Surfing by High Street at the north end of the beach
  • Boogie boarding
  • Skim boarding
  • Paddle boarding (SUP)
  • Playground
  • Kite flying
  • Volleyball

Beach Amenities:

  • Public bathrooms – Yes.
  • Showers – Yes, at A and N Streets.
  • Parking – Yes, for a fee.
  • Food – Yes, at the boardwalk across the street.
  • Lifeguard – Yes, from mid-June through Labor Day.
  • Dogs allowed on the beach – No.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Dworkin. All rights reserved.

Beach Rentals:

Cinnamon Rainbows Surf Company rents surfboards, body boards, and wetsuits. They also offer surfing lessons and SUP tours/lessons.

Directions:

To reach Hampton Beach, take I-95 (north or south) to Route 101, the Exeter-Hampton Expressway. Head east for approximately 5 miles on 101 until you reach Route 1A, Ocean Boulevard. Hampton Beach runs parallel to Ocean Boulevard from Atlantic Avenue at the north end (left of Route 101) to Q Street at the south end (right of Route 101).

To many joyful beach experiences!

— Lisa Dworkin

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