Hampton Beach, New England’s Boardwalk by the Sea ®
Breathe soft, ye winds; ye waves in silence rest.
Inscrption at the base of the New Hampshire Marine Memorial Scullpture, at right, top row, below.
Clockwise from top left above, Welcome to Hampton Beach, a boy and his dad on a misty morning, the New Hampshire Marine Memorial, the International Sand Sculpting competition, and a musician strolling in the surf on a summer afternoon.
Hampton Beach is New Hampshire’s most popular family vacation destination, not just because of its mile and a half by 150 yards of sandy beach (groomed daily) but also because of its proximity to restaurants, snack bars, beach stores, gift shops, arcades, large, clean and modern bathhouses, all just steps across the boardwalk from the sand, free summer concerts nightly at the bandshell, Wednesday night fireworks, and regular performances by Big Name bands and entertainers at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom. The population explodes here from around 2500 in winter to more than 100,000 on summer weekends.
Hampton Beach was rated by the National Resources Defense Council as one of the Top Three Cleanest Beaches in the United States, and one of the Top 10 Values for Resorts in America. Hampton Beach is far from the only beach in New Hampshire, of course, but it certainly is the only beach on the New Hampshire Seacoast with adjacent overnight accommodations and dozens of fast-food establishments and restaurants and many other convenient amenities for families.
Where to Stay; Hampton Beach Hotels and Condominiums
Hampton Beach offers a range of moderately priced hotel options located directly on or within a short walk of the boardwalk, the sand and surf. Several options described below can accommodate virtually every category of visitor and include a full service oceanfront resort, a quiet boutique retreat, and moderately priced family lodgings that fit most visitors styles and budget preferences. See below.
Things To Do at Hampton Beach
From building sandcastles on the wide sandy beach and competing at classic boardwalk arcade games, to enjoying kid-friendly concerts at the open-air Seashell Stage and watching spectacular weekly fireworks, Hampton Beach offers a wonderful variety of activities for families with children of all ages. If you’re bringing a family with children to vacation in the Maritime Region, it makes sense to us to sleep in Hampton Beach, begin and end your days splashing in the surf, and then visiting the area’s numerous, major, easily accessible attractions, including Portsmouth’s Water Country and the Albacore Museum, or the Seacoast Science Center or the Granite State Whale Watch, both a short ride along the ocean, in adjacent Rye, all pictured below.
Gaming in Hampton Beach and nearby Seabrook
The Hampton Beach area is a regional hub for charitable gaming and entertainment, featuring beachfront venues like the newly expanded Beach Club Casino with its high-limit tables and 140+ gaming machines, Ocean Gaming Casino boasting panoramic Atlantic views and classic table games, and The Brook in nearby Seabrook, which anchors the local scene as a massive complex home to New Hampshire’s largest DraftKings Sportsbook.
What's for Dinner?
Midweek and Weeklong Events at Hampton Beach
Hampton Beach attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every summer, mostly on weekends between Memorial Day and Columbus Day, but not just on Saturdays and Sundays. In addition to its long and broad sandy beach, dozens of Boardwalk restaurants, fast-food outlets, and souvenir stores, frequent visitors know that there are lots of regularly scheduled midweek and week-long events as well.
Avoid the crowds and bring your family to the beach on weekdays, and take them to the following midweek events.
Prominent among them is the Annual Sand Sculpting Classic competition, pictured at right, the largest, most important Master’s sand sculpturing event in the Northeast, attracting master sculptors from across North America who compete for $25,000 in prize money.
This annual event is free. Visitors can view these remarkable sculptures (pictured at right) during the day, of course, and at night for a full week in early- to mid-June.
The Sand Sculpting Classic will take place between June 10 and June 12 in 2027. Voting for the People’s Choice Award will take place on Saturday, the 17th from 1:00 to 3:00pm, followed by an awards ceremony at 8:00pm and a special fireworks display at 9:30pm.
The spectacular Wednesday night fireworks attract thousands of visitors weekly, who watch them from the decks of nearby restaurants, though the best place to watch them (if you can’t get a seat on the Ashworth by the Sea Hotel deck, or an ocean-front room there), is from the boardwalk across the street from the Ashworth, below the fireworks exploding directly overhead, or on the beach itself. And, many visitors opt to take the fireworks cruises out of nearby Seabrook Harbor on Eastman’s deep-sea fishing charter boats that park just off the beach for these impressive pyrotechnic shows every Wednesday in July and August.
Regular visitors also know that there are free live music performances every night of the summer at the Seashell Stage bandshell across the street from the Hampton Beach Casino and the Purple Urchin Restaurant deck. Dinner guests have to arrive at the Purple Urchin early for the view (pictured at left during the afternoon) from the virtual front-row mezzanine seats.
Depending on the bands, visitors young and old are encouraged to get up and dance in front of the bandshell, and they always do.
Performances are always scheduled from 7:00 to 8:00pm and from 8:30 to 9:30pm nightly.
Visitors with young families can join local families in July and August for free Monday-night Movies on the Beach. Family-friendly films are projected on a giant screen across Ocean Boulevard from the Sea Ketch restaurant (and next to the playground). Regular visitors know to bring a beach blanket and beach chairs and their own refreshments for movies that begin at dusk (at about 8:30pm at the beginning of July to about 7:30pm at the end of August), weather permitting.
Deep sea fishing, whale-watching, live lobsters packed to travel, fresh off the boat, shucked oysters and fireworks cruises from Hampton Harbor
Hampton Harbor, a busy, deep-water Port Authority of New Hampshire facility, is located at the south end of Hampton Beach, directly across the street from Hampton Beach State Park, approximately five miles north of the Merrimack River and about seven miles south of Rye Harbor.
The Harbor is a short walk from the Sea Shell Stage at the Center of Hampton Beach, and a shorter walk from Bernie’s Beach Bar at the beach’s southerly end. (Read More)
Airplane Rides and legendary breakfasts and lunches at Hampton Airfield in nearby North Hampton
Fly in or drive to Hampton Airfield in nearby North Hampton, New Hampshire, about a ten-minute ride to and from Hampton beach.
Not just a gem of a small private airport, with 2100 foot paved and turf runways, Hampton Airfield is a great family destination for bountiful breakfasts overlooking the field, where plane rides are easy to arrange. (Read More)
Getting Here. Driving to Hampton Beach
Driving to Hampton Beach is easy, via major Interstate highways and Canadian autoroutes—including I-95, I-93, Autoroute 10, and Autoroute 20—connecting visitors seamlessly from across the Northeast, Montréal, and Québec City, all the way to within the final half-mile of the beach.
Click on the buttons below for interactive driving directions from Boston, New York, Manchester and Hanover, New Hampshire as well as Montréal and Québec City.
Finally, read our review of the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival here