Visit Portsmouth, New Hampshire's walkable working seaport
Portsmouth’s Strawbery Banke, above, a ten-acre living history museum and one of New Hampshire’s top five attractions, is an easy walk from all downtown hotels on a summer day. Four-hundred-year-old Portsmouth, National Geographic’s sixth most historic place to visit in the United States, is a safe, walkable, maritime destination for families and couples and a unique, imaginative and comparatively affordable venue for meetings and conferences.
Where to sleep, what to do, and where to eat in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Because it is endowed with more than ample tourism infrastructure, including modern, full-service, nationally flagged hotels as well as stunning boutiques and bed and breakfast establishments, and more restaurant seats (many on the waterfront) than its 25,000 residents, as well as a broad spectrum of tourism attractions, Portsmouth is also a particularly interesting and affordable venue for meetings or small conventions.
Portsmouth is the home of a large cluster of well-preserved historic buildings, including many historic homes, one of which was visited in 1789 by President George Washington and another the residence of Revolutionary War naval hero, John Paul Jones, at right, which is is open to the Public.
As such, Portsmouth has been designated by National Geographic as the sixth most historic place to visit in the United States, and the twenty-sixth in the world, and it has been included in America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations by The National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Portsmouth is a near-perfect destination for families with young children, especially in the summer, with a broad variety of family-friendly hotel accommodations and notably unique and interesting, kid-friendly restaurants and attractions.
Getting Here is Easy
Portsmouth is easily accessible via I-95 (Exit 7) from New York, Hartford, Providence or Boston, and via I-89 or I-93 and then NH 101 and I-95 from northern and western New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as from Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Ottawa, and Via NH-101 and I-95 from Manchester.
There is hourly C&J Bus service from Boston’s South Station and from Logan Airport.
C&J Bus Lines also offers daily round-trip service between Portsmouth and New York City. The current schedule includes one round-trip per day. The northbound trip leaves the Port Authority Bust Terminal at 12:45 PM, arriving in Portsmouth at 6:55 PM. The southbound return bus departs Portsmouth at 6:00 AM, arriving in New York City at 12:05 PM. For the most current schedule and any future updates, please refer to C&J’s official website
There is also a nearby AMTRAK station with twice daily round-trip service from Boston to nearby Dover, New Hampshire (about a 20-minute drive from Portsmouth).