doing a few days there for summer vaca....eating recommendations/things to do with wife and 11 year old son? looks like a waterpark nearby. thanks
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doing a few days there for summer vaca....eating recommendations/things to do with wife and 11 year old son? looks like a waterpark nearby. thanks
I don't have real details as I've only driven through for work a few times but be sure to bring your bikes. If you or your son have BMX bikes there's a neat indoor park in the area too that is always filled with kids all day long. It's also cool to just tool along the beach road, probably faster than trying to drive places too.
See NSFW thread for the uppity in reference to waterparks.Quote:
Originally Posted by cinnepa
You're welcome
Surf? Cinnamon rainbows has board rentals and may offer lessons. Hanging at "the wall" is fun for surf, people watching, and biking the boardwalk, but I like Jenness beach just up the road a few minutes for a lazy beach day with the family, As it has a better sandy beach.
Sometimes there's decent music shows in Hampton, but the strip is always such a scene during the summer. Fat Harley bikers, and southern nh dudes with tribal tattoos and their fake bake wives making the big trip to the ocean for the day kinda scene.
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Drive to Maine?
The beach itself is really nice, but the crowds are iffy. I think my kids were 12 before they even knew that part of town existed. We don't go there. Although, hanging at the beach will be fun for a kid with the arcades, fried dough and all the other 'carnival' type stuff going on. Everything just North around the corner is a better place to be.
Rye airfield is the skate/bmx park. Water Country is the water park in Portsmouth. We do have a bunch of mtn biking around and Stratham Hill Park has a fun pump track for kids and a super short hike to lookout tower. Rent soft top surf boards from Cinnamon Rainbows and Summer Sessions rents SUP's. There's also a place in Portsmouth that rents SUP's and you can cruise around sagamore creek and the piscataqua river area which is more mellow water than open ocean. Fishing/whale watch boating is available. Isle of Shoals tour out of Portsmouth. It can be hard to keep an 11 yr old entertained on vaca. Hopefully you'll have sun so you can chill at the beach.
Portsmouth is a little port town that people like a lot with good resturants, but it's primarily an adult place and just South is Newburyport MA that is the same deal.
pm me if you have specific questions.
^^^thanks all
water's frickin cold is all I got.
Watch out for green flies in July. Actually you won’t have to watch out for them. They’ll find you.
I always thought Hampton Beach was filled with folks from Lawrence and Lowell who couldn't afford to make it to the Jersey Shore? Most NH people tend to steer away and head north to Jenness or Wallis which are indeed better beaches for families and are typically less crowded than Hampton in peak summer.
The Casino can bring in some sweet acts, saw one of my all time favorite shows I've been to there (Bela Flek, Jon Luc Ponty and Stanley Clarke) on a random summer Tuesday in college. I'd check out the lineup. If you are staying near the strip you are going to be up late most likely anyways so might as well catch a show.
FTWQuote:
Originally Posted by AdironRider
Why on earth would anyone from New England go to to the Jersey shore? Not cutting it down but it's far and the Cape, Islands and many other equally good beaches are much closer.Quote:
Originally Posted by AdironRider
I saw Santana at the Hampton Casino in the day, that was decent.
Well Hampton Beach has a distinct flavor that you aren't getting on Nantucket ya know?Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
I bet that show was pretty rad. I've been appreciating his talent more and more as I get older and further away from ignoring him just because he did a song with Rob Thomas.
Yeah it was pretty great, it was before all the Rob Thomas stuff, he was in a bit of a lull in his career and was trying to make a comeback, like '95 or something. He got after it.
white trash comes to mindQuote:
Originally Posted by riser3
but I do love that place, it's been a couple years
Yep, live in the region, none of us go to Hampton. Wallis and Rye are nice, depending on what you want. Go further north to Wells/York as well.
Next to Wallis is the seacoast science center with a. Playground, also a children's museum in Dover and generally cool stuff happening in Prescott park in Portsmouth NH
this thread is a trip down memory lane
thanks guys
Definitely full of Lawrence, Lowell, Charlestown, Manchester and the likes doing laps around the strip in their bitchin' camaro's and harleys.Quote:
Originally Posted by AdironRider
The Casiono always has a few good shows every summer. DSO back to back ftw. The other venue is Wally's which happens to be the biker bar, but the new'ish owner put a bunch of cash into the stage, sound and lighting system, so they've drawn some good smaller acts in like GLove. Also Blue Ocean in Salisbury has booked a few decent smaller acts recently. The venue is pretty cool as the waves break under the place at high tide.
ha stumbled out of that place more than once mid afternoon, especially back when I was married to an alcoholicQuote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
this place always delivers.......better than a tour guide.
I'm so glad this is a thread. Grew up two towns north (N. Hampton) and can concur with what all is in this thread. The Bill Burr tour is friggin all-time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hXpobkojPI
Skip doing the actual beach at Hampton if at all possible, it gets really busy and is basically Lawrence/Lowell with sand. Head 4 minutes south and go to Seabrook Beach right over the bridge. Walk through the dunes and you have a semi private (compared to Hampton) beach to yourself. Parking can be tough, but doable. May have to spend $10 to park across Rte 1. Nobody used to bother you if you parked outside the big churches parking lot.
Or like others said, head north to Rye, much more civilized than Hampton. Summer Sessions at Jennes beach rents all kinds of boards and has lessons for the little guy.
Food - forget about food in Hampton, with the exception of Blink’s Fried Dough...do it.
Seabrook -
Tuna Striker Pub, formerly Eastmans, sit on the back deck watch the day fishing trippers come in.
Ceals for fried clams/scallops
Browns for all things seafood, BYOB! Markey’s is right across the street, same type if food, a little more formal and no BYOB. You are either a Markey’s guy or a Browns guy, they don’t mix ....I’m a Browns guy.
Rye -
Petey’s for all things seafood.
Beach Plum for over priced lobster roll and ice cream.
Best food bet it to head to Portsmouth for the evening.
I can go on. Ask any questions.
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When I was growing up I had family in Ogunquit and would visit various times of the year. They are all long dead. I take my kids to Moody and Wells instead because of the $$$ and the crowds. I miss the "quieter" days. Get off my lawn.Quote:
Originally Posted by schuss
Did the Howard Johnson's survive the Playland fire? If so, I recommend the fried clams.
christ i may have to reconsider...Quote:
Originally Posted by WaistDeepGroomers
Known as "the Walmart" of beach towns... I haven't been there in a few years, but used to go every summer as a kid and always enjoyed it. Arcades, taffy, ice cream, catching starfish and shell hunting- all good fun for a kid. Revisiting as an adult was rough though. On a busy weekend, I can't think of a worse way to spend the day in the area. Hours of traffic. No parking. Huge crowds. Just not my cup of tea.
It's not all that bad. The beach is nice. The town is pretty junky and low-rent, yeah but there's all that good trashy beach shit like fried dough and salt water taffy and shit, and nobody's looking for trouble. And there's other nice towns like right next door.
There's towns like Hampton all down the Easy Coast, like Wildwood NJ and Dewey Beach DE and Ocean City MD and Virginia Beach and Nags Head NC and all the way down. Go have fun but don't just stay in Hampton, move around a little.
I went to Myrtle Beach once and it seemed like the Hampton Beach of the Carolinas, only more recently built.
Yeah Myrtle Beach is another one, there must be at least one in Georgia, down in Florida there's the whole panhandle, plus Daytona, Key West, I'm sure there's more...the Redneck Rivieras of America would make a fun tour if you could take a week or two off after each one to work out and eat healthy before you do it again.
Old orchard ME has come a long way, but definitely the Hampton beach of Maine
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I've never actually been there but isn't Salisbury Beach a lot like Hampton Beach? That's always been my impression.
thats where we went last year....maybe i should look at alternatives mentioned here. old orchard was ok at best....very nice beach though.Quote:
Originally Posted by My Pet Powder Goat
WDG...we're you drunk when you typed that? :) North Hampton abuts Hampton...to the North. Now Rye...where you have roots?...is two towns away to the North.Quote:
Originally Posted by WaistDeepGroomers
Although Hampton Beach is considered a "precinct" within the town of Hampton, I've always called it the "armpit" of Hampton. Hampton, the town, is a decent middle to upper class town. Well, the downtown on rt 1 is kinda typical rt 1 shite. Beachfront is multi-million and off the immediate beach is anywhere from a low of maybe 250 for practically a tear down to a million+ for a house. Hampton Beach precinct...I have no idea costs...they're mostly fucking summer rentals that turn into crack houses for the winter. Same assholes have owned them forever.
Yes, similar, but Salisbury was historically a level below Hampton Beach, but today it might be a notch above. SPS is buying much of the property there and is trying to make a difference. And of course 'tens' the strip club is much nicer than the old 'bowery' strip joint...so I'm told. :smile:Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
Here's a little demographic map of the NH seacoast.
Seabrook and Seabrook Beach are as extremely different as Hampton and Hampton Beach. Both are somewhat separated from each other by marshland. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...09b3a61a78.jpg
As in it is socially acceptable to fuck your cousin in Seabrook?
let's take it north a little.....york beach, long sands, ogunquit, maine. better off?
Some good eats just south in Newburyport too, and good local music at the Grog
hmmmmm salisbury beach seeeeems nice.....glad im able to cancel hampton if need be.
Don't forget Moody and Wells.Quote:
Originally Posted by cinnepa
That's why there's only five surnames in Seabrook.Quote:
Originally Posted by AdironRider