Hampton Beach State Park, New Hampshire, United States

4Samuel M 5:00 PM Aug 21, 2021

Wonderful Public Beach for All Ages
First time visitors to Hampton Beach State Park on the New Hampshire seacoast, and what an impressive, family-friendly beach this is. It's easily one of the widest beaches you'll ever experience on the Atlantic coast, and it stretches over one and one-half miles from north to south. Plenty of room to stretch out and set up your beach umbrella and chairs without being right on top of the people next to you. This is also a guarded beach with lifeguard stations spaced apart over the length of it, though it lacks markers regarding how far out it is safe to swim like many other beaches. So, when the whistle blows that marks the limit on how far you can go out regardless of your swimming ability. Depending upon your personal preference, alcoholic beverages including beer are prohibited on the beach and are subject to a stiff fine. This helps keep the beach clean by not having empty beer cans strewn about when people don't pick up after themselves, but it doesn't allow the responsible patron to sit back in his or her beach chair and enjoy a cold one on a hot summer day. So, there are pros and cons here. Improvements for the future that would be nice might include outdoor public beach showers for rinsing off the sand at the end of the day, as well as additional public washrooms which are badly needed for such a large beach. Pros are many, including ample places across Ocean Blvd. to get to bite to eat or drink, convenient beachside parking (for a fee) if you get there early enough, and no annoying vendors strolling the beach trying to sell you useless junk like you'll find in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Overall, this is a very nice public beach for all to enjoy.

4John 5:00 PM Jul 19, 2021

Return to Hampton Beach after a long absence
After spending the last 12 years going to the beach in Maine (recently sold our summer home) we now have the opportunity to try new beaches around New England. It has been many many years since we went to Hampton Beach. We decided to take a day trip and went to the southern part of the beach. We were able to reserve parking online on the NH State Parks site. This was a new part of the beach for my wife and I. We were pleasantly surprised how nice the beach was, but was very crowded. There are restroom facilities, showers (they were closed still) and a store. Facilities were OK from a cleanliness perspective but could have been better. We arrived early afternoon and the beach was packed. We were able to squeeze into a spot for the afternoon. Water was on the cold side (not surprising for NH) but clear. Suggest getting there early to get a good spot. Lots of kids on the day we went! We spent the afternoon enjoying the weather and then left for an early dinner.