Start from 25 curated places around Hampton Beach, NH, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Sea Ketch Restaurant and Outdoor Decks
A three-level Ocean Boulevard institution with a rooftop deck overlooking the salt marsh toward the open Atlantic. The menu leans New England classic — chowder, lobster rolls, fried baskets — and the multi-floor layout means there's almost always a table somewhere on packed summer weekends. Good for a long lunch that stretches into the afternoon on the top deck.
Tinos Kitchen + Bar
A Mediterranean-leaning kitchen on Lafayette Road that draws from a Greek-immigrant family's roots on the island of Tinos. The menu runs from house-made pasta and wood-grilled seafood to chops and Greek-inflected stews, and the four-season patio with retractable screens and a fire pit makes it comfortable even when beach weather turns. The wine list is notably deeper than what you'd expect in a beach town.
Trails & outdoors
Hampton Beach Jetty Walk
A short 0.7-mile out-and-back across the granite jetty at the Hampton Harbor mouth, with views back toward the full length of Hampton Beach to the north and across to Seabrook Beach to the south. The rocks require attention — footing is uneven and spray makes surfaces wetter than they look — but the payoff of standing at the tip with open ocean on three sides is out of proportion to the effort. Best in late afternoon when light hits the beach from the west.
Little Boar's Head Scenic Walk
A 2.9-mile out-and-back along the NH seacoast that starts at North Hampton State Beach and runs north past the Little Boar's Head bluff and a concentration of late 19th-century shingle-style summer mansions. The trail hugs Ocean Boulevard with the open Atlantic on one side and estate lawns on the other, with a few benches at scenic points for watching the surf. Easy terrain makes it accessible for any fitness level.
Things to do
Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
A 2,200-capacity concert hall on the boardwalk that has hosted acts from the early rock-and-roll era through current touring artists, consistently ranking among the top club-sized venues in national lists. The sightlines from nearly everywhere on the floor are good, and the programming season runs April through November with upwards of 70 shows — mostly rock, comedy, and nostalgia acts, with occasional hip-hop and alternative.
Cinnamon Rainbows Surf Co.
A surfer-owned shop and surf school that has been running lessons on the NH seacoast since 1983, offering group and private sessions for beginners through intermediates. Instructors cover safety and wave-reading fundamentals before anyone gets in the water, and the North Beach break is gentle enough for first-timers on most summer days. The shop carries a solid selection of gear and the staff actually surfs these breaks.
Landmarks & sights
Hampton Beach State Park
NH's most popular state beach stretches nearly two miles along the Atlantic, anchored by a wide flat sand beach with a campground at the southern end and the village boardwalk at the northern end. The state park section has picnic areas, restrooms, and showers, and the southern jetty at the harbor mouth is worth a walk for its views back toward the beach and across to Seabrook. Free concerts happen most summer evenings at the Seashell Stage just north.
Odiorne Point State Park
The largest undeveloped stretch of NH seacoast sits in Rye, about four miles north of Hampton Beach. The loop trail winds through salt marsh, rocky shoreline, and woodland, passing the partially buried concrete bunkers of a former WWII coastal defense battery built to protect Portsmouth's naval shipyard. The Seacoast Science Center at the park entrance has tide pools, touch tanks, and naturalist programs worth 45 minutes before or after the trail.