Seacoast

The Seacoast covers the southeastern corner of New Hampshire, the small but densely populated stretch where the state meets the Atlantic Ocean for just 18 miles between Massachusetts and Maine. The terrain shifts from broad sandy beaches at Hampton and Seabrook through the working harbor at Portsmouth to the rolling hardwood country of Strafford County inland. Salt marshes and tidal estuaries fill the low ground. Rockingham and Strafford counties cover the region. Rockingham holds Portsmouth, Hampton, Hampton Beach, Exeter, Salem, and the cluster of southern New Hampshire I-93 commuter suburbs; Strafford holds Dover, Rochester, and Durham (with the University of New Hampshire). Strawbery Banke Museum (a 10-acre outdoor museum of historic Portsmouth buildings dating to the 1690s), the Wentworth Coolidge Mansion, the Music Hall, and Hampton Beach State Park anchor the major attractions. Most trips here split between Portsmouth and Hampton Beach. Portsmouth handles the historic-port itinerary — Strawbery Banke, the working harbor, the restaurant scene built around Market Square, and the Isles of Shoals ferry tours; Hampton Beach pulls the summer-boardwalk traffic with the Casino Ballroom and the Sand Sculpting Classic each June; Exeter’s Phillips Exeter Academy and the American Independence Museum fill cultural visits.