Exeter, Hampton, and the New Hampshire South Coast - Hampton NH Off the Beaten Path

Preview: The shoreline in Rye is less developed than elsewhere, with long stretches of open salt marsh (some of it a wildlife preserve) and rocky coast broken by beaches. Atlantic Fishing Fleet offers deep-sea fishing trips and whale-watches on board Atlantic Queen II from April through mid-October. You might catch flounder, mackerel, or rarely, cod. The trip is fun, whatever the catch, and offers an education about the fishing industry. Island cruises operates tours to the Isles of Shoals and lobster tours from Rye Harbor. The two-hour island tour is narrated with historical facts and tales of mysterious doings. On the one-hour lobster tour you learn all about the elusive crustaceans and how they are harvested, coming face to face with one when a trap is brought aboard. During July and August, they operate the island tour several times each day and the lobster tour Saturday through Wednesday at 10:00 A.M. In June and September, they operate weekends only. Overlooking the ocean is Saunders at Rye Harbor, a local institution for more than seventy years. The menu offers a wider range of dishes than you would expect in a restaurant best known for its lobster. Seafood-stuffed mushroom caps, herbed toasted pita points, Jamaican scampi, and five “healthy choices,” including chicken Marsala, highlight the menu. Ben Saunders sold lobster from the dock in the 1920s, and it’s his recipe they still use for the old-fashioned lobster stew. The restaurant was a favorite of poet Ogden Nash, but he never immortalized it in any of his verses. For a shorebound excursion that gives you nature on one side and human nature on the other, walk or bicycle around Little Boar’s Head. A 2-mile path goes along the ridge of a rocky promontory, with waves crashing on the rocks below. Inland stands a row of beach “cottages” built in the pre-income tax days when wealthy city dwellers moved their families and household staffs to the shore for the summer. In the early summer wild roses bloom along the path. Roses at Fuller Gardens are clearly not wild: 1,500 carefully tended rose-bushes thrive in the sea air in an All America Rose Display Garden, once part of a fine old Boar’s Head estate. Both roses and perennial beds are at their peak in June, but the gardens are filled with blooms all summer and late into the fall. Don’t miss the gate in the hedge leading to the cool, cedar-shaded Japanese garden with its pool, bridge, and stone lantern. Marble walkways surround a terraced formal garden. The above description is an excerpt from "New Hampshire: Off the Beaten Path." Whether you're a visitor or a local looking for something different, this chapter from the Off the Beaten Path series will help you take the "road less traveled" and discover hidden attractions, unique finds, and unusual locales that most tourists miss.
© Copyright Barbara Radcliffe Rogers and Stillman Rogers published by Insiders' Guide all rights reserved.


This travel guide comes from:
New Hampshire Off the Beaten Path Guide Book