Hampton Beach boardwalk listed among US hot spots
With its arcades, food, and entertainment, it’s ‘classic,’ magazine says
A leading travel and lifestyle outlet has listed the Hampton Beach boardwalk as one of eight “classic” oceanfront strips in the United States, and local business leaders said they’re delighted by the distinction.
The boardwalk, a popular New Hampshire vacation spot, was profiled in a Country Living story this month under the headline: “These Classic Beach Boardwalks Are All About Summertime Nostalgia.”
“Skee-Ball, old-school pinball machines, raucous music, pizzerias, and saltwater taffy stands are all part of the seaside experience on this mile-long asphalt boardwalk, as is a summertime concert in the Sea Shell Stage,” the magazine said.
John Nyhan, president of the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce, called the ranking a point of pride for the boardwalk.
“We’re very proud of the recognition we’ve been given.” he said “I think the story really highlighted that there’s so many things that people can do when they come to Hampton Beach.”
Plenty of adults, he noted, “still like to play Skee-Ball, still like to have cotton candy — the good old-fashioned [pastime of ] coming to the beach with a family.”
Nyhan said he doubts there’s another “location on the coast that can offer 80 straight nights of free entertainment” on an outside stage, and he noted that the annual Hampton Beach Seafood Festival (Sept. 8-10 this year) draws up to 100,000 visitors the week after Labor Day.
Additional boardwalks highlighted by Country Living included strips in Ocean City, Md., Coney Island, N.Y., Main Beach in Santa Cruz, Calif., Virginia Beach, Va., Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, Venice Beach in Calif., and Atlantic City, N.J.
Asked to name his favorite stop along the Hampton Beach boardwalk, Nyhan cited a couple of candy stores, describing himself as a “fudge eater and taffy eater,” as well as Blink’s Fry Doe which offers “that cinnamon sugar you can’t say no to.”
The beach isn’t immune to occasional turbulence, however. One night last May, Hampton police said they “dealt with a number of large groups that formed on the beach” and started fighting.
Police dispersed the groups but they moved to Ocean Boulevard, where they “continued to be disorderly” and disrupted traffic, officials said. No injuries or damages were reported but dozens of people were arrested.
Nyhan said officials strive to create a welcoming atmosphere at the beach for families.
“One of our priorities along the Seacoast here is [making it] family-friendly,” he said. “Not every day is lying on the beach day. It might be overcast, so maybe you want to take the kids over to Playland, let them play at the arcade, maybe get some fried dough. There’s a variety of things that a family can do.”
And when families hit the beach in the morning, Nyhan said, it’s clean as a whistle.
“At 11 p.m. every night the beach is totally cleaned so that when people arrive the next morning, there’s no seaweed, there’s no trash,” he said. “Just absolutely beautiful sand.”
And as the day unfolds, a lively boardwalk does, too.