Visiting Portsmouth in June

[fishnfool]

Rye is directly south of Portsmouth...about 10 minutes from downtown and maybe 15 min from the Fairfield (20 if beach traffic is bad). It's a small town on the southern border of Portsmouth. It has a rocky coastline that is gorgeous, and small secluded beaches tucked in between the rocks. If you drive further south (like 5 minutes further) there are nice sandy beaches too.

Every town on the seacoast is extremely small geographically, especially compared to things out in AZ. It's almost better not to think of things as separate towns as that implies things are far apart. Every town is small and stacked on top of it's neighbors. You can drive the entire coast from Mass to Maine in about a half hour. It's almost better to think of the Seacoast as its own town, with Portsmouth being it's downtown.

As far as restaurants go, I think it's pretty hard to go wrong at any of them in Portsmouth. Everywhere I've eaten has been excellent, and everything is so close together that you can poke your head into a bunch of different places and then make a decision. Most menu's are posted at the entrance.

Eat at Flatbread for lunch one day. Sort of like pizza but not really (flatbread is about the best description). Extremely good.

[fishnfool]

Oh, and in my opinion the best and most authentic chowdah in the area is at Petey's.

[tkx7]

for tax purposes, go to maine for dining at restaurants and new hampshire for buying things