I'm planning on taking like a 3-day trip to Maine or New Hampshire with my fiance in the end of September. Looking for some advice on where to go. Not looking for secrets spots, but would like to know a little more about the main beaches. I'm not an expert, so I'd rather find a longish sandy beach with room to spread out than a crowded rocky bottom point. The places I've been thinking about are Hampton, Rye, York and Ogunquit. I'm hoping to stay near a beach that can reasonably work on knee-head swells and isn't too dependent on the tides. What about the general vibe of the towns? Any recommendations on where to stay? How about some good hikes or other ideas for things to do with my girl cause she doesn't surf? thanks, chris
york, me is a great spot... long sands beach, huge beach works all the time, can hold some size, close to kittery and portsmouth... girl can wax your board, spend your money, and be grateful you are bringing her along... joking
just surfed maine for the first time, the beaches in ogunquit are stunning and the river mouth always had a wave, we stayed at pinderosa pines campground ($30/night), it is nice there, only about 2-3 miles from the beach, but you can hear the freeway from most of the campsites, also there was a fun little beachbreak wave where bourne street hits the ocean at the border of wells and ogunquit, but there isn't any parking, and I don't know how consistent it is. if you have more time, popham and reid state parks in maine were amazing, especially reid.
ha! she's a trooper though and doesn't mind that every where we go together has to involve surfing at some point (when i take snowboarding trips she wont even bother coming). if it's calm enough out there she'll even rent a board and paddle out with me.
dito on popham, Right before popham there is a nice two mile hike over Small Point, some times theres surf too so bring a board. Look for the parking lot at the begining of Morse Mountain Rd. also check out Higgins beach, in the Scarboro south portland area. its a river mouth set up with a rock slab, but can be tide and swell direction dependent. kind of yuppy there so do the speed limits. Old Orchard beach is nice in the off season. long strech of beach, some beach breaks. touristy. Portland has good food, shaping and nice brew pubs. check out the LLBean, and NorthFace outlets in Freeport. Nice Campground at Bradbruy Mountain State Park, small hike to bald face mountain with veiws there.
Kennebunk I got on a 2-3 foot swell and was fun. The town is sick and very close to Portland, ME. Your girl will love it
thanks... thanks for the info everyone. I just got back on monday. Ended up staying in Ogunquit and surfing at the rivermouth and at Long Sands in York. Ogunquit was a really nice town and the GF liked it a lot. Kind of wish I had stayed in York cause it was a little lonely in the water in Ogunquit. Really...i saw one other person in the water at ogunquit. Hope I'm not saying too much here York was kind of kook central while I surfed there. I mean that in a nice way. Much more people out, but plenty of room to go around and good vibes. Saturday was on-shore and small, but fun. Did anyone have a chance to go out early monday morning? I was at the Ogunquit Rivermouth. The buoys that morning said the swell was something like 8.6ft. I was too chicken to go all the way out, but I caught a glimpse from far away of a guy riding a wave on the river mouth and it looked like all, or most, of that swell was breaking. Also....happened to pick up a copy of Surf Magazine on my way out at the airport...lo and behold, they had a feature on Southern Maine.
Actually, I was talking about Transworld Surf. Pretty awesome that there is another feature in Surfer's Journal too, though I'm sure some locals might disagree. Gonna have to run out to Border's and pick up the Surfers Journal
