Rehoboth Beach
Small Incorporated Atlantic Resort Town In Sussex County, Founded As A Methodist Camp Meeting In 1873, With A Free Public Beach And A Roughly One Mile Boardwalk · Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
Rehoboth Beach is a small Atlantic resort town on the Delaware coast, often called the Nation's Summer Capital because so many people from Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia spend their summers here. It began in 1873 as a Methodist camp meeting and grew into a family beach town with a wide sandy beach and a boardwalk of roughly one mile. The beach itself is free, with no beach tags as in New Jersey; what costs money is parking, which is metered in season. Rehoboth Avenue runs down to the boardwalk and the bandstand, where free concerts are held on summer evenings. Along the boards are Funland, a small old-fashioned amusement park, Thrasher's vinegar fries, Dolle's taffy and popcorn, pizza counters and arcades. Behind them is a restaurant scene that is serious for a town this size. Rehoboth has long been a welcoming LGBTQ destination, and Delaware has no sales tax, which fills the outlet stores on Route 1. Summer weekends bring heavy traffic, but the town stays open all year, and spring and autumn are calmer and cheaper.
Rehoboth Avenue and the Boardwalk, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, 19971, United States
The beach and the boardwalk are public and free, with no gates and no beach tags, but the town sets rules by season, and they are what can spoil a day. Lifeguards from the Rehoboth Beach Patrol usually watch the beach from about Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, and in daytime hours only; outside those hours and those weeks nobody is on the stands. Parking meters and pay zones are enforced in the main season, roughly mid-May to mid-September, usually through the day and into the evening, and payment is mostly by app or kiosk; permit-only residential streets are ticketed hard. Dogs are banned from the beach and the boardwalk for most of the year, roughly spring to autumn, and alcohol and smoking are banned on the beach and boards; confirm the current dates. Funland and many boardwalk stands are seasonal: they open around Mother's Day or Memorial Day, run daily in high summer and close after Labor Day or in early autumn. Bandstand concerts are summer evenings, mostly weekends. The Jolly Trolley to Dewey runs only in season. Restaurants and shops downtown stay open year round, but some cut days in winter. Confirm all seasons before planning around them.