Portsmouth offers several distinct highlights: gardens and waterfront at Prescott Park, landscapes on Peirce Island, cultural sites with their own themes, and a trail designed for walking and cycling. When planning, you can decide whether to focus on gardens and water, landscapes, outdoor activity on a route, or specific historical and cultural themes.
Gardens, Islands, and Waterfront
Prescott Park is a public park on the waterfront in Portsmouth, free and open to everyone. The 10-acre grounds include formal plantings, the Liberty Gardens, and other individual garden areas. Designed plantings sit alongside distinct garden sections, with the waterfront setting adding another dimension.
Since 1974, Prescott Park’s summer season has included at least one full outdoor performance of a Broadway musical for family audiences each year. The performances are a seasonal cultural event, while the garden areas define the character of the park. If seeing a musical is important to your travel plans, you can check the specific performance dates in advance.
Four Tree Island is a public park, open to everyone and accessible via a causeway from Peirce Island. It has picnic tables beneath small pavilions, as well as a large pavilion that can be reserved. If you plan to use the large pavilion, it’s a good idea to check its availability in advance.
Peirce Island features salt marshes, tidal pools, rocky outcrops, wooded trails, and scenic viewpoints. Its landscape brings together tidal areas and marshland with woods, rock, and views. The boat landing on the island provides access to the quieter channel of the Piscataqua River and is another feature of the site.
A Trail for Walking and Cycling
In Portsmouth, the NH Seacoast Greenway follows a former, abandoned railroad corridor for 3.6 miles between Barberry Lane and the Greenland town line. The trail is designed for shared use by walkers and cyclists. Unlike a single park or museum, it has named endpoints and a linear route, making it a distinct option if you’re looking for a route rather than a single place to visit.
Cultural History in Portsmouth
Albacore Park is designated a National Historic Landmark and offers self-guided tours of the historic research submarine USS Albacore. Visitors can enter the submarine, look through the periscope, and explore the control room, technical areas, and sleeping quarters. The visit focuses on a specific object of technological history and its interior spaces.
Strawbery Banke is an almost 10-acre living history museum in Portsmouth’s Puddle Dock neighborhood. It includes historic houses, gardens, landscape areas, and exhibits. The museum preserves the development of an entire neighborhood over more than 350 years; most of the historic houses stand on their original sites. Compared with the single research submarine, it offers a broader perspective on the history of a whole neighborhood.
Another cultural focus is the Jones House. An interactive exhibit there explores Abenaki culture, art, foodways, and storytelling traditions. This lets you distinguish between technological history, the development of a historic neighborhood, and an exhibit about Abenaki culture.
Wentworth-Coolidge State Historic Site is a New Hampshire state park located less than two miles outside downtown Portsmouth. It adds a distinct historic site outside the downtown area to the options.
Discover more destinations: Hampton, Exeter, Seabrook, Hampton Falls, Windham, Northwood, Candia, Greenland.
For the regional travel overview: Rockingham.
