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3 low-cost ways of having fun in Portsmouth, N.H.
Enjoy music, movies, tours, and exhibits.
Travelers in the coastal city of Portsmouth, N.H. can explore historic architecture, boutique shopping, a rich maritime history, and a nationally-renowned restaurant scene.
Portsmouth, which has one of the oldest working ports in the country, was named one of the best underrated travel destinations in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report earlier this year.
Visiting Portsmouth on a budget? Ahead, discover three low-cost ways of having fun in the seaside city.
Enjoy movies, concerts, tours at Prescott Park
The city’s 10-acre waterfront Prescott Park is home to the annual Prescott Park Arts Festival, which has made the arts accessible to the public for 50 years with free concerts, movies, and theater. Bring a blanket or chair and settle in under the stars for an outdoor movie during the festival’s movie night series, which shows a mixture of classic and newer releases for a suggested $5 donation. Or check out live music for a suggested $15 donation and live theater for a suggested $8 donation.
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Prescott Park’s lush gardens are also available for touring seasonally. Currently, one-hour tours are offered on Fridays through Aug. 22 and visitors can explore the garden beds of the South Lawn and the formal garden planted around the anchor sculpture. Tour guides answer questions and help visitors identify plants.
Walk the Portsmouth Harbour Trail
Discover 400 years of Portsmouth history on the Portsmouth Harbour Trail, where participants follow a scenic route and learn about the city’s working waterfront, historic homes, and popular spots such as Market Square and Prescott Park. The tours are available on Thursdays and Saturdays through Oct. 15 and meet at the Market Square information kiosk at 1 p.m. The cost is $15 for adults; $12 for seniors and students; $10 for kids age 8 to 14; and kids under age 8 are free.
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“You’ll hear stories about the rich and famous to the humble merchants and madams who had thriving businesses here,” according to portsmouthnh.com. “You may also hear about the brewers and politicians, fishermen and boat builders, writers, editors, and publishers that made Portsmouth the talk of the nation in their day.”
Explore the Portsmouth Athenaeum
The Portsmouth Athenaeum, located in historic Market Square, is a non-profit membership library and archive of more than 40,000 volumes and materials relating to local history. Both the research library and the exhibition gallery are free and open to the public. Visitors can also attend lectures, concerts, and educational programs at the 1805 building, and those may require a fee.
The exhibit “Portsmouth In the Age of Jonathan Mitchell Sewall, Poet, Lawyer, Patriot,” opened on June 27 in the Athenaeum’s Randall Gallery and runs through Nov. 15. It focuses on Sewall’s published writings, his song sung on the battlegrounds during the Revolutionary War, and his odes to President George Washington’s visit to Portsmouth in 1789. The Randall Gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m.
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