Side Trips in Portsmouth, NH

If you’re driving Route 1 or I-95 south of Portsmouth, heading to or from Massachusetts, make a detour to Seabrook for some of the best lobsters in New Hampshire—and the amazing spectacle of two (gently) competing shacks right across the road from each other.

Brown’s (tel. 603/474-3331) got here first, and it’s a bit more like the typically unadorned shack you’d find in, say, Downeast Maine. (Its patio also frames a view of Seabrook’s infamous nuclear power plant—and, yes, it’s active.) Markey’s (tel. 603/474-2851) opened later and more closely resembles a small-town diner. The pounds frame both sides of state Route 286, easily reached from Portsmouth or Boston via the exits to Seabrook off both U.S. Route 1 and the New Hampshire Turnpike (I-95; drive east a few miles). From Hampton Beach, head south on coastal Route 1A a few miles and turn inland (west) on Route 286.