New England Know it All blog — Taryn into Travel

Dustin and I visited this cute town at the end of February and were very impressed. Lots of cute shops, restaurants, and pretty views of the water! We were there for a half of a day and it was great! We would like to go back and spend the night to be able to try some more restaurants, coffee shops, and of course some of the wine bars!

Getting there

Portsmouth is about an hour drive from Boston. You can also take a bus to get here if you don’t drive! I found tickets for about $20 one way, so $40 round trip on this website, here! We have found that our days run 100% smoother if we have details like parking figured out before we get somewhere. So I did some research and ended up parking in the High Hanover parking garage and it was a short walk to get to the middle of the shops. It cost $1.50 an hour to park here and I think we paid about $8 overall and that was plenty of time! We just put the address into the GPS and it took us right there!

What to see

SO. MANY. CUTE. SHOPS. There were wine shops like La Belle that had tastings and cheese pairings when we were there. There was a salt cellar that I couldn’t stop taking pictures of(see below) that had so many cute things in it! Also if you didn't know this about us… we are huge game people! We play board games all the time, this game store was where we got Villainous and we are HOOKED. We always like going into these game stores because there are so many options and games that you never knew were even available. Plus they have some sitting out for you to try before you buy. They had plenty of boutiques with something for everyone and all ages. I think that sometimes you can visit a town and all of the shops have the same things in them and that wasn’t the case at all, which we loved!

Where to eat

River House - YOU GUYS, this place is so good! I don’t say that foods are life changing often.. but their clam chowder was LIFE CHANGING. So buttery, so creamy, so delicious. Did I mention its GF?! I got the California Burger and Dustin got the lobster roll. But if you only go there to get one thing it has to be the clam chowder for sure!!

Cup of Joe - The perfect place to stop and get your coffee before heading into the shops! They also had some options for breakfast and lunch but we jut stopped for a coffee! They also have a Starbucks if you like to get the “you are here” mugs that they sell, like we do!

When we moved to Boston we had no idea where to begin when it came to finding new experiences. It’s such a big place and we had no idea where to start. With no one telling us where we could go we just started researching, LOTS of research! Then I decided I wanted to share all of it with you!

Most of our adventures are during the day! We like to grab lunch and then do something after, but we also like to mix it up. We knew we wanted to have lunch, so we ate at Ebi Sushi which was right next door! We haven’t had good gluten free sushi since moving to Boston. It was delicious! The rice was the best I have ever had and it was so fresh! It was also super inexpensive. Dustin had the volcano roll and the crazy maki roll (not GF) and I had the Philly roll and the salmon avocado roll! We also tried the salmon, yellowtail and mackerel.

The axe throwing place is called Urban Axes and it was $25 a person per hour. Well worth the money for sure! You have to be 21+ to throw and you will need to have your ID with you to show them. We signed our wavers and then got assigned to a guide. Our guide was funny and knowledgable and gave us personalized assistance based on each of our particular throwing form and stance. She watched what we were doing and then would have us adjust accordingly.

Initially when we arrived I was so nervous and honestly thought about not doing it, but then it was my turn and I was like why wouldn't I try this at least once?! So I did! AND OMG I felt like a bad@$$! Seriously I felt so empowered! I would hands down recommend this for a date night or even as a work outing! Dustin kept saying, “I need to get my team out to do this!” If you do plan to go, just make sure you look up the walk in hours for that specific day.

Urban Axes has the coolest decor and vibe inside, too! They had a pretty decent amount of drink options like ciders and craft beers. For snacks they had different sizes of cheese plates and some other small appetizers.

Let me know if you end up going and loved it as much as we did! I would also love to know if you found this post helpful. My inbox is always open, so email me with any questions or just to chat!