6 of the Most Overlooked Towns on the Atlantic Coast
Somewhere up the Atlantic coast, there is a whirlpool that will spin a boat in circles, a beach that squeaks underfoot, and a bay that dumps forty feet of water twice a day. One town even puts on a pirate festival. The crowds have no clue. These six little towns turn up between Nova Scotia and Florida. A few get by on lobster boats and tides, the rest on art studios and Gilded Age money. And not one of them is angling for attention.
Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia
Three white churches stand in a row on the waterfront. On a calm morning, the harbor mirrors all three. This Nova Scotia town made its first money building wooden boats, and the Mahone Bay Museum tells that story. The Mi'kmaq summered these sheltered waters long before that. Halifax is about an hour northeast.
Craft studios fill Main Street. Amos Pewter casts ornaments in an old boat shop. Northern Sun shows the work of local artists. Rebecca's serves chowder. The Kitch'inn has rooms above a wine bar. Lobster turns up on most menus in town.
Alma, New Brunswick
The tides here are the biggest on the planet. The Bay of Fundy swings about forty feet between low and high, enough to empty the harbor and refill it before dinner. At low water, the bare sea floor opens up, caves and tide pools and all. At high water, it is gone again. The whole village works around that clock.
When the water returns, so do the whales. Humpbacks and minkes feed just offshore, and whale-watching boats leave from the harbor. Fundy National Park starts at the village edge. Dickson Falls and Laverty Falls are short walks in. The Fundy Footpath is not. It is a 25-mile trek over several days. The scallops come straight off the boats.
Eastport, Maine
Eastport is the easternmost city in the United States. For half the year, it sees the country's first sunrise. The old sardine-canning port plays that up every September with the Eastport Pirate Festival, which fills Water Street with costumes and live music.
Out in the channel, the Old Sow turns. It is the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere, named for the grunting sound it makes. Kayakers paddle out to watch, though the currents are no joke. Art galleries crowd the old downtown. The Tides Institute and Museum of Art stands on Passamaquoddy homeland. Nineteenth-century buildings still line the waterfront.
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts
The sand at Singing Beach squeaks. The dry grains chirp underfoot, a quirk only a few beaches in the world share. Manchester-by-the-Sea grew up around that beach. It started as a colonial fishing village and became a Gilded Age summer colony for wealthy Bostonians.
The money still shows. The 1823 Trask House holds the town museum. Old colonial homes and galleries fill the streets around it. 35 Beach cooks New England seafood with Italian and Japanese touches. Captain Dusty's has scooped homemade ice cream by the harbor for generations. White Beach faces the Boston skyline, and summer nights bring free concerts to Masconomo Park.
Sea Bright, New Jersey
Sea Bright is barely wider than its main road. The town is a thin strip of New Jersey between the ocean and the Shrewsbury River. Sand and open ocean lie on one side, the calm river on the other. The beach handles swimming and surfing. A short boardwalk backs Woody's Ocean Grill at the north end.
Two parks bracket the town. Sandy Hook and its Gateway National Recreation Area lie just north. Hartshorne Woods Park has trails inland. Up the hill, the Twin Lights stand over the river mouth. The 1862 brownstone towers guided ships into New York Harbor. From the top, the New York City skyline spreads across the water.
Indialantic, Florida
Indialantic is the quiet end of Florida's Atlantic shore, far from the high-rises of Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. This barrier-island town of about 3,000 stretches along the Space Coast, the Atlantic on one side and the Indian River Lagoon on the other. The surf is gentle enough for beginners. Fifth Avenue gives it a walkable center for coffee and errands.
Longboard House and Surf Style rent boards near the beach. BB's Beach Bar fronts the boardwalk. The lagoon side is calmer, good for paddleboarding and kayaking. Manatees drift through it. Anglers cast for redfish, snook, and trout. Pelicans and herons work the same water overhead.
Where the Coast Empties Out
The six towns share a coastline and little else. Alma and Eastport live on tides and fishing fleets. Mahone Bay and Manchester-by-the-Sea trade on old wealth, one built on boats, the other on summer estates. Sea Bright is a sandbar with a town on it. Indialantic is a surf break with a lagoon behind it. One stretch of coast fishes, one summers, one surfs. None of these towns grew into a resort, and that is the whole point. The crowds went one way. These six went the other.
