The Most Picturesque Towns In Delaware

Delaware packs four centuries of colonial history into towns you can walk end to end in an afternoon. Bethany Beach greets drivers with a 24-foot cedar statue of a Nanticoke chief at its boardwalk entrance. Lewes keeps the one house in town that still holds a cannonball from the War of 1812. Odessa preserved a 1774 merchant's mansion so completely that its builder's own inventory furnishes the rooms. New Castle counts more than 400 years of continuous settlement along its cobblestone Strand. These eight towns reward slow travelers who want history within arm's reach of the Atlantic.

Bethany Beach

Chief Little Owl marks the entrance to Bethany Beach, a 24-foot totem carved by Peter Wolf Toth to honor the Nanticoke people. The statue drivers pass today is the third to stand on the spot. Toth donated the original in 1976, a 1992 storm destroyed it, a replacement failed by 2000, and Toth carved the current Alaskan red cedar version for its 2002 dedication. A short walk away, the Bethany Beach Boardwalk runs half a mile past locally owned shops such as the Candy Kitchen. Visitors sunbathe on the sand, fish with family, and catch live music on summer evenings. The Bethany Beach Nature Center adds trails through open fields, playgrounds for children, and marked plaques describing local wildlife.

Lewes

The Dutch settled Lewes in 1631, and residents call it the oldest town in Delaware. The Cannonball House on Front Street is the only structure in Lewes still standing that took damage in the 1813 Bombardment of Lewes during the War of 1812. A cannonball remains lodged in its wall, and the building now serves as the town's Maritime Museum. Cape Henlopen State Park occupies a former federal defensive site that Delaware converted to parkland in 1964, with bike trails winding through coastal forest. Just outside town, Nassau Valley Vineyards opened in 1993 as Delaware's first winery and still pours a blueberry wine alongside its estate reds. The vineyard also hosts weddings, tours, and gatherings on its grounds near Cape Henlopen.

Smyrna

The Smyrna Opera House anchors a town that has held onto its 18th- and 19th-century architecture. Built in 1870 and restored in 2003, the building shows Second Empire lines with Italianate detailing and hosts musical events through the year. East of town, Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge protects one of the largest tidal salt marshes on the East Coast. Its trails cross habitat used by migratory birds that pass through with the seasons, and the biodiversity draws birdwatchers to its observation points. Blackbird State Forest opens marshland, tall stands of timber, and campgrounds to anyone who wants a night under the trees. The combination of preserved downtown and protected wetland gives Smyrna two distinct reasons to stop.

New Castle

New Castle holds the title of oldest continuously occupied town in the Delaware Valley, and its six-block historic district shows Colonial and Federal buildings preserved along cobblestone streets. The Amstel House, built in the 1730s, opened as the town's first historic-house museum and interprets the political life of the colonial period. First State National Historical Park includes the 1732 court house, where Delaware's assembly renounced its ties to Pennsylvania in 1776, along with a green used for public gatherings. The Read House and Gardens, finished in 1804 for George Read II, stands as a high-style Federal residence with elaborate interior woodwork and columns. Read was the son of George Read, a Delaware signer of the Declaration of Independence. Together these sites trace how a small river port became one of the most intact colonial towns in the country.

Selbyville

Church Street Fabrics keeps Selbyville's arts tradition going with handmade quilts in mosaic patterns and bold color. Once one of the East Coast's major strawberry-producing towns, Selbyville now sits a short drive from the shoreline with a quieter pace. The Bayside Resort Golf Club welcomes beginners and experienced players to its course and runs live music and dancing on warm evenings. Magee Farms, a family-owned operation, offers strawberry picking in spring, flowers and small plants through the season, and pumpkins in the fall. The mix of a working farm, a golf resort, and a stubborn craft community makes the town an easy stop for travelers who want to slow down. Selbyville rewards a visitor who plans a half day rather than an hour.

Odessa

The Corbit-Sharp House, a National Historic Landmark completed around 1774, is considered Delaware's finest pre-Revolutionary house and a leading example of the Philadelphia-Georgian style. Its builder, tanner William Corbit, left an 1818 inventory that curators still use to furnish the twenty-two rooms. Next door, the Wilson-Warner House went up between 1769 and 1771 for merchant David Wilson, making it the older of the two and a plainer counterpart to its neighbor. Both houses fall under the Historic Odessa Foundation, which grew out of the town's past as a grain-shipping port on the Appoquinimink River. The Foundation keeps vintage paintings and period room settings on display, and it hosts art exhibitions and a craft-beer festival on the Wilson-Warner grounds each fall. Odessa rewards visitors who care about how early Delaware merchants actually lived.

Bowers Beach

Fewer than 300 people live year-round in Bowers Beach, one of the first European settlements on Delaware Bay. Captain's Lady Charter runs fishing trips out onto the bay for visitors chasing the day's biggest catch. The Bowers Beach Maritime Museum tells the town's seafaring story through its exhibits and community events, including the summertime Buccaneer Bash. JP's Wharf serves seafood from an outdoor deck built onto the pier, where diners eat within sight of the water. The town's tight footprint and working waterfront make it a natural stop for anyone who fishes or simply wants to watch the boats come in. Bowers Beach trades attractions for quiet, and that is the point.

Rehoboth Beach

Rehoboth Beach earned the nickname "Nation's Summer Capital" for its family attractions and its beach-centered downtown. The Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk pairs an open seafront on one side with shops, rides, and eateries on the other. Funland keeps its mid-century amusement-park character with carousels, go-karts, and rides that have entertained families for generations. Delaware Seashore State Park stretches along the coast nearby, renting kayaks and marking cycling lanes for visitors who want to explore the marine life of the inland bays. The beach, the boardwalk, and the state park give Rehoboth three separate draws inside a single summer visit.

What These Eight Towns Share

The colonial houses of New Castle and Odessa and the working waterfronts of Lewes and Bowers Beach represent two sides of the same Delaware story. Merchants and shipbuilders built these towns on the trade that moved along the bay and the rivers, and preservation groups have kept the evidence standing for two centuries. A traveler can study a 1774 mansion in the morning and stand where a cannonball struck in 1813 by the afternoon. That density of preserved history, set within a short drive of the Atlantic, is what makes these eight towns worth the time.