A Visit to Dewy Beach in Delaware

The summer has already started and the time has now come to visit sea beaches. We had an opportunity during last weekend to visit the Dewey Beach in Delaware, near to the Rehoboth beach. We drove down to this beach from our residence in Washington DC. The distance of around 165 miles was covered by us in about 3 hours time. As it was Friday morning, the traffic was not so heavy and our drive was very pleasant. The beach is situated on SR-1 in south of the Rehoboth beach. We reached at around noon and settled in a nearby Best Western-Gold leaf hotel. The hotel is very close to the sea shore and our room on the third floor was having a lovely view of the ocean. We had carried with us 2 beach chairs and a small tent house that can accommodate 2 people at a time.

As soon as we settled in the hotel, we started for the beach with chairs, tent-house, few drinks and some snacks. The beach is just 500 feet away from the hotel and it hardly took 5 minutes for us to walk down to the beach. There were many people enjoying the beautiful sunny day and a calm Atlantic Ocean beach. We constructed our tent house and got settled. However, there was so much wind that our tent was almost flying away. The best suggestion is to take beach umbrella on hire from the beach itself to get some shade over us.

The rent for the umbrella is $10 per day and the beach chairs are also available at the nominal rates of $5 for 2 chairs for whole day up to 5pm. The ocean was inviting us to take the bath and we immediately went for the bath. The water was also not very cold at that time of the afternoon and the bath was really enjoyable. Some cold drinks and few snacks are available on the beach itself. If you want to order your lunch, you can phone various restaurants for the beach delivery. The delivery time is around 45 minutes. There is a life guard available from 10am to 5pm every day during the summer. We were lucky to have a wonderful weather of sunny day, with temperature as 80 degrees maximum. We enjoyed a long bath and equally long walk through the wet, cool sand. Make sure to carry sunscreen lotion so as to protect your skin from the sunburns. The cap and the sun goggles shall also be required. We could also see the dolphins jumping in and out of the sea in large numbers mainly during evening hours. We relaxed for the full day on the beach and then, went for our dinner at around 6pm.

There are number of restaurants available serving almost all the food varieties. Please make sure to select the restaurant that you can reach easily by walking as the metered parking available in the city is highly expensive. The parking rates were as high as 25 cents for 10 minutes parking in the main city area. Our hotel provided free parking for the entire period of our stay. This was really a big advantage as otherwise parking cost would have been exorbitant. We also went to the beach after our dinner and were watching the calm beauty of the Ocean till the late night hours. There is a tram car facility available for traveling within the city known as jolly trolley. This tram car runs every half an hour and can take you anywhere in the city. The one time rates are $5 and the full day pass costs $10, allowing you an unlimited travel during the day. The next day was Saturday and we repeated our activities of taking a bath, getting suntanned, and taking long leisurely walks on the shore. The weather really favored us again and the day was lovely. Dewey beach is quite as compared to the main Rehoboth beach and provided us with the well needed privacy.

In spite of all above positive aspects, there were some negative factors also. The first was non availability of a public toilet facility on the beach. This aspect forces all visitors to stay in the hotels, very close to the beach. Secondly, there are rough stone and pebbles in around 20 feet wide patch of the sea. Our legs were hurting a lot while taking a bath due to this. Moreover, visiting this beach for a day tour would not be advisable in view of very high parking costs involved. You have to come for a full weekend and have to select the hotel that is very close to the beach. There are many hotels available in the near-by area but you have to ensure the hotel booking well in advance, particularly during summer season.

We had a wonderful trip in all and we could enjoy the sea very closely without any problems. I have no hesitation in recommending this beach to all my AC friends but would also request to note the above limitations very carefully prior to deciding on your visit so that they do not come as a surprise to you.