Rehoboth Beach, DE Summary

Rehoboth Beach is the closest beach to the District of Columbia.

It is very popular and it may seem that this is where all Washingtonians come to escape the oppressive summer heat and humidity.

There is a vast array of maritime recreational activities at this popular beach resort town of 1,300 residents, situated on the Atlantic in southeastern Delaware. Just north of Rehoboth Beach is Cape Henlopen State Park, and to the south is Delaware Seashore State Park, where campsites are available. The four-day Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival is held the weekend before Halloween, and the community hosts the Sea Witch Halloween Festival on the last weekend of October.

Rehoboth Beach was originally settled in the late 1600s. By 1873, when the first hotels were built near the beach, it was becoming a summer resort community—a change accelerated by the arrival of the railroad in 1878 and Route 1 in the 1920s.

Besides Route 1, visitors can take the year-round ferry between Lewes and Cape May, New Jersey.