Things to Do in Kittery, Maine

How this list is ranked

Everything below is ordered by rating multiplied by review volume from our Kittery places data. That measure is deliberately unkind to places that are highly rated by very few people. Kittery has several of those — small galleries carrying perfect scores from a dozen reviewers — and they are listed, but they are listed where the arithmetic puts them rather than where a rating-only sort would.

One structural thing to know first: Kittery is three separate places that share a name. There is the Route 1 outlet corridor, there is the Foreside — the old downtown near the Memorial Bridge, walking distance to Portsmouth — and there is Kittery Point and Gerrish Island, a fifteen-minute drive east on Route 103. They do not feel like the same town and you cannot do all three on foot.

Fort McClary State Historic Site — 4.7 from 1,308 reviews

Pepperrell Rd, Kittery Point. The highest-scoring non-restaurant in Kittery and the thing to see if you only see one. The hexagonal blockhouse on the rise above the water is the photograph everyone takes, but the site is better than that suggests: earthworks, a granite magazine, and a long grassy slope down to the river with the whole Piscataqua approach laid out in front of it. It is a state historic site, so it is staffed seasonally and the grounds are the point rather than the interiors. Half an hour, or an hour with a sandwich. Our Fort McClary guide has the access detail.

Fort Foster — 4.7 from 694 reviews

76 Pocahontas Rd, Kittery Point. A town park at the far end of Gerrish Island, and the single best reason to drive past the outlets. It has three small beaches, tidepools that are genuinely worth a low tide, a ruined pier you can walk out on, and a treeline that opens onto the light standing on the ledge at the harbor mouth. It is also where the wind is, which is why you will see kites.

Two caveats. The park charges an entrance fee in season and the lot fills on hot weekends — arrive before eleven or after four. And the road out is narrow and residential the whole way, so this is not a place to arrive in a hurry.

Take Flight Aerial Adventure Course — 4.9 from 316 reviews

506 Blue Star Memorial Highway. At 4.9 it is the strongest rating in Kittery from any sample of that size, and the answer to a rainy-ish afternoon with teenagers in the car. It is an indoor and outdoor ropes and obstacle course rather than a zipline tour, which is a distinction worth knowing before you book. Sessions are timed and it sells out in July and August.

The outlets, used properly

The outlet strip runs along both sides of Route 1 north of the bridges in a series of separate plazas, and the mistake people make is treating it as one mall. It is not — you drive between clusters, and a Saturday in December turns that mile into a car park. Maine has no sales tax on clothing and footwear, which is the actual reason the strip exists and the actual reason to shop here rather than over the bridge. Go on a weekday morning. Our guide to the Kittery outlets breaks down which cluster holds what.

Where to eat

Kittery's food scene is the genuine surprise of the town, and it is concentrated in the Foreside rather than on Route 1.

Place	Rating	Reviews	Note
Robert's Maine Grill	4.6	3,396	326 US-1; the most-reviewed anything in Kittery
The Black Birch	4.8	586	2 Government St; highest-rated sit-down in town
Buoy Shack	4.4	336	Badgers Island; counter service on the water

Robert's is the volume winner and sits right on the highway with the lobster-shack format done at scale — you will wait. The Black Birch, in the Foreside, is the one to book if you want a real dinner; at 4.8 from nearly six hundred people it is the strongest food rating in the town data. Buoy Shack's 4.4 is the lowest of the three and reads like a place people judge against their expectations of a waterfront takeout rather than against its actual sandwich.

If nothing here fits, Portsmouth is a ten-minute walk over the Memorial Bridge from the Foreside, and the wider Maine restaurant listings cover the York and Ogunquit options twenty minutes north.

Galleries and small stops

• Kittery Art Association — 4.8 from 27 reviews, 2 Walker St. A member-run gallery with rotating shows; free, quick, and the best indication of what the local art scene actually is.
• Buoy Gallery — 4.6 from 12 reviews, 2 Government St. Small, in the Foreside, worth ten minutes while you wait for a table.
• Haley Art Gallery — 5.0 from 7 reviews, 178 Haley Rd. A perfect score off a tiny sample, so treat it as a lead rather than a verdict. Check it is open before driving out.

On the water

Two charter operations run out of Kittery and both carry a 5.0 from 16 reviews: FVLost fishing charters on Badgers Island and Sea Time Fishing Charters in Kittery Point. Sixteen reviews is a small sample and identical scores from small samples mean less than they look like, so pick on trip type and boat rather than on the number. Both are half-day and full-day inshore operations rather than offshore tuna boats.

The honest drawback

Kittery has almost no public beach for visitors. The town's swimmable sand — Seapoint and Crescent, out on the Point — is fringed by resident-only parking for most of the season, and Fort Foster's beaches are small and fee-gated. If your day is built around lying on sand, you are going to York, and you should plan for that from the start rather than discovering it at two in the afternoon. Long Sands and Short Sands are fifteen minutes north and both have real public lots.

The second thing: Route 1 through Kittery is the worst traffic in southern Maine on a summer Saturday, and the I-95 exits feed straight into it. Come off the interstate at the northern exit and work south, or come on a weekday.

A day that works

Outlets first thing while the lots are empty. Cut east on Route 103 to Fort McClary by late morning — the light on the blockhouse is better before noon. Lunch in the Foreside. Fort Foster in the afternoon on a falling tide so the tidepools are open, then dinner at the Black Birch or push north. That routing never doubles back and never sits in the Route 1 crawl.

If you have a second day, York is fifteen minutes up the coast and holds the region's headline sights — the beaches, the Nubble, and a walkable harbor. See our Kittery town page for where to stay on this end.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kittery worth stopping in, or should you drive straight through?

Worth stopping, but only if you leave Route 1. The outlet strip is the same experience as any outlet strip. What Kittery has that nowhere else on this coast does is Kittery Point and Gerrish Island — Fort McClary at 4.7 from 1,308 reviews and Fort Foster at 4.7 from 694, both on the water, both a fifteen-minute drive from the highway. Two hours covers both.

What is the best thing to do in Kittery with kids?

Fort Foster, on a falling tide. The tidepools, the small beaches and the ruined pier occupy children for longer than any museum will, and there is room to run. On a wet day, Take Flight Aerial Adventure Course at 4.9 from 316 reviews out-rates everything else in Kittery with a comparable number of reviews, and is built for exactly that age range.

Does Kittery have a public beach?

Barely. The town's beaches at Seapoint and Crescent have resident-restricted parking through the summer season, and Fort Foster's three small beaches sit behind a park entrance fee with a lot that fills by late morning. For a straightforward beach day, drive fifteen minutes north to Long Sands or Short Sands in York, which have public parking and lifeguards.

How long does the Kittery outlet strip take?

Budget two to three hours if you are actually shopping, and understand that it is not one mall — the stores sit in separate plazas along both sides of Route 1 and you drive between them. Clothing and footwear carry no Maine sales tax, which is the real reason to shop this side of the river. Weekday mornings are the difference between a pleasant hour and a parking-lot argument.