Fenwick Island Beach
Fenwick Island, DE
Fenwick Island is Delaware's southernmost beach town, sitting right against the Maryland line with none of Ocean City's high rises visible once you're down on the sand. It's the smallest and quietest of the state's beach towns, more a collection of vacation homes than a commercial strip, and the trans-peninsular marker at the old lighthouse is worth a detour before you leave.
Small and genuinely quiet compared to its neighbors, a real draw for people avoiding crowds, though there's little to do in town once you're off the sand.
How we score beachesPark a few blocks back from the water. The streets right along the dune fill first, but Fenwick is small enough that even the farthest legal spot is only a five or six minute walk.
Metered and permit street parking covers most of town in season; spaces open up quickly a few blocks inland from the beach.
Marked street end walkovers cross the dune to the sand, flat and easy from most parking.
Dogs are banned from the town beach entirely from May 1 through September 30, and must be leashed the rest of the year.
The same Memorial Day to Labor Day season as the rest of the coast applies here, water settling into the 70s by midsummer. Being the last town before Maryland, the crowds thin out noticeably compared to Ocean City just a few minutes south.
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