5 Things Delaware Locals Do Once the Boardwalk Towns Empty Out

The line outside Rehoboth Beach’s most popular boardwalk restaurant stretched around the corner every night this summer.

But the crowds went home after Labor Day, and Rehoboth, Dewey, Bethany, and Fenwick Island are back to the people who live there year-round.

These are the things Delaware locals do once the boardwalk towns empty out.

1. Riding the Boardwalk Anytime

Rehoboth Beach’s boardwalk code bans bicycles from 10 a.m. until daybreak the next morning, but only from May 15 through September 15.

That clock disappears after Labor Day.

No curfew at all.

You can pedal the mile-long boardwalk at two in the afternoon or nine at night, any day of the week, clear into next May.

Rehoboth’s boardwalk turns into more of a bike path than a walkway once the summer restriction lifts, and residents notice the difference before they notice much else.

Bethany Beach runs an even tighter window: Its boardwalk code only allows bikes between 6 and 9 a.m., and only through September 30.

After that date, Bethany’s cyclists get the same all-hours run of the boardwalk that Rehoboth’s have had since mid-September.

2. Dogs Back on the Sand

Rehoboth Beach’s dog owners spend the summer turning back at the edge of downtown because the city bans dogs from its beach and boardwalk from May 15 through September 15.

That changes September 16 on the boardwalk, but not right away on the sand.

Rehoboth’s boardwalk ban lifts at midnight, and leashed dogs can walk it any time of day for the rest of the year.

The beach follows a separate rule.

Dogs stay off Rehoboth’s sand whenever lifeguards are on duty, and this year’s lifeguards keep reduced hours on the beach through September 20.

Rehoboth’s dog owners watch that guard schedule more closely than the calendar, since it decides the exact morning they get the whole beach back.

It’s worth the wait.

Rehoboth Beach spells out that exact window for every beachgoer each fall, along with the pooper-scooper law that never takes a season off.

Fenwick Island bans pets from its sand from May 1 through September 30, and Bethany Beach’s ban starts two weeks later but shares that same September 30 end date.

Leashed dogs return to Fenwick’s and Bethany’s beaches on October 1, more than two weeks after Rehoboth’s boardwalk went leash-friendly.

That’s also about ten days after Rehoboth’s lifeguards clear off the sand.

3. Free Parking Downtown

Rehoboth Beach residents start parking curbside downtown without feeding a meter once the city’s $4-an-hour rate stops applying on September 15.

The machines along Rehoboth Avenue sit dark until next May.

Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach run their meters through that same September 15 date, per the coastal parking guide’s town-by-town listing.

That frees up curbside space in three towns at once, and your beach trip stops needing to dodge a meter reader.

Dewey Beach also cuts what its permit holders pay before the meters go dark.

Dewey Beach’s $175 seasonal permit, sold to property and business owners in town, drops to $150 starting August 1, weeks before curb parking turns free.

It’s cheaper too.

4. Surf Fishing Without Reservations

Delaware State Parks requires a reservation for drive-on beach access at Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore, but only on weekends and holidays.

That window runs 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.

Show up on an ordinary Tuesday in July, and you never needed a reservation at all.

The weekend requirement disappears once Labor Day passes.

A Delaware resident holding a full-price surf-fishing permit can back a truck onto the sand at Delaware Seashore on any day this fall, no reservation required.

Just show up.

5. One Last Weekend Before Winter

Rehoboth Beach’s boardwalk hosts one more crowd before winter sets in with the Sea Witch Festival, running October 23 through 25, 2026.

The boardwalk fills back up for three days.

It’s one last hurrah.

The festival started in 1990 on a $5,000 budget and now pulls an estimated 200,000 visitors over that single weekend.

The Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce runs the festival, not the city government.

Local shop owners and volunteers staff the costume contest and the parade route.

Once that weekend wraps, the costumes go back in the closet until next October.

Boardwalk's Dark Arcade

Funland, the boardwalk arcade in Rehoboth Beach, typically closes for the season by mid-September, and 2026 followed the same pattern.

You won't hear its bells and buzzers again until next summer.

Funland's Haunted Mansion ride ran its final trips on September 13, 2026.

Then it's over.

Crews start tearing it out this fall, and the reimagined version won't reopen until summer 2028.

Arcade machines will fill that spot next season while the new ride comes together somewhere else on the block.

Hawk Watch at Cape Henlopen

Cape Henlopen State Park keeps its volunteer hawk count running from mid-August all the way through December, long after Labor Day thins out the boardwalk crowds.

A platform built into an old World War II bunker holds the counters.

Delaware's Division of Fish and Wildlife has staffed it every year since 1995, working alongside the Delaware Ornithological Society and the Delaware Nature Society.

Residents who wait until after Labor Day's crowds are gone can climb up and join the count.

No sign-up needed.

The platform sits roughly 20 meters above sea level, and a personal vehicle is the only practical way to reach it.

Locals who climb up between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. this fall might spot ospreys, sharp-shinned hawks, or a bald eagle riding the coastal updraft.