These Towns in Delaware Come Alive in Spring

Despite being the second-smallest state, Delaware is a giant spring garden. From March to June, tourists can stroll from one end to the other while marveling at colorful wildflowers, bustling wildlife, fresh produce, and artisan displays. Moreover, if you visit the right places on the right days, you can join festivals for everything from horseshoe crabs to ladybugs to chocolate to tulips to sea glass. Discover eight of the liveliest towns on a Delaware spring tour.

Milton

Milton has over 3,000 residents and attracts over 3,000 attendees for late May's Horseshoe Crab & Shorebird Festival. Scheduled to overlap with horseshoe crab spawning and shorebird migration on the Broadkill River, the festival celebrates local nature with presentations, rides, art, food, music, and kids' activities. 2023's event was co-sponsored by Dogfish Head Brewery, which hosts its own spring spectacles like concerts, Record Store Day festivities, and even a cycling/swigging event called Bikes & Beers.

Another springtime festival takes place just east of town in Hudson Fields. It is called Henlopen Springfest and features family-friendly activities, food and gift vendors, live music, a car and truck show, and a cornhole tournament. For 2024, both the Horseshoe Crab & Shorebird Festival and Henlopen Springfest are set to run on Saturday, May 25.

New Castle

New Castle is old, but that is part of its charm. In fact, A Day In Old New Castle is a festival hosted each May to commemorate a different historical event. 2024's theme is the 1824 Great Fire of New Castle. Planned activities include antique fire engines and equipment displays, plus Native American foodways demonstrations, costumed reenactments, and tours of historic buildings, gardens, and the replica Kalmar Nyckel ship.

New Castle also celebrates the 1776 separation of Delaware from Britain and Pennsylvania with Separation Day, held on two days in early June. After staring into the past, spring tourists can look into the future for the New Castle Farmers Market, which offers the "finest and freshest of Pennsylvania Dutch foods."

Rehoboth Beach

Known as a summer destination, Rehoboth Beach also draws tourists in milder months with myriad off-season attractions. These include Women’s FEST, which stands for Fun, Entertainment, Spring, and Tradition and is scheduled for late April; the Rehoboth Arts Festival, a mid-May showcase of Mid-Atlantic artists; the Chocolate Crawl, which sees downtown Rehoboth flow with delectable chocolate in mid-April; and the Spring Sidewalk Sale, an early May shopping staple going into its 41st year.

If none of those tickle your fancy, Rehoboth's conjoined twin Dewey Beach hosts Bacon Fest, an artery-clogging extravaganza held in April, which you can sandwich between the Dewey Egg Scoop in March and the Arts & Fun Festival in May.

Milford

Beginning in 1973, Ms. Mollie Brown and her second-grade class from Milford petitioned the Delaware legislature to designate a State Bug. On April 25, 1974, the second graders were on hand as Delaware's governor signed the ladybug into law. Milford honors the students' successful bugging with the Bug & Bud Festival. In addition to nature activities and food/craft vendors, this year's festival is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the bill's passing. Some of the pioneering students might even be present.

Following the late April bugfest, Milford hosts First Friday, a downtown shopping spectacular held on the first Friday of May. On May 13, 2023, the city added the Cherry Blossom Festival to its collection of colorful spring events, but whether it will return is unknown.

Smyrna

This 13,000ish person town has many commercial spring attractions, like Smyrna at Night and the Delaware Mystic Festival, but the most vernal part of Smyrna is its wilderness. Nearby Blackbird State Forest, Blackiston Wildlife Area, Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area, and Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge come alive in spring.

In Bombay Hook alone, visitors can see geese migrating, red maples flowering, and turtles emerging from hibernation in March. Wildflowers blossoming, spring peepers croaking, and bald eagles hatching in April. Horseshoe crabs spawning, shorebirds squawking, and white-tailed deer birthing in May. And eaglets flying, water lilies blooming, and black-necked stilts nesting in June. Ready for a spring Smyrna safari?

Bethany Beach

Bethany Beach embraces its coastal geography and culture with two grand spring events. The first is the Poseidon Festival, a celebration of the sea with pirates, mermaids, marine science, emergency response demonstrations, yacht rock music, and a luau show spanning three days in late May. Second is the Ocean to Bay Bike Tour, which welcomes 2,000-plus cyclists in late April for rides from 10 miles to 100 miles along the stunning Delaware coast. Other brisk Bethany Beach attractions are Earth Day at Bethany Beach Nature Center and the downtown Seaside Craft Show. At the same time, nearby Ocean City, Maryland, can round out a shore vacation with its own share of spring festivities.

Hockessin

Hockessin is a northern Delaware community whose nature necessitates a spring visit. The Delaware Nature Society has two preserves near town: the Ashland Nature Center and the Coverdale Farm Preserve. Throughout spring, they host numerous environmental activities like edible plant foraging, birding, herping, and wildflower viewing in their picturesque pastures. But the granddaddy of gorgeous Hockessin greenery is Mt. Cuba Center, which leases land to Ashland but outshines it with a botanical garden once voted the best in North America. The garden opens each April and hosts Wildflower Weekend with food, beverages, live music, and, native spring blooms.

Lewes

Another coastal community, Lewes' climate is conducive to countless spring festivals. Run & Fun Fest takes attendees on a fun run down the Georgetown-Lewes Trail in mid-May. The Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival celebrates marine and marine-inspired gems in early June. The Lewes Tulip Celebration happens when tulips bloom, usually throughout April. Perhaps the quirkiest spring event is The Rehoboth Beach Jewish Film Festival, which, despite its name, is held at Lewes' Cinema Art Theater. Bringing Jews to Lewes are Rabbi On The Block, The Catskills, and other Semitic flicks from April 10 to 14.

If you classify Delaware as a massive garden rather than a tiny state, it is a wonder of the world that becomes more wonderful in spring. A tour of the 1,948-square-mile Delaware garden can reveal wildflowers in March, cultivated tulips in April, cherry blossoms in May, and water lilies in June. Pair those floral features with lush forests, serene beaches, and fun festivals hosted by quaint communities, and you might get a green thumb for life.