Located in Monroe County, and home to Hamlin Beach State Park, Hamlin is convenient to many area attractions via the scenic Lake Ontario State Parkway and nearby historic Ridge Road. Hamlin features a friendly, country atmosphere, convenience to Rochester, and is a short drive to many area attractions. The town of Hamlin occupies the northwest corner of Monroe County. It is bounded on the west by the town of Kendall, Orleans County, on the north by Lake Ontario, on the east by Parma, and on the south by its parent, Clarkson. It is the county's second largest town with a land area of 44.4 square miles (26.387 acres). Although it contains no incorporated villages, six active hamlets are part of its history: two bisected by the county line: Morton and Kendall Mills; three straddling Lake Road in the center of town: North Hamlin (Thomasville), Hamlin Station, and Hamlin Center; and Walker, in the town's eastern section.

Hamlin residents benefit from a concerned town government which has maintained a remarkably stable town tax rate. Most homeowners would agree that the observation made by Historian William F. Peck in 1895 is still applicable a century later: “Hamlin is as clean and wholesome a town, socially, morally, or otherwise as can be found in Monroe County.”