Ready for your Summer Trip to the Southern Jersey Shore?

It’s no secret that the Jersey Shore is a popular and happening destination, but we have found everything from quiet, picturesque beaches to coastal education centers, peaceful little towns to bustling boardwalks and everything in between along the southern coast of New Jersey. We return there year after year and always find new, fun things to do, beyond the always-glorious experience of spending a day on the shore. Here are a few of our favorite destinations.

Cape May

The town of Cape May can get crowded during peek season, so if that bothers you, a better time to explore and till enjoy good weather is late May/early June, or even better (with warmer water) the month of September. It is filled with neat rows of Victorian homes that look like lacy, colorful gingerbread houses. The surf can get rough so stay near a lifeguard and keep an eye on the kids at all times.

We have enjoyed staying at The Grand Hotel, right on the beach. It has an indoor and outdoor pool, with a nice little baby pool right next to the regular outdoor pool, so you can easily keep all the kids in view at the same time. If you need a break from the beach, you can visit the Aviation Museum at the Cape May Airport if you have a plane-lover. Or, take a day to visit the the Cape May County Zoo. Just note that we have seen giant tortoises mating (or as we like to tell the kids, “wrestling”) here every. single. summer. Finally, the Cape May Lighthouse, which is part of Cape May Point State Park, can be explored for a small fee.

Avalon/Stone Harbor

Our favorite beaches to visit are these, because they are rarely crowded. You won’t find a lot of hotels or fast food restaurants in the area, but if you rent a house you will enjoy a tranquil vacation. There are also nearby campgrounds. A large part of Avalon is a bird sanctuary, so you need to follow a path for a half a mile or so between shrub and cactus covered sand dunes to reach the ocean, and at times parts of the shore are roped off for bird nesting. If you like nature, this is really fun to see, but beware of flies! They are occasionally intolerable.

Stone Harbor has a tiny “boardwalk” with an ice cream shop and a small arcade, and they show movies on certain weekend evenings right on the beach. Another fun place to visit in the area is the Wetland Institute, which is a nature center with boardwalks through the salt marsh. You can see ospreys nesting on camera, the kids can climb into a life sized (enormous) osprey nest, you can climb overlooks to see over the sea of rippling green rushes and jewel blue salt water, and sometimes you will find the marsh absolutely teeming with crabs. (Again, the bugs can be an issue – bring your bug spray).

Ocean City and Wildwood

If you’re looking for a bit more excitement, the Ocean City boardwalk and/or the Wildwood Boardwalk is definitely worth a visit, for the fries, the custard, the cotton candy, the games, the rides, and the beach as well. Even if we’re staying at a different beach in the southern shore area, we always make it a point to spend an evening in wonderful Ocean City (toward the north), or take a stroll along the Wildwood Boardwalk (toward the south).

A few more suggestions: We enjoy Uncle Bill’s Pancake House in OCNJ for breakfast. In Wildwood, the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse has a small museum, gift shop, butterfly garden and offers tours.

Atlantic City

While generally known as a destination for grownups for the casinos and shows, there’s actually quite a bit of family fun in Atlantic City as well. The casinos in AC also function as eateries, hotels, and shopping establishments, so children are allowed to stroll through them. Our Mexican-American family loves el sabor Latino at the Havanna-inspired Quarter at Tropicana, where you can find good things to eat at a variety of restaurants that are suitable for the whole family. And not only do adults find the festive atmosphere and tropical décor fun and exciting, but kids do too!

The kids also enjoy the Atlantic City Aquarium, which is small and perfect for the younger set, and includes touch tanks, the opportunity to feed baby rays from your hand, and talks and demonstrations with the animals by the staff. At the north end of the boardwalk, a little past the Steel Pier, you’ll find a playground and next to it, the Absecon Lighthouse, which offers tours for a small fee. Though dwarfed by the giant hotels of Atlantic City, this is actually one of the tallest lighthouses in the USA, and it’s quite picturesque and includes interesting historic information about how lighthouses were kept in the past.

Finally, for a quainter stop along the way in or out of Atlantic City, Historic Smithville Shoppes is an interesting retail area (not actually a historical town, though many of the buildings are restored historic buildings, and all of them are quite unique!) that hosts various events throughout the year, such as Christmas train rides in December and Carousel rides in the warmer months.

As summer comes calling, any of these destinations along the Southern New Jersey Shore are great choices for family fun.