The Jersey Shore: Every Beach Town Compared (and How to Choose)

New Jersey has about 130 miles of ocean coast, and nearly every mile of it is somebody’s favorite beach. The Jersey Shore runs from Sandy Hook, in sight of the Manhattan skyline, to Cape May at the state’s southern tip, through four counties and more than 40 oceanfront towns. Those towns have very little in common apart from the sand. Seaside Heights has roller coasters on a pier and a boardwalk that stays loud past midnight. Spring Lake, about half an hour up the coast, has two miles of boardwalk without a single shop on it. Ocean City doesn’t sell alcohol anywhere, and the Wildwoods don’t charge you to sit on the beach.

So picking the right town matters more than picking the right week. This page compares every town and beach park on the Shore, 46 of them in 32 entries, north to south: what each one is like, whether it has a boardwalk worth walking, what a 2026 beach badge costs, the drive from New York and Philadelphia, and who it suits. It also explains how the Shore works if you’ve never been (beach badges, “down the shore,” jughandles), how to get there without a car, where to stay and what has closed or changed. And yes, this is the real Jersey Shore, not the MTV one, though the FAQ answers where the show was filmed.

Quick answer: For a first family trip, pick Ocean City. For rides and a loud boardwalk, go to Wildwood or Seaside Heights; for Victorian inns and quiet nights, Cape May; for food, music and a train from New York, Asbury Park. For peace and quiet, try Spring Lake, Bay Head, Avalon or Cape May Point. Beaches in Atlantic City and the Wildwoods are free, and almost everywhere else charges $6 to $15 a day in summer.

Last updated September 24, 2026. Beach badge prices, park fees, fares, schedules and closures were checked on September 23-24, 2026, against each town’s or agency’s own website, and every price is dated in the text. Drive times are light-traffic routing estimates from Times Square and Philadelphia City Hall.

• Free: the beaches of Atlantic City, the three Wildwoods and Strathmere, every boardwalk, and almost every beach once badge season ends after Labor Day.
• Book ahead: July and August rental houses (the good weeks go by March), Seastreak’s Sandy Hook beach ferry (advance tickets only) and Cape May inns on summer weekends.
• Gone or changed: Ocean City’s Wonderland Pier, Asbury Park’s Convention Hall (apart from the Grand Arcade walkway) and Ocean Grove’s Sunday-morning beach closure. See What’s changed.
• Costs to expect: $6 to $15 for a summer day badge, $20 to park at Sandy Hook, up to $20 a car at Island Beach State Park, and 12% to 14% in taxes on a hotel room.

On this page: All towns at a glance | How the Shore works | How to choose | North Shore | Central Shore | South Shore | Boardwalks | Getting there | Where to stay | When to go | What’s changed | What to skip | FAQ

Jersey Shore Towns at a Glance

All 32 entries on this page, north to south (some pair two neighboring towns). Day badge prices are the 2026 summer rates for adults (children are usually free up to about age 12); drive times assume light traffic.

#	Town	Best for	Boardwalk	2026 day badge	From NYC	From Philly
1	Sandy Hook	Nature, NYC day trips	None (national park)	No badge; $20 parking	1 hr 25 min	2 hr 5 min
2	Atlantic Highlands and Highlands	Views, ferry to NYC	Bay towns, no ocean beach	No ocean beach	1 hr 15 min	1 hr 55 min
3	Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach	A quick beach day	No rides	$10 / $15	1 hr 20 min	1 hr 50 min
4	Long Branch	Budget, train, beach hotels	Pier Village shops and food	$6 to $9	1 hr 20 min	1 hr 45 min
5	Deal and Allenhurst	Quiet, club-style beaches	No rides	$12 to $15 day pass	1 hr 25 min	1 hr 40 min
6	Asbury Park	Food, music, LGBTQ+	Restaurants and bars, no rides	$7 to $10	1 hr 20 min	1 hr 40 min
7	Ocean Grove	Victorian, quiet	Quiet boardwalk	$13	1 hr 25 min	1 hr 40 min
8	Bradley Beach and Avon-by-the-Sea	Families	Boardwalk, no rides	$14	1 hr 25 min	1 hr 35 min
9	Belmar	20-somethings, surfing	Food and shops, no rides	$12	1 hr 25 min	1 hr 35 min
10	Spring Lake	Quiet, couples	2 miles, no shops	$12 + $1 fee	1 hr 30 min	1 hr 35 min
11	Sea Girt	Quiet families	No rides	$11.98	1 hr 30 min	1 hr 35 min
12	Manasquan	Surfing, families	Beach walk, no rides	$12	1 hr 30 min	1 hr 35 min
13	Point Pleasant Beach	Young kids, rainy days	Rides, aquarium	$14 to $15 (private)	1 hr 30 min	1 hr 35 min
14	Bay Head and Mantoloking	Quiet	None	$15	1 hr 35 min	1 hr 40 min
15	Lavallette	Families	Boardwalk, no shops	$13	1 hr 50 min	1 hr 40 min
16	Seaside Heights	Teens, nightlife	Rides, arcades, bars	$13	1 hr 50 min	1 hr 35 min
17	Seaside Park	Families	Boardwalk, no rides	$13	1 hr 50 min	1 hr 40 min
18	Island Beach State Park	Nature, surfing	None (state park)	$6 to $20 per car	1 hr 55 min	1 hr 40 min
19	Long Beach Island	Rental weeks, families	None; rides at Fantasy Island	$7 to $11	2 hr 10 min to 2 hr 25 min	1 hr 30 min to 1 hr 45 min
20	Brigantine	Quiet, beach driving	Short promenade	$10	2 hr 55 min	1 hr 30 min
21	Atlantic City	Free beach, nightlife	Casinos, Steel Pier rides	Free	2 hr 45 min	1 hr 20 min
22	Ventnor	Biking, fishing	Boardwalk, no rides	Season only ($20)	2 hr 45 min	1 hr 25 min
23	Margate	Families, Lucy	No rides	Season only ($20)	2 hr 40 min	1 hr 20 min
24	Longport	Total quiet	No rides	Season only ($40)	2 hr 45 min	1 hr 25 min
25	Ocean City	Families, first trips	Rides, no alcohol in town	$10	2 hr 50 min	1 hr 30 min
26	Strathmere	Free, quiet	None	Free	3 hr	1 hr 35 min
27	Sea Isle City	Families by day, bars by night	Promenade with shops, arcades	$10; free Wednesdays	3 hr	1 hr 35 min
28	Avalon	Upscale family weeks	Boardwalk, no rides	$10	3 hr 5 min	1 hr 45 min
29	Stone Harbor	Quiet, birders	No rides	$8	3 hr 10 min	1 hr 45 min
30	The Wildwoods	Rides, teens, free beach	Rides (Morey’s Piers)	Free	3 hr 10 min to 3 hr 15 min	1 hr 50 min to 1 hr 55 min
31	Cape May	Couples, Victorian inns	Promenade, no rides	$10	3 hr 15 min	1 hr 55 min
32	Cape May Point	Birders, sunsets	None	$10	3 hr 25 min	2 hr

How the Jersey Shore Works: Badges, Boardwalks and the Season

A few things about the Shore confuse nearly every first-timer, and none of them is written on a sign where you’ll see it in time.

Beach badges: you pay to sit on the sand

In most New Jersey beach towns, anyone over a set age (usually 12) needs a beach badge, also called a beach tag, to go on the beach in summer. It’s a small plastic or metal pin, or a wristband, sold by the day, the week or the season, and checkers walk the beach asking to see it. The money pays for lifeguards and beach upkeep. In 2026 a day badge cost $6 to $15, and a season badge anywhere from $20 in Margate and Ventnor to $145 in Mantoloking, with discounts in most towns for buying before the season starts.

Three things to know. First, badges are only checked in season, usually on weekends from Memorial Day and every day from mid-June to Labor Day, and only during set hours, typically from about 9 or 10 a.m. to between 4 and 6 p.m. (Seaside Heights checks until 8 p.m. on summer weekends). Come early or late, or after Labor Day, and the beach is usually free. Second, a few places never charge at all: Atlantic City, the three Wildwoods and Strathmere, and Sea Isle City skips badges every Wednesday. Third, each town sells its own badge, so a Belmar badge is useless in Spring Lake, one town south. The prices for every town are in the at-a-glance table.

Boardwalks: rides or no rides

A Jersey Shore boardwalk can be either of two very different things. The commercial ones (Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant Beach, Wildwood, Ocean City, Atlantic City) are lined with pizza, fudge, arcades and T-shirt shops, and often have amusement piers with rides built out over the beach. The other kind is a promenade: a long wooden or concrete walkway with benches, pavilions and sometimes a snack stand, and nothing else. Spring Lake’s is the best-known example. Neither is better, but booking a week in a promenade town and expecting a Ferris wheel is a classic Shore mistake. The boardwalk comparison below sorts them out.

The season, lifeguards and rip currents

The Shore’s summer officially runs from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, which in 2026 fell on Monday, September 7. Most towns guard their beaches on weekends from Memorial Day and every day from mid- to late June, and most send the lifeguards home after Labor Day; a few, like Wildwood Crest, keep some stands staffed into mid-September. Swim only in front of a staffed lifeguard stand. The ocean here has rip currents, narrow channels of water that pull swimmers away from shore, and the National Weather Service warns that they often form on calm, sunny days and can be whipped up by hurricanes far out at sea. Its advice if one catches you: yell for help, stay calm and afloat, and swim parallel to the beach before heading in, never straight against the current. The Weather Service’s Mount Holly office posts a daily surf-zone forecast rating the rip current risk for New Jersey beaches as low, moderate or high. Its preliminary data list five surf-zone deaths in New Jersey so far in 2026, in Ocean City, Wildwood, Seaside Park, Ship Bottom and North Wildwood. The chance of drowning at a guarded beach, by the US Lifesaving Association’s count, is 1 in 18 million.

Rules that surprise people

• No drinking on the beach. The beach-rules pages from Sandy Hook, Belmar, Avon, Manasquan and Seaside Heights to Toms River and the state parks all ban alcohol on the sand, and most ban glass too. Some towns check coolers and bags at the entrance.
• No smoking or vaping on the beach. A state law in force since January 16, 2019 bans it on public beaches and in parks, with fines of $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second and $1,000 after that. Towns may set aside a smoking area on up to 15% of a beach, and parking lots are exempt. Legal cannabis doesn’t change this: New Jersey doesn’t allow smoking or vaping marijuana in public at all.
• Dry towns. Ocean City, founded by Methodist ministers in 1879, has never allowed alcohol sales, and its restaurants don’t do BYOB either. Ocean Grove, the Methodist camp-meeting town next to Asbury Park, is dry too, and tiny Cape May Point has no bars at all. In most other Shore towns bars and liquor stores are normal, and in Wildwood and Seaside Heights they’re half the point.
• Curfews and “pop-up party” crackdowns. After rowdy teenage crowds led Wildwood to declare a state of emergency over Memorial Day weekend 2024, and other boardwalks saw unpermitted “pop-up parties” organized on social media, New Jersey made organizing a disruptive pop-up party a fourth-degree crime in June 2025, punishable by up to 18 months in prison, and made simply taking part a disorderly persons offense. Towns added their own rules: Wildwood now closes its boardwalk from 1 to 5 a.m. and bans backpacks after 8 p.m., Ocean City has banned backpacks on its boardwalk since 2023, and most boardwalk towns have a 10 or 11 p.m. summer curfew for unaccompanied minors. It still happens: a pop-up gathering at Long Branch’s Pier Village in May 2026 led to an emergency 8 p.m. curfew. Adults rarely notice any of this, but teenagers traveling without parents should know the rules of the town they’re in.

How to talk like a local

New Jerseyans don’t go to the beach; they go “down the shore,” a phrase you’ll hear from North Jersey to Philadelphia. Locals on the northern Shore call summer visitors “bennies,” and South Jersey calls day-trippers “shoobies,” a word most people trace to Philadelphians who once arrived by train with lunch packed in shoeboxes. Neither is a compliment, and nobody minds much. Your sub is a “hoagie” south of about Trenton, and the breakfast meat on your egg sandwich is “pork roll” or “Taylor ham” depending on which half of the state you’re in. Pick a side at your own risk.

How to Choose a Jersey Shore Town

Every Shore town has sand and saltwater. What separates them is everything behind the dunes: rides or no rides, bars or no bars, Victorian porches or 1960s motels, a train station or not. Start with the kind of trip you want, then pick from the table.

If you want	Go to	Also good
A first family beach week	Ocean City	Point Pleasant Beach, Wildwood Crest, Avalon
Rides and a loud boardwalk	Wildwood	Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant Beach
Bars and nightlife	Belmar	Seaside Heights, Sea Isle City, Wildwood, Atlantic City
Victorian streets and inns	Cape May	Ocean Grove, Spring Lake
Peace and quiet	Spring Lake	Bay Head, Cape May Point, Stone Harbor
Food, music and a scene	Asbury Park	Long Branch
An LGBTQ+ scene	Asbury Park	Nowhere else on the Shore comes close
Surfing	Manasquan	Belmar, Long Beach Island
Dunes, birds and almost no buildings	Island Beach State Park	Sandy Hook, Cape May Point, Stone Harbor Point
No car	Asbury Park	Belmar, Point Pleasant Beach, Atlantic City, Sandy Hook by ferry
Free beaches	The Wildwoods	Atlantic City, Strathmere
A pricier, polished family week	Avalon	Stone Harbor, Spring Lake, Margate
A day trip from New York	Sandy Hook	Asbury Park, Long Branch
A day trip from Philadelphia	Ocean City	Atlantic City, Margate, Brigantine

Families

The best Jersey Shore towns for families share three things: lifeguarded beaches, something to do after 5 p.m. that isn’t a bar, and a boardwalk that winds down at a reasonable hour. Ocean City checks every box and adds a rule most parents like: no alcohol is sold anywhere in town. Point Pleasant Beach packs an aquarium and small rides into a short boardwalk, Wildwood Crest gives you the Wildwood rides without the Wildwood nights, and Avalon and Stone Harbor trade rides for wide, quiet beaches and ice cream. Skip Seaside Heights with young kids on a July Saturday night unless you enjoy explaining things.

Nightlife

Jersey Shore nightlife comes in two flavors. Belmar, Seaside Heights, Sea Isle City and Wildwood are bar towns, busiest with people in their 20s and loudest on summer weekends. Atlantic City is the other flavor: casino nightclubs, concerts and bars that stay open after the Shore towns shut. Asbury Park sits between them, with live music most summer nights and a crowd that runs older than Belmar’s.

Quiet and upscale

If you want the beach without the boardwalk noise, the quiet towns are Spring Lake and Sea Girt in Monmouth County, Bay Head and Mantoloking just north of Island Beach, Margate and Longport south of Atlantic City, Avalon and Stone Harbor in Cape May County, and Cape May Point at the very tip of the state. Expect big houses, few hotels and not much open after dinner. That’s the point.

Victorian

Cape May is the Shore’s Victorian town by a wide margin, with streets of restored 19th-century houses, many of them now inns. Ocean Grove, a Methodist camp-meeting town founded in 1869, is the northern answer: gingerbread cottages, summer tents and the 1894 Great Auditorium, a few blocks from the ocean. Spring Lake has fewer painted ladies but the same unhurried feel.

Without a car

You can reach the northern Shore from New York without a car. NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line stops in Long Branch, Asbury Park, Bradley Beach, Belmar, Spring Lake, Manasquan and Point Pleasant Beach, and from each station the beach is a walk or a short cab ride away. Seastreak ferries run from Manhattan to the Highlands, Atlantic Highlands and, in summer, Sandy Hook. Atlantic City has its own train line from Philadelphia and buses from both cities. Most of the southern Shore is hard without a car. The getting there section has the details.

North Jersey Shore: Sandy Hook to Manasquan

The northern Shore is all Monmouth County, and it’s the part closest to New York and the easiest to reach without a car: NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line runs down the coast from Long Branch to Point Pleasant Beach, and Seastreak ferries cross from Manhattan to the Highlands. The towns here are older and more varied than in the south, from Asbury Park’s music scene to Spring Lake’s hush, and several are small, wealthy boroughs whose beaches mostly serve the people who live there. Drives run about 1 hr 15 min to 1 hr 30 min from Midtown and 1 hr 35 min to 2 hr 5 min from Philadelphia.

1. Sandy Hook

No badges; $20 beach parking in summer. The Shore starts at Sandy Hook, a sand spit so close to New York that you can see the Manhattan skyline from the bay beaches. It’s part of Gateway National Recreation Area, so there’s no boardwalk, no badge checker and no rental house, just ocean beaches, the brick buildings of Fort Hancock and the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, first lit on June 11, 1764 and the oldest operating lighthouse in the United States. It’s the closest thing to a wild beach within 90 minutes of Midtown.

Plan it: The park is open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. From Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, beach lots cost $20 a day or $100 a season, paid at cashless booths, and they fill early on hot weekends. Lifeguards watch Beach C and Beach D from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day; Gunnison Beach and North Beach are never guarded, and swimming is banned wherever and whenever guards aren’t on duty. Alcohol and glass aren’t allowed. This fall the visitor center (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and lighthouse tours (1 to 3:30 p.m.) run Friday to Monday. Seastreak’s summer beach ferry from Manhattan ran May 26 to September 7, 2026, at $60 round trip for adults, with advance digital tickets only; the last weekend trips of 2026, scheduled via the Highlands for September 26-27, were canceled as a nor’easter moved in. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 2 hr 5 min from Philadelphia. Best for: NYC day trips, beach purists, history.

2. Atlantic Highlands and Highlands

Bay towns: no ocean beach, no badges. Before the coast turns into beach towns, it rises into hills. Atlantic Highlands calls itself a small Victorian town overlooking lower New York Bay with Manhattan in the distance, and its neighbor Highlands sits on Sandy Hook Bay at the foot of the bridge to Sandy Hook. Neither has an ocean beach; what they have is the Seastreak ferry to Manhattan, a working harbor, and the best views on the Shore. Mount Mitchill Scenic Overlook, a 12-acre county park, stands 266 feet up, which the Monmouth County Park System calls the highest natural elevation on the Atlantic seaboard (islands excluded) between Maine and the Yucatan. From it you look over Sandy Hook, the bays and the New York skyline, and it holds the county’s 9/11 memorial to 147 Monmouth County residents. Up the road in Highlands, the Twin Lights, a double-towered lighthouse and museum, looks down on the same view.

Plan it: Seastreak runs from both towns to Manhattan; a one-way Flex ticket costs $29 for ages 13 and up (plus a fuel surcharge of about 5% in 2026), and daytime parking at the terminals is free. Mount Mitchill opens at 7 a.m. daily and closes at 8 p.m. through October 4, 7:30 p.m. through October 31 and 5:30 p.m. from November 1. The Twin Lights grounds and museum are free; climbing the tower costs $5 for adults and $2 for children under 12 until October 31, and after Labor Day the museum and tower open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Atlantic Highlands Day is Sunday, October 4, 2026. Drive: 1 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Best for: ferry day trips, views, lighthouses, a base for Sandy Hook.

3. Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach

Badges in summer ($10 a day in Sea Bright, $15 in Monmouth Beach in 2026). South of Sandy Hook the land narrows to a thin strip between the ocean and the Shrewsbury River, and Sea Bright squeezes a whole town onto it: restaurants along Ocean Avenue and a beach lined with private beach clubs. You don’t need a membership to use it. Sea Bright’s municipal beach and Anchorage Beach take a town badge, the same badge covers the public areas in front of the private clubs, and seven marked access paths off Ocean Avenue are free. Monmouth Beach, next door, runs a members’ bathing pavilion with a pool and cabanas, but sells beach badges and daily wristbands to the public, and it lists four public access points where no badge is needed.

Plan it: Sea Bright’s 2026 badges: $10 a day (sold May 23 to September 7), $100 for the season ($75 if bought in December), $35 for seniors 65 and up; under 12 free. Monmouth Beach: $15 for a daily wristband, sold in person at the pavilion at 29 Ocean Avenue, or $110 for a season badge. Neither town has a train station, so plan to drive. Drive: 1 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 50 min from Philadelphia. Best for: a quick beach day from North Jersey or New York.

4. Long Branch

Badges in summer ($6 to $9 a day in 2026). Free boardwalk. Long Branch was a fashionable resort in the late 1800s, when presidents from Grant and Garfield to McKinley and Wilson visited or vacationed here (hence the Church of the Presidents and Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park), and today it’s the northern Shore’s best-value beach town. The center of the action is Pier Village, an oceanfront complex of apartments, shops and, by its own count, 31 restaurants, plus two beachfront hotels, Wave Resort and The Bungalow Hotel. Long Branch’s badges are the cheapest on this stretch of coast and free for children 13 and under and adults 62 and up. North of town, Seven Presidents is a 38-acre county beach park with guarded swimming, designated surfing areas and its own fees. Two cautions. The Church of the Presidents museum is closed for a structural renovation expected to finish sometime in 2027. And after a pop-up gathering of several hundred teenagers at Pier Village on May 19, 2026, the mayor imposed an emergency 8 p.m. curfew there that night, and the city has kept a heavy police presence on the beachfront since.

Plan it: 2026 badges: $6 on weekdays and $9 on weekends and holidays ($3 for ages 14 to 17), or $70 for an annual pass. New this year, you can buy a daily or seasonal badge online up to seven days ahead and have its QR code scanned at any of the city’s 22 beach entrances. Seven Presidents charged $10 per adult (18 and up) and $10 to park in 2026, collected 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from May 23 to September 7; kids 17 and under and military members and veterans got in free. Long Branch is the last stop for direct electric trains from New York (Elberon, in the south of the city, has a station too). Drive: 1 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 45 min from Philadelphia. Best for: train day trips from New York, budget beach days, a hotel on the sand.

5. Deal and Allenhurst

Day passes in summer ($12 to $15 a day in 2026). Between Long Branch and Asbury Park, Deal and Allenhurst are two small, wealthy boroughs of big houses and old beach clubs, and they’re the northern Shore’s most private-feeling beaches. They’re open to the public, but on club terms. Allenhurst Beach Club sells non-members a daily pass that includes its bathrooms and showers (not the pool or cabanas), and Deal sells non-member passes for its beach access points and daily admission at its Conover Pavilion.

Plan it: Allenhurst’s daily pass costs $12 on weekdays and $15 on weekends and holidays for adults, with children 12 and under free, sold at the Cedar Avenue and Allen Avenue gates. Deal’s 2026 non-member passes were $12 on weekdays and $15 on weekends, or $200 for the season, according to Patch; check the borough’s website for current rates. Allenhurst has its own stop on the coast line. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min to 1 hr 45 min from Philadelphia. Best for: a quiet, well-kept beach day with real bathrooms.

6. Asbury Park

Badges in summer ($7 to $10 a day in 2026). Free boardwalk. Asbury Park is the Shore town for people who would rather eat, drink and hear a band than ride a roller coaster. The music runs through the Stone Pony, open since 1974 at 913 Ocean Avenue, and the Sea.Hear.Now festival that takes over the beach each September. It’s also the Shore’s LGBTQ+ capital: Jersey Pride, which calls itself the state’s largest and oldest Pride celebration, draws more than 20,000 people to town in a normal year, and its 2027 date is already set for Sunday, June 6. The catch is the boardwalk’s grandest building. The 1929 Convention Hall has been largely closed since about 2021 for structural repairs (the Grand Arcade walkway through it stays open), and the $130 million restoration that won $75 million in state tax credits in August 2026 has no reopening date.

Plan it: 2026 badges cost $7 on weekdays and $10 on weekends and holidays, $70 for an adult season badge or $20 for teens and seniors; 12 and under free. The NJ Transit coast line stops in town, and Silverball Retro Arcade on the boardwalk (all games on free play, from $7.50 a half hour) is the rainy-day answer. Drive: 1 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Best for: couples, music fans, LGBTQ+ travelers, car-free weekends from New York.

7. Ocean Grove

Badges in summer ($13 daily wristband in 2026). Directly south of Asbury Park, and about as different as a neighbor can be, Ocean Grove was founded in 1869 by Methodist ministers as a summer camp meeting, and it still feels like one. The streets are lined with Victorian cottages and the canvas-fronted tents families rent for the whole summer, and the 1894 Great Auditorium, with an organ of more than 13,000 pipes, hosts free organ concerts on summer Thursdays. Its beach made news for a different reason: the Camp Meeting Association kept it closed on Sunday mornings for about 155 years, until the state ordered it opened. Since a final state decision on December 26, 2025, the beach must open at 9 a.m. on summer Sundays; the association complies under protest and still fights the order.

Plan it: 2026 badges: $13 for a daily wristband, $105 for a season badge, $54 for youth (12-17) and seniors; 11 and under free. Lifeguards were on daily from June 19 through Labor Day in 2026, weekends only before that. Dogs are allowed on a leash from September 15 to May 15. Walk over from the Asbury Park train station. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Best for: Victorian architecture, quiet beach days next to a lively town.

8. Bradley Beach and Avon-by-the-Sea

Badges in summer ($14 a day in 2026). These two small boroughs between Ocean Grove and Belmar are where a lot of local families go when Belmar is too loud and Asbury Park too cool. Bradley Beach has a beachfront promenade with food stands at Brinley, Newark and Second avenues and its own train station. Avon-by-the-Sea, just four-tenths of a square mile, has a boardwalk the length of town, free (if scarce) street parking and some of the Shore’s strictest beach rules: no tents or canopies, only single-pole umbrellas, and no one on the sand between midnight and 6 a.m. except people fishing.

Plan it: Bradley Beach 2026 badges: $14 a day, $48 a week, $90 for an adult season badge (ages 16 to 64), $35 for ages 13 to 15 and 65 and up; 12 and under free. Badges were required on weekends from Memorial Day weekend and daily from June 15. Avon 2026 badges: $14 for a daily wristband, $110 for an adult season badge, $65 for seniors and ages 12 to 18; 11 and under free. Avon takes only cash or checks for badges, and there’s no alcohol on its beach. Avon has no station; use Bradley Beach’s or Belmar’s. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Best for: families, car-free weeks near Asbury Park.

9. Belmar

Badges in summer ($12 a day in 2026). Free boardwalk. Belmar has the northern Shore’s biggest summer bar scene, and on a July weekend its crowd skews young. By day it’s a straightforward beach town with a mile-long boardwalk running from First to Twentieth Avenue, a marina on the Shark River a block from the train station, and designated surfing beaches at 17th and 18th avenues (bodyboarders get 7th, 14th and 20th). The beach rules are strict. Alcohol, glass, smoking of any kind (including vaping and cannabis), tents and canopies are all banned on the beach and boardwalk, and bikes may use the boardwalk only from 6 to 9 a.m. between May and September.

Plan it: 2026 badges: $12 a day (13 and under free), $80 for the season and $32 for seniors 65 and up. One change catches visitors out: the badge booths on the boardwalk don’t take payment. Buy online at belmarbeachbadges.com or by text, then show the QR code at a booth for your wristband; only the Taylor Pavilion (500 Ocean Avenue North) takes payment in person. Badges are checked 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and until 6 p.m. Friday to Sunday and on holidays. Boardwalk parking costs $2 an hour through the ParkMobile app. Belmar’s Fall Festival is Saturday, October 24, 2026, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The station is between Ninth and Tenth avenues. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Best for: people in their 20s, surfers, car-free weekends from New York.

10. Spring Lake

Badges in summer ($12 a day in 2026, plus a $1 fee). Free boardwalk, no shops. Spring Lake is the quietest, most buttoned-up town on the northern Shore, and it likes it that way. The borough’s own history page describes its two-mile boardwalk as non-commercial, and it means it: no food stands and no arcades, just benches, the ocean and two pavilions, North End and South End, each with a pool. The beach has rules you won’t find elsewhere, starting with no food and no coolers on the sand. New for 2026, bicycles are banned from the boardwalk at all hours from May 1 to November 1, and e-bikes all year. The town’s biggest day is the Spring Lake Five Mile Run, which sold out in two and a half hours in 2026; the 2027 race is set for May 29.

Plan it: 2026 badges: $12 a day plus a $1 service fee, $110 for the season, $80 for seniors and $70 late-season (from August 1). Every badge is sold online through Community Pass; daily buyers trade the ticket for a wristband at any boardwalk booth. In 2026 the beaches opened daily from June 19 through Labor Day, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and weekends only before that. The station is at Railroad Plaza. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Best for: couples, quiet family weeks, runners, anyone who hates boardwalk noise.

11. Sea Girt

Badges in summer ($11.98 a day in 2026). Sea Girt, 1.05 square miles between Spring Lake and Manasquan, is Spring Lake’s quieter twin, with one rule worth knowing before you pack lunch: you can’t eat on the beach. Food is allowed only in picnic areas at the back of the dunes (coolers with soft drinks and water are fine), and tents and canopies are banned. The borough’s lighthouse is, by Sea Girt’s account, the last shore lighthouse built on the East Coast with an integral keeper’s house.

Plan it: 2026 badges: $11.98 a day including fees, $115 for the season and $70 for seniors 65 and up; everyone 12 and older needs one, and they’re sold only online (no cash). The beach opened full-time from June 20 in 2026, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on weekends only before that. There’s no station in town; the borough points train riders to Manasquan and Spring Lake. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Best for: quiet family beach days, lighthouse fans.

12. Manasquan

Badges in summer ($12 a day). Manasquan is the northern Shore’s surf town and its most easygoing family beach. Its 17 guarded beaches run south to the Manasquan Inlet and its rock jetties, and the borough allows surfing along the whole stretch from Inlet Beach to Whiting II Beach, at the lifeguards’ discretion. Food is allowed on the sand (alcohol and glass aren’t), and there’s free street parking near the beach if you’re early. One event is gone: the organizers of the Manasquan Inlet Tug of War, which raised more than $500,000 for charity over seven years, said in January 2026 that it’s over.

Plan it: 2026 season badges: $90 for adults 17 to 64, $45 for ages 12 to 16 and $35 for seniors. The borough’s beach page lists daily badges at $12 and weekly ones (Saturday to Friday) at $50, so check it for this year’s prices. Daily badges are sold online. Lifeguards work 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in season. Municipal beach lots cost $15 a day Monday to Thursday and $20 Friday to Sunday. The train station is on East Main Street. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Best for: surfers, relaxed family beach days, people who want to bring lunch.

Central Jersey Shore: Point Pleasant Beach to Long Beach Island

Ocean County’s barrier islands are the Shore’s middle ground in every sense. They’re about equally far from New York and Philadelphia, and they run from Seaside Heights’ neon at one extreme to the undeveloped dunes of Island Beach State Park at the other. The train reaches Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head; south of that, you’ll want a car. Drives run about 1 hr 30 min to 2 hr 25 min from NYC and 1 hr 30 min to 1 hr 45 min from Philadelphia.

13. Point Pleasant Beach

Paid private beaches in summer ($14 to $15 a day at Jenkinson’s in 2026). Free boardwalk. Point Pleasant Beach is the northern Shore’s family boardwalk town, and most of what happens on its boardwalk happens at Jenkinson’s, which opened its Pavilion here in 1928. Jenkinson’s Boardwalk packs small rides, arcades, a candy shop and Jenkinson’s Aquarium (opened in 1991) into a few walkable blocks, and it’s busy year-round: the aquarium, arcades and Sweet Shop open every day of the year. The beaches work differently from most towns. Back in 1897 the borough council turned down ownership of the beach because of the upkeep, so Point Pleasant Beach’s beaches are private, and you pay the beach operator at its gate instead of buying a town badge.

Plan it: Jenkinson’s 2026 beach admission was $14 on weekdays and $15 on weekends and holidays for ages 12 and up (under 12 free with an adult), and its season badge costs $130, or $95 for seniors, sold in person only. Rides now use a cashless Boardwalk Bounce card at $1 a credit. This fall the rides run on select weekends at half price until October 25, the last day of the 2026 season, with Boo at the Boardwalk on October 17-18 and 24-25. The aquarium is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily ($19 for adults, $13 for children 3-11), though its wheelchair lift is out of service until about October 31. In summer 2026 there were fireworks most Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. The train station is on the North Jersey Coast Line (change at Long Branch), and street parking is metered seven days a week from March through October. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Best for: families with young kids, rainy days, car-free trips from New York.

14. Bay Head and Mantoloking

Badges in summer ($15 a day). Bay Head is where the train line ends and the Shore’s old, quiet money begins: a small, shingled borough at the last stop of the North Jersey Coast Line, with no rides and no boardwalk. Its beaches are run not by the town but by the Bay Head Improvement Association, which keeps all of them open to the public. Mantoloking, next door to the south, is quieter still, a borough of big houses that split from Brick Township in 1911. Just past it, Brick Township’s three small ocean beaches are the budget option on this stretch.

Plan it: Bay Head badges cost $15 a day, $65 for a half season and $120 for the season, and in 2026 they were required from June 20 through Labor Day. Mantoloking charged $15 a day and $145 for the 2026 season ($130 before May 26), checked from the third Saturday in June through Labor Day, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and its 2027 pre-season badge sales start April 1, 2027. Brick’s beaches charged $10 a day for a wristband in 2026, free for children 12 and under and for seniors 65 and over, plus $10 a day to park. Drive: 1 hr 35 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Best for: quiet rental weeks, car-free trips from New York, people who find Point Pleasant Beach too busy.

15. Lavallette

Badges in summer ($13 a day in 2026). Free boardwalk. Lavallette is what Seaside Heights would look like with the volume turned down. It sits on the same barrier island a couple of miles north, but its boardwalk, which runs the length of town, has nothing on it except benches and walkers, because the borough bans commercial development on its oceanfront. The shops and restaurants stay on Grand Central Avenue (Route 35), and the beach is all families: nine guarded ocean beaches plus a calm bay beach at Brooklyn Avenue. Toms River’s half-mile Ortley Beach, just south, works the same way on a smaller scale.

Plan it: 2026 badges: $13 a day, $40 a week (Saturday to Saturday), $65 for the season or $25 for seniors 65 and up; under 12 free. The badge season ran from June 20 to September 7 in 2026, with guards on duty from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and until 6 p.m. on weekends. In October 2026 the borough starts replacing the boardwalk’s decking, working north from Dover Avenue, a few blocks a year, so expect some closed sections. Ortley Beach charges $65 for a 2026 season badge ($50 before Memorial Day), with children 12 and under free. There’s no train; NJ Transit’s seasonal buses stop in Seaside Heights, a few miles south. Drive: 1 hr 50 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Best for: families who want Seaside’s rides within reach but not outside their window.

16. Seaside Heights

Badges in summer ($13 a day in 2026). Free boardwalk. Seaside Heights is the Shore at full volume: a 0.6-square-mile borough with 15 blocks of ocean beach, a boardwalk of arcades, bars, pizza windows and games of chance, and Casino Pier, whose Hydrus roller coaster, Ferris wheel and Skycoaster hang out over the sand. MTV made it famous by filming four seasons of Jersey Shore here between 2009 and 2012, and the town has spent the years since trying to be known for something else. The best candidate is its 1910 Dentzel/Looff carousel, restored and moved in 2024 into its own pavilion at the north end of the boardwalk (Sampson Avenue), then added to the National Register of Historic Places in February 2026. Summer nights are rowdy, and the borough pushes back hard: its own draft master plan says ordinances limit alcohol sales and loud entertainment on the boardwalk, and under-18s have a 10 p.m. curfew.

Plan it: 2026 badges: $13 a day, $50 a week (Saturday to Friday), $75 for the season ($55 if bought by January 3) and $15 for seniors 65 and up; 11 and under free. Badges are checked from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday to Sunday and on holidays, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Thursday. The beach closes at 10 p.m., and alcohol isn’t allowed on it. In summer 2026 fireworks went up every Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. from July 1 to August 26, and NJ Transit’s seasonal 137 bus ran here from New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal from June 20. This fall, Casino Pier’s rides run on weekends through October 11, and the town hosts Restaurant Weekend (October 2-4), the Italian Festival (October 9-11), the Columbus Day Parade (October 11), its first Halloween in the Heights (October 24) and a tree lighting on December 5. Drive: 1 hr 50 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Best for: teens and 20-somethings, rides, nightlife, MTV pilgrims.

17. Seaside Park

Badges in summer ($13 a day in 2026). Seaside Park begins where Seaside Heights’ boardwalk rides end, and it’s the calmer, more residential half of the pair, with its own stretch of boardwalk, a beach bathhouse at N Street and the entrance to Island Beach State Park at its southern end. Its old amusement pier, Funtown, burned in 2013, and no rides have returned to the site. In 2026 the borough also took over South Seaside Park from Berkeley Township, so White Sands Beach there now takes a Seaside Park badge (Midway Beach, farther south, still sells its own).

Plan it: 2026 badges: $13 a day, $40 a week (Saturday to Saturday), $70 for the season ($65 before June 15) and $20 for seniors 65 and up; 11 and under free. Season badges bought online are picked up at the bathhouse between N and O streets. NJ Transit’s seasonal 137 bus from New York stops here as well. Drive: 1 hr 50 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Best for: families who want Seaside Heights within walking distance, Island Beach regulars.

18. Island Beach State Park

Paid per car ($6 to $20 in summer). South of Seaside Park the barrier island simply stops being developed. Island Beach State Park is 10 miles of dunes, ocean beach and bayside marsh, more than 3,000 acres with one road down the middle, and the state calls it one of the few undeveloped barrier beaches left on the north Atlantic coast. Swimming is limited to about a mile of guarded beach in the middle of the park (Swimming Areas 1 and 2); surfers get the water south of them, and anglers with permits drive the beach farther down. On a July weekend the gates close to new cars once the lots fill, so come early or come on a weekday.

Plan it: 2026 entry per car from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day: $6 on weekdays and $10 on weekends and holidays for NJ residents, $12 and $20 for everyone else. Off-season fees are lower ($5 for NJ residents), and there’s no charge for walkers or cyclists. The annual state park pass ($50 for residents, $75 for non-residents) covers entry. The gate opens at 8 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. on weekends and holidays, and closes at 8 p.m. Lifeguards were on daily from June 19 through Labor Day in 2026. There’s no alcohol and no NJ Transit service; the nearest bus stops in Seaside Park. Drive: 1 hr 55 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Best for: beach purists, surfers, anglers, families who don’t need a boardwalk.

19. Long Beach Island

Badges in summer ($7 to $11 a day in 2026). LBI is one long, narrow island reached by a single causeway (Route 72), with six towns strung end to end: Barnegat Light, Harvey Cedars, Long Beach Township, Surf City, Ship Bottom and Beach Haven. It’s the Shore’s great rental-house island, quieter and more residential than the boardwalk towns, and it has no boardwalk at all. Barnegat Lighthouse, “Old Barney,” anchors the north end (217 steps to the top, reopened for climbing in 2023 after a restoration), and Beach Haven has most of the island’s nightlife and Fantasy Island, a small amusement park with free admission. The long rebuild of the causeway bridges was essentially finished in January 2026, so the traffic onto the island is just summer traffic again.

Plan it: 2026 day badges: $10 in Long Beach Township, Beach Haven, Ship Bottom and Barnegat Light, $11 in Surf City and $7 in Harvey Cedars; seasonal badges run $50 to $55, or $40 to $45 if bought before the season. Fantasy Island’s last ride day in 2026 is October 3, the same weekend as the Beach Haven Chowder Cook-Off (October 3-4). Drive: 2 hr 10 min to 2 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 30 min to 1 hr 45 min from Philadelphia. Best for: rental-house weeks, families, fishing.

South Jersey Shore: Brigantine to Cape May

Below Long Beach Island, the Shore belongs to Philadelphia. Atlantic and Cape May counties have the biggest names (Atlantic City, Ocean City, the Wildwoods and Cape May), some of the quietest money on the coast in Margate, Avalon and Stone Harbor, and the Shore’s best deals: the free beaches of Atlantic City and the Wildwoods. From New York it’s a long haul, close to three hours or more, so most New Yorkers who come this far stay a week. Drives run about 1 hr 20 min to 2 hr from Philadelphia and 2 hr 40 min to 3 hr 25 min from NYC.

20. Brigantine

Tags in summer ($10 a day in 2026). Brigantine is the island just across the inlet from Atlantic City, and it feels much farther away than that: mostly houses, a short promenade along the seawall from 9th to 15th Street North, and miles of beach, with stretches at the north end where you can drive a four-wheel-drive vehicle on the sand with a permit. The beach patrol guards about five miles and answers calls along another six miles of unguarded beach. The island’s one real attraction is the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, founded in 1978, which has responded to more than 6,500 strandings of seals, dolphins, whales and sea turtles along the New Jersey coast. Its animal hospital is closed to visitors, but the Sea Life Museum next door is free (a $5 donation is suggested) and streams live video of the patients. One more thing: Brigantine gives seniors 65 and over a free beach tag, which may be the best deal on the Shore.

Plan it: 2026 tags: $10 a day, $15 a week and $25 for the season ($20 before June 1), required for ages 12 and up from June 20 to September 7; you can also buy them in the My Beach Mobile app. A 2026 beach-driving permit cost $200 before May 3, $300 through September and $100 from October 1, with 4×4 access at 14th Street North and the jetty on Seaside Road. Oceanfront lots cost $10 a day. Swimming beaches are guarded 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. from mid-June to Labor Day, and dogs are banned from the public beaches from May 15 to September 15. The stranding center’s Pup Strut fundraiser is Saturday, October 10, 2026. NJ Transit bus 501 runs from the Atlantic City bus terminal. Drive: 2 hr 55 min from NYC, 1 hr 30 min from Philadelphia. Best for: quiet weeks next to Atlantic City, anglers and beach drivers, seniors.

21. Atlantic City

Free beaches; free Boardwalk. Atlantic City built the country’s first boardwalk in 1870, and today’s runs a little more than 4 miles (about 5.75 counting Ventnor’s stretch), 60 feet wide at its widest. The beaches are free and open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., which makes AC the best-value beach day on the Shore if you don’t mind casino towers behind your umbrella. Nine casino resorts were licensed in 2026 (Bally’s, Borgata, Caesars, Golden Nugget, Hard Rock, Harrah’s, Ocean, Resorts and Tropicana), Steel Pier still runs rides over the ocean, and the Boardwalk trams roll up and down the boards from mid-March into late November. Two things older guides get wrong: the Miss America pageant has left town (the 2027 crown was awarded in West Palm Beach, Florida, this September), and the old midweek August airshow is now the Soar & Shore Airshow, held in late spring (the weekend after Memorial Day in 2026, and June 4-6 in 2027). For the rest of the city, from Steel Pier and Absecon Lighthouse to Lucy the Elephant and White House Subs, see our 50 best things to do in Atlantic City.

Plan it: The beach and Boardwalk are free; outside alcohol and smoking aren’t allowed on either, and in summer bikes may use the Boardwalk from 6 a.m. to noon. Casino parking garages are the easy answer to parking. Smoking is still legal on up to 25% of a casino floor, so non-smokers should ask where the smoke-free sections are. The Atlantic City Rail Line runs from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station ($13.05 one way in 2026), with a free jitney from the rail terminal to the casinos; NJ Transit bus 319 comes from New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal. The Atlantic City Expressway has been cashless since January 4, 2026. Drive: 2 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Best for: free beach days, nightlife, concerts, car-free trips from Philadelphia.

22. Ventnor

Season badges only ($20 in 2026). Ventnor starts where Atlantic City’s casinos stop, and the boardwalk simply keeps going. Ventnor’s stretch is residential and calm, good for a morning bike ride, and it ends at the 1,000-foot Ventnor City Fishing Pier at Cambridge Avenue, which the city calls the longest of New Jersey’s ocean fishing piers. Ventnor sells only season badges, and they’re among the cheapest on the Shore.

Plan it: The 2026 season badge cost $10 before June 1 and $20 after (seniors paid $3.50 early), required for ages 12 and up from Memorial Day to Labor Day; buy it online, at City Hall or in the My Beach Mobile app. Lifeguards work 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily in season. The fishing pier charged adults $15 a day in 2026 (card only). From July 1 to Labor Day, bikes may use the boardwalk from 6 a.m. to noon on weekends and in daylight on weekdays; dogs are never allowed on it. NJ Transit bus 505 runs along Atlantic Avenue from Atlantic City to Ventnor, Margate and Longport. Drive: 2 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 25 min from Philadelphia. Best for: bike rides, fishing, Atlantic City access at a quieter address.

23. Margate

Season badges only ($20 in 2026). Margate, which started life as South Atlantic City, is a mile and a half of beach houses, bayside restaurants and one six-story wooden elephant. Lucy the Elephant, built in 1881 and a National Historic Landmark since 1976, is why most visitors stop, and the guided tour takes you up inside her. Margate’s streets run alphabetically from Argyle to Washington avenues and then switch to presidents, which makes it one of the easiest towns on the Shore to navigate. The city also says it throws Beachstock, which it calls the largest beach party at the Jersey Shore, every summer. There’s no boardwalk; you reach the beach from the street ends.

Plan it: 2026 badges: $10 for the season before May 31 ($3.50 for seniors 65 and up), then $20 for every badge from June 1, and digital badges are now sold in the MyBeach Mobile app. Veterans and active military get free season badges. Lucy’s tours cost $9 for adults, $8.50 for teens and $5 for children 3 to 12, and she keeps shorter hours in the off-season, so call ahead (609-823-6473). NJ Transit bus 505 runs from Atlantic City along Atlantic Avenue. Drive: 2 hr 40 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Best for: families, Philadelphia day trips, anyone who wants to stand inside an elephant.

24. Longport

Badges in summer ($40 for the season in 2026). Longport fills the southern tip of Absecon Island below Margate: quiet streets of houses, a guarded beach and, as of this summer, two new waterfront parks. Point Park, at the end of Atlantic Avenue, opened on June 13, 2026, and Beach Terrace Park, on the bulkhead between 15th and 16th avenues, opened on July 4.

Plan it: 2026 badges cost $25 for the season if bought before June 1 ($15 for seniors 65 and up), and $40 after that ($20 for seniors), according to the Inquirer; active military and veterans get free tags. NJ Transit bus 505 reaches Longport from Atlantic City. Drive: 2 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 25 min from Philadelphia. Best for: total quiet within reach of Atlantic City.

25. Ocean City

Tags in summer ($10 a day in 2026). Ocean City calls itself “America’s Greatest Family Resort,” and for once the slogan holds up. Four Methodist ministers founded it in 1879 as a Christian retreat, and, as Cape May County’s tourism office puts it, its deed restrictions against liquor remain in place: you can’t buy a drink anywhere in town, and drinking in public or on the beach is banned. That keeps its 2.45-mile boardwalk (usually advertised as 2.5) tame even on a Saturday night. The boardwalk has Shriver’s, in business there since 1898, the 1920s Music Pier and Playland’s Castaway Cove with 32 rides, and the city has eight miles of beach, some of it freshly rebuilt: a 1.6-million-cubic-yard beach replenishment at the north end finished on September 7, 2026. It lost its other ride park: Wonderland Pier closed in October 2024, and in September 2026 the city issued an unsafe-structure notice as the wall under its deck gave way; the owner says the Ferris wheel will have to be cut up.

Plan it: 2026 beach tags: $10 a day, $20 a week or $35 for the season ($30 before June 1), required for ages 12 and up from June 1 to September 7; veterans and active military families get free season tags. Bikes may use the boardwalk from 5 a.m. to noon in summer, and all day off-season. Night in Venice, the lit-up boat parade on the bay, ran on July 25 in 2026. NJ Transit buses 507 and 509 run from Atlantic City. Don’t confuse it with Ocean City, Maryland. Drive: 2 hr 50 min from NYC, 1 hr 30 min from Philadelphia. Best for: families, first Shore trips, grandparents.

26. Strathmere

Free beaches. Strathmere is a small, unincorporated part of Upper Township at the north end of the island it shares with Sea Isle City, and it’s the southern Shore’s quiet free beach: no tags, free street parking and lifeguards in season, with almost nothing else to spend money on. If Sea Isle’s crowds get to you, this is where the locals go.

Plan it: Beaches are guarded from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday and until 5:30 p.m. Friday to Sunday in season. Dogs aren’t allowed on any Upper Township beach from March 15 to September 30. Drive: 3 hr from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Best for: free, quiet beach days.

27. Sea Isle City

Tags in summer ($10 a day in 2026), free on Wednesdays. Sea Isle City is two towns in one: a family beach by day, and at night a bar town busy enough that its summer jitney runs until 3 a.m. Along the beach, the Promenade runs from 29th to 57th Street, with benches, shade pavilions and restrooms plus shops, eateries and arcades, and Excursion Park’s band shell hosted free Saturday concerts all summer in 2026. Sea Isle also has the Shore’s best badge rule: beach tags aren’t required on Wednesdays, which the city calls free beach days (July 4 excepted). The rules are firm after dark, though: no alcohol in any public place, year-round; a 10 p.m. curfew for under-18s without a parent; the beach closed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.; and no large backpacks on the Promenade or beach late at night.

Plan it: 2026 tags: $10 for a daily wristband, $15 a week and $30 for the season ($25 by May 15), required for ages 12 and up from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The city has already set 2027’s dates: holiday season tags go on sale November 20, 2026, regular season tags January 4, 2027, and tags are required from May 29, 2027. This fall: the Halloween Parade (October 16), the Harvest Classic festival (October 17) and the Winter Village with the mayor’s tree lighting (November 27-28). Bikes may use the Promenade until 3 p.m. on weekdays and noon on weekends in summer. Drive: 3 hr from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Best for: families by day, 20-somethings by night, free Wednesdays.

28. Avalon

Tags in summer ($10 a day in 2026). Avalon, the northern half of Seven Mile Island, sticks out about a mile farther into the ocean than its neighbors, which is where its “Cooler by a Mile” slogan comes from. It’s a town of big beach houses, wide beaches and a boardwalk that’s more promenade than midway, and it goes to bed early: the beach closes from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. by ordinance, and alcohol, glass and fires are banned on it. Erosion is the story here lately. After storms in 2025 and a February 2026 blizzard, the borough said it couldn’t do a hydraulic beach fill this year, trucked about 63,000 cubic yards of sand to the beaches between 9th and 15th streets instead, and warned that some beach paths could close after storms.

Plan it: 2026 tags: $10 a day, $18 a week and $42 for the season ($37 before June 1); under 12 free, and veterans and active military families free too. Avalon and Stone Harbor honor each other’s tags. Guards are on duty 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Labor Day weekend. Bikes may use the boardwalk from 5 to 10 a.m., and dogs are banned from the beach and boardwalk from March 1 to September 30. Drive: 3 hr 5 min from NYC, 1 hr 45 min from Philadelphia. Best for: family rental weeks, early nights, fishing.

29. Stone Harbor

Tags in summer ($8 a day in 2026). Stone Harbor, the southern half of Seven Mile Island, bills itself as “The Seashore at its Best,” and it’s the quietest of the South Jersey Shore’s upscale towns, with a small downtown and two nature reserves. Stone Harbor Point, at the island’s southern tip, is a conservation area for walking, fishing, beachcombing and bird watching; it’s not a swimming beach, dogs aren’t allowed, and parts close for nesting birds. The 21-acre Stone Harbor Bird Sanctuary has had herons nesting since 1947. The Wetlands Institute’s Stone Harbor campus is closed for marsh restoration; it reopens on November 7, 2026 in a temporary home in Cape May Court House, open weekends 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Plan it: 2026 tags cost $8 a day, $18 a week and $42 for the season, according to the Inquirer, and holiday tags bought in winter cost $35. Tags are required for ages 12 and up from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and veterans get free tags. Avalon’s tags work here too. Drive: 3 hr 10 min from NYC, 1 hr 45 min from Philadelphia. Best for: quiet family weeks, birders, couples.

30. The Wildwoods

Free beaches; free boardwalk. North Wildwood, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest share one island, five miles of free beach and a boardwalk that runs almost 2.5 miles and 38 blocks, from Cresse Avenue up to 15th Avenue in North Wildwood. Cape May County says the beaches are the widest on the Jersey Cape, and it also claims the boardwalk has the largest concentration of amusement attractions in the country. Morey’s Piers alone runs three amusement piers with more than 100 rides and attractions, plus two water parks, and the yellow Sightseer tram cars (“Watch the tram car, please”) roll the length of the boards for $5 a ride. North Wildwood is the bar end, Wildwood the boardwalk, and Wildwood Crest the quiet, family-motel end; the Crest has been a dry town since a 1940 referendum.

Plan it: No beach tags anywhere on the island. In summer 2026, free fireworks went up at 10 p.m. every Friday from June 26 to September 4. After recent trouble with teenage crowds, the boardwalk now closes from 1 to 5 a.m., backpacks and bags more than eight inches deep are banned on it from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., and pets are never allowed on it. This fall: the North Wildwood Irish Fall Festival (through September 27), The Race of Gentlemen vintage car and motorcycle races on the beach (October 2-4), Morey’s Oktoberfest (weekends through October 11), Wildwood Days (October 10) and the Wildwoods Fall Festival (October 17). North Wildwood’s beach is still badly eroded at the north end, where the city has been building bulkheads and a seawall. Hotel rooms on the island carry 13.625% in taxes. Drive: 3 hr 10 min to 3 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 50 min to 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Best for: teens, rides, free beach days, retro motels.

31. Cape May

Tags in summer ($10 a day in 2026). At the southern tip of the state, Cape May is the Shore’s Victorian showpiece, with more than 600 restored and preserved Victorian buildings and a place on the list of National Historic Landmarks. Whole streets of 19th-century houses are now inns, the downtown shopping mall is closed to cars, and horse-drawn carriages still do the rounds. The beachfront is a paved promenade along Beach Avenue with Convention Hall in the middle. It’s also the quietest of the big-name towns at night and one of the pricier places to sleep. The 1859 Cape May Lighthouse (217 steps, $12 for adults in 2026) and the sunset flag ceremony at Sunset Beach are just west, around Cape May Point.

Plan it: 2026 tags: $10 a day, $20 for three days, $25 a week and $40 for the season ($30 if bought by April 30), required for ages 12 and up from May 23 to September 7, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; military members and qualifying veterans get free tags. This fall: Victorian Weekend (October 9-12), the Christmas tree lighting at the Physick Estate (November 21) and Congress Hall’s tree lighting (December 4). The Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal is in North Cape May, and NJ Transit bus 552 runs year-round to Atlantic City. Drive: 3 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Best for: couples, Victorian architecture, birders, food.

32. Cape May Point

Tags in summer ($10 a day in 2026). Cape May Point is the tiny, all-residential borough at the very end of New Jersey, founded in 1875 and first called Stites Beach and then Sea Grove. There’s no boardwalk and nothing to speak of in the way of shops, just a beach where the ocean meets Delaware Bay and one of the country’s great birding spots. Cape May Point State Park has the lighthouse, a World War II gun battery known as “the Bunker,” trails and the famous fall hawk watch, and the Cape May Bird Observatory and Higbee Wildlife Management Area are nearby. At Sunset Beach, just outside the borough, people hunt for “Cape May diamonds” (quartz pebbles polished by the surf) and watch the sun go down over the wreck of the concrete ship Atlantus.

Plan it: 2026 tags: $10 a day, $25 a week and $50 for the season ($40 if bought by May 31), required for ages 12 and up from the Saturday of Father’s Day weekend (June 20 in 2026) through Labor Day while lifeguards are on duty. Only Cape May Point tags work here; Cape May’s don’t. Veterans, active service members and their families get free tags. Drive: 3 hr 25 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Best for: birders, sunsets, total quiet.

Boardwalks Compared: Rides, Food or Just a Walk

Every boardwalk on the Shore is free to walk, and they range from neon midways to two-mile promenades where you can’t buy so much as a bottle of water. Here’s how the main Jersey Shore boardwalks compare, with the lengths the towns and operators give (several don’t publish one) and the rules most likely to catch you out.

Boardwalk	What’s on it	Length, as published	Rules to know
The Wildwoods	Morey’s Piers (100+ rides and attractions), two water parks, arcades, food, the tram car	Almost 2.5 miles, 38 blocks	Closed 1 to 5 a.m.; no big bags after 8 p.m.; no pets
Atlantic City	Casinos, Steel Pier rides, shops, Boardwalk Hall	A little more than 4 miles; about 5.75 with Ventnor	Bikes 6 a.m. to noon in summer; no smoking or outside alcohol
Ocean City	Castaway Cove rides, the Music Pier, Shriver’s, family food and shops	2.45 miles	No alcohol sold in town; bikes 5 a.m. to noon in summer
Seaside Heights	Casino Pier rides, arcades, bars, the 1910 carousel	Not published	10 p.m. curfew for under-18s; beach closes at 10 p.m.
Point Pleasant Beach	Jenkinson’s rides, aquarium, arcades, candy	Not published	Rides run on a cashless card; last 2026 ride day is October 25
Asbury Park	Restaurants, bars, Silverball arcade, the mostly closed Convention Hall	Not published	No rides; plan on eating, not spinning
Belmar	Food stands, shops, beach pavilions	About a mile (First to Twentieth Avenue)	Bikes only 6 to 9 a.m.; no alcohol, glass or smoking
Sea Isle City	Promenade with shops, eateries and arcades	29th to 57th Street	Bikes until 3 p.m. weekdays and noon weekends in summer
Spring Lake	Benches, ocean and two pavilions with pools; nothing for sale	2 miles	No bikes May 1 to November 1; no e-bikes ever
Lavallette	Benches and the beach; commerce is banned on the oceanfront	The length of town	Decking replacement starts in October 2026
Cape May	A paved promenade with Convention Hall; shops across Beach Avenue	Not published by the city	Beach tags checked 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in season

Quieter boardwalks run through Ocean Grove, Bradley Beach, Avon, Seaside Park, Ventnor and Avalon, good for a walk or an early bike ride and not much else. Long Beach Island and the two big parks, Sandy Hook and Island Beach, have no boardwalk at all.

Getting to the Jersey Shore (and Around It)

Most people drive, and most of the southern Shore really does need a car. The northern Shore is the exception: you can do a whole weekend from New York on a train and your feet.

By car: the Parkway, and when not to use it

The Garden State Parkway is the Shore’s spine, running the length of the coast from North Jersey to Cape May, and nearly every town is a few miles east of an exit. Tolls rose 3% in January 2026, and the Parkway still takes cash: a car pays $2.40 in cash or $2.25 with E-ZPass at each of the main barrier plazas (such as Asbury Park northbound or Great Egg southbound), and $1.20 at Toms River. The Atlantic City Expressway, the main road from Philadelphia to Atlantic City and the southern Shore, is different: it went cashless on January 4, 2026. A full-length trip costs $6.49 with E-ZPass in 2026; without it you are billed by plate, $12.98 plus a $1 invoice fee.

Timing matters more than the route. Southbound traffic is worst on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings in summer, northbound on Sunday afternoons, and holiday weekends are worse than all three. The drive times on this page are light-traffic routing estimates; a July Friday can add an hour or more. Two New Jersey quirks: you may not pump your own gas (an attendant does it, and it’s still illegal to self-serve at retail stations in 2026), and many left turns on highways are made from a “jughandle,” a ramp on the right that loops you around to cross at a light.

By train

NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line is the Shore’s only train from New York. Electric trains from New York Penn Station and Newark Penn run straight through to Long Branch; for the beach towns beyond it (Elberon, Allenhurst, Asbury Park, Bradley Beach, Belmar, Spring Lake, Manasquan, Point Pleasant Beach and the end of the line at Bay Head), most trips mean changing at Long Branch to a diesel train, though a few weekday expresses run through. Adult one-way fares from New York Penn under the July 1, 2026 fare table: $19.75 to Long Branch or Asbury Park and $20.35 to Belmar, Spring Lake, Manasquan, Point Pleasant Beach or Bay Head. Buy before you board; tickets bought on the train cost $5 more. Children 5 to 11 ride at half price, and on weekends and holidays up to two of them ride free with a paying adult. NJ Transit fares go up 3% every July 1, so expect slightly higher prices next summer.

From Philadelphia, the Atlantic City Rail Line runs daily from 30th Street Station to Atlantic City, with an adult one-way fare of $13.05 (July 2026). A free jitney meets trains at the Atlantic City Rail Terminal and runs rail passengers to all the casinos.

By bus

NJ Transit’s buses reach the parts of the Shore the trains don’t. From New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal, route 319 runs to Atlantic City year-round, and route 137 adds direct summer service to Seaside Heights and Seaside Park (it ran from June 20 in 2026). From Philadelphia, route 551 runs to Atlantic City and route 317 to Asbury Park, and in summer the express route 316 runs to Wildwood and Cape May; routes 313 and 315 serve those two towns year-round. In Atlantic City, local buses connect to Ventnor, Margate, Longport, Brigantine, Ocean City and Sea Isle City, and the Atlantic City Jitney costs $3 a ride. Summer shore buses sell advance round-trip excursion tickets, and the seasonal routes stop after the summer, so check the schedule for the day you travel.

By ferry

Seastreak’s fast ferries cross from Manhattan (the Battery Maritime Building near South Ferry, Brookfield Place and East 35th Street) to the Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, a trip that doubles as the best view of the harbor for $29 each way (plus a fuel surcharge of about 5% in 2026). In summer Seastreak adds a beach ferry straight to Sandy Hook, which ran May 26 to September 7 in 2026 at $60 round trip for adults and $16 for children, with advance digital tickets only. At the other end of the Shore, the Cape May-Lewes Ferry links Cape May with Lewes, Delaware, in 85 minutes, a handy shortcut for anyone driving up from Delaware, Maryland or Virginia. Under its new 2026 fare system, a car’s price rises as a sailing fills: for September and October 2026 a car under 20 feet costs $36 to $41 one way, and the driver now pays a passenger fare on top ($11 for adults 14 to 61, $9 for seniors, free for children under 14).

By air

Newark (EWR) is the easiest airport for the northern Shore, and Philadelphia (PHL) for the southern half. Atlantic City International (ACY) is small, served in 2026 by Allegiant and Breeze plus an American Airlines bus link to Philadelphia; check whether your route exists before planning around it.

Where to Stay at the Jersey Shore

Where you sleep shapes the trip as much as which town you pick, and the Shore has three very different ways to do it. We don’t quote nightly rates here: they swing by the week, and a price that’s right in January is wrong by June.

Weekly rentals: the Shore’s default

Most families rent a house or a condo for a week, and a whole economy runs on that rhythm. Traditionally, summer rentals ran Saturday to Saturday (many weekly beach badges still do), which is why Saturday traffic onto the islands is its own kind of misery. That tradition is loosening. In July 2024 the Inquirer reported owners with empty weeks “tossing out long-standing practices, like requiring renters to book Saturday to Saturday” and cutting prices on weeks still open 30 days out. For July and August, though, the best houses still go early. In February 2026 one rental-site operator told 6abc that demand was running ahead of 2025 and advised booking by late March, before selection shrinks and prices climb in April.

Jersey Shore rentals book through local real estate agencies, which handle many of the traditional weekly houses, and through the big short-term rental sites. Read the house rules before you pay: many rentals set minimum stays, ban parties, cap occupancy and expect you to bring your own sheets and towels. Many don’t include beach badges, either.

Hotels, motels and inns

• Atlantic City has the Shore’s only big hotel towers: nine casino resorts licensed in 2026, plus non-casino hotels. It’s the easiest place to book one or two nights on short notice, even in August.
• The Wildwoods are motel country, and plenty of the survivors from the 1950s and ’60s still wear their original neon and space-age rooflines. The Doo Wop Preservation League’s museum in Wildwood keeps a garden of restored neon signs from motels that didn’t make it.
• Cape May is the Shore’s capital of the Victorian bed-and-breakfast and the grand old seaside hotel. Book summer weekends months ahead, and check each inn’s minimum-stay rules before you fall for one.
• Long Branch and Asbury Park are where the northern Shore’s beachfront hotels cluster; Long Branch’s Pier Village alone has two, Wave Resort and The Bungalow Hotel.
• Quiet towns like Avalon, Stone Harbor, Margate and Bay Head are mostly houses, so most visitors rent one, or stay in a bigger town nearby and drive over for the beach.

Taxes and fees to expect

A New Jersey hotel room carries the 6.625% sales tax plus a 5% State Occupancy Fee in most towns, and up to 3% more where a town has adopted its own occupancy tax. The Shore’s tourist hot spots set their own rates on top of that. In Atlantic City, a stay under 90 days pays a 9% Luxury Tax, 3.625% sales tax and a 1% State Occupancy Fee (13.625% in all), and casino hotel rooms add per-night charges: a $2 tourism promotion fee, a $2 occupancy surcharge and a $3 casino room fee. The Wildwoods also total 13.625%, made up of sales tax, Cape May County’s tourism tax and assessment, and the state fee. Budget roughly 12% to 14% on top of the room rate anywhere on the Shore.

When to Go to the Jersey Shore

The Shore runs on a hard calendar. Memorial Day weekend opens it, the Fourth of July fills it, and Labor Day closes it, even though the ocean doesn’t get the memo: the water is usually warmer in early September than in June. Here is how the year actually plays out.

Month	Sandy Hook	Atlantic City	Cape May
May	59.5°F	56.5°F	61.5°F
June	69.7°F	64.6°F	69.8°F
July	76.4°F	68.9°F	74.0°F
August	76.1°F	72.9°F	75.9°F
September	72.0°F	72.1°F	73.8°F
October	62.2°F	64.2°F	65.0°F

Those are NOAA’s long-term average water temperatures at its three Shore tide stations. Two things jump out. September water is about as warm as July’s, and the middle of the coast around Atlantic City runs several degrees colder than either end in early summer, so a July swim there can feel like a dare.

Late May and June: cheap, cool and half open

Beaches are open and lifeguards start on weekends, but the water is still in the 60s, and most towns don’t guard every day until mid- to late June. Rentals and hotels cost less, and ride piers run shorter schedules. It’s a good time for boardwalk walks, fishing and Cape May’s Victorian streets, and a bad time to promise children a swim.

July and August: peak everything

Every badge checker is on duty, every rental is booked and the Parkway is a parking lot on Friday afternoons (southbound) and Sunday afternoons (northbound). This is when the boardwalks earn their reputation: weekly fireworks (Wednesdays in Seaside Heights, Thursdays at Point Pleasant Beach and Fridays in Wildwood in 2026), all the rides running into the night, and the smell of fries and sunscreen for 130 miles. It’s also greenhead season. These big, persistent biting flies breed in the salt marshes behind the islands, peak in July and hang around from late June into September, which is why you’ll see glossy black box traps on legs along the marsh edges. Bring repellent for the bay side.

September: the locals’ summer

Locals call it “local summer,” and they’re right to keep it to themselves. After Labor Day the crowds thin, most towns stop checking badges, parking gets easier, and the water holds most of its August warmth. The trade-off is that lifeguards go home, ride piers switch to weekends, and some restaurants close midweek. Swim only where a guard is posted, or wade.

October and November: festivals and empty beaches

Fall is festival season. This year the North Wildwood Irish Fall Festival runs through September 27; The Race of Gentlemen runs vintage cars and motorcycles on Wildwood’s beach October 2-4, the same weekend as the Beach Haven Chowder Cook-Off (October 3-4); Morey’s Piers holds Oktoberfest on weekends through October 11; Cape May’s Victorian Weekend is October 9-12; and the Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey sends people to 11 lighthouse sites from Sandy Hook to Cape May on October 17-18. Jenkinson’s Boardwalk runs half-price rides on fall weekends until October 25, the last ride day of its 2026 season. Fall is also Cape May’s big season for birders: the state park’s brochure puts the count at an estimated 30,000 hawks, eagles and falcons a year, with historic highs above 80,000.

Winter: Cape May and the diehards

From December to March the Shore mostly belongs to year-round residents, surfers in thick wetsuits and people walking dogs. Cape May stays busy through the holidays, with Congress Hall’s tree lighting set for Friday, December 4, 2026, and Atlantic City’s casinos never close. Everywhere else, expect shuttered stands, empty boardwalks and cheap, quiet hotel rooms.

What’s Changed at the Jersey Shore

The Shore changes every winter, and a lot of what’s online hasn’t caught up. These are the changes that most often catch visitors out, as of September 2026.

Place	What changed	What it means for you
Wonderland Pier, Ocean City	Closed in October 2024. In September 2026 the city issued an unsafe-structure notice, and the owner says the Ferris wheel will be cut up.	Ocean City’s rides are now at Playland’s Castaway Cove (1020 Boardwalk).
Convention Hall, Asbury Park	Largely closed since about 2021; a $130 million restoration won $75 million in state tax credits in August 2026.	The Grand Arcade walkway is open, but there’s no reopening date for the hall.
Ocean Grove beach	A state decision on December 26, 2025 ended its Sunday-morning closure.	The beach opens at 9 a.m. on summer Sundays.
Seaside Heights carousel	The 1910 Dentzel/Looff carousel left Casino Pier and reopened on July 3, 2024 in its own building at Sampson Avenue.	Look for it at the north end of the boardwalk, not on the pier.
Atlantic City Expressway	All-electronic tolls since January 4, 2026.	No cash booths: use E-ZPass, or expect a bill by plate at about double the rate plus $1.
Miss America	No longer held in Atlantic City; the 2027 winner was crowned in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 6, 2026.	Don’t plan a September trip around it.
Atlantic City airshow	Now the Soar & Shore Airshow, held in late spring (May 29-31 in 2026, the weekend after Memorial Day) instead of midweek in August.	The 2027 show is set for June 4-6.
North Wildwood beach	The Army Corps’ island-wide replenishment project was suspended in November 2025; the city is extending its seawall instead.	Expect a narrow beach at the island’s north end, near Hereford Inlet.
LBI causeway	The Route 72 bridge rebuild was essentially finished in January 2026.	No more construction delays getting onto the island.
Beach badge prices	Many towns raised 2026 prices; LBI’s season badges now run $50 to $55.	Older price lists are wrong. Check each town every spring.
Cape May-Lewes Ferry	New 2026 fares from June 1, with vehicle prices that rise as a sailing fills.	Book early for cheaper car fares on summer weekends.
The Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor	Its Stone Harbor campus is closed for marsh restoration; it reopens November 7, 2026 in a temporary home in Cape May Court House.	Weekend hours there this fall and winter: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Belmar beach badges	The boardwalk badge booths no longer take payment.	Buy online or by text, then show the QR code at a booth; the Taylor Pavilion takes payment in person.
Spring Lake boardwalk	New in 2026: bikes banned at all hours from May 1 to November 1, and e-bikes all year.	Walk it, or ride elsewhere.
South Seaside Park	Moved from Berkeley Township into the Borough of Seaside Park in 2026.	White Sands Beach now takes a Seaside Park badge.
Lavallette boardwalk	Decking replacement begins in October 2026 at Dover Avenue and moves north a few blocks a year.	Expect closed sections through the off-season.
Church of the Presidents, Long Branch	Closed for structural repairs; the renovation is expected to finish in 2027.	No museum visits until it reopens.
Wildwood boardwalk hours	Now closed from 1 to 5 a.m., since May 2026.	Plan late nights accordingly.
Avalon beaches	No hydraulic beach fill in 2026 after storm erosion; sand was trucked in instead.	Some beach paths may close after storms.
Jenkinson’s Boardwalk	Rides moved to a cashless Boardwalk Bounce card in 2025, at $1 a credit.	Older price lists in 50-cent credits are out of date.

What to Skip at the Jersey Shore

• Driving down on a summer Friday afternoon. Leave before noon, after 8 p.m., or on Saturday evening once the rental turnover traffic clears.
• Buying a day badge late in the day. Checkers work set hours (often until 5 p.m.), and beaches are free after that and, in most towns, after Labor Day.
• Booking a promenade town for kids who want rides. Spring Lake, Avalon, Stone Harbor and Long Beach Island have no amusement piers. Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant Beach, Wildwood and Ocean City do.
• Swimming where there’s no lifeguard. Especially after Labor Day, when most stands are empty.
• Planning dinner with a bottle of wine in Ocean City. The town is dry, and you can’t bring your own bottle to restaurants either.
• Trusting old guides. Wonderland Pier, Asbury Park’s Convention Hall and the Atlantic City Miss America pageant all appear in older lists. None of them is an option in 2026.
• Booking the wrong Ocean City. Ocean City, Maryland, is a different resort in a different state, south of Delaware’s beaches. Double-check listings for the other Wildwoods and Avalons around the country, too.

Jersey Shore FAQ

What towns make up the Jersey Shore?

The Jersey Shore is New Jersey’s Atlantic coast, about 130 miles from Sandy Hook to Cape May Point by Stockton University’s measure (the state’s Division of Fish and Wildlife says 127). More than 40 towns face the ocean across Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May counties; the best known are Asbury Park, Belmar, Point Pleasant Beach, Seaside Heights, Long Beach Island, Atlantic City, Ocean City, the Wildwoods and Cape May.

What is the best beach town at the Jersey Shore?

It depends on the trip. Ocean City is the best all-around family town, Cape May the best for couples and Victorian inns, Asbury Park the best for food and music, Wildwood the best for rides and free beaches, and Spring Lake the best for quiet. First-timers who can’t decide usually do well in Ocean City or Cape May.

Which Jersey Shore towns are dry?

Ocean City is the famous one: it has been dry since Methodist ministers founded it in 1879, and its restaurants don’t allow BYOB. Ocean Grove, a Methodist camp-meeting town, is also dry, and Cape May Point has no bars. Separately, drinking on the beach itself is banned almost everywhere on the Shore, dry town or not, and some towns check coolers.

Which Jersey Shore beaches are free?

Atlantic City, the three Wildwoods (Wildwood, North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest) and Strathmere never charge for the beach, and Sea Isle City skips beach tags every Wednesday. Sandy Hook and Island Beach State Park have no badges but charge to park or enter in summer. Everywhere else, badges are checked only in season and during set hours, so nearly every beach is free early, late and after Labor Day.

Which Jersey Shore towns have boardwalks?

The big commercial boardwalks, with rides, arcades and food, are in Wildwood, Atlantic City, Ocean City, Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant Beach, and Asbury Park’s is lined with restaurants and bars. Belmar, Long Branch, Sea Isle City, Cape May, Spring Lake, Lavallette, Ventnor and Avalon have quieter boardwalks or promenades. Long Beach Island has none; its rides are at Fantasy Island in Beach Haven.

Where was MTV’s Jersey Shore filmed?

Most of it was shot in Seaside Heights. Four of the original series’ six seasons (2009 to 2012) were filmed at a house at 1209 Ocean Terrace, steps from the boardwalk; the others were set in Miami and Florence, Italy. The later Family Vacation reunion series started in Miami. Seaside Heights still has the boardwalk bars and Casino Pier you saw on TV.

Why are Jersey Shore towns cracking down on pop-up parties?

Because “pop-up parties” organized on social media drew crowds of unsupervised teenagers to boardwalks, leading to brawls, arrests and, in Wildwood over Memorial Day weekend 2024, a state of emergency. In June 2025 New Jersey made organizing a disruptive one a crime punishable by up to 18 months in prison, and towns added teen curfews, backpack bans and, in Wildwood, an overnight boardwalk closure.

Sources and How We Checked

We checked every price, fee, fare, schedule and closure on this page between September 23 and 24, 2026, on the websites of the towns, parks, agencies and operators involved, and where a price comes from a news report, the text names it. We did not visit in person for this update, and nothing here is sponsored. Drive times are light-traffic estimates from the OSRM routing engine (Times Square and Philadelphia City Hall to each town center), rounded to five minutes.

• National Park Service, Gateway National Recreation Area: Sandy Hook beaches (hours, lifeguards, beach rules)
• NJ Transit: Jersey Shore service, with the fare charts in effect from July 1, 2026
• Borough of Seaside Heights: beach fees and rules
• Borough of Belmar: beach badge fees
• Borough of Spring Lake: beach and pools
• NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information: coastal water temperature guide
• National Weather Service: rip current safety

New Jersey Tourism Guide is an independent publication. We are not affiliated with Visit New Jersey or the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism, the National Park Service, NJ Transit or any attraction listed here, and no one paid to be included.

Photo Credits

• Casino Pier, Seaside Heights: photo by SurFeRGiRL30, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
• Pier Village, Long Branch: photo by Alexisrael, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
• Spring Lake beach at sunrise: photo by Nick Harris, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)
• Manasquan Inlet from the air: photo by Szeremeta, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
• The Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk: photo by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
• Bay Head from the air: photo by James Loesch from Trenton, New Jersey, USA, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
• A dune crossing at Island Beach State Park: photo by AntiCompositeNumber, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Avalon beach at 78th Street: photo by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Sanderlings at Stone Harbor Point: photo by lwolfartist, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)