Ocean City NJ greets visitors on its official website as “America’s Greatest Family Resort,” which is a big claim for one small barrier island. It mostly earns it. There are eight miles of beach, a boardwalk of about two and a half miles lined with pizza counters, taffy shops and arcades, an old-school amusement park, a 1920s concert hall on its own pier, and a calendar of parades and festivals that runs from spring to New Year’s Eve. There’s also no alcohol for sale anywhere: four Methodist ministers founded Ocean City in 1879 as a Christian retreat, and the town is still dry. That, more than anything, sets the tone. Ocean City is where Philadelphia and New York families go when they want a beach week with small kids, grandparents and a curfew for the teenagers, and where people who want a bar scene don’t.
One thing first: this is Ocean City, New Jersey, in Cape May County, not Ocean City, Maryland, a different resort about four hours’ drive away (we compare the two below). This page covers the best things to do in Ocean City NJ, then the beaches and beach tags, the dry-town rules, when to go, where to stay and eat, and how to get there, park and get around, with every price and date checked in October 2026. For how it stacks up against the other beach towns, from Sandy Hook to Cape May, see our Jersey Shore town-by-town guide.
Quick answer: Walk or bike the boardwalk (bikes only until noon in summer), ride at Playland’s Castaway Cove, eat Manco & Manco pizza, Johnson’s caramel corn and Shriver’s taffy, see a show at the 1929 Music Pier, and spend the day on eight miles of beach ($10 daily tags in summer 2026, free after Labor Day). Wonderland Pier is closed, the town is dry, and the best month to go is September. This fall brings the Fall Block Party on October 10 and the Halloween Parade on October 29.
Last updated October 9, 2026. Prices, hours, event dates, rules and closures were checked on October 3, 2026, against the City of Ocean City’s own pages, Cape May County’s, NJ Transit’s and each business’s or attraction’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 boardwalk, every beach outside tag season (tags weren’t required after September 7 in 2026), Corson’s Inlet State Park, the Historical Museum (donations welcome), the Fall Block Party on October 10 (with free city parking that day), the Halloween Parade on October 29, the Christmas Parade on December 4, and all city parking from October 31 to May 1.
- Book ahead: summer rentals and hotels (July and August go first), the Varsity Inn’s call-ahead seating, Music Pier shows such as Holidays with the Ocean City Pops on November 28, and First Night buttons once they go on sale.
- Closed or changed: Wonderland Pier (no rides since 2024), the old Gillian’s Island water park (now OC Waterpark, closed until April), Clancy’s By the Sea until May 2027, and the bay-side boats and the Bayside Center until summer. See What’s changed.
- Costs to expect (2026): $10 a day per person for beach tags in summer, $2 an hour at beach-zone meters and up to $25 a day in city lots (May through October), $3 a ride on the summer jitney, $15 an hour for a rental cruiser and $8 a round of mini golf.
On this page: At a glance | Things to do | Beaches and tags | The dry-town rules | When to go | Where to stay | Where to eat | Getting there, parking and getting around | Ocean City, MD | A weekend plan | What’s changed | What to skip | FAQ
Ocean City NJ at a Glance
| What | The details (checked October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Where | A barrier island at the northern tip of Cape May County, across the water from Somers Point and Longport |
| Getting there | 2 hr 45 min by car from New York City, 1 hr 25 min from Philadelphia; NJ Transit buses from Atlantic City (507 and 509) and New York (319) |
| Known for | A dry, family-first resort: the boardwalk, Shriver’s taffy (on the boards since 1898), the 1929 Music Pier, Playland’s Castaway Cove and summer parades |
| Beach tags (2026) | $10 a day, $20 a week, $35 a season ($30 before June 1), for ages 12 and up from June 1 to September 7 |
| Alcohol | None sold anywhere in town, and no drinking on the beach or in public |
| Rides | Playland’s Castaway Cove, with 32 rides; Wonderland Pier has been closed since October 2024 |
| Free | The boardwalk, the beaches outside tag season, Corson’s Inlet State Park, the Historical Museum (donations welcome), the Fall Block Party, the Halloween and Christmas parades, and all city parking from October 31 to May 1 |
| Best time to go | September for warm water (72.1°F on average at the nearest NOAA gauge) and no tags; June to August for the full boardwalk; October for the Fall Block Party and the Halloween parade |
| Time to allow | A weekend for a first look; a week for a real summer beach vacation |
The Best Things to Do in Ocean City NJ
These are the best things to do in Ocean City NJ, roughly in the order a first-time visitor should get to them. Most are on or within a few blocks of the boardwalk, several are free, and the rest are cheap by Shore standards. A few are seasonal, so check the “Plan it” line before you build a fall or winter trip around one.
1. Walk, bike or ride the boardwalk
Free. The boardwalk runs about 2.45 miles from St. James Place at the north end to 23rd Street; the city usually rounds it up to 2.5. The busy commercial stretch, roughly 6th to 14th streets, is the classic Shore boardwalk, with pizza counters, taffy and fudge shops, arcades and the ride park packed shoulder to shoulder. Cape May County’s tourism office sums it up as more than two miles of shops, candy stores, eateries and amusement piers, which is about right.
The best way to see it is on a bike, early. In summer, bikes are allowed on the boards only in the morning: in 2026, from 5 a.m. to noon between June 19 and September 7. Off-season you can ride all day, with exceptions. In fall 2026, the city kept the morning-only rule on several Saturdays (October 10 and 24, for instance) and banned bikes after 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 17, for the Porsche Reunion car show, so check the police department’s list before you rent. OC Bikes & Rentals, at 12th Street and the boardwalk (with shops at 34th and 55th streets on West Avenue), posted 2026 rates of $15 an hour or $35 a day for a cruiser, $40 an hour for a three-seat surrey and $50 an hour for a six-seater; e-bikes need a driver’s license. Oves, at 4th Street, rents bikes and surreys from 7 a.m. to noon.
A few house rules. Dogs are never allowed on the boardwalk, even carried, except at the city’s Dog Days weekend. And after a rowdy Memorial Day weekend in 2023, the city started closing the beaches at 8 p.m., banned backpacks on the boardwalk after 8 p.m. and moved its curfew for unaccompanied minors up from 1 a.m. to 11 p.m., as news reports described the rules when they passed. None of that bothers a family out for an evening walk, which is exactly the point.
Plan it: the boardwalk is open year-round and free. Summer evenings are the busiest and the most fun; weekday mornings in September are the quietest. Many boardwalk businesses keep shorter hours or close after October, so a winter walk is more about the ocean than the shops. Allow 2 hours to walk the whole thing and back, or about 45 minutes by bike. Best for: everyone.
2. Ride at Playland’s Castaway Cove
Free to walk in; rides cost extra. Playland’s Castaway Cove, at 1020 Boardwalk, bills itself as Ocean City’s oldest amusement park, and it was “celebrating 65 years” in 2026 with 32 rides, including the Ferris wheel that towers over this stretch of the boardwalk. The same company runs the Seaside Speedway go-karts at 936 Boardwalk and two mini golf courses nearby (see below), so you can fill a whole evening within three blocks.
It’s also the only ride park left on the boardwalk, which is the end of a long Ocean City story. Gillian’s Wonderland Pier, the boardwalk’s other ride park, with its own Ferris wheel and carousel, closed for good after its last day on October 13, 2024. The site’s owner, Icona Resorts CEO Eustace Mita, reopened the building as an arcade with Ocean City Pizza Company over Memorial Day weekend 2025, but no rides have run there since. City Council turned down his first hotel plan for the site in August 2025, then in June 2026 approved a rehabilitation designation that opened talks on a revised, set-back hotel design with a public plaza. And in September 2026, the city issued a Notice of Unsafe Structure as a wall under the pier’s decking caved in; Mita said the Ferris wheel can’t be taken apart and will have to be cut up, though he’s trying to save the carousel. If an older guide sends you to Wonderland for rides, it’s out of date.
Plan it: in fall 2026, rides run Saturday, October 10, and Sunday, October 11, from 1 to 9 p.m., the last dates on the park’s online calendar; after that, plan on spring 2027. Check ride prices at the gate. Allow 2 to 3 hours on a summer night. Best for: ages 3 to 15, and any evening in July.
3. Eat your way down the boardwalk
Cheap. Ocean City’s boardwalk food is a short list of institutions, and most families end up at all four before the week is out.
- Manco & Manco Pizza. The boardwalk’s pizza since 1956, when the first shop opened at 918 Boardwalk. 2026 was its 70th year, and the business is run by what it calls the third generation. Longtime visitors still call it Mack & Manco’s, the name it went by until January 1, 2012. The flagship is the 9th Street “superstore,” which opened in June 2017 inside the restored Strand Theater.
- Johnson’s Popcorn. Caramel corn hand-mixed in copper kettles on the boardwalk since 1940, and, the company says, popped and mixed there seven days a week, 12 months a year. Buy a bigger box than you think you need.
- Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard. Soft frozen custard in a cone, the other half of the boardwalk diet. The company traces its custard to a stand the Kohr brothers opened on the Coney Island boardwalk in 1919, and it has five Ocean City stores: four on the boardwalk (at 7th Street, Moorlyn Terrace, 10th Street and 12th Street) and one on Asbury Avenue at 55th Street.
- Shriver’s Salt Water Taffy & Fudge. The oldest business on the boardwalk, founded in 1898 and run by the same family since 1959. Its taffy machines pull more than 100 pounds at a time and wrap 300 to 400 pieces a minute, and a pound works out to about 40 pieces, which is roughly one beach week for a family of four if nobody’s counting.
Plan it: in early October 2026, Manco & Manco’s 9th Street store was open 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, its 12th Street store Friday to Sunday only, and its 8th Street store closed for the season; the pizzeria says hours can shrink in bad weather or slow weeks, so call ahead off-season. Johnson’s 14th Street and 8th Street stands were open daily (the 6th Street stand had closed for the season). Kohr Bros. and Shriver’s don’t post hours. Best for: everyone, ideally after the beach and before the rides.
4. Catch a show at the Music Pier
Paid (ticket prices vary by show). The Music Pier, on the boardwalk at Moorlyn Terrace, went up in 1928, after a 1927 fire destroyed a large part of the boardwalk, and was dedicated on July 4, 1929. Nearly a century on, it’s still Ocean City’s main stage: stand-up comedy, musicals and solo acts, and in summer the Ocean City Pops orchestra gives its concerts there. The 2026 Pops season opened on June 28 and ran into September. This fall, the Ocean City Theatre Company stages A Grand Night for Singing, a Rodgers and Hammerstein revue, at 7 p.m. on October 9, 10, 16 and 17 and at 2 p.m. on October 11 and 18. The Pops come back for Holidays with the Ocean City Pops at 2 and 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 28 ($27 and $32 in 2026), and in December the pier hosts a model train show (December 5 and 6, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and photos with Santa from 1 to 3 p.m. on the late-November and December weekends.
Plan it: buy tickets through the city’s box office at ocnj.us/boxoffice, or from the company presenting the show. The beach beside the pier is also where Ocean City starts the new year: the First Day at the Beach ocean dip is set for 2 p.m. on January 1, 2027, an hour after the First Day 5K. Allow an evening. Best for: grandparents, music lovers and anyone who wants one rainy-night plan.
5. Play mini golf, see a movie or brave a haunted house
Paid ($8 per person for Castaway Cove’s courses, as posted). Rainy evening, sunburned kids, or just the thing to do after pizza: Ocean City has more mini golf per block than seems reasonable. Playland’s Castaway Cove runs Golden Galleon Pirate Golf, two 19-hole pirate courses between 11th and 12th streets, and Seaport Village Golf at Pier 9, between 9th and 10th streets, whose 19 holes include a replica of the Sindia shipwreck. OCNJ Entertainment runs the Pirate Island and Congo Falls courses, Haunted Golf, the OC Haunted Hotel, escape rooms and the Encounters Mirror Maze. And if the weather turns, the Moorlyn, the old boardwalk movie house at 816 Boardwalk, is a working cinema again: it reopened as the Moorlyn Square Theatre in 2024, and the chain that runs it listed it as active in October 2026.
One name to update in your head: the water park at 728 Boardwalk that many people still call Gillian’s Island is OC Waterpark & Adventure Golf, which says it hasn’t been affiliated with Gillian’s since 2014. It’s open April to September, so it’s closed until 2027.
Plan it: Golden Galleon is open weekends from noon to 4 p.m. through October, weather permitting; Seaport Village runs 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily in July and August, with off-season hours by phone (609-399-9090). Castaway Cove’s golf page still carries an old footer, so treat its posted hours and $8 price as a guide. OCNJ Entertainment posts its hours a few days at a time. Allow an hour per course. Best for: ages 4 and up, and grandparents who are secretly competitive.
6. Shop and stroll Asbury Avenue
Free to browse. A few blocks back from the ocean, Asbury Avenue is Ocean City’s real downtown: a long main street of shops, cafes and bakeries, busiest between 6th and 14th streets. It’s where Ocean City holds its small-town traditions. The Chamber of Commerce’s Fall Block Party fills the avenue from 5th to 14th streets with more than 400 crafters and food vendors on Saturday, October 10, 2026, the Halloween Parade marches down it on October 29, the Christmas season starts here with Santa’s arrival on November 27, and the Christmas Parade follows on December 4. It’s also where you’ll find a few of the town’s best breakfasts (see Where to Eat).
Plan it: downtown meters cost from 50 cents an hour from May 1 to October 31, and street parking is free from October 31 to May 1. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: rainy days, grandparents, and anyone who’s had enough sand.
7. Get out on the bay
Paid. Most visitors never see Ocean City’s other waterfront, which is a shame. The bay side, along Bay Avenue, is calm water, salt marsh and sunsets, and it’s where the boats leave from.
- Kayaks and paddleboards: Baycats, at 316 Bay Avenue and on the bay since 1990, rents kayaks and paddleboards from its dock and runs kayak nature tours. Its posted rates in 2026 were $40 for a single kayak for an hour, $50 for two hours and $75 for a half day.
- A tiki boat cruise: The Beachy Tiki runs tours of an hour and a half or more on a 40-foot tiki catamaran that seats 32, from 228 Bay Avenue, seven days a week from May through September. Its Big Tiki tour is BYOB, a rare chance in Ocean City to have a drink with the view.
- Fishing: Reel Fun Fishing’s party boat sails from 308 Bay Avenue on weekends from Memorial Day to Father’s Day and daily to Labor Day, with morning deep-sea trips (in 2026, $70 for adults and $50 for children 12 and under), afternoon back-bay trips ($45 and $30) and Tuesday and Thursday dusk trips ($40 and $30), licenses and gear included. In spring and fall it fishes out of Atlantic City instead.
- The Bayside Center: the city’s environmental-education center at 520 Bay Avenue, in a house from around 1916, has exhibits on the South Jersey shore and is open from the last Saturday in June to Labor Day, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Plan it: the bay side is a summer operation. The Beachy Tiki runs through September, the party boat leaves from Ocean City only between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and the Bayside Center reopens in late June 2027; Baycats doesn’t post fall hours, so call (609-391-7960). After the historic flooding of late September 2026, call to make sure your outfitter is running before you drive over. Best for: ages 8 and up on the water, and anyone who wants a sunset without a crowd.
8. Walk the dunes at Corson’s Inlet State Park
Free. At the southern tip of the island, where the houses run out, the state set aside Corson’s Inlet State Park in 1969 to protect one of the last undeveloped stretches of New Jersey’s oceanfront. It’s the opposite of the boardwalk: dunes, overwash flats, estuary and upland, used for hiking, fishing, crabbing, boating and sunbathing, with no snack stands and no rides. Across the inlet, the park’s Strathmere Natural Area protects nesting piping plovers, least terns and black skimmers. Bring binoculars.
Plan it: the gate is open sunrise to sunset every day, and there’s no entrance fee. Swimming isn’t allowed, and there are no lifeguards or trash cans, so carry out everything you bring. Dogs are banned from April 1 to September 15 (leashed, on a 6-foot lead, the rest of the year), and alcohol, smoking and vaping are prohibited. The boat ramp is open around the clock, with launch fees from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day ($12 for New Jersey residents and $20 for everyone else in 2026). Drive: about 15 minutes from the Music Pier, at the end of Bay Avenue (Ocean Drive). Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: walkers, birders, anglers and anyone who needs an hour without a crowd.
9. Visit the Historical Museum and the Arts Center
Free (the museum asks for donations). The Ocean City Historical Museum and the Ocean City Arts Center share the Ocean City Community Center at 1735 Simpson Avenue, which makes them an easy rainy-day pair. The museum, which dropped its admission fee in favor of donations, covers the town’s 1879 founding, the boardwalk, the 1901 wreck of the sailing ship Sindia off Ocean City’s beach, and Grace Kelly’s Ocean City summers. Next door, the Arts Center’s gallery shows “Through the Frame,” photographs by Diane George, through October 28, 2026 (with an opening reception from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, October 9), then its Annual Juried Art Show from November 2 to 21 and a pottery and mosaic show in December.
Plan it: the museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the Arts Center is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, and closed Sunday. Allow an hour for both. Best for: rainy days, history buffs and Grace Kelly fans.
10. Cross the bridge to Lucy the Elephant
Paid (tours). Fifteen minutes north over the Longport bridge, in Margate, stands Lucy the Elephant, six stories of elephant built by James Lafferty of Philadelphia in 1881 as the “Elephant Bazaar” and a National Historic Landmark since 1976. Kids who’ve spent the week on the boardwalk still stop talking when they see her. Tickets for the guided tour inside are sold at Lucy’s gift shop, which has moved temporarily across the street to 9219 Atlantic Avenue, at the corner of Washington Avenue, while a new visitor center is built. Her Trunktoberfest is Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Plan it: Lucy’s site listed hours of 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in late September 2026. There are only ten on-site parking spaces (short-term, by permit from staff, and unpermitted cars are towed) and no public restrooms at the elephant itself. Drive: about 15 minutes from the Music Pier. Allow an hour. Best for: kids, and anyone who likes roadside oddities with a National Historic Landmark plaque.
The Beaches, Beach Tags and Beach Rules
Ocean City has eight miles of ocean beach, running the length of the island from the jetty at the north end, near the Longport bridge, to Corson’s Inlet at the south end. The beaches beside the boardwalk, roughly from the north end to 23rd Street, are where most day visitors land, because the food and rides are a few steps away. South of 23rd Street the boardwalk ends and the beach is backed by dunes and houses, and by the 50s you’re mostly among people who live or rent nearby. At the very southern tip, Corson’s Inlet State Park keeps a stretch of the island wild (see Corson’s Inlet above).
The north end is new, too, in a sense. A summer 2026 beach replenishment pumped 1.6 million cubic yards of sand onto the beaches between the terminal groin near Seaview Road and the area around 11th Street, and the city says it finished on September 7, 2026, so the north-end and boardwalk beaches start 2027 wide and flat.
Beach tags: who needs one and what they cost
A beach tag (Ocean City’s word for what other towns call a badge) is a small pass you pin to your swimsuit or bag. In 2026 Ocean City required one for everyone 12 and older from June 1 through September 7. The 2026 prices:
- Daily tag: $10, sold during the season (not online).
- Weekly tag: $20, also sold in season only.
- Seasonal tag: $30 if bought by May 31, then $35.
- Free: children under 12, and seasonal tags for veterans and for active military members, their spouses and children up to age 23.
Two practical notes. First, a weekly tag costs the same as two daily tags, and a seasonal tag costs less than four, so a family on a week’s rental should do the math before the first morning. Second, tags aren’t needed outside the season: after September 7 in 2026, you could walk onto any beach in town free, and the beaches stay free until the 2027 tag season starts (the city hadn’t announced its 2027 dates or prices by early October 2026).
Lifeguards and safety
The Ocean City Beach Patrol guards the beaches only in season, and it had finished for 2026 by late September, so for now every beach in town is unguarded. Swim only at a beach with lifeguards on their stands, and stay between their flags. That isn’t just boilerplate: the National Weather Service’s preliminary list of 2026 New Jersey surf-zone deaths includes one in Ocean City on May 18, before the summer crowds arrived. If you’re caught in a rip current, swim parallel to the beach until you’re out of it, then swim in.
The water warms slowly. NOAA’s nearest gauge, in Atlantic City, averages 64.6°F in June, 68.9°F in July, 72.9°F in August and 72.1°F in September, and still 64.2°F in October. In other words, September swimming is often better than June’s, and the crowds are gone.
The rules that catch visitors out
- The beaches close at 8 p.m. The city began closing them every night at 8 p.m. in 2023, according to news reports when the rule passed, so on a June evening you’ll be off the sand before sunset.
- No alcohol. Drinking on the beach or anywhere in public is prohibited, and in a dry town nobody’s selling it anyway (more on that below).
- No smoking or vaping. New Jersey’s Smoke-Free Air Act covers public beaches, Ocean City adds its own restrictions, and the state’s cannabis law doesn’t allow public use at all.
- Dogs only in the off-season. Leashed dogs may go on the beach from October 1 to April 30, never from May 1 to September 30, and never between the Longport bridge and the north-end jetty from March 15 to September 30. Dogs aren’t allowed on the boardwalk at any time of year, even carried or riding in a bike basket, except at the city’s Dog Days event in late October.
- Beach driving is for surf fishing only, with a permit, from September 15 to May 15, and only on set stretches of the beach.
The Dry-Town Rules: No Bars, No Liquor Stores, No Wine With Dinner
Ocean City has been dry since the day it was founded. In 1879 four Methodist ministers, Ezra B. Lake, James Lake, S. Wesley Lake and William Burrell, set the island up as a Christian retreat and camp meeting, along the lines of Ocean Grove up the coast, and liquor was banned in the property deeds from the start. Cape May County’s tourism office says those deed restrictions are still in place. In September 2024, according to the local news site OCNJ Daily, City Council voted 6-0 for a resolution reaffirming the city’s laws against the sale of alcohol.
Here’s what that means if you’re visiting:
- You can’t buy alcohol anywhere on the island. There are no bars, no liquor stores and no beer at the convenience stores, and restaurants have no wine list.
- You can’t drink in public. Drinking on the beach, on the boardwalk or anywhere else in public is prohibited.
- No BYOB at restaurants. In May 2012, Ocean City voters turned down a ballot question 3,378 to 1,533, according to Cape May County’s official results; news reports at the time identified it as the proposal to let diners bring their own wine or beer, and restaurants still don’t allow it. The one workaround is a members-only dinner club, where you join first and then bring your own bottle (see Where to Eat). The city’s published rules address selling alcohol and drinking it in public; they don’t mention private homes or rentals.
- The nearest bar is a bridge away. Somers Point, about 10 minutes over the Ninth Street bridge (Route 52), has taverns and bayfront bars, and plenty of Ocean City visitors make that short drive for a drink with dinner. Designate a driver.
Our take: the dry rule is a big part of why Ocean City feels the way it does after dark, which is more ice-cream cone than nightcap. The boardwalk at night belongs to families and teenagers, not bar crowds, and the city backs that up with an 11 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied minors, moved up from 1 a.m. in 2023. If a beer on the beach is part of your idea of a vacation, Ocean City isn’t your town, and nobody there will pretend otherwise.
When to Visit Ocean City NJ: Season by Season
Ocean City is two towns on the same island: a packed summer resort from about mid-June to Labor Day, and a quiet seaside town of year-round residents the rest of the time, with a parade or festival most fall weekends to bring the crowds back for a day. Here’s what each season looks like, with the dates set as of October 2026.
Summer: the full show
From June through Labor Day everything runs at once. Lifeguards are on the stands, beach tags are checked (in 2026, from June 1 to September 7), and bikes are allowed on the boardwalk only until noon. Summer is also parade season. Night in Venice, the lit-up boat parade along the bay, had its 71st running on Saturday, July 25, 2026, from near the Ocean City-Longport bridge to Tennessee Avenue, with fireworks over the bay north of the Ninth Street bridge. The 116th Baby Parade rolled down the boardwalk on Thursday, August 13, 2026. Night in Venice returns for its 72nd year on Saturday, July 17, 2027; check the city’s events page for the Baby Parade’s 2027 date. The water is still cool early in the season (64.6°F on average in June at NOAA’s Atlantic City gauge) and warmest in August (72.9°F).
The trade-off is crowds. Summer weekends mean full beaches near the boardwalk, lines at the pizza counters and slow going on the causeway, and the best rentals book up early. If you can only come in summer, aim for a weekday arrival and a south-end beach.
September and October: the locals’ secret
September is the best month in Ocean City, and it isn’t close. Beach tags end on Labor Day (September 7 in 2026), the water is about as warm as it gets (72.1°F on average), and the crowds thin out along with the lifeguards, who finish for the year during the month. The boardwalk is still lively on weekends. Then October fills up with free events. Here’s the rest of the fall 2026 calendar as of October 3:
- Fall Block Party, Saturday, October 10, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: hundreds of craft and food vendors and entertainers along Asbury Avenue from 5th to 14th streets, with free parking at all municipal lots and meters that day. Merchant Discount Days run October 10 to 12 on the boardwalk and Asbury Avenue. Older guides call this weekend “Indian Summer Weekend,” but the city’s 2026 calendar doesn’t.
- Playland’s Castaway Cove: rides on Saturday, October 10, and Sunday, October 11, both 1 to 9 p.m., the last dates on the park’s online calendar.
- Porsche Reunion, Saturday, October 17: one of the town’s fall car gatherings; bikes are banned from the boardwalk after 10:30 a.m. that day.
- Dog Days, October 24 and 25: the one weekend leashed dogs may walk the boardwalk (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday). The Humane Society of Ocean City’s Howl-O-Ween costume parade steps off at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, on the boardwalk from 6th to 14th streets; register beforehand at the Sports & Civic Center (the city lists both 1 and 2 p.m. for registration, so go early).
- Halloween Parade, Thursday, October 29, 7:15 p.m.: on Asbury Avenue from 6th to 11th streets, sponsored by the Ocean City Exchange Club.
- Trick-or-treating, Saturday, October 31: the city’s Halloween page still showed last year’s Friday hours, so confirm the 2026 times nearer the day.
The holidays
Ocean City does an old-fashioned small-town Christmas, and nearly all of it is free. Christmas in the Downtown, billed for 2026 as “Our Miracle on Asbury Avenue,” runs from 2 to 5 p.m. on Friday, November 27, and ends with Santa’s arrival at 5. Horse-and-carriage rides board at Sixth Street and Asbury Avenue from noon to 3 p.m. on November 21, 27, 28 and 29 and on the December weekends through the 20th, and Santa visits Soifer Park from 9 to 11 a.m. on November 28 and 29 and the December weekends. The Christmas Parade, with bands, floats and Santa in a horse-drawn carriage, rolls down Asbury Avenue from Sixth to 11th Street at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 4. The Ocean City Pops play their holiday concerts at the Music Pier on November 28, and the pier hosts a model train show on December 5 and 6.
Then comes First Night, the alcohol-free New Year’s Eve arts festival the town has held since 1992, on Thursday, December 31, 2026, with entertainment all evening and fireworks at midnight. One admission button covers every venue. For the 2025 edition, buttons cost $20 through November 30 and $25 from December 1, attendance was capped at 10,000, and the 2026 buttons hadn’t gone on sale by early October, so watch for them. On New Year’s Day 2027, the First Day 5K on the boardwalk starts at 1 p.m., and the First Day at the Beach ocean dip follows at 2 p.m. at the Music Pier.
Winter and spring
January to March is the quietest stretch: the beaches are empty and free, so is the parking, and many boardwalk businesses close or open only on weekends, so check before you drive down for a particular pizza. You won’t go hungry, though: Johnson’s Popcorn says it pops on the boardwalk 12 months a year, and Yianni’s Cafe on Asbury Avenue serves year-round. Spring wakes the town up. The Doo Dah Parade, which the city always schedules close to Tax Day, had its 39th edition at noon on Saturday, April 18, 2026, and a spring car show takes over the boardwalk in May (Spring Cruisin’ the Boards was May 9 in 2026). For the rest of the 2027 summer calendar beyond Night in Venice on July 17, check the city’s events page.
Where to Stay in Ocean City
Ocean City has no casino towers and only a handful of sizable hotels, so many families rent a house or condo instead. Either way, the location question is simple. Stay between roughly 6th and 14th streets, near the boardwalk, if you want to walk to the rides, pizza and Music Pier; stay in the quieter blocks south of the boardwalk or in the 30s and 40s if you want a calmer beach and don’t mind driving or biking to the action. A few hotels worth knowing, all confirmed operating in 2026 (we don’t quote nightly rates, which swing wildly by week):
- The Flanders Hotel (719 E. 11th Street, on the boardwalk) is the grande dame. It opened on July 23, 1923, survived the 1927 fire that leveled much of the boardwalk, closed in 1995 and reopened in 1997 as an all-suites condominium hotel, and it’s on the National Register of Historic Places. Every suite has a kitchen, Emily’s Ocean Room restaurant serves three meals a day, and the heated outdoor pool, which the hotel calls the largest in town, is open from Memorial Day weekend to mid-September. You must be 21 to check in.
- The Port-O-Call Hotel (1510 Boardwalk) has 98 oceanfront rooms, all with balconies, and its Adelene restaurant serves breakfast and lunch to the public. It opened in 1966 and was offering fall packages into late October 2026.
- Watson’s Regency Suites (901 Ocean Avenue) is an all-suite hotel with full kitchens, open year-round, and says it has the only indoor pool in Ocean City; each reservation comes with a parking space, which in summer is worth real money.
- The Impala Island Inn (1001 Ocean Avenue, in the beach block) is open all year with a 24-hour front desk, most rooms look over its warm-water pool, and it provides beach tags for registered guests 12 and older.
- The Beach Club Hotel, a three-generation family-run hotel right on the boardwalk at 13th Street, is seasonal: its 2026 season, which opened April 30, runs through October 12.
If you rent, book early for July and August, read the listing carefully for beach-tag and parking details, and double-check that it’s Ocean City, New Jersey (see below). One more trap: the Ocean Club Hotel you may find online is in Cape May, not Ocean City.
Where to Eat in Ocean City
Eating in Ocean City means three things: a big breakfast, boardwalk food, and dinner without a drink. Breakfast is the town’s real meal, and the classic spots run only until early afternoon, so plan around them. All of these were confirmed operating in 2026; hours are as posted in early October.
Breakfast and lunch
- Varsity Inn (605 E. 8th Street) is the breakfast-and-lunch institution, open every day from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. in a 1905 building that was once a Methodist retreat and a one-room schoolhouse. The Symonds family ran it from its first summer in 1970 until 2023, and the McCarthy family, who own it now, kept the traditions, down to Keith’s baked tomato soup and Aunt Helen’s omelette. It takes call-ahead seating (609-399-1500), which on a summer Sunday is the smartest call you’ll make.
- Uncle Bill’s Pancake House, founded in Stone Harbor in 1962, has two Ocean City locations, at 21st Street and Asbury Avenue and at 40th Street and West Avenue, both listed as open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Yianni’s Cafe (847 Asbury Avenue), a family-owned, Crete-inspired cafe that bills itself as having the “Best Bagels At The Shore Since 1997,” serves breakfast, lunch and dinner year-round, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily as of October 2026.
- Oves (4th Street and the Boardwalk) started in 1968, when a retired Ocean City Beach Patrol guard moved his bike-rental business to a beach stand there; it’s now an open-air restaurant run by the second and third generations, with seafood dinners since 1990, and it still rents bikes and surreys in the morning. Its site lists daily hours of 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., which may be summer hours, so check before a fall visit.
- Fractured Prune (1225 Asbury Avenue) is the doughnut stop (the signature is the “O.C. Sand”); for fall 2026 it’s open weekends only, 8 a.m. to noon, through Block Party weekend (October 10 and 11). One wrong-Ocean-City footnote: the chain began in Ocean City, Maryland, in 1976, and the New Jersey shops are run by a local family under license.
On the boardwalk
Beyond the pizza, popcorn and custard (see above), the boardwalk has a few sit-down choices. The Hula Restaurant & Sauce Co. (940 Boardwalk, on Colony Walk) has served Hawaiian food since 2000, and its Hula Combo pairs grilled ahi with a crab cake and coconut shrimp; in early October it was down to Thursday and Friday, noon to 7:30 p.m. OC Lobster Pot (984 Boardwalk), which calls itself “the new kids on the boardwalk,” does whole lobster pots, lobster rolls, sushi and boba, with posted hours of 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Clancy’s By the Sea, the breakfast-to-dinner spot with an ocean-view patio between 12th and 13th streets, has closed for the season and plans to reopen in May 2027.
Dinner in a dry town, and the BYOB loophole
Ocean City restaurants can’t sell alcohol and don’t allow BYOB, so most dinners out are a soda-and-seafood affair, and plenty of visitors cross to Somers Point for dinner with a drink. But a couple of places have found a members-only workaround, a private dinner club, which the city solicitor has said doesn’t break the state’s BYOB law or local ordinances, according to a 2020 report in the local Ocean City Sentinel:
- Dockside Kitchen (228 Bay Avenue), on the bay since 2017, serves brunch to the public from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., while dinner (4:30 to 9 p.m.) is only for members of its Dinner Club, who may bring their own alcohol. 2026 memberships cost $250 for a family (up to 15 guests) or $150 for one or two people, and the hostess stand sells same-day trial passes ($35 or $55). It calls itself the only bayfront restaurant in town with BYOB memberships.
- The Flanders Hotel’s Supper Club 1923 lets members bring their own spirits, concealed in a bag, to dinner at Emily’s Ocean Room on Friday and Saturday nights from March through December (dining 5 to 8 p.m.), with membership at $100 per family as of October 2026; drinkers must be 21.
Both are small, membership-only arrangements, not a sign that Ocean City is loosening up, and neither lets you carry a drink anywhere else in town.
Getting There, Parking and Getting Around
Driving in
Most visitors drive, and most of them come in over the Route 52 causeway. From Philadelphia, take the Atlantic City Expressway to Exit 7S (signed for Ocean City, Wildwood and Cape May), then the Garden State Parkway south to Exit 30 (Somers Point, Ocean City) and Route 52 across the bay. It lands you on Ninth Street, which runs straight through downtown to the boardwalk. That’s about 1 hour 25 minutes in light traffic. From New York, take the Turnpike to Exit 11, then the Parkway about 95 miles south to the same Exit 30, which is roughly 2 hours 45 minutes on a clear road and considerably more on a summer Friday afternoon.
There are three other ways onto the island. West Roosevelt Boulevard comes in from Marmora to 34th Street, which is the handy bridge for the south end. At the north end, the bridge from Longport connects Ocean City to Margate and Atlantic City, about 15 minutes from Lucy the Elephant and 25 from Boardwalk Hall. At the south end, Ocean Drive crosses Corson’s Inlet to Strathmere and Sea Isle City, a slow, pretty way down the coast. By the fastest route, the Wildwoods are about 45 minutes away and Cape May about 50.
Three driving notes for out-of-staters. The Atlantic City Expressway has been all-electronic since January 4, 2026: no cash booths, so it’s E-ZPass or a toll-by-plate bill at about double the rate plus a $1 fee. The Garden State Parkway still takes cash ($2.40 at the Great Egg southbound plaza in 2026, or $2.25 with E-ZPass). And you can’t pump your own gas in New Jersey: stay in the car and an attendant fills it.
By bus or train
NJ Transit buses 507 and 509 run between Atlantic City and the Ocean City Transportation Center, at 10th Street and Haven Avenue, by way of the mainland. From New York, the 319 express from the Port Authority Bus Terminal to Atlantic City, Wildwood and Cape May stops at the Transportation Center and along West Avenue between 14th and 34th streets, and the Chamber of Commerce describes that New York service as seasonal, so check the schedule before you plan around it. One correction to a common claim: the 316 bus from Philadelphia to the Wildwoods and Cape May doesn’t stop in Ocean City. From Philadelphia, take the 551 bus to the Atlantic City Bus Terminal, which connects with buses to Ocean City. There’s no train station on the island. The nearest is the Atlantic City Rail Terminal, the end of NJ Transit’s Atlantic City Rail Line from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, and it’s about 25 minutes from Ocean City by car.
Parking
Parking costs money for half the year and nothing for the other half. From May 1 to October 31, Ocean City’s street meters run from 50 cents an hour downtown to $2 an hour in the beach and boardwalk zone, with limits of one to eight hours, and the city’s surface lots are priced by demand but never more than $25 a day (cash or card). The staffed boardwalk lots are Foxtrot at 5th Street, Baker and Echo at 8th Street, Delta at Moorlyn Terrace, and Alpha and Beta at 9th Street, all right at the boardwalk. Every meter takes the ParkMobile app (enter the zone number on the meter sticker), and a few spots, including the north-end lot by the Longport bridge and the 59th Street lot, take nothing else. The city’s free Ocean City Parking Spot Finder app and digital signs along Ninth Street show open spaces in the municipal lots, which hold more than 2,800 cars. Then, between October 31 and May 1, all municipal lots and street parking are free. One more fall freebie: parking at every city lot and meter is free on Fall Block Party day, Saturday, October 10, 2026.
Getting around the island
The island is flat and about eight miles long, so bikes are the local car. Rental shops on and near the boardwalk rent cruisers, e-bikes and surreys, the canopied four-wheel pedal carts that seat a family, and the Chamber of Commerce pitches an early-morning surrey ride on the boardwalk as the classic family outing (remember the morning-only summer bike hours). In summer, the city also subsidizes a jitney: in 2026 it looped between 55th Street and North Street from 5 to 11 p.m. daily, June 19 to September 7, for $3 cash one way (children 5 and under free), and you flag it down at an intersection or track it in the Jitney Surfer app. It doesn’t run in the off-season, and 2027 dates weren’t posted yet. What Ocean City doesn’t have, unlike Wildwood and Atlantic City, is a boardwalk tram. The recent headlines about an “Ocean City boardwalk tram” being retired after a fatal accident are about Ocean City, Maryland.
Not to Be Confused With Ocean City, Maryland
Every summer, somebody books a week in the wrong Ocean City. The two are about 179 miles apart by road, roughly a 4-hour-15-minute drive around Delaware Bay, and they share a name, a boardwalk and not much else. (If you’re set on seeing both, the Cape May-Lewes Ferry cuts the driving to about 70 miles plus an 85-minute crossing.) The Maryland one is older: its tourism office dates the resort to 1875, when the Atlantic Hotel opened its doors, four years before four Methodist ministers founded Ocean City, New Jersey as a seaside camp meeting.
| Ocean City, New Jersey | Ocean City, Maryland | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1879, by four Methodist ministers, as a Christian retreat | 1875, when the Atlantic Hotel began taking guests |
| Alcohol | Dry: no bars or liquor stores, no alcohol sales, no drinking in public | Bars and restaurants serve alcohol (Seacrets, on 49th Street, has 17 bars); no drinking on the beach or in public |
| Beaches | 8 miles; beach tags required for ages 12 and up in summer ($10 a day in 2026) | 10 miles of free public beach, no tags |
| Boardwalk | About 2.45 miles, St. James Place to 23rd Street | 2.9 miles, the Inlet to 27th Street |
| Bikes on the boardwalk in summer | 5 a.m. to noon (June 19 to September 7 in 2026) | 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day) |
| Rides | Playland’s Castaway Cove (32 rides) | Trimper Rides and Jolly Roger at the Pier |
| After dark | Ice cream, mini golf and a curfew for teenagers | A real bar and nightlife scene |
| Drive from Philadelphia | 1 hr 25 min | 3 hr 20 min |
| Drive from New York City | 2 hr 45 min | 5 hr 5 min |
Our take: pick New Jersey’s Ocean City if you have young kids, like a town that goes quiet early, and live within a couple of hours of Philadelphia or New York. Pick Maryland’s if you want free beaches, a longer boardwalk and a drink with dinner, or if you’re coming from Baltimore or Washington, which are much closer to it. And when you search, add “NJ” or “MD” to every query: with the same name, similar boardwalks and plenty of look-alike business names, it’s easy to land on the other town’s page without noticing.
A Weekend in Ocean City, Hour by Hour
This plan assumes a Friday-evening arrival between June and early October, when most of the town is running. In the off-season, swap the beach and bay for the museum, the Arts Center and a long walk at Corson’s Inlet.
Friday
- Evening: check in, then walk to the boardwalk for slices at Manco & Manco’s 9th Street store and a Kohr Bros. custard for the stroll. In summer, finish with a few rides at Castaway Cove; in fall, a movie at the Moorlyn.
Saturday
- 7 a.m.: bikes or a surrey for the length of the boardwalk while riding is allowed (Oves at 4th Street rents from 7 a.m.; OC Bikes at 12th Street opens at 8). In summer, the boards close to bikes at noon.
- 9 a.m.: breakfast at the Varsity Inn (call ahead) or Uncle Bill’s.
- 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: the beach. In summer, set up near a lifeguard stand (guards work 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and to 5:30 on weekends) and bring your tags; in September and October, it’s free and there are no guards, so stay out of the water if it’s rough.
- 3:30 p.m.: Shriver’s for taffy and Johnson’s for caramel corn, then a rest. On a rainy day, do the Historical Museum and the Arts Center instead (both are open Saturday).
- Evening: a show at the Music Pier if one’s on, or a round at Golden Galleon Pirate Golf and the Encounters Mirror Maze. Teenagers: the curfew is 11 p.m.
Sunday
- Morning: drive to the south end for a walk at Corson’s Inlet State Park, or, in summer, rent kayaks from Baycats for an hour on the bay.
- Late morning: bagels at Yianni’s on Asbury Avenue and a browse of the downtown shops.
- Afternoon: leave by the Longport bridge and stop at Lucy the Elephant in Margate on the way out, or cross to Somers Point for an early dinner with a drink before the drive home.
What’s Changed in Ocean City
Ocean City sells itself on tradition, but a lot has shifted in the last few years. These are the changes most likely to trip up a visitor working from an older guide or a stale listing.
| Place or rule | What changed | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Gillian’s Wonderland Pier | Closed for good after October 13, 2024; reopened as an arcade with Ocean City Pizza Company in 2025, with no rides; a Notice of Unsafe Structure followed in September 2026 | Playland’s Castaway Cove is the only ride park on the boardwalk |
| North-end beaches | A 1.6-million-cubic-yard beach replenishment, from the north-end jetty to about 11th Street, finished on September 7, 2026 | Wider beaches near the boardwalk in 2027 |
| Night rules | Under rules passed in June 2023, as news reports described them, the beaches close at 8 p.m., backpacks are banned on the boardwalk after 8 p.m., and unaccompanied minors have an 11 p.m. curfew instead of 1 a.m. | Do your sunset beach walk early, and leave the backpack at the rental at night |
| Atlantic City Expressway | All-electronic tolls since January 4, 2026, with no cash booths | Bring E-ZPass, or expect a toll-by-plate bill at about double the rate |
| “Indian Summer Weekend” | The city’s 2026 calendar calls the mid-October weekend the Fall Block Party (October 10) plus merchant Discount Days (October 10 to 12) | Same weekend, new name |
| First Night listings | The “Wednesday, December 31, 4 p.m. to midnight” date still online belongs to the 2025 edition; December 31, 2026 is a Thursday | Wait for the 2026 schedule and buttons, which weren’t posted in early October, before you plan the evening |
| Gillian’s Island Waterpark | Now OC Waterpark & Adventure Golf, which says it hasn’t been affiliated with Gillian’s since 2014 | Gillian’s tickets aren’t accepted; open April to September |
| Mack & Manco’s | Renamed Manco & Manco on January 1, 2012; the old Strand Theater on 9th Street has been its flagship store since 2017 | Same boardwalk pizza, new name |
| The Moorlyn | Showing films again as the Moorlyn Square Theatre, reopened in 2024 | A rainy-night option right on the boardwalk |
| Varsity Inn | New owners, the McCarthy family, since 2023 | Same breakfast traditions, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily |
| NJ Transit bus 316 | Doesn’t stop in Ocean City, whatever older guides say | From Philadelphia, take the 551 to Atlantic City and connect |
| Ocean City Pops | The city’s Music Pier page still says the season runs July through October; in 2026 it ran June 28 into September | Plan on summer concerts from late June, plus the holiday show on November 28 |
| Late-September 2026 storm | What the mayor called a historic flooding event, September 26-27; bridges and streets reopened by September 28, and the dunes held | Call bay-side businesses before you go |
What to Skip
- Wonderland Pier, if you’re going for rides. There haven’t been any since 2024. Go to Castaway Cove instead.
- The cooler of beer. Drinking on the beach and in public is banned, and nobody on the island sells alcohol, so there’s no picking some up later either. The same goes for the bottle of wine for dinner out: restaurants don’t allow BYOB unless you’ve joined one of the private dinner clubs.
- Biking the boardwalk on a summer afternoon. Bikes are off the boards from noon in summer, so ride first thing and walk the rest of the day.
- Bringing the dog to the boardwalk. Dogs aren’t allowed on it at any time, even carried, except on the Dog Days weekend in late October.
- Booking anything without the “NJ.” Ocean City, Maryland is about four hours away by car. Check the state on every hotel, rental and event listing.
- Paying for a beach tag after Labor Day. In 2026, tags weren’t required after September 7, and they won’t be again until the 2027 season starts.
- Arriving on a summer Saturday afternoon. If your rental lets you, come in on a weekday or early in the morning, when the Parkway and the causeway move.
Ocean City NJ FAQ
Is Ocean City NJ still a dry town?
Yes. Four Methodist ministers founded Ocean City in 1879 as a Christian retreat, liquor was banned in the property deeds, and Cape May County says those restrictions are still in place. You can’t buy alcohol anywhere in town, and drinking on the beach or in public is prohibited. Restaurants don’t allow BYOB either (voters turned it down in 2012, 3,378 to 1,533), though a couple run members-only dinner clubs where you can bring a bottle. The nearest bars are about 10 minutes away in Somers Point.
Do you need beach tags in Ocean City NJ?
Only in summer. In 2026, everyone 12 and older needed one from June 1 to September 7: $10 a day, $20 a week or $35 for the season ($30 if bought by May 31). Veterans and active military families get free seasonal tags. Outside those dates the beaches are free, and 2027 prices weren’t posted in October 2026, so check the city’s beach tag page.
Is Wonderland Pier open?
No. Gillian’s Wonderland Pier closed for good after October 13, 2024. Its owner reopened the building as an arcade with a pizza shop in 2025, but no rides have run since, and in September 2026 the city issued an unsafe-structure notice; the owner says the Ferris wheel will be cut up. Playland’s Castaway Cove, with 32 rides, is the boardwalk’s ride park now.
Which came first, Ocean City NJ or Ocean City MD?
Maryland’s. Its tourism office dates the resort to 1875, when the Atlantic Hotel opened, and Ocean City, New Jersey was founded in 1879. They’re about 179 miles apart by road, roughly 4 hours 15 minutes’ drive, and very different: Maryland’s has free beaches and sells alcohol, while New Jersey’s is dry and charges for beach tags in summer.
What is Ocean City NJ known for?
Being the Jersey Shore’s family resort: the city calls itself “America’s Greatest Family Resort.” It’s known for staying dry since 1879, its boardwalk of about 2.45 miles, Shriver’s salt water taffy (on the boardwalk since 1898), the 1929 Music Pier, Playland’s Castaway Cove, and summer traditions like the Night in Venice boat parade and a Baby Parade that has run for more than a century.
When is the best time to visit Ocean City NJ?
September, if you can. Beach tags end on Labor Day, the water averages about 72°F, and the crowds are gone. Come in October for free events like the Fall Block Party (October 10, 2026) and the Halloween parade (October 29), in summer for the full boardwalk and guarded beaches, and on New Year’s Eve for First Night.
How far is Ocean City NJ from Philadelphia and New York?
About 1 hour 25 minutes from Philadelphia and 2 hours 45 minutes from New York City in light traffic, using the Garden State Parkway’s Exit 30 and Route 52 across the bay. Summer Friday afternoons and Saturdays can take much longer. By bus, NJ Transit’s 507 and 509 run from Atlantic City and the 319 from New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Can you bring a dog to Ocean City NJ?
Partly. Leashed dogs may go on the beach from October 1 to April 30, but never from May 1 to September 30, and never on the north-end stretch between the Longport bridge and the jetty from March 15 to September 30. Dogs aren’t allowed on the boardwalk at any time, except during the city’s Dog Days weekend, October 24 and 25 in 2026.
Related New Jersey Guides
- The Jersey Shore: every beach town compared, from Sandy Hook to Cape May Point, including the towns next door to Ocean City
Sources and How We Checked
We checked every price, hour, date, rule and closure on this page on October 3, 2026, on the City of Ocean City’s own pages (including the police department’s FAQ and the beach tag, parking and events pages), Cape May County’s tourism pages, NJ Transit’s, and each business’s or attraction’s own website, plus the Town of Ocean City, Maryland’s ordinances and its tourism office for the comparison. Where we relied on news reports (the 2023 night rules, the Wonderland Pier story, the 2012 BYOB vote and a few business histories), we say so in the text. We did not visit for this update, and nothing here is sponsored. Drive times are light-traffic estimates from the OSRM routing engine, rounded to five minutes.
- City of Ocean City: police FAQs (curfew, boardwalk bikes, dogs, meter season) and beach FAQs
- City of Ocean City: beach tags and parking
- City of Ocean City: 2026 Calendar of Events
- Cape May County: Ocean City
- NJ Division of Parks and Forestry: Corson’s Inlet State Park
- NJ Transit: Atlantic City service
- NOAA: coastal water temperatures
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 City of Ocean City, the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce, NJ Transit or any business or attraction listed here, and no one paid to be included.
Photo Credits
- Boardwalk at 8th Street: photo by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Playland's Castaway Cove: photo by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Manco & Manco Pizza: photo by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Shriver's: photo by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Music Pier: photo by NuncAutNunquam at English Wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
- Asbury Avenue: photo by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Corson's Inlet State Park: photo by Hurricanehink, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Beach at 14th Street: photo by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Beach patrol at 12th Street: photo by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Flanders Hotel: photo by Smallbones, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)