Cape May, NJ

As far as lodging goes, B & B's are probably the way to go. We used to visit Cape May frequently in the 80's & 90's & our last trip (about 6 or 7 years ago) was likely our last. It has become so over-built & so crowded that it has become (to us) the anti-thesis of a beach vacation. Keep in mind my recs are dated & who knows if the places are even there anymore. By all means go to the Ugly Mug, a fine place for lunch & a brew. Also the Shields Inn & Merion Inn (for dining). You'll also want to visit the Lighthouse. If you like architecture I can't think of a better place to view the Victorian-style. Certainly allow yourself some time to meander. That is the extent of my Cape May memories except for miles of traffic. I seem to recall a pretty good seafood joint as you cross the bridge to the left, but the name escapes me. Best of luck, enjoy.

We have a house in Stone Harbor which is 20 min north of Cape May. It's a very nice town but I think Mama would really enjoy Cape May. The seafood restaurant mentioned is called the Lobster House. It is always packed. There can be an hour wait on weekends. I prefer to go around to the back or into the fish market where they have takeout windows. Then I go and eat at a table on the pier in the back.

The only place I have eaten recently in Cape May was Peter Shield's. Its in a gorgeous Victorian facing the ocean. A good choice if you are looking for an upscale meal. I have also heard good things about Tisha's.
I'm sorry I can't help you with B&B's.

Thanks for reviving my memory Birdie - The Lobster House indeed.

Cape May in the summer is just too, too crowded IMHO. I guess it depends on what you are wanting. For a beautiful town with a lovely, non-commercial boardwalk try Spring Lake:
http://www.springlake.org/
Want an unusual small town with the Victorian Houses seen in Cape May? Then look at historical Ocean Grove:
http://www.oceangrovenj.com/

If you want an olde tyme Cape May experience, try the Chalfonte http://www.chalfonte.com/

We usually go to the shore the second or third week in June and find it far less crowded than in Jully or August. I don't think your mother will have a problem in early June.

Cape May is a great choice for early June, especially if money is no object. There are many fine restaurants, hotels and B&Bs.

Congress Hall is a fabulous old hotel with a great restaurant and there are many others.

For entertainment there's everything from boat rides to the Wildwood boardwalk to the Atlantic City casinos. And don't forget the Cape May Zoo.

For more information go to www.MyJerseyShore.com. There is a Cape May story at the bottom of the home page.

Please give us a trip report when you return.

I just had to visit this thread as I grew up going to the shore. Now a California girl but up until I was 9 all my summers where spent in Margate...and then later I went for a summer as a teen and spent it in Cape May with my Grandfather and his wife. It was a wonderful memory that I will always cherish. I cannot weigh in on where to go as it has certainly been too long. My most recent stay on the shore was a good 8 years or so ago when we went to Long Beach Island and rented a house with my husband's family.
Anyway - enjoy "the shore".

A few years ago, we stayed at the Carroll Villa and just loved it. I can still remember breakfasts on the porch (with a glimpse of the beach/ocean at the end of the street) and dinners at their Mad Batter restaurant. We had booked only three nights and stayed four more.

I agree with the Cape May Zoo. Definitely something nice to do.

The Ugly Mug is fun, and there are lots of little shops around. Check out the lighthouse and concrete ship.

Most shore towns will be crowded in the summer, especially during the weekends. Cape May is tamer than some other towns and there seems to be more touristy things to do there.

My daughter has visited Cape May every summer for many years. She always plans ahead and finds a cottage or a house to rent. Maybe you could check with the local C of C to find out more.

We've visited Cape May every year since 1990. Either renting a house in the Summer or staying at one of the wonderful B&Bs off-season.
Cape May is not toooo crowded in the summer, it's bustling with energy (it's the Jersey Shore for goodness sakes). We have used local realtors to help us find the weekly rentals. For a classic Jersey boardwalk with rides and salt-water taffy, drive north about 20 minutes to Wildwood...It's a trip!

Off-season without the kids, Cape May is something altogether different. Romantic, friendly and quaint with incredible restaurants. The Bedmister B&B and The Manor House are two of our favorites.

And you can walk everywhere.

My point was that there are other places at the Shore which do not get the mobs of people that Cape May does. I was there once on a Saturday night in July and you could hardly make your way on the sidewalks. IMHO why put up with those crowds when it isn't necessary. And, by the way, I am a year-round resident in a ocean front town.

We've stayed at the Peter Shields Inn, and it was lovely. Can also recommend their restaurant. I seem to recall we had some sort of restaurant discount due to being overnight guests, but can't remember all the details.

As for the Lobster House, we also enjoyed that (totally different atmosphere & price point from PS) and by having the owner/manager of the PS Inn call ahead for us, we were put on some type of priorty seating list which got us in faster.

Hey Susie: My point was if your willing to go to the "real" Jersey Shore in June (re: OPs question) and experience going "down the shore," don't avoid the crowds. Go have some fun! Embrace the crowds and the atmoshpere.

My husband and I love The Virginia- and try to stay for a few days late summer, early fall. We wanted to book for Octoberfest, but they were full- so booked at one of their other properties, the Star Inn.

Gotta go to the Ugly Mug- great food and cold brew!

And we always stop at Sea Gea Marine on the way "down the shore" for great deals on Woolrich, Columbia, Sperry, etc.

-Betsy

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I got what you were saying about springlake and ocean grove. i really wasn't a fan of Long Beach Island a few years ago, but want to find a someplace to have mini reunions with family in NYC and Pennsylvania. Thanks one and all for your varying ideas.

Hey redc, are you trying to tell me that I don't live at the "real" Jersey Shore? Our Coastline is over 120 miles long and there are many different towns along it, all unique and "down the Shore". Have you ever been to Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Spring Lake, Pt. Pleasant? They are the "real" shore, IMHO.

gyppielou, wherever you go, have a great time!

No SueQQ: I am not saying that you don't live in the real Jersey shore. Further, I have lived in Seaside Heights and worked at Jenkinsons, went to the Casino and the Pony in Asbury, stayed in a tent overnight and attended a Peter paul and Mary concert in Ocean Grove, B&B'd in Spring Lake and ridden a bike around town, and strolled the boardwalke in Pt Pleasant, Wildwood and Seaside Park, besides my summers and romantic escapades in Cape May. I know all about Down the Shore since I was 3 years old. I'm just saying, crowds are ubiquitious at times, you've got to go with the flow.

In my opinion the best b&b in Cape May is the Fairthorne. Its a block from the beach and mall. Cucina Rosa is a good Italian restaurant. For a good steak, The Merion Inn. Bars, the Ugly Mug, the Rusty Nail, or a local hangout the C-View.
For sandwiches Zoe's at the beach, the Ugly Mug, the Dry Dock.
If you don't choose a b&b, for breakfast George's, avoid Uncle Bill's, tourist trap.

topping for anon123

Anyone have knowledge of what kind of drive it would be to Cape May from Indianapolis? How long..how difficult? Seems like when I looked at the Delaware beaches drive(Dewey..Rehoboth) it would be 12 hours, going around D.C. and that didn't seem like it would be terribly tough(assuming you stay away from that particular stretch from D.C. to the shore during high traffic hours)

Looking for a new area of beaches and quaint towns to visit.,.Cape May sounds like it could be the ticket. Dewey and Rehoboth appeared to be too east coast rush rush around to me, so we opted from Mackinac Island.(Fantastic by the way) Isn't Cape May the town where the great white sharks kept the summer beachers in terror in the early 1900s? There is a book on it..can't recall the title. Thanks.

azwurth:--- 1916 Matawan NJ. Book is called Twelve Days of Terror By Richard G. Fernicola

I don't think you'll find Cape may any less busy, particularly on the weekends when the whole of NYC visits the shore. Not sure what you are looking for but Charleston, SC would be a similar distance & much preferable in my opinion. OBX may also be a consideration, albeit farther.

I agree with SAnParis about heading to more southern beaches - if the distance is about the same.

Just adding another idea not yet mentioned--for those going to Cape May (or Rehobeth, for that matter)--when you want a quiet beach day to walk and walk on the fine white sand. . . or listen to the waves without crowds. . . take the ferry over to Lewes, DE for the day and head right into Cape Henlopen State Park. Best spot of undeveloped ocean beach in the mid-Atlantic, IMHO.

For those doing the reverse (basing in Rehobeth or Lewes and taking the ferry over to Cape May for the day), there is a shuttle on the Cape May side that takes you directly downtown (either free or very modest fee). Ferries run all day and there are often porpoises in the bay playing near the ferry. If you are only taking yourself or a bike, its quite reasonable; more if you bring a car.

I've been to Cape May for my anniversary several times on a late June weekend, and though we go more often in the off-season, I wouldn't hesitate to go again in June. A bit more lively, though I wouldn't call it hordes.

As a family, we enjoy the evening Cape May Ghost Tours, which are really more about history and the Victorian homes than anything else. We've also enjoyed some of the B and B's that host house tours, often free.

We recently moved down to south Jersey and love it. Cape May is really a lovely area, Victorian Homes and quaint shopping. Ocean City has a great beach and boardwalk for kids. Brigatine is a quiet beach town, and has a great beach, near Atlantic City, but very, very different.
Avalon and Stone Harbor are great. Have fun.

topping for waggie

Oh just the thought of the Jersey shore makes me smile! While I have not been there for a very long while, I was going to suggest you look at Spring Lake. I used to love BayHead but have no idea what it is like now.

Don't know if gyppielou actually made this trip, but we've just returned from a weekend in Cape May. Friends of ours are expatriate Brits who'd never been to the Jersey Shore; they enlisted our help as tour guides. Because our friend Paul had an unexpected business trip to North Carolina last Friday, we swung our Friday Shore itinerary with Jenny around so we could pick him up at PHL mid-afternoon Friday.

Thus, we met Jenny on Friday morning at NJTransit's Trenton Transit Center (we're from Madison, NJ; they live in Manhattan), though we could have chosen MetroPark. In any case, we headed directly for the Barnes Foundation in Merion, PA, suburban Philadelphia. A couple of very rewarding hours in this unique museum, which, among many other things, houses the world's largest collection of Renoirs, 181 paintings.

On to PHL, where we met Paul's flight, then, through some initially heavy traffic, directly to the Peter Shields Inn in Cape May, in time for a few hours of relaxation accompanied by some complimentary wine and cheese in the second floor parlor. A small balcony directly over the Inn's front door provides a seaside view of the Atlantic.

Dinner Friday night at The Black Duck on Sunset was pretty good, though not as good as we remembered from a similar trip last year. Should we find ourselves down there again, we would not revisit this restaurant.

Our friends played Monopoly when their adult daughters were kids, so they were eager to see Atlantic City, even though it bears absolutely no resemblance to the AC of Monopoly days, nor of my days as a kid, summering there in the '50s with my parents.

After a visit to the Cape May Lighthouse and some nosing around nearby to get a feel for the Cap May vicinity, we drove up Absecon Island, stopped to ogle Lucy the Elephant in Margate City, and noted the striking contrasts between the three towns south of AC (northbound: Longport, Margate City and Ventnor City) with AC itself. Jenny and Paul noted that MC and VC are named for seaside towns in England, the former in Kent, the latter on the Isle of Wight. There's a Longport in the UK also, but it isn't a seaside town.

Atlantic City is what it is. Glitz for the throngs who want it, nothing much else for those who don't. Parts of AC are still, all these years after the casino referendum was passed, extremely run-down. That is, those parts still standing. The site of the rooming house on States Avenue where I spent summer vacations is now the parking lot for one casino or other. There is some evidence of new housing construction, but it pales in comparison to the huge structures that house the hotels and casinos. After a few hours, we beat a retreat for Cape May.

Dinner Saturday at Peter Shields was something of a disappointment, again compared to previous years. Good, but not great. And, someone has to teach Cape May BYOB servers how to pour wine. As in, not a full glass! Very amateurish, and evidence, even in what could be considered two of Cape May's better restaurants, of an utter lack of basic restaurant training.

Complimentary breakfasts at Peter Shields were completely undistinguished. Soggy sausages, eggs with something called sausage gravy that resembled creamed chipped beef (known to WWII servicemen as "SOS"); you get the picture. The Peter Shields management also owns the famous Mainstay Inn, Cape May's very first B&B, whose original owners, Sue and Tom Carroll, were known for their exceptional breakfasts (Sue's cookbook is well-known). Alas, that tradition has faded badly.

Sunday, we made our way northward, stopping at places we would have hit southbound on Friday had we not changed plans. We headed directly from Cape May to Seaside Park. We wanted to show our friends what the Boardwalk in Atlantic City used to look like. The vintage 1910 carousel, installed at Seaside in 1932, was in operation, though its Wurlitzer band organ was out for repair. Still, the ancient Italian operator was as colorful as ever. A treat. http://tinyurl.com/mpnhxj

From the bustle of Seaside Park to the serenity of Island Beach State Park, a true treasure of the Jersey Shore. The weather was fairly cool and breezy, so the bathing areas and bay-to-ocean paths weren't busy. We chatted with one of the lifeguard supervisors who was just getting his charges organized for the coming busy season. His other task that day: hammering in the popped nailheads on the boardwalk to the bathing beach. Many areas of IBSP have been left relatively untouched by development of any kind; obviously, the contrast with most of the rest of the Shore was what we wanted to show our guests.

Further on to Spring Lake, for its spectacular mansions (an oceanfront one is for sale for almost $8 million) and quiet boardwalk; Belmar, for its contrasting "scene"; Ocean Grove, to see the tent homes and the 6600-seat Great Auditorium; Asbury Park, to stop and see The Stone Pony; and, finally, Long Branch, to have dinner at Sirena.

The contrast between dinner here and in Cape May was like night and day. Our friend Michael Cetrulo's place at the Shore is a strictly professional operation, with none of the amateurishness we encountered earlier in the weekend. Suffice to say, our best dinner of the trip.

And, finally, on into Newark to drop our friends at Penn Station for their quick trip back to Manhattan. They and we were home by a little after 10:00 p.m. A full and rewarding weekend at the Shore!