Beach Holiday on the Jersey Shore? Please help
 

Hello-
We're looking for a wonderful beach destination for a week/10 days on the Jersey Shore. None of us are from the east, so would really appreciate your insights. There are 11 of us - a family reunion of sorts. Our biggest challenge is that the beach town needs to be reasonably close (no more than 60-90 minutes by car) from either the Trenton or Newark train station since a few of us will be arriving by train. We'll need to rent a big house as well - so any and all suggestions are most welcome. Our preference would be a beautiful beach with good restaurants and shopping nearby. We don't care about a big bar scene.
Many thanks in advance!

I would look at Ocean City. It has a nice boardwalk, a beautiful beach and plenty of big houses and condos for rent. There are great family restaurants all over town and a nice downtown shopping area as well as the boardwalk.

Here's a good introduction to Ocean City: http://www.MyJerseyShore.com/?page_id=19

I like Long Beach Island - lots of vacation rentals available in the towns up and down the island; Beach Haven, Ship Bottom, Surf City, Long Beach, Harvey Cedars.

The best way to find a rental is to contact one of the real estate agents - they manage most rentals at the Jersey Shore. We've used LBI realestate several times.

http://lbirealestate.com/home.

Typical weekly rentals are Saturday to Saturday.

No boardwalk on Long Beach Island.

Ocean City would indeed be just right for the combination of beach, restaurant, and shopping. You should look into getting there from Philadelphia, though, rather than Newark or Trenton. One option might be to take a shuttle to Atlantic City (probably lots of choices), and then hire a drive to get you to Ocean City, just down the road a little bit.

The blocks are numbered north to south. Staying between, say, 6th and 14th will put you behind the commercial part of the boardwalk, with the peak of the ``action'' being around 9th. From about 17th to 23rd you are behind the noncommercial part of the boardwalk, which is a lot quieter, but of course a longer walk to the center of things. South of 23rd you can stay right on the beach if you want to, and the area is very scenic and quiet, but you will have to drive to most restaurants, and surf for parking places.

We like to use Berger Realty in Ocean City.

BTW: Ocean City is a dry town, so you won't have to worry about the bar scene at all. No liquor is sold on the island, or imbibed in public places.