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!

What a great report bspielman. I truly appreciate everyones input and thoughts.

Plans changed, and we ended up spending our days in Matunuck RI at a fantastic beach house with Mamalou, my sister, and miracle max the wonder viszla dawg.

What a great property it was. . .
http://eastwoodmatunuck.com/
and I managed a very fair off season tariff.

Hope all the great advice helps others this summer. One day we will take a road trip and explore all things jersey shore!