NJ Beach Day Trip

A NJ beach “day trip” …

I know, it seems like an oxymoron for anyone not living within a pearled conch shells throw to the ocean.

Thanks to beastly traffic, especially on summer weekends, ‘Day trip’ and ‘NJ beach’ go together about as well as sand, wind and donuts.

That said, we’ve got it figured out at The Day Trip Site

For four decades I’ve been visiting Ocean City, NJ … from summer vacations as a boy to Senior Week to bringing my own boys down. I’ve seen Watson’s come and go and watched the Jitterbug remain virtually unchanged.

However, until the last two years, I’ve never had particularly kind thoughts about Ocean City day trips.

In my experience a trip to one of the best family beaches in America required a minimum weekend investment; with some irrational exuberance still needed to make it palpable.

As I mentioned before, if you run with the other blues on Friday evening or Saturday morning, the traffic rots more than a fish head, and that’s being very kind.

To make matters worse, even though it’s only for a day you still need to pack a ton of stuff. Toys, shovels, buckets, books, suntan lotion, towels, a change of clothes, PJs; the list goes on and on.

Of course to top it all off after a full day on the beach, should you want to clean up before hitting the boardwalk or eating dinner, there are just a couple of public showers. I expect that you probably are in love with public showers at the beach as much as I am

So what’s the secret? Don’t make it a day trip, make it a half day trip. Huh? I know, at first this probably seems even more insane than a regular day trip but hear me out.

Timing the traffic:

On Saturday, leave so that you arrive in OCNJ around 4:30 – 5:30pm. If you take the AC Expressway you’ll miss 90% of the back-ups at the tolls and will hit just a bit of traffic at the 9th street bridge. Backroads (322 etc… ) may be even clearer at this point.

Park by 4th Street

4th street is perfect for several reasons.

• At this time of day parking is more available on Ocean and Atlantic streets
• It has a large bathroom right on the boardwalk
• There are several ‘foot’ showers that are perfect for de-sanding
• The Wonderland Pier is here and is the day’s nightcap so to speak
• Makes for a very easy walk back to the car with exhausted kids

Spend 60 – 90 minutes on the beach

If your kids are swimmers and like to play in the surf 90 minutes is enough to get them tired and, depending on the water temperature, cold. Hitting the beach this late has a few additional advantages:

• The majority of the beach goers are gone
• No beach tags required
• No suntan lotion needed

Please note however that lifeguards are off-duty at this point!

Grab a late dinner

Assuming you bring a snack for the car, now is a great time to get to Mack and Manco’s for some pizza. Even better, no matter where you go on the boardwalk at this time the lines always seems to be lighter. The beach eaters are gone, the boardwalk strollers haven’t arrived en mass and many families are eating dinner in restaurants – time to chow down!

Hit the Boardwalk

By the time you finish your pizza the boardwalk will be hopping. If you have young kids take a walk back down to the wonderland pier and drop $20 on tickets for rides. You’ll buy yourself about an hour or so of fun and the kids will be totally tuckered out.

As you’re only a few blocks from your car your last challenge consists of convincing the kids to leave and getting them into PJ’s. Depending on where you live, you’re home by 11 and the kids have probably been asleep for a few hours in the car.

Of course if it’s just you and a significant other, you can stroll easily until 10 pm, play mini-golf, do some shopping,  grab some Johnson’s caramel corn, fudge, salt water taffy and/or Kohr’s Bros. custard and make it home by midnight. You’ll likely want to plan for salads tomorrow!

So that’s our advice for the NJ Beach ’1/2 day trip’. What do you think?

NJ Beach Day Trip, 3.0 out of 5 based on 2 ratings