Known for its fantastic beach, restored Victorians, and whale and bird-watching, Cape May is a prime tourist destination. Dozens of U.S. presidents have vacationed here, the Duchess of Windsor held her debutante party here, and many of the houses and haunts from the Gilded Age are in nearly the same shape today. Fortunately, you don't have to be a duchess or a Washington kingpin to have a good time in Cape May, as long as you know where to go.
Play Beaches: It only costs a small price to frolic in the same waves that once crashed around our founding fathers. You'll want to visit Cape May Beach for its windswept beauty at least once while you're here. At sunset, head to famous Sunset Beach for prime views and the chance to pick up a few "Cape May diamonds" (quartz pebbles scattered throughout the sand). If you visit in spring or fall, keep an eye out for the 400-odd species of birds around the area. A one-day beach tag costs $5 and gets you into all of the Cape May beaches.
Eat George's Place: Cape May is the self-proclaimed restaurant capital of New Jersey, and there are certainly plenty of good eats to be had here. If you're in the mood for a reasonable and tasty breakfast or lunch, head to George's Place, a diner with a touch of seaside style, where you can chow down on breakfast quesadillas or chipped beef while Frank Sinatra croons on the stereo.
Stay John F. Craig House B&B: Every detail of this impressive 19th-century Carpenter Gothic home has been lovingly restored. The rooms are filled with antiques, wicker, and a good dose of whimsy, and have beds topped with dual-controlled heated mattress pads for those cold seaside nights. Breakfast is a lavish buffet, and the house is located just a block from the beach and the town's shops and restaurants. Rooms start at $195 per night.
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With a historic boardwalk and casinos aplenty, Atlantic City attracts those who want to gamble with an ocean view. However, among the sound of slot machines and shuffling cards, you'll also find happening nightlife, upscale shopping, and great eats at cheap prices.
Play Harrah's Pool After Dark: When the sun goes down on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, Harrah's poolside nightlife heats up. The dome-enclosed tropical oasis, with four wading areas and six hot tubs, becomes a happening place to grab a drink. DJs complete the club-like atmosphere by playing an array of music while you dance or swim the night away. The public is welcome, and admission is usually $10 or $20, depending on special events.
Shop The Pier Shops at Caesars: Home to more than 90 retail stores and restaurants, the Pier Shops make any shopaholic's dream come true. The mall strives to incorporate natural elements into the design, offering three stories of glass displaying spectacular views of the surrounding ocean and boardwalk. With a slew of top designer stores such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany & Co., it's not cheap to shop here. However, even if you don't buy a thing, you can still enjoy one of the world's largest indoor fountain shows every hour on the hour.
Eat Harrah's Atlantic City Country Club Sunday Brunch: Bring your appetite and come to Harrah's country club for one of the greatest deals in town. On Sundays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., you can feast on salmon, turkey, ham, omelets, waffles, fresh fruit, and pastries for just $24.95. The club also has the largest chocolate pastry display in South Jersey, giving you all the more reason to come hungry. Reservations are highly recommended.
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(Photo: Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority)
Look at the calendar, my friends—it ain't April Fool's Day. A Market Metrix survey of 35,000 combined visitors to both cities shows that people prefer Atlantic City to Las Vegas, albeit by a slim margin. A.C. edged out Sin City in overall customer satisfaction, as well as "emotion scores," which measure seemingly unquantifiable attributes such as how sophisticated and hip/cool each city is. Atlantic City was considered to be a far greater value, which is probably the source of most of its appeal.
I can't help but feel a little befuddled here. I grew up in Jersey, and I've been to Atlantic City a number of times, though admittedly not in years. I recall, however, a prevailing feeling of shabbiness, and what I remember most is seeing bus after bus unloading retirees from the northern suburbs. Not exactly hip and cool, right? Vegas, on the other hand, is a nonstop circus of over-the-top debauchery and glamour, even if the latter is mostly superficial.
That said, Atlantic City has changed a great deal in the past five or seven years. New hotels such as the Borgata have classed up the place, bringing in celebrity chefs and popular acts like Sheryl Crow and Eric Clapton (and Paul Anka, but who's counting?). Conversely, Vegas is creeping toward overkill (which, for Vegas, is saying a lot), with mega-hotel after mega-hotel rising up like a bad poker player's debt.
I turn to you, my fair readers, for some insight here. Help a lost blogger make sense of this. Is Atlantic City, tucked away in stinky (but loveable) New Jersey, really preferable to the glitzy, elegant, celebrity-magnet kingdom of Las Vegas? Post your comments below!
7. Diners – There's simply nothing like a 24-hour New Jersey diner. The menu is usually spiral-bound and thick as a dictionary, and it contains pretty much every dish under the sun. Lobster at 4 a.m.? Absolutely. Want French toast with that? Sure thing. Seriously, these places must have walk-in freezers the size of airline hangers. Locals generally pick one diner they think is the best around, and they stick with it. From that point on, going to other diners is unheard of. Keep this in mind when asking for recommendations. There is no diner in New Jersey that is truly the best (not true, the King George diner in Wayne is the best—represent!). Regardless of where you go, you can count on burnt coffee and unspeakable decor. I can sum up the latter in one word: mirrors. Lots of them.
Lastly, the New Jersey diner wouldn't be what it is without Taylor ham. Taylor ham is a sausage subspecies of questionable origin. Whatever. A Taylor ham, egg, and cheese sandwich is to die for.
6. The accent – I grew up in New Jersey, but moved to New England for college. I wasn't on campus more than three hours before someone made fun of the way I said "water." Not too long after that, I was picked on for the way I said "coffee," and then "Boston," and then "awful." So I did what I had to do and learned to speak like the locals did. When in Rome, right? Well, a piece of my soul died during the first cold New England winter, and the death knell came when I uttered the word "water" and didn't pronounce it "wuddah." Now when I speak to my family, it sounds like they're talking under water.
Readers, embrace the accent. It's beautiful in its ugliness.
5. Big Italian guys – An unofficial study I just made up shows that New Jersey has more big Italian guys per 100 citizens than any state in the union. This has two practical implications for normal, shrimpy people such as myself: You often feel inferior, if not downright intimidated; and there are tons of great Italian delis around. My personal favorite is the Italian Touch in Washington Township. Get a sandwich of prosciutto with fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers—they make it good here. I could eat this sandwich for the rest of my life (It would be a short life with a diet like that, but tasty right to the bitter end). And please don't embarrass yourself by trying to speak with an accent. Remember, respect the accent.
4. The New Jersey Devils – There are four major professional sports teams that play their home games in New Jersey. Two of them, the Giants and Jets, lie and say they're from New York. Another team, the Nets, will be moving to Brooklyn in the near future. That leaves the Devils, who proudly moved to a brand-new arena in Newark at the start of this season. They're the only team with the guts to say they're from New Jersey. They've also won three Stanley Cups in the past 15 years (tied with the Detroit Red Wings for the most during that span) and have arguably the best goalie of all time in Martin Brodeur. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, New York!
3. The Meadowlands – Legend has it this is where your problems go to die and never be found by the cops. That may be true for people involved in the state's shadier businesses, but for regular folks like me, the Meadowlands is where you go to get lost while trying to find a shortcut to the highway after a basketball game. And oh yeah, it kind of smells. More on that shortly.
2. Bruce Springsteen – Sure, women swooned for Bon Jovi. Sure, men used him as justification for dispensing enormous quantities of Aqua Net onto their hair. But none of that can hold a candle to the timeless folk-rock poetry crafted by Freehold's favorite son.
Drive down the shore sometime, maybe to Wildwood or Seaside, someplace old-timey like that. Roll down your windows and crank up "Thunder Road." I know it sounds cliché and maybe a little schmaltzy, but I also know that if you don't feel at least a twinge of adolescent romanticism swelling in your chest, you're probably dead.
1. The smell: You can always tell when someone hasn't really been to New Jersey, because they'll whine about the smell, claim the whole state stinks, and tell pathetically false stories about how they almost barfed at a rest stop because of the odor. My guess is these people probably need a refresher course in personal hygiene, because I promise you the whole state doesn't smell. The area around the turnpike usually smells—it's an indefinable, vaguely petroleum-based aroma with hints of landfill dancing on the breeze—but that's about it. People, enough with the smell, okay? It's really not that bad. Plus, if you piss off the smell, it could get ugly. Just watch this:
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