It took me a while to realize that we are not a beach family.  Don’t get me wrong – we like the ocean – walking on the beach, collecting shells, even swimming and boogie boarding (although I only go in if it is really really REALLY warm). But we don’t spend the whole day on the beach – a couple of hours is just perfect for us.  Yet, Ocean City New Jersey is one of our all time favorite places – so much so that we’ve been going there every summer for the last TEN years!  So you can imagine that this place is pretty special!

This year, since all of our prior summer plans had been cancelled, we decided to spend two weeks down at the shore and I  am so glad we did!   We expended our ‘quarantine bubble’ to include my parents and they joined us in Ocean City for a week.  I  can’t tell you how awesome it to have a bit of normalcy and being able to do simple every day things with them, like giving them hugs whenever I wanted to, having all our meals together, going to the beach, even watching many episodes of the Great British Baking championship (our family’s new addiction!).  It was really special sharing one of our favorite places with them.

And the following week we were joined by our family friends/neighbors whom we’ve been going down to ocean city for a few years.  We stayed at separate houses but after discussing our COVID safety philosophies we felt we were on the same page (being overly cautious) we felt comfortable hanging out at the beach and going to dinners together.  I love my family but it was great to be spending time with people outside of our household for a couple of weeks:)

PRACTICAL INFO

Several people asked me for Ocean City New Jersey recommendations so here is a short list of a few:

To stay

We usually stay at Flanders Hotel – it’s right in the center of things – on the boardwalk, by the amusement park and close to restaurants, donut shops, etc.  We’ve stayed there for 9 years and absolutely loved it.  This year, because of COVID, we did not feel comfortable staying at a hotel so instead we rented a house.  And we LOVED it!  It was just a couple of blocks from the beach, less than a block away from our new love – Benny’s (see below) and a few houses over our old family love – Fractured Prune donuts

To Eat

Here are a few of our favorite restaurants, in no particular order

Fractured Prune – hot, made to order donuts.  I don’t remember the first time we tried these little pieces of heaven but it feels like we’ve been going to Fractured Prune ever since we first started coming to Ocean City.  Our absolute favorites are Morning Buzz (coffee glaze with cookie crumble!), Blueberry Hill,  Peppermint Patty (mint glaze with chocolate chips) and lemonade. Go early, you won’t regret it.

Bennies Bread – This is my absolutely new favorite in Ocean City, I don’t know how I missed it for the last few years. We got food from there literally every day, and I think this place is responsible for me gaining at least 3 pounds. They have everything, from breakfast pastries to delicious breads, to fresh pizzas (their tomato pie is to die for!), to freshly prepared Italian Food and desserts. I went through Bennnies withdrawls for a week when we got back home.

Fusion plate – We discovered this Asian fusion restaurant last year and they were thrilled that it was open this season; they have really good Vietnamese/Thai/Singaporean food. They were closed for indoor dining but we were able to do takeout from there a couple of times during our stay.

Manco manco This all time favorite has some of the best pizza on the boardwalk – definitely worth a try

Spadafora– A pretty decent seafood place.. It’s pretty tiny, so we were not able to eat inside this time around, but we did takeout and it was just as good as eating indoors.

El Guacamole – We were pleasantly surprised at how good this Mexican place was. It’s right on Asbury, has some outdoor seating, really tasty food, big portions. Definitely we will come back there again.

Johny Be Goode – a very cute old fashion ice cream parlor on Asbury (see below)

To Do

Clearly, there is the beach and the beach in Ocean city is really nice.  You do need beach tags – you can buy them right there on the boardwalk (I believe daily badges re $5 per person) or you can buy weekly/seasonal badges.

If beach is not your thing, or if you need a little break from the ocean there is still plenty to do there:

Castaway Cove- we’ve been going to this amusement park for 10 years – there are plenty of rides of kids and grown ups of all ages.  This summer, the summer of COVID, it was at 50% capacity, masks were required to be worn by everyone (even though the park is all outdoors), all seats were disinfected after every ride and there were hand sanitizers everywhere.  We would go when they first opened (around 6) to avoid the crowds (even though it did not get very crowded because of the reduced capacity) and I  felt completely safe and comfortable

Kayaking/Paddle Boarding This year was the first year we rented kayaks/paddle boards and went to explore marshy areas in the bay.  I  don’t know what took us this many years to finally do it but I am so glad we did because it was a lot of fun!

Pontoon rental – We did this for the last few years and loved it so decided to do it again this year – definitely a new little half a day trip!

Mini Golf – there are a whole lot of mini golf places on the boardwalk but Congo Falls is our favorite.  W do this every year and every year we have fun.  And what it even MORE fun this year was the fact that I was the crowned champion in our family tournament!

Cape May – it’s about a 45 minute drive from Ocean City but makes for such a lovely day trip.  There are lots of beautiful colorful Victorian houses, great restaurants (Tisha’s is our favorite), a very good ice cream parlor (Piece Pie) and lots of cute little boutiques.  And about a 10 min drive from it there is great winery with delicious food and even better views!

Surrey Ride – we do this every year and every year we have a blast.  There are plenty of places on the boardwalk where you can rent a surrey from – be aware that surreys are allowed on the boardwalk only till noon so plan accordingly.

Hope you find this helpful and if you decide to go down to Ocean City New Jersey, you will love it as much as we do!