The list keeps growing. The picks stay opinionated.
3 picks from South Jersey.
One night on the boardwalk for the version of Atlantic City that actually works — a hotel with a proper restaurant, oysters at Dock's since 1897, a walk on the beach in the morning before the casinos wake up. You're back in South Jersey by Sunday lunch with a story that isn't about losing money.
A barrier island 15 minutes from Atlantic City that figured out how to stay quiet. Miles of dune-backed beach where you can still hear the waves, a seafood shack that locals defend like a state secret, and a sunset over the bay that costs nothing but the 20-minute drive from your rental.
A Victorian beach town at the tip of New Jersey that never went corporate. Wide porches, painted gingerbread, a beach that empties out by 5pm. Three nights gets you past the Painted Ladies walking tour and into the version of Cape May where you pick one restaurant and go back twice.
