Community Forums

Rp1955 · 01-30-2015, 09:28 PM

Hello:Thinking about heading to NJ in the summer for 3-4 weeks mainly for a beach vacation. Never been there; looking for recommendations on:
1. Best beaches
2. Best campgrounds, specifically if there are campgrounds on the beach or very close to it.
Camping in a 34' MH, hubby & me, early 60's. Enjoy walking the beach & good seafood restaurants. Thank you.
Rose

chief02 · 01-30-2015, 09:34 PM

Long beach island state park but not sure if they have a campground. . Cape May area has campgrounds. Google Jersey shore camping.

jplante4 · 01-31-2015, 08:59 AM

Check out rv park reviews

www.campgroundreviews.com

They show 18 in the Cape May area, 14v around Atlantic City and 11 more up towards Raritan Bay/Tom's River. Get on it now, the nice places fill up quick.

Cape May is a little less hectic than the "Jersey Shore" around Long Beach, Beach Haven etc.

Coach350 · 01-31-2015, 04:56 PM

We like Holly Shores in Cape May, NJ. We stay in the 'P' section of the area. One of the cleanest campgrounds. Approx 20 minutes from Wildwood beaches and Boardwalk. You have to make reservations early. They have a new policy for June -August. You have to stay a week. Good luck

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RayJr · 01-31-2015, 05:19 PM

Island beach State park dosn't have a campground, you will not find any campgrounds on the beach in NJ. Sorry

PushedAround · 01-31-2015, 05:25 PM

If you want camping on the beach, you have to go down to Ocean City, MD. I know that they have at least one nice one. We go to The Depot in Cape May every year. Very nicely run, quiet RV park just a mile from the beaches and a mile from town.

psw757 · 02-01-2015, 06:18 AM

We highly recommend seashore campsites in Cape May, been going the for the last 5-6 years. Holly Shores would be our second option for the area.

ladagobago · 02-01-2015, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RayJr

Island beach State park dosn't have a campground, you will not find any campgrounds on the beach in NJ. Sorry

You got that right. New Jersey, I live here, really sucks when it come to support for MH camping near the Ocean. After years of looking I just go elsewhere. Maryland, virginia and Delaware have campgrounds on or near the water.

NJ would be smart to find locations to provide RV camping near the shore. Atlantic City is one place to get started. The only place that had anything near the ocean was on island beach but was a trailer park that got wiped out with sandy.

If you come down here bring a car, find a camp ground and join the traffic jam to the beach. Been here since 1983 and never go to the jersey shore. Even when we were towing our 29 foot searay boat, we would trailer to Maryland up to four hours away for easier access and better conditions with less hassles.

chief02 · 02-01-2015, 08:58 AM

I was born and raised in NJ and agree that the shore towns are not RV friendly even for traveling through. I remember as a teenager in the 70's the miserable trip to the shore. But it was the thing to do every summer and loved it once we got there. Still very nostalgic to go there when I go back but would not take my RV.

Njtroy · 02-01-2015, 08:16 PM

Just clearing things up a bit. Island Beach is a largely undeveloped state park at the southern end of a barrier island. There has never been a campground there to my knowledge. Long Beach Island is a separate barrier island that happens to be located just south of the island where Island Beach is located.

There used to be two campgrounds on Long Beadh Island. One was at the far southern end of the island and had a reputation for being rundown and having less than pleasant ownership. This campground closed permanently after Sandy. The other is a small place more mid island called Farenny's and has been repaired and reopened. I've never seen this campground so I can't comment on it at all.

Just off island near the bay is a large campground called Sea Pirates. It's okay, it but the one time we stayed there we found it very full of partiers, noisy and buggy. Not my cup of tea.

There was a plan to put a campground on the beach in the Wildwood area that would be city or county operated, I forget which. That was before Sandy & I think that plan fizzled.

Even though we camp extensively and I've lived here most of my life, we really don't do much camping at the NJ shore. We generally head for the campgrounds south of Ocean City, MD. Our favorite is Assateague State Park. There is also a NP just south of the state park. Main difference between them is that the state park has hot water in the showers. There are also two more developed campgrounds just north of the state & national parks which are nice, just busier than we want at the shore.

Delaware also has a campground at the beach, but we prefer the MD park offerings.

jrwalkerpa1 · 02-01-2015, 09:45 PM

As others have said, Maryland and Delaware beaches may be your best bet. Delaware seashore state park at the Indian river inlet is a good choice to walk to the beach from the campground. It's about 1/4 mile but you don't need to drive. Campground is nothing special but it's adequate and location is great.

One caution though. No matter where you go, get your reservations in yesterday for this summer. Midweek is not as bad but Friday's thru Monday's fill up very fast.

2500HD · 02-02-2015, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladagobago

You got that right. New Jersey, I live here, really sucks when it come to support for MH camping near the Ocean. After years of looking I just go elsewhere. Maryland, virginia and Delaware have campgrounds on or near the water.

NJ would be smart to find locations to provide RV camping near the shore. Atlantic City is one place to get started. The only place that had anything near the ocean was on island beach but was a trailer park that got wiped out with sandy.

If you come down here bring a car, find a camp ground and join the traffic jam to the beach. Been here since 1983 and never go to the jersey shore. Even when we were towing our 29 foot searay boat, we would trailer to Maryland up to four hours away for easier access and better conditions with less hassles.

I totally agree we come to capemay maybe once a year. Nj has a lot of potential but falls short in a lot of areas compared to the campgrounds in the south.

If you've never been to the NJ shore you may want to get a good feel for how it is before you spend 3-4 weeks there. When we go we normally just go fri-sun just to get away.

Rp1955 · 02-03-2015, 06:48 AM

Thanks everyone for the feedback; extremely helpful.
We may look into some of the other suggested places and skip NJ completely. The only reason we had picked NJ was because of it being the closest Atlantic beaches to our area (southeast Michigan). Wanted to travel less than 700 miles from home and NJ fell within those perimeters. Will rethink the whole trip. Thanks again for the suggestions.
Rose

jplante4 · 02-03-2015, 07:11 AM

Someone should send this thread to the New Jersey Beaches Chamber of Commerce if there is such a thing. I guess "Jersey Shore" did nothing to improve the image of the Jersey shore.

I grew up in Newark and going "to the shore" was a big deal for me. I haven't been back for a number of years, but I could tell it has changed.