Year round
Gravitas: 
Proximity:
If you look at a map of the Interstate highways in NJ, they all pretty much make sense. Except one, and that’s I-195. It starts on the outskirts of Trenton and goes to, well, nowhere. Well, ahh… not exactly nowhere if you consider some of the finest, white-sand beaches in the Northeast somewhere.
I imagine the planning sessions in the state capitol sometime in the late 1960s. The country was booming, NJ was running a surplus, and the Highway trust fund was gushing cash. My bet is that everyone in the room owned a beach house, and wanted to cut his get-away time from Trenton.
And boy, did they cut it. You can leave Trenton at 11 AM on the hottest weekend in August, and be comfortably ensconced on the beach long before noon. On the same day when your fellow New Jerseyans from, say, South Orange, are contemplating a 3 hour crawl through the world’s second longest parking lot (the Garden State Parkway – the world’s longest, of course, being the Long Island Expressway), you’re whisking from the terminus of Rt-29 to virtually the beach at 70 mph.
No kidding. At worst you’ll hit local traffic on Rt-35.
Spring Lake is a gorgeous Victorian beach town with phantasmagoric beach front mansions. The boardwalk is pretty much undeveloped…you can pay for a locker and shower, and there’s a single snack bar in the pavilion. You’ll need to pay for tags, and they’ve gone up in price since Sandy.
If you want a more developed boardwalk, with lots of pizza joints to choose from (and cheaper tags) head to the next town north, Belmar. Both have fabulous beaches. (BTW, that’s me in the header photo, a lot longer ago than I care to admit. Let’s say that Coltrane was getting ready to break up with Miles when that photo was taken).
The post on this site are great! Just saying!
I liked this site better when it just included the things that were hidden with in Trenton because then I was always finding out about something new. You seem to be branching out to other areas
Hey, Ilene! Actually this post about the Jersey Shore (with a different photo) was one of the original posts on the website when it went live in 2007. That said, you’re right, we have been expanding coverage to include more of the surrounding area. While we continue our razor-sharp focus on the City of Trenton, we feel that covering nearby places of note is a service to all of our readers, as well as a way to attract non-Trentonians to the site (where maybe they’ll be inspired to explore here)
Spring Lake is my absolute favorite beach in NJ! There’s almost always parking right on Ocean Avenue and if there isn’t, you don’t have to walk a mile away (like in Belmar) to get to your spot.
I always like to stop at Strollo’s Italian Ice on the corner of 16th St and Main St which is technically in Bradley Beach. It’s not too long of a drive but if you’re in the shore area, this is THE best place for Italian Ice.
No lie, we rented a Beach House in Bay Head last year and were able to get there in 45 minutes.
I’ll admit that I’m a Trenton booster, but I can get to Philly in 45 min., NYC in 1 hour, skiing in 2 hours and the Shore in 45 min. There isn’t anywhere else in the country where you can do that.