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Oregon really isn't anything like a day at the beach along the string of barrier islands that bank the Eastern Seaboard. A day at the beach there is to marvel at the scenery. It's sort of like Acadia and the Maine Coast in its ruggedness, but Maine has calmer seas, unless there's a storm and the coastal topography is different. The difference with Oregon and most of the West Coast is the continental shelf drops off right along the coast where fault lines, continental and ocean plates meet. The mountains and cliffs come right down to the sea. There are sandy coves banked by giant sea stack rocks towering above the beach ranging around 200 feet high. It's the kind of place where you can lose yourself while you watch in awe as thunderous Pacific surf comes rolling in making tall white splashes crashing up against the rocks, paired with stellar sunsets over the ocean.
Oregon Coast is a different kind of coast, and with the cool, clammy, cloudy weather conditions most of the year, even in summer its not the most inviting. But if you go there with an open minded appreciation for the rugged beauty of it all, it has its own kind of magic. If you're lucky enough to get there on a sunny 70 degree day in August, then it's stellar place to be.
It sounds scenic but you're right, not a typical "day at the beach," especially not for me.
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Originally Posted by bluecarebear
Other states, besides NJ, charge something for access to the beaches. Even the public parks on the East Coast charge a per car fee or day use fee.
Again, no beaches that are maintained and kept clean are free. There's a charge somewhere, it may be an extra tax on food sold on the beach or something like that, maybe within hotel taxes. Beaches cost money to maintain, especially beaches that are raked every night (I've always called the machine they use a "beach zamboni") like many NJ beaches. Contrary to popular belief our beaches are very clean. The money needs to come from somewhere. The difference is we outwardly ask for money while other places have more type of a hidden fee that goes towards beach maintenance - if the beaches are maintained. If not, I wouldn't want to go to a dirty beach anyway.
Check out Wildwood NJ for good free beaches with a lot to do - boardwalk, rides, water parks.
The other great plus for the Great Lakes is the beaches are FREE. I have been researching the East Coast and have had a difficult time finding any usable beaches that are free.
Ocean City, MD offers miles of free beaches as does VA Beach, and the Outer Banks were free last time I was there (several years back). I know Myrtle Beach offers miles of free beaches. Heading north, I don't know much about Jersey (not a big fan of the Jersey Shore), but I've been to free beaches in Rhode Island, Maine and look what came out right on top when I googled "free beaches on Cape Cod': Free Beach Parking on Cape Cod.
All of this is easily found with a simple search of the net. Do some real research if you're going to continue posting in this thread instead of just posting what you think or want to think.
Ocean City, MD offers miles of free beaches as does VA Beach, and the Outer Banks were free last time I was there (several years back). I know Myrtle Beach offers miles of free beaches. Heading north, I don't know much about Jersey (not a big fan of the Jersey Shore), but I've been to free beaches in Rhode Island, Maine and look what came out right on top when I googled "free beaches on Cape Cod': Free Beach Parking on Cape Cod.
All of this is easily found with a simple search of the net. Do some real research if you're going to continue posting in this thread instead of just posting what you think or want to think.
Why don't you like the Jersey Shore? In reality its beaches aren't much different than DE, MD, NY, even MA. Last year I believe (or maybe 2012) it had the cleanest water off all coastal states behind only NH. And there are some free beaches here but it's not the norm. Wildwood is probably the most popular town with free beaches, and they're nice and long, wide, with calm water compared to Cape May just further south which tends to have rougher water because of a drop off in the sand. Wildwood is flatter from sand to ocean.
Why don't you like the Jersey Shore? In reality its beaches aren't much different than DE, MD, NY, even MA. Last year I believe (or maybe 2012) it had the cleanest water off all coastal states behind only NH. And there are some free beaches here but it's not the norm. Wildwood is probably the most popular town with free beaches, and they're nice and long, wide, with calm water compared to Cape May just further south which tends to have rougher water because of a drop off in the sand. Wildwood is flatter from sand to ocean.
I love Cape May - not so much the beach but the town. I guess there is nothing really wrong with the NJ beaches themselves, but I just find the atmosphere of the Delaware beaches more appealing. To me, Rehoboth Beach is the quintessential beach town. It is small enough to still be charming, but large enough to be home to lots of shopping (well, browsing for me) and fine dining. I haven't quite found a shore town in Jersey that provides the the mix of beach, town and boardwalk I prefer that matches Rehoboth.
Sometimes, a few pictures are worth a thousand words (at last a thousand of my words). If you can stomach Kathei Lee Gifford (and no explanation necessary if you can't), this little video she shares with Hoda offers a really nice overview of the town (actually the 2nd half is better, when Hoda gives her view of the town; the first half is about Kathie Lee of course):
We all have our preferences so if you like the Jersey shore, so be it. It's not entirely surprising given you chose to adopt the nickname JerseyGirl.
As for other matters, I thought the beaches of Wildwood were free, but I wasn't certain so didn't mention them in my post. That's just further evidence that carebear doesn't have very good internet search skills.
It was excluded by the OP in his post because it is obviously number one. I don't think anyone could question that if its included. I guess this thread is about what state other than Hawaii has great beaches.
I love Cape May - not so much the beach but the town. I guess there is nothing really wrong with the NJ beaches themselves, but I just find the atmosphere of the Delaware beaches more appealing. To me, Rehoboth Beach is the quintessential beach town. It is small enough to still be charming, but large enough to be home to lots of shopping (well, browsing for me) and fine dining. I haven't quite found a shore town in Jersey that provides the the mix of beach, town and boardwalk I prefer that matches Rehoboth.
Sometimes, a few pictures are worth a thousand words (at last a thousand of my words). If you can stomach Kathei Lee Gifford (and no explanation necessary if you can't), this little video she shares with Hoda offers a really nice overview of the town (actually the 2nd half is better, when Hoda gives her view of the town; the first half is about Kathie Lee of course):
We all have our preferences so if you like the Jersey shore, so be it. It's not entirely surprising given you chose to adopt the nickname JerseyGirl.
As for other matters, I thought the beaches of Wildwood were free, but I wasn't certain so didn't mention them in my post. That's just further evidence that carebear doesn't have very good internet search skills.
Ok, I was just curious.
I love Cape May, too, but it's hard not to love it. I don't think I've ever met anyone who's been to Cape May and didn't love it - including my friend from CA and her family from CA and either Washington or Oregon, who went there for a long weekend last year when a cousin graduated from the Coast Guard. They loved it.
I haven't been to Rehoboth so it's hard for me to try to match a NJ town, but honestly from the video it reminds me a lot of Cape May. If you haven't yet, check out Spring Lake and Sea Girt. I also really like Avon. Asbury Park has gotten very nice in recent years but the crowd is a little more mixed, and it's a very gay friendly area - not sure how you feel about that but I feel it's worth mentioning in today's society since some people are uncomfortable with that. Asbury is nice at the beach/boardwalk and in most of downtown, but there are still very dangerous pockets of the town so if you go, look out and do a bit of research beforehand. Dining downtown and near/on the boardwalk is great though, and there are nice shops along it and in the Convention Center at the end of the boardwalk. That is a beautiful old building. It's so lively now, it's good to see Asbury like that again. It's become very hip and trendy, but not in a yuppie or hipster way. It's just undergone a nice and much needed change.
I don't recommend places like Pt. Pleasant and Seaside, and definitely not AC. LBI can also have pretty boring areas as it's highly residential. Lately I've been liking Monmouth County beach towns more because I think there's more going on. Ocean County and below is hard because barrier islands have limited space, so they're crowded and very summer-centric but Monmouth County beaches connect right to the mainland so there are actual downtowns only blocks from the beach which means there is more to do in terms of shopping and eating, and most Jersey Shore towns have a boardwalk of some sort. I also recommend Lavallette and Seaside Park (NOT Heights, they're 2 different towns).
Can anyone make a poll "Which State has the best Beaches" and exclude Hawaii, California and Florida
For me it would go:
North Carolina-Love OBX and even Wrightsville Beach was nice. I am a little sad I didn't get there this Summer but there's still time
Massachusetts/Rhode Island-National Seashore, high dunes, very unique cape cod feel in MA, Block Island and Fishers Island in RI
New Jersey/Delaware-Perhaps most underrated, miles and miles of beautiful sand and nice waves-interesting towns with interesting people, very accessible and can walk to the beach just about anywhere you are staying (unlike Cape Cod, Hamptons and many other places)
Alabama/Mississippi-Have never been but it looks beautiful
Virginia/Maryland-Love Assateague Island and OCMD, VA Beach is cool too
New York-Montauk and Hamptons are great but pretty far
Georgia/South Carolina-Love Tybee Island and Folly Beach
I didn't include Maine or Oregon as I'm more a fan of warm, swimmable beaches but they both look beautiful and I'd love to go to both. I have been to Lake Erie and Lake Michigan Beaches but I only wanted to rank sea shores for this.
I love Cape May, too, but it's hard not to love it. I don't think I've ever met anyone who's been to Cape May and didn't love it - including my friend from CA and her family from CA and either Washington or Oregon, who went there for a long weekend last year when a cousin graduated from the Coast Guard. They loved it.
I haven't been to Rehoboth so it's hard for me to try to match a NJ town, but honestly from the video it reminds me a lot of Cape May. If you haven't yet, check out Spring Lake and Sea Girt. I also really like Avon. Asbury Park has gotten very nice in recent years but the crowd is a little more mixed, and it's a very gay friendly area - not sure how you feel about that but I feel it's worth mentioning in today's society since some people are uncomfortable with that. Asbury is nice at the beach/boardwalk and in most of downtown, but there are still very dangerous pockets of the town so if you go, look out and do a bit of research beforehand. Dining downtown and near/on the boardwalk is great though, and there are nice shops along it and in the Convention Center at the end of the boardwalk. That is a beautiful old building. It's so lively now, it's good to see Asbury like that again. It's become very hip and trendy, but not in a yuppie or hipster way. It's just undergone a nice and much needed change.
I don't recommend places like Pt. Pleasant and Seaside, and definitely not AC. LBI can also have pretty boring areas as it's highly residential. Lately I've been liking Monmouth County beach towns more because I think there's more going on. Ocean County and below is hard because barrier islands have limited space, so they're crowded and very summer-centric but Monmouth County beaches connect right to the mainland so there are actual downtowns only blocks from the beach which means there is more to do in terms of shopping and eating, and most Jersey Shore towns have a boardwalk of some sort. I also recommend Lavallette and Seaside Park (NOT Heights, they're 2 different towns).
Wow! Thanks for the nice rundown of the NJ beaches. I am not a big beach person in season (my beach bum days are behind me), but I love the ocean in the off-season. Given I am now in Philly, I need to take better advantage of the Jersey shore. The first fall we were here in 2011, my DH (who had never been to the Jersey shore) and I headed over to AC to take a look. We absolutely hated it, so after not too much time, we drove the coastal road over all the inlets all the way down to Cape May. It was fun. We ended up spending a holiday weekend in Cape May in 2012 to enjoy the lights and local Christmas parade. I have never been to the shore towns north of AC, so perhaps that's our next drive on one of these beautiful fall days we have in front of us.
As a kid, my family mainly went to Fenwick Island on the DE/MD border and for several years, we rented cottages there. For evening fun, we'd either drive to Rehoboth (more family-friendly) or OCMD - larger rides, bigger boardwalk, more tourists, etc. On a couple of occasions, we spent a few days in Wildwood when I was a kid just to mix things up. If I were to try to match the Jersey beaches with the Delmarva beaches, I would say Wildwood's best match is OCMD, Cape May's best match is Lewes and OCNJ's best match is Rehoboth. OCNJ is much bigger than Rehoboth, however, and the fact that you can't buy and alcoholic drink there defiantly makes it different from Rehoboth .
Rehoboth is unique in many regards in that it has quite a large gay population. In fact, percentage wise, Rehoboth has the 4th highest number of gay households in the US: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...90.html?ref=us. The gay residents have not only open a number of shops and restaurants, they have gotten heavily involved in local politics and have supported efforts to keep chains out, helping Rehoboth retain its local charm as compared with, say OCMD. Rehoboth is also a magnet for Washington pols. It calls itself the Nation's Summer Capital." This is not because it is the capital of summer, but rather that so many politicians and others from DC summer there that is has become the capital of the US for the summer: REHOBOTH BEACH: The 'Nation's Summer Capital' lives up to its moniker. It's not uncommon to see senators and congressman strolling the boardwalks on summer evenings.
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