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I'm looking for a nice beach in NJ and aerial photos online make Gateway national recreation area (near Highlands, NJ and Seabright, NJ) look very nice with lots of sand and parking. I want a good beach experience this summer but I don't want to drive more than a tank of gas away (approx 500 miles). I guess I should say "the shore" being that it's Jersey, right!?!
I can stay in Red Bank for a good price. Can anyone out there recommend this area? How about enough to enjoy for 5 days? Any reply is helpful.
I'm looking for a nice beach in NJ and aerial photos online make Gateway national recreation area (near Highlands, NJ and Seabright, NJ) look very nice with lots of sand and parking. I want a good beach experience this summer but I don't want to drive more than a tank of gas away (approx 500 miles). I guess I should say "the shore" being that it's Jersey, right!?!
I can stay in Red Bank for a good price. Can anyone out there recommend this area? How about enough to enjoy for 5 days? Any reply is helpful.
Thanks
I work at Sandy Hook (what the locals call the Sandy Hook Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area). The drive during prime time beach hours from Red Bank to SH can take over an hour. Also, in the summer the park will frequently close due to being full.
And only tourists go "down the shore", locals go to the beach.
I'm looking for a nice beach in NJ and aerial photos online make Gateway national recreation area (near Highlands, NJ and Seabright, NJ) look very nice with lots of sand and parking. I want a good beach experience this summer but I don't want to drive more than a tank of gas away (approx 500 miles). I guess I should say "the shore" being that it's Jersey, right!?!
I can stay in Red Bank for a good price. Can anyone out there recommend this area? How about enough to enjoy for 5 days? Any reply is helpful.
Thanks
It's a beautiful beach, very natural. It does fill up fast, so you have to go early.
I work at Sandy Hook (what the locals call the Sandy Hook Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area). The drive during prime time beach hours from Red Bank to SH can take over an hour. Also, in the summer the park will frequently close due to being full.
And only tourists go "down the shore", locals go to the beach.
Well, that's a first. I've been living in this state for 48 years and never heard a New Jerseyian say they are going to the "beach".
To the OP, Sandy Hook is very nice. If you plan on weekend trips to the beach, either go very early or later in the day to avoid the traffic. During the week, traffic isn't much of a problem.
You can spend five days in the area and never get bored. Red Bank is a good center point, you are a short drive to many nice areas. I would spend time at Sandy Hook for the beach (and the nude beach), Long Branch for some nice bars and restaurants on the water, and head to Pt Pleasant for some fun on the boardwalk and more bars and restaurants. There are fishing boats out of the Atlantic Highlands and a specific surf fishing beach at Sandy Hook (lot F).
Enjoy your stay, the Jersey shore is pretty awesome.
I say the beach but I grew up in PA so take with that what you will.
Sandy Hook is great. It's a very large national park and as such is one of the cheapest beaches in NJ (with the exception of the free beaches in AC/Wildwood). You only pay for parking which is $10/car (versus most other beaches where you can expect to pay upwards of $5 per person for daily access). Season passes, I think are $50 unless they've gone up - due to the price and the location as one of the most northern beaches (if you count places like Keansburg) it tends to fill up quickly on summer weekend days. Get there early because once the parking area fills they close and you then have to drive down 36 looking for the next beach town (which I believe is Long Branch although I know there's some smaller towns before there with limited public access).
Of course, Sandy Hook also has NJ's only nude beach for what its worth.
Well, that's a first. I've been living in this state for 48 years and never heard a New Jerseyian say they are going to the "beach".
Manasquan, basically my whole life. No one here says they are "going down the shore". We live at the shore, but we go to the beach. That's one way we can tell locals from those from North Jersey.
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To the OP, Sandy Hook is very nice. If you plan on weekend trips to the beach, either go very early or later in the day to avoid the traffic. During the week, traffic isn't much of a problem.
Not true. Last summer any time after 1pm was at least an hour to just get off the hook. Granted that was due mostly to the bridge construction but it regularly takes over half an hour to get off the hook on Thursdays and Fridays all summer long. Then to get from Sandy Hook to RB will take another half four.
Hell even in the dead of winter it takes 40 mins to get from Fort Hancock to downtown RB. Maybe its because I grew up in a beach town but thats too long a drive for me. I would advise the OP to consider a rental in Sea Bright if they are mostly into going to the beach.
Manasquan, basically my whole life. No one here says they are "going down the shore". We live at the shore, but we go to the beach. That's one way we can tell locals from those from North Jersey.
Not true. Last summer any time after 1pm was at least an hour to just get off the hook. Granted that was due mostly to the bridge construction but it regularly takes over half an hour to get off the hook on Thursdays and Fridays all summer long. Then to get from Sandy Hook to RB will take another half four.
Hell even in the dead of winter it takes 40 mins to get from Fort Hancock to downtown RB. Maybe its because I grew up in a beach town but thats too long a drive for me. I would advise the OP to consider a rental in Sea Bright if they are mostly into going to the beach.
I think you're right. If you're already at "the shore", you aren't going to say you're going "down the shore". I lived in north Jersey for most of my life, until 18 months ago. I always said I was going down the shore, but now that I live 15 minutes from a beach, I am going to the beach.
Of course, Sandy Hook also has NJ's only nude beach for what its worth.
It's probably the nicest beach in the state, if you don't mind looking a naked, chubby middle-aged people. Definitely not a "South Beach" experience, so if that is anyone's motive, forget about it. Picture going into your local A&P, but everyone is naked, that's pretty much the situation.
But, it is very clean, very big (only beach in the area where you aren't on top of people on the weekends) no screaming kids, and the only beach that you can legally drink a beer, in fact they sell beer on the beach. Quiet, nice, plenty of room, what more could you want...and no tan lines!
It's probably the nicest beach in the state, if you don't mind looking a naked, chubby middle-aged people. Definitely not a "South Beach" experience, so if that is anyone's motive, forget about it. Picture going into your local A&P, but everyone is naked, that's pretty much the situation.
But, it is very clean, very big (only beach in the area where you aren't on top of people on the weekends) no screaming kids, and the only beach that you can legally drink a beer, in fact they sell beer on the beach. Quiet, nice, plenty of room, what more could you want...and no tan lines!
Actually, you can drink on the beach at Point Pleasant too but if you plan on say, bringing in your own alcohol to a beach you're much less likely to have anyone say anything to you at Sandy Hook versus than in somewhere like Belmar.
Regarding the construction, I was there a few weeks ago before the season began and it seems that giant mess coming out of there is finally over and done with. Not that you won't run into traffic on 36 getting out of there (because you will) but at least it's not the ridiculously long wait that it was the past few years.
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