Cape May is beautiful! Our friends have a summer home there and we were lucky enough to spend a weekend with them several years ago. Gorgeous beaches, great restaurants and shops and the perfect place to just walk and admire the local architecture. Lucky you!

Well at least you know to call it "the shore" LOL; 2 points. As a Pennsylvanian, I grew up going there.

Congress Hall in Cape May I'm guessing? We stayed there about a decade ago. We took our bikes and rode around looking at the old homes; unlike New England beach communities it is very flat. The beaches have great soft sand and are nice for walking too. It's a cute area. The thing I don't like, esp compared to New England, is that there is very little vegetation. No trees, no beach roses.

I don't know OceanGrove - I often hear of Spring Lake.

On your way there or home, have lunch in RedBank or Montclair (my old town). The only other cute towns I can think of are mostly along the PA border. I guess you could also go thru Bklyn if you haven't been yet. Or take a ferry to Ellis Island; that museum is fantastic. I know I'm expanding your trip... bad habit of mine.

Hope the weather is good. I've seen lovely weather in early May as well as miserable cold rainy days. Sigh. Actually I'd prefer rain to more snow right now....

Love the charm of Cape May, the historical houses are wonderful.

Mtn, we are staying at air b&b’s. I’m hoping we can find bike rentals, that would be fun.

Sushi, we are coming from Boston so wacky weather would not be shocking to us! We got married in early May and it was about 40 degrees, freezing rain...the weekend prior to our wedding was over 80 degrees. I will cross my fingers for more sun than rain.

Oh, I envy you! I’ve only been to Cape May once, but fell in love. :)

Hope your trip is wonderful!

Walking on the beach would be great, even if it’s colder. A few years back I had a conference on Hilton Head in March, and it was pretty cold to the point I wished I had gloves. But, still, really nice to walk on the beach. And I pretty much had the beach to myself, which was awesome.

OTOH, I saw photos of the Jersey shore last fall where there were way too many crowds.

The Jersey shore is funny in how each town has such a distinct personality. Cape May is lovely and you made a great choice. Maybe you’ll find some Cape May diamonds! Don’t be tempted to go to Wildwood. It is the antithesis of Cape May. Ocean Grove is farther north and I am not familiar with it.

I live about 8 miles south of Ocean Grove. It is an adorable little town founded by the Methodists in the late 1800's. As such, it retains its "church" character. There are only 2 main roads in and out of OG and they used to close the gates leading into town on Sunday. No driving allowed. The local lore is that there was a power outage one year and the repair people weren't allowed in on a Sunday to fix the wires. Soon after the rules changed.

The streets are narrow and often one-way. Driving is hard and it's easy to get lost (as lost as you can get in town that is less than 1/2 square mile). But do walk around as there are many interesting houses in town. You may notice lots of wooden platforms. They're the bases for tents that serve as summer homes for generations of family visitors. The town fell into disrepair but became hot about 20 years ago and there has been a lot of renovating and gentrifying.

There are some restaurants in town but to be honest I have't been in a while. For interesting dining, walk across one of the bridges, or drive, into Asbury Park which has many great places to eat , bars, breweries, etc (At least prior to CV-19 - who knows what May will bring). AP did do a great job of closing streets and creating outdoor dining and I am guessing that will likely continue come spring. Every place does take. What kind of food do you?

Every town along the "Shore" has it's own personalty, as Ded tired noted. You can drive along the ocean from Sandy Hook to Ocean Grove (or if you're going to Cape May first you can go from OG to Sandy Hook) and get a feel for some of them. If you want to go further south you have to do a little zigging and zagging. In NJ you have to pay to get on the beach but fees don't usually start until Memorial Day so you may be able beach hop.

There are many cute towns in the area. Spring Lake, which mtnrdredux_gw mentioned, is one of the more upscale towns with big ocean-front houses, a cute downtown, and a nice beach. Walking the boards is very popular. The Spring Lake board walk itself is about 2 miles long. I walk it all year long as it is the halfway point between my house and my walking buddy's. You can also walk the boardwalk from Bradley Beach which is one town south of OG to Sea Girt. If you're a fan of MTV's Jersey Shore, Seaside is not that far. but not at all walkable.

I hope this helps. If you have anything specific you're looking for, please ask. I am a huge fan of the area.

Thank you all, especially reff! I’m excited to see a new place especially after all this time of being home. Honestly I don’t think I would have ever gone here if not for the pandemic — we have a beach house so I don’t usually feel compelled to go on beach vacations anywhere else (Except for escaping to tropical beaches in winter!) We just started looking at places to go with good outdoor spaces with a 5-6 hour drive and this is what we came up with. Also, we are bringing our dogs — I feel like we are becoming those people who bring their dogs everywhere! We never took our dogs anywhere until we started using air b&b. It’s easier for us to take them than to put them in a kennel.

I still am looking forward to the day when we can get on a plane and leave the dogs home, though!

I'm glad to be of help.

I live 4 blocks (or less than 1/2 mile from the beach, whichever sounds closer) and still love beach vacations. Where is your house?