Every summer my family and I visit Cape May, New Jersey for an entire week and it has quickly become one of my favorite weeks of the entire year. This Victorian seaside shore town at the Southern tip of New Jersey is as family-friendly as a beach town comes and is possibly the most charming beach town I’ve ever visited. Think pastel-colored Victorian mansions, pristine beach, an expansive boardwalk, horses and carriages wandering the street each evening and a walkable town dotted with endless icecream shops, mini golf, restaurants and boutique shops.
Cape May is a higher end beach town — think along the lines of Bayhead or Long Beach Island. It attrcts well-heeled families rather than a party crowd. Read on for some of our favorite things to do at this idyllic beach town.
Cape May in the summer has a packed and predictable schedule of activities for kids to do each day. Our normal days start with setting up our beach set up next to the lifeguards and then we go back to our beach house and have a slow morning, feed all of the kids (we go every year with my brother’s kids, so there are 5 in total) before the whole crew walks to the beach around 10am for most of the day. If you rent a house, most of them will come with beach tags for everyone. If you aren’t renting and are staying the week, financially it makes sense to buy the whole season beach pass.
We typically stay at the beach from 10am until 3 or 4pm, ordering lunch from Bagel Time Cafe (trust us on this one). The kids wear themselves out digging for sandcrabs, boogie boarding, playing whiffle board and any number of games we bring. Because we are a big beach family, we have some summer essentials that have become our beach MVPs. The first is our Coolcabana tent https://on.ltk.com/+boa-nODBA9Mj_wtHKcTiOQ, which has been on dozens of beach trips with us. For our one-year-old who loves to shove sand and shells into her mouth, we bought this California Beach Company tent https://on.ltk.com/+1-3IylQW–4GzgoNxcDsWw for her that has built-in SPF that has been a gamechanger. It is an investment, but it is sturdy and completely worth my peace of mind.
After the beach we typically go home, shower and hang out before doing an activity with the kids at night. On Monday’s, iconic hotel Congress Hall has their weekly summer carnival on their lawn. This is a slice of Americana and something we go to each year. It is a vintage carnival complete with carnvial games, a vintage train ride, fire jugglers and more. There are also amazing cocktails for the adults, so it’s a win-win for everyone. (This hotel also has great restaurants and shops. In the winter, they do a winter carnival that we haven’t attended yet but it’s high on my list. Friends who have stayed on a winter weekend say it’s like being in a Hallmark movie.)
On Tuesday evenings, there is a free family magic show at the Cape May convention center on the boardwalk. It’s the same act every year and kids get a magic stick, which our kids always enjoy for the rest of the week. On Wednesdays, we typically skip the beach and drive twenty minutes to Wildwood to go to the amusement park. I wouldn’t want to stay in Wildwood, but they do have a great amusement park called Morey’s Pier which is a highlight every year. Buy a wristband if your kids love rides like ours do and spend the entire day.
On Thursdays at dusk, there is a family movie on a big screen on the beach. Beforehand, the Hotel Chalfonte puts on a weekly concert on their lawn which a great bar on their wraparound porch. This was the first concert my son attended as a one-year-old and is such a fun time.