Poll: N.J.’s Top 10 beaches include Asbury, 2 in Ocean – Asbury Park Press
SOUTH JERSEY: When it comes to the beach, we know what we like – GNS/The (Vineland) Daily Journal
Wildwood voted NJ’s “best beach” – The Inky
The first ever Jesery Shore Top Ten Beaches poll, conducted this year by the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium was released yesterday. The top ten are as follows:
1. Wildwood
2. Wildwood Crest
3. Ocean City
4. North Wildwood
5. Cape May
6. Asbury Park
7. Avalon
8. Point Pleasant Beach
9. Beach Haven
10. Stone Harbor
Apparently, the criteria included water quality, access, and aesthetics. The survey, conducted online, had 15,000 respondents and is not scientific.
As recently as a few years ago, I would not have even considered the Wildwoods as one of the best beaches because it had a reputation as “a beach town where people don’t have tans.” I mentioned last year though, the Wildwoods is undergoing a vacation gentrification. It also has a HUGE beach. However, those things being said, I have yet to spend any beach time in the Wildwoods and probably won’t because I’d rather be at Stone Harbor, the next beach up.
As for the other rankings, I think Stone Harbor and Avalon were too low and Asbury Park is too high. Avalon and Stone Harbor have the nicest actual beaches on the Shore, if not the coast. The surf is also excellent regardless of tides. Asbury Park has — um, room I guess. The last time I passed through there, it was still a ghost town and empty beach.
Beach Haven which I am more familiar with than any other place on the list is probably too low as well. I have never even driven through Ocean City or Pt. Pleasant Beach, so I cannot comment on them.
Someday, I want to take a weekend early in the season and drive up the whole Jersey Shore in a convertible with the top down and see all of those towns I have never been to without missing a beach day. I should have pitched the idea to the Ombudsman when he was hanging around South Jersey. D’oh!
