Qualla: Ocean City (New Jersey)

Ocean City (New Jersey): Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peetlesnumber1, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ocean City is a dry town - no alcohol may be sold within its borders. That fact is the keystone of nearly everything else about the place. The Methodist ministers who founded the city in 1879 wrote alcohol prohibition into the original deed restrictions, and the prohibition stuck through every subsequent legal revision. The boardwalk, two and a half miles of it, has movie theaters and arcades and a water park and a Ferris wheel, but no bars. The restaurants serve no wine. Visitors who want a drink walk over the 9th Street Bridge into Somers Point, which is exactly twenty feet across a body of water from Ocean City and not dry at all. The result, ironically, is that Ocean City has spent more than a century marketing itself as "America's Greatest Family Resort," and the marketing is sincere.

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Image: Peetlesnumber1 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ocean City (New Jersey): The Boardwalk

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dough4872, CC BY-SA 4.0. The boardwalk runs from Surf Road at the north end down past 23rd Street at the south, spanning the heart of the island. The early-morning hours belong to bicycles and surreys - those wonderful four-wheeled pedal contraptions with fringed canopies that you rent by the hour and pi...

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Image: Dough4872 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ocean City (New Jersey): Eight Miles of Beach

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dough4872, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ocean City's beach runs from Corson's Inlet at the south to Great Egg Harbor Inlet at the north - roughly eight miles of guarded sand, all of it requiring beach tags during the season. Most house rentals provide the tags. The southern end of the beach borders Corson's Inlet State...

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Image: Dough4872 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ocean City (New Jersey): Surreys and Pinball

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smallbones, Public domain. There is something particular about Ocean City's amusement style. The amusement parks - Castaway Cove, Gillian's Wonderland, Playland's Castaway Cove - belong to a particular era of American boardwalk culture that has largely disappeared elsewhere. The rides are family-scale, not...

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Image: Smallbones | Public domain

Ocean City (New Jersey): America's Greatest Family Resort

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smallbones, CC0. The slogan dates to the early twentieth century. It was earned, not granted. Ocean City's particular combination - dry-town policies, family-focused programming, eight miles of guarded beach, and a boardwalk culture that genuinely targets children and parents rather than the adul...

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Image: Smallbones | CC0

Ocean City (New Jersey): The Bayside

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TexasDex at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Most visitors focus on the ocean side, but Ocean City's back-bay is where some of the best experiences hide. Bay Avenue runs the length of the island on the western side, and it is the corridor for jet ski and kayak rentals, charter fishing boats, parasailing, and speedboat tours...

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Image: TexasDex at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0