How to Spend a Rainy Day on the Jersey Shore

The Jersey Shore didn’t become well-known to most Americans until the love-to-hate-them reality show Jersey Shore premiered on MTV in 2009. Eight 20-something housemates congregated in a vacation home in Seaside Heights. The show made famous the phrase "gym, tan, laundry" or "GTL," which was what the housemates’ daily to-do list dictated.

This area in a seller's market — where there are more buyers than there are available homes — stretches up and down the Shore as city dwellers from Manhattan and beyond clamor to leave the big city.

The Jersey Shore is about 140 miles long, and its oceanfront borders the Atlantic Ocean from Perth Amboy in the north all the way to Cape May Point at its southernmost point. “The Shore,” as it’s known by locals, has the highest concentration of boardwalks by the ocean in the entire nation.

Amongst these many boardwalks and houses for sale in Ocean City, NJ, lie a host of family-friendly activities, including gaming arcades, amusement parks, and water parks, which are usually packed in the warmer days of late spring through Labor Day every year. If you’re looking to spend a day at the Shore and the weather turns rainy, there are still many activities to indulge in without messing up your gym visit, your tan, or your laundry.

There are several locations where you can enjoy regular golf and mini-golf along the Jersey Shore, especially as a well-earned break from viewing houses for sale in Ocean City NJ. Haunted Golf is one such spot, located on Ocean City’s Boardwalk at the Moorlyn Terrace. Here, you can enjoy a full, 18-hole indoor golf course amidst a spooky, scary-themed backdrop. Medieval Fantasy Mini Golf is also in Ocean City and offers visitors a blended, covered/indoor course. Some of its rooms are even illuminated by black lights! The Pirates of Wildwood (in Wildwood, no less) offers golfers of all ages a unique, indoor 3D golf experience — a mini one, that is.

If you haven't tried an escape room, you’re in for a treat. Check out the two locations of Liberty Escape Rooms on the Boardwalk in Ocean City. Here, 2-10 players can indulge in an interactive experience where they have 30 minutes to investigate clues, solve puzzles, and escape from themed escape rooms before time runs out. Laser tag is an activity that never goes out of style. Thrill-seekers of all ages can check out the spoils at Encounters Ocean City to engage in adrenaline-raising games of laser tag, heart-stopping adventures within a mirror maze, and many other alien-themed activities.

 

Whether you've just finished your latest holiday-themed house flag or it's been decades since you've touched a paintbrush, glass beads, or yarn, a rainy day at the Shore is a perfect opportunity to get into crafting. Visit Glazed Over Studios, where you can do everything from painting pictures to pottery or learn to create a colorful mosaic. Head over to Island Studio Paint Your Own Pottery in Stone Harbor, where you can enroll in classes to learn to make mosaics, paint, sculpt clay, or do glass fusion. In Cape May, the Art Block is where kids and adults can learn everything from painting to candle-making and succulent garden creation. Walk-ins — both tourists and owners of Ocean City, NJ, real estate — are welcome, so it's perfect if you've spent the morning in the sunshine on the Shore, but the afternoon turns rainy!

This isn’t just any movie experience with plain old popcorn and soda. The Harbor Square Theater in Stone Harbor includes a bar and restaurant, which gives theatergoers a true movie and date night experience. Cinema enthusiasts can now indulge in a meal and drinks while they watch a movie on the big screen. Not only can visitors enjoy the latest in Hollywood blockbusters, but they can also enjoy live acts too. Comedians and curated documentaries — such as "Beatlemania-Again" about the rise of Beatlemania in the U.S., are also among the viewing delights available to visitors and residents of Ocean City, NJ, real estate alike.

Visit the Cape May County Library, which features branches in Cape May, Sea Isle City, Stone Harbor, and Wildwood Crest, just to name a few. Avalon and Ocean City also have free public libraries where rained-out activity seekers can go for respite from the weather and tuck into books galore. Most of the branches — except those in Ocean City and Strathmere, which charge a small membership fee — offer free memberships. The branches offer not only a return to simpler times in the form of books to renew the memories of those of a certain age before the Internet existed but to introduce the joys of reading a physical book to ones who grew up with a computer on their laps. Summertime at the libraries offers a host of weekly activities and special events as well.

At Cape May, you can climb 199 steps to the top of the Cape May Lighthouse and view the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay. Further north just a bit is the tallest lighthouse in New Jersey — in Absecon — where 228 steps will land you at the top to view the ocean as well as the skyline of Atlantic City. In Stone Harbor, check out The Wetlands institute for its numerous exhibits and educational workshops where young and old can learn about the animals and plant life within the Jersey Shore’s ecosystem.

Local realtors like Christen Andrews are experts in representing houses for sale in Ocean City NJ, so why not reach out for their suggestions for rainy day activities, too?