A report came out this week confirming that Cape May County is now the number one tourism destination in New Jersey. Record-breaking visitor spending of $8.44 billion in 2025 — the first time in 32 years the county has led the state — with Cape May County topping every other county in food and beverage, retail, recreation and lodging, which alone reached $3.59 billion. 

I read it and thought: of course.

I am not sure what took the rankings so long to catch up to what anyone who has actually spent time down there already knows. Cape May County is not one Shore destination. It is ten of them — each one different, each one with its own personality, its own crowd, its own reason to exist. And taken together they add up to something no other county in New Jersey can match.

I have been going to Cape May County my whole life. Here is what I know about every town, from north to south.

SEE ALSO: Cape May in May — why spring is the best kept secret at the Cape 

Summer in Ocean City | photo by EJ

Summer in Ocean City | photo by EJ

Ocean City to Stone Harbor — the northern towns

Ocean City is family-friendly fun at its most concentrated. The 9th Street beach on a July weekend is wall to wall — but head south and the beaches open up. Manco and Manco pizza on the boardwalk. Steel’s Fudge — the best. Johnson’s Popcorn. The Music Pier. Ocean City does the family Shore experience better than anyone and it has been doing it for over a century.

Strathmere is my spot. Free beaches. Twisties Tavern — just reopened and better than ever. The Deauville Inn on the water. Sunsets that make you forget everything else. Strathmere is what the Shore is supposed to feel like.

Sea Isle City has deep sand beaches and always a party (home of the original “no shower happy hour”). Parents — keep an eye on your kids. Sea Isle knows how to have fun and it shows.

Avalon is deep pockets and deeper sand. I have great memories from the 1990s renting a little blue bungalow there when the kids were very young. I wonder if it’s still there. Avalon has a quiet, earned confidence about it that is hard to find anywhere else on the Shore.

Stone Harbor is deeper pockets still and great restaurants. The kind of Shore town that rewards those who find it.

Wildwood — three towns, one boardwalk

North Wildwood feels like every day is St. Patrick’s Day. That is not a complaint.

Wildwood proper needs almost no introduction. Watch the tram car, please. The rides at Morey’s Piers! The food. Mack’s Pizza! The boardwalk that goes on forever. And this summer — watch out for the police horses too. Wildwood had one of the most prepared and peaceful Memorial Day weekends in years and they earned the credit.

Wildwood Crest is quieter by a mile. If you want the boardwalk energy without living in it, Wildwood Crest is your answer. Hop the jitney and you are on the boards in minutes.

Diamond Beach — free parking still exists. File that away.

Cape May lifeboat | photo by EJ

Cape May lifeboat | photo by EJ

Cape May — the crown jewel

We spend at least one weekend every summer in Cape May. Our go-to is The Jetty in the Cove Beach area. Make sure you have breakfast outside at the Cove Restaurant — it is one of those meals you think about for the rest of the summer.

Great restaurants up and down Beach Avenue and deeper into town. You want great Italian food — Sapore on Broadway. You want to step back into a classier time — Congress Hall. Eat at the Blue Pig. Have a cocktail in the Brown Room. Sit on a big rocking chair on the porch or the lawn and let the evening go.

The bayshore from Cape May Point to Reed’s Beach has a charm all its own. The Cape May County Zoo is free — genuinely one of the best free days out in the entire state. Bring your bikes and ride out Sunset Boulevard to Beach Plum Farm for breakfast and Willow Creek Winery for the afternoon.

Did I mention the breweries? The award-winning zoo? The great birding at the Cape May Bird Observatory during migration season?

I don’t know where to stop. That is the point.

What $8.44 billion actually means

Cape May County had an 84% visitor return rate in the most recent reporting period — meaning nearly nine out of ten people who visit come back. That number is the real story. You do not build an 84% return rate on a fluke. You build it on Manco and Manco pizza and Johnson’s Popcorn and the Blue Pig and the Deauville Inn and the free zoo and the bike rides and the sunsets at Strathmere and a hundred other things that people carry home with them and cannot stop thinking about until they book the trip again. 

Cape May County’s tourism marketing reaches over 30 million people within a 300-mile radius — and they keep coming back. The county did not become number one by accident. It became number one because people who go there once almost always go back. 

Am I surprised Cape May County is the top tourism destination in New Jersey? Not for one second. Am I surprised it took this long to be official?

A little. But I will be back down there this summer. I always am.

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