Photo courtesy of the City of Wildwood
Wildwood is a popular south Jersey beach destination for families looking for a reasonably priced summer vacation with plenty to do.
The Wildwoods are a Jersey Shore treasure with free, wide, white, powdery sandy beaches, and a world class boardwalk with amusement piers, restaurants, and salt water taffy shops.
Wildwood is also popular with visitors who come for the "Doo Wop", 50's and 60's themed architecture, music and history of that era.
The beaches cannot be topped! This shore destination has one of the most beautiful beaches on the east coast. The sand is amazingly soft, powdery-white, and very wide with plenty of room to spread out and enjoy. It is also free --- a rarity with New Jersey beaches. The warm water lasts longer than the northern stretch of the Jersey Shore and offers an extended summer season that thrives until the end of September and begins to wind down in October.
During the spring, summer, and fall, The Wildwoods are host to a number of events including championship volleyball tournaments, monster truck races, concerts, movies on the beach, ethnic festivals, fireworks displays, crafts, and antique car shows.
The boardwalk, two miles or 38 blocks long, along the North Wildwood and Wildwood stretch of shore line, claims to have more rides than Disneyland.
With the onset of the Doo-Wop era, taken from the music industry’s definition of that period from 1948-61, working class people were experiencing an increase in leisure time, affluence, and new cars that are now known as classic "Doo-Wop" cars. Families from the Philadelphia and New York areas came to enjoy this beach destination as an affordable, fun, and a great place to take the kids for a vacation.
This demand spurred the development of the town's motel lodging that has since become known as "Doo Wop Architecture". You could drive and park your car right alongside your room and didn't have to cart your luggage through the hallways or worry about the kids making noise, or tracking their sandy feet indoors.
Features a quarter mile wide beach, motels, restaurants, and beds & breakfasts. This is a popular destination for family fun and entertainment with ten blocks of the northern end of the Boardwalk filled with roller coaster rides, food and ice cream stands, and saltwater taffy.
Located in between North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest, this is the center of activity with the Convention Center, the business district, and 28 blocks or 1 1/2 miles of the two mile of the Boardwalk running through it.
More of a residential area than either of it's two northern neighbors but still shares the Doo Wop motel architecture. The setting of this town is more natural, especially with the town’s beach conservation efforts to protect sand dunes and dune grass.
The Hereford Inlet Lighthouse
Located in North Wildwood, NJ, built in 1874, is a unique historic and picturesque lighthouse and the only one of this style on the east coast. Now owned by the town of North Wildwood, it has reopened to public tours of the light and its extensive gardens.