Five of the free beaches are located in Cape May County. They are Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood, Corson’s Inlet State Park and Strathmere. The sixth free beach is Atlantic City, perhaps the state’s most storied resort hub, and famously home to the world’s oldest and longest boardwalk.

The beach fee is a multi-million-dollar business for local towns. It’s a user fee, town leaders will tell you, to offset the high cost of summer beach care: lifeguard protection, trash removal, raking of the sand and additional police patrols.

In 1929, the municipality decided to go where no Shore town had gone before — Require the now infamous beach badge to access the beach. Decades later, municipalities have come to rely on that multi-million dollar revenue stream to pay for beach clean-up, maintenance and lifeguards.

Today, we will focus on Stone Harbor at 96th Street, the cleanest beach in New Jersey.

• Stone Harbor is a charming borough in Cape May County, at the southern end of Seven Mile Island.
• Though it has less than 1,000 year-round residents, nearly 20,000 people call Stone Harbor their summer home.

Pearl Beach

6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Two New Jersey cities are among the most expensive summer destinations in the United States, according to a survey conducted by Cheaphotels.org. Long Beach Island, NJ ranks 3rd most expensive overall with an average rate of $295 per night for the least expensive double room.

New Jersey

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Fortunately, New Jersey does have five guarded ocean beaches that serve the public free of charge. And conveniently, they’re all located in the traditionally Philly-favored beach towns strung between Atlantic City and Cape May.

Visitors can swim, surf, body surf, boogie board, fish, or sunbathe. The beaches are patrolled by the North Wildwood Beach Patrol. Wildwood beaches are free! The Department of Environmental Protection monitors water quality at beaches in this region from mid-May to mid-September.

No. Swimming is permitted only when lifeguards are on duty.

The beach is beautiful, clean and has many life guards/stands. It is a very quiet, sleepy, relaxing place to enjoy a family vacation. It’s neighbor, Seaside Heights, is more of a fun, party place for 20-somethings. Seaside Heights does offer a boardwalk with rides and games of chance and many nightclubs.

Seaside Heights Beaches are all public and are open throughout the season. Seaside Heights charges a beach fee to help defray expenses related to providing visitors one of the cleanest and safest public beaches on the East Coast.