Do you want to camp near one of the many beaches in New Jersey?

So do I!

Luckily, there are many options for exactly that. Whether you want to visit Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Long Beach Island, Atlantic City, Cape May, Seaside, Island Beach State Park or any of the other beaches in the Garden State.

Depending on which beach you want to visit you can get within two or three miles of that beach and stay at some very nice and clean campgrounds. If you want to camp directly on the beach unfortunately the State doesn't allow that anymore. Island Beach State Park used to but for some reason they stopped allowing it, even though you can still drive on the beach with the right kind of permit.

New Jersey beach camping can be lots of fun even though you can't get right on the beach. Some people actually think it's better to stay a couple of miles away because you don't have to worry about paying the sometimes exorbitant prices associated with staying right at the beach.

You can spend the day at the beach enjoying the sand, sun and waves and then head back to your campground, get cleaned up and enjoy a nice homecooked meal and then participate in the local campground activities or just sit around a campfire and enjoy the company of those you travelled with.

My family and I absolutely love the beach but we also like being able to get away from the noise, congestion and overpriced attractions. So this type of "beach camping" is absolutely perfect for us.

Currently our favorite location to call "home" for this kind of trip is the Sea Pirate Campground. It is only minutes away from Long Beach Island. It is a nice, quiet campground that is very well maintained by the polite and very accomodating staff that has lots and lots of activities planned during the summer.

The sites are a good size, moderately priced and all the facilities are in great shape. This campground gives us the ability to spend the day at the beach and then to come back go for a swim, cook up a nice dinner and then decide what we want to do that night. There are also a couple of really good restaurants in the area that we enjoy visiting if we don't want to cook ourselves.

We have also stayed at and really enjoyed the Outdoor World Lake & Shore Campground many times. Great facilities including a cedar lake, big swimming pool and a small outdoor water park make up for the moderately sized sites and slightly higher fees. The proximity to Sea Isle City, Wildwood and Cape May make this campground perfect for our version of beach camping. If you decide to check out this campground you do need an Outdoor World membership.

So for us (and lots of our friends) "New Jersey beach camping" is more about the enjoyment of the beach and then the enjoyment of a clean campground away from the hustle and bustle than about pitching a tent within 20 feet of the waves.

Till Next Time…

Eric

Tags: beach camping, Camping, new jersey camping