| Name | Ocean County Tourism |
| Type | Information |
| Category | Jersey Shore New Jersey Dept of Tourism |
| Description | OCEAN COUNTY is home to one-third of the famed Jersey Shore stretching from the family resort community of Point Pleasant Beach through live-wired Seaside Heights to the state's longest off-shore island, 20-miles of Long Beach Island.
POINT PLEASANT BEACH features a boardwalk with restaurants, gift shoppes, arcades, fun house, putt-putt miniature golf, and Jenkinson's Aquarium. Most summer days, there is free entertainment including concerts, fireworks, kids' shows, crafts, and movies. The walkable downtown is an antique Mecca including the Antique Emporium, home to 100 independent dealers in a department store ambiance. Award-winning Hoffman's Ice Cream is found here. In the fall, a street festival takes over the downtown. This is home of the unique "Hey Rube, Get a Tube" ocean inner-tube race. Take the self-guided tour of the NJ Museum of Boating in Point Pleasant.
SEASIDE HEIGHTS has two major amusement piers (Casino Pier and Funtown Pier) featuring thrill rides and Breakwater Beach Water Park along with a go-kart track. The mile-long boardwalk is lined with arcades, games of chance, shoppes, eateries, and features free nightly entertainment including weekly fireworks, concerts, and movies. For the younger set, there's the genuine antique Dentzel-Looff Moreland carousel with its Wurlitzer organ. The town hosts a Polar Bear Plunge, enjoyed by 1000+ participants, the Columbus Day (and Italian Street Festival) and the St. Patrick's Day parades, both a mile long with a two-hour line of march, a BBQ cook-off, a Boardwalk bed race, and other special events. A mile away is the famed Island Beach State Park, the longest stretch of natural dune beach in the northeast offering areas for swimming, fishing, windsurfing, kite surfing, horseback riding (bring your own in the off season) and site of Ocean Fun Day, the Beach Plum Festival and the Governor's Surf Fishing Tournament.
LONG BEACH ISLAND is the arts and culture hub. It is home to fine galleries, Barnegat Lighthouse, the Viking Village Commercial fishing fleet (and behind the scenes dock tours), the Arts and Science Foundation of Long Beach Island, Fantasy Island (a Victorian amusement park), a charter boat fishing and tour fleet, Surflight Professional Theatre with "name" stars, and fine and fun dining. The Museum of NJ Maritime History tells the story of shipwrecks and the divers who retrieve treasures from the deep. ChowderFest is its best know special event, but there are a number of others held throughout the year including Chocolate Week in February and the Scarecrow contest in October.
ON THE MAINLAND
NORTH: You will find Six Flags Great Adventure, Wild Animal Drive-Through Safari, and Hurricane Harbor Water Park, the Lakewood BlueClaws Pro-Baseball team (affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies), Laurita Winery, a bevy of B&B's and U-Pick Farms, and the Historic live performing Strand Theatre.
CENTRAL: Novins Planetarium, the Arts & Community Center, home to the Garden State Philharmonic, and the River Lady (an authentic paddlewheel replica). The Toms River Seaport features boats indigenous to the area, Navy Lakehurst information Center includes the historic tragedy - the Hindenburg. Cattus Island County Park & Nature Center focuses on the wetlands while Jakes Branch County Park features the pinelands.
SOUTH: Tuckerton Seaport is a 40-acre maritime village which tells the heritage of the area through its people and crafts. Albert Music Hall adds the music of the pines, including Bluegrass, country and folk.
BARNEGAT BAY nestles between the resorts on the barrier beaches and the mainland -- an 80-square mile sheltered water playland where one can boat, sail, water and jet ski, parasail, kitesail, clam and fish. |
| Address | 101 Hooper Ave. |
| CSZ | Toms River, NJ 08254 |
| Phone 1 | (732) 929-2000 |
| Handicapped Accessible | No |
| Website | www.oceancountytourism.com |
| Last Updated | 12/14/2011 |
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