| Point Pleasant is the ultimate Jersey Shore family destination, offering exciting activities for a day trip, a week end, or as a summer vacation destination?
Point Pleasant Beach bills itself as family-oriented. The Boardwalk, one of the nicest in the state, stretches for a mile and has a first class aquarium, family amusements, rides, games of chance, arcades, food, live entertainment, and a one-of-a-kind Victorian-style ice cream parlor.
The beach is safe and clean where children build sandcastles and body surf in the ocean while their parents bask in the sunshine and cool salt-air breezes.
It has all the fanfare and excitement expected of a top rated beach town.
Downtown Point Pleasant boasts a shopping district with many unique shops and antique establishments, making the area a great location for all ages. And if shopping builds up an appetite, the many fine restaurants, coffee shops and cafes are there to satisfy whatever your taste is.
At night, the Boardwalk vibrates with colorful lights, exciting rides twisting with screams and music, and in the arcades you can hear the bleeps of the latest video games. For adults, several nightclubs with the latest music blasting away can be heard along with their dancing into the late night hours.
The commercial fishing industry is still an important year-round activity, and the sea-food restaurants and retail shops along Channel Drive and Inlet Drive are popular with residents and visitors alike.
Interested in becoming a resident, Point Pleasant was named the 3rd best place to live in the USA by the July 1997 issue of U.S. by Money Magazine.
Only a one-hour drive from New York City, or an hour and a half ride on New Jersey Transit, with a 15 minute walk to the boardwalk, this small town on the Jersey shore is a popular vacation spot for North New Jersey and NYC tourists, or "benny's" as the locals call them.
Major Attractions - Jenkinson's Aquarium - Explore two floors of exotic fish,
mammals, and birds. Facilities include a petting tank and a fossil room.
- Point Pleasant Beach Boardwalk Over a one-mile long boardwalk
with arcades, amusements, entertainment, food stands and beach train. During the summer they also have fireworks and laser light shows.
- Point Pleasant Beach - clean beaches, accommodations,
amusements, bathhouses, daily or seasonal badges, boardwalk, fishing, lifeguard on duty until 6:00, picnicking, scuba diving and surfing. There are both public and private beaches in Point Pleasant. A public access beach can be found at the southern end of town with an entrance on Ocean Avenue across from the Dunes Motel. It's free, but be aware there are no lifeguards, so use common sense if swimming. Everything's open from Memorial Day to Labor Day with lifeguards on duty from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm.
- The Festival of the Sea - One of Point Pleasant Beach's top
events. Held Downtown in September as an end of summer gathering. Local restaurants and vendors provide the large crowds with delicacies such as crab cakes, shrimp skewers, paella, soups and bisques, lobster, and other seafood items.
- The Point Pleasant Beach Race - Sunday September 9th 2007, is
a major offshore power boat Race. If you are on the beach or in a boat between Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head, you're in for a treat as boats roar down the ocean at speeds up to 115 miles per hour.
- Fishing - Point Pleasant offers the opportunity to catch some
big tuna, bluefish and fluke. For those who just want to kick back, tours offer the use of all their equipment, leaving you with nothing to worry about. Party and charter boats go offshore from the Broadway Basin or Ken's Landing.
- Kayaking - In summer, at Point Pleasant Beach, the north end
is a kayak zone with nice 3- to 6-foot curlers at high tide when winds are from the east. During the off season, on the north side of the Manasquan Inlet, Manasquan Beach has an off-shore break that's great after the crowds leave for the season.
About the author: Frank Dalotto is a freelance writer and travel consultant. His specialty is writing articles about New Jersey travel, and restaurant reviews. Frank is the owner and editor of New Jersey Leisure Guide and a travel consultant forPoint Pleasant Visitors Guide |
