Describing Long Beach Island and the Cape to a Newcomer

A GoNOMAD Reader named Ginnie Terhunez emailed me, asking for advice about which part of the East Coast to visit. She asked me about the Cape, and about other areas. I replied saying that Long Beach Island and Cape Cod were two great places to visit. Here are the details.

The Cape is classic New England and has things like dunes, the summer minor league baseball in Truro, and the gay wildness of Provincetown. Long Beach Island, or LBI, is a 26 mile long strip lined with beach houses and the amenities like shops, cafes and restaurants to serve them.

The beach waves are better in NJ and the temps are great. In the Cape, beaches are scenic but generally thinner, not affording LBI’s great expanse of beach. In LBI, you go out to beachy clubs, visit Beach Haven with its honky tonks and cheap yet appealing entertainment. In the Cape you enjoy the blueest of the blue states, Massachusetts, complete with it’s classic architecture, town commons and that je ne sais quais of a real ‘There There.’

LBI is beach of a different sort. Both excellent choices to taste the East at its best.
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