We had toyed with the idea of spending the weekend at Cape May – but when we realised it was only a couple of hours drive away decided we may as well just visit for the day.

We left Monroe quite early but the Cape May lighthouse did not open until 11am so we did a quick detour to Atlantic City on the way. We had heard that Atlantic City is often described as the ‘Las Vegas of the East’ but we knew nothing about the area – although had seen on google maps there was a lighthouse (Absecon Lighthouse) so decided to head there first!

The lighthouse was in what appeared to be a slightly industrial/derelict area – not next to the coast at all! However, we went in and paid to climb to the top. The stairs were made of a grating so you could see under them and although Stu made it to the top……I couldn’t!

We wanted to visit the beach and boardwalk so made the very short drive down the road to the coast. We ended up parked next to a derelict plot of land with one house left standing and a large group of people hanging around outside. Neither Stu or I felt particularly safe so decided to head towards the main area of the town where the large hotel chains were!

The boardwalk area was quite cool. Unfortuately we were off season so lots of the shops were closed but we came to the conclusion we should return in summer as the kids would probably love it. There was a pier (again closed) which had a fun fayre on it too.

^{Atlantic City Boardwalk}

We decided to go for a wander around one of the casinos (to see how it compared to the ones in Las Vegas) It was huge! No windows though so inside you wouldn’t know whether it was day or night. Casinos aren’t really our thing so after 5 minutes we left and headed back to the car to continue down to Cape May.

We drove past a zoo which Stu wanted to visit but I decided that without the kids we were not going to a zoo!!! He wasn’t impressed!

We drove to Cape May lighthouse. The town of Cape May is lovely and definitely somewhere I could see people wanting to visit in the summer. Gorgeous properties and lots of restaurants dotted around. The beach by the lighthouse was a large sandy beach but by this stage the wind had picked up and it was freezing. We had a walk but decided against going around the lighthouse.

We then drove a little further down the road to a beach called Sunset Beach. We had to be so careful getting out of the car so as not to lose the car doors in the wind. There is an old shipwreck not far off the beach which gave us some good photo opportunities.

As with all our outings – it is another place we will need to return to when the weather is warmer and the kids are home! I’ve read that it is a good place for whale spotting so maybe we will come back and go on a whale watching tour?