Day Trip to Winter Boardwalks

Are your kids (and you) climbing the walls, stuck indoors to escape the frigid outdoor temperatures? Believe it or not, boardwalks along the Jersey Shore area are not only for summer entertainment. Wintertime fun is available, too – and without having to deal with summer traffic heading to the beaches.

Point Pleasant Beach

Want to get a jump start on collecting all those game prize tickets? In Point Pleasant Beach along Jenkinson’s Boardwalk, lots of arcades stay open year round, including Jenkinson’s South Arcade, Pavilion Arcade, South Beach Arcade (open February through October), and Frank’s Fun Center. Try your skills and your luck at video games, slot machines, skee ball, basketball, cranes, and more. In the South Beach Arcade, there’s also the interactive 7D Dark Ride.

Jenkinson’s Aquarium, also right on the boardwalk, is completely enclosed and always a popular destination for families, no matter what the season. The aquarium’s mission is to educate the public on all aspects of marine life and conservation, with exhibits and educational programs to promote awareness and appreciation of animals and their habitats. Visitors will find sharks, coral reefs, seals, sea stars, sting rays, local fish, turtles, and the ever-popular penguins. There’s also a tropical rainforest display, home to monkeys and parrots. Feeding times for the seals, penguins, and sharks take place several times each day and are fascinating to observe. Check out the calendar of fun events, including Behind the Scenes Tours, a Junior Keepers programs, International Polar Bear Day and International Day of the Seal, Pizza and Penguins, and more throughout the year. The facility is closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.

Jenkinson’s Boardwalk is located at 300 Ocean Avenue, Point Pleasant Beach, NJ. Call 732-892-0600 or visit www.jenkinsons.com.  

Asbury Park

Along the Asbury Park boardwalk, kids (and adults) of all ages can have a ball at the unique Silverball Museum Arcade, a fun and fascinating tribute to the history of pinball and video games. There are hundreds of games in rotation – some simple, some more complex, and all carefully maintained and available to play. Enthusiastic pinball wizards and gamers love coming to this retro paradise, where you can buy a pass for one hour, for a half day, or for a full day and play to your heart’s content. Silverball Museum Arcade is located at 1000 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ. Call 732-774-4994 or visit www.silverballmuseum.com/asbury-park.  

Atlantic City

If you decide to take a gamble on the weather and take a drive down to Atlantic City, there’s certainly fun to be had outside of the casinos. The Atlantic City Aquarium is open daily all year, except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Guests can enjoy a variety of sea life and animal exhibits and touch tanks, with fish of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean, moray eels, coral reefs, a Tropical Shark Touch Tank, jellyfish, clownfish, horseshoe crabs, sea urchins, turtles, stingrays, iguanas, piranhas, boa snakes, bullfrogs, and more. The full calendar of events also features live animal shows, stingray feedings, and story times. The Atlantic City Aquarium is located at 800 North New Hampshire Avenue, Atlantic City, NJ. Call 609-348-2880 or visit www.acaquarium.com.

Atlantic City is also home to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! All things wonderfully weird can be found here, with a collection of strange and bizarre displays from around the world in the Odditorium, a 12,000-square-foot space with 14 themed galleries featuring 400 exhibits and artifacts, all on one floor. Guests are invited to “Get Your Weird On” while viewing an array of human, animal, and mechanical oddities. For enlightenment of a different kind, there is also a mysterious maze filled with laser beams, just like those seen in action movies, in the Vault Laser Maze Challenge, where participants try to beat the clock as they go over and under the lasers without breaking the beams. Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Is open 365 days a year and is located at 1441 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ. Call 609-347-2001 or visit www.ripleys.com/atlanticcity.  

No need to wait for summer. Bundle up and head to the boardwalks for a waterfront winter day trip!