Need help with Vacation Planning

[Downtown]

Here's my dilemma:
My college roommates and I are planning a reunion for next summer on the NE Atlantic Coast. We're planning on renting a house for a week or long weekend and I would love suggestions for places to look, aside from the usual Cape May, NJ, or Ocean City, MD. Maybe some place off the beaten path, yet still close to the ocean. Anyway, I was thinking that if anyone could help me, my fellow Cyburbanites could! Here's the criteria -

1. Needs to be as close to the beach as possible.
2. Needs to be relativley close to golf for the husbands.
3. Between Virginia and Connecticut.

Thanks guys, I'd really appreciate any and all suggestions!

Kelly

 

[Chet]

There once was a man from Nantucket....

I spent a 5 days on Nantucket - The house was 200 yards from the beach and isolated. A 4 bedroom house ran $2000 for the 5 days, but we managed to get a deal on an off-week for just $600! There's plenty to keep the guys busy too.

There's nothing like grabbing 12 lbs of lobsters, a couple pounds of steamers, and a case of Sam Adams and kicking back watching the seals play in the surf.

Highly recommended!

 

[Nemesis]

Take a look at Block Island. Cool nights, small island, hiking, waterfront 360. Be sure you check on any events that may be the same week. Race week at the end of June would not be the week to go. Book ferry early.
Rental houses with high end and low end budgets.

 

[Cardinal]

Hmmm...

I was stationed at Fort Eustis, VA for a time and covered a good deal of the shoreline from Cape May south. The best place was Nag's Head/Kitty Hawk, just outside Cape Hatteras in North Carolina's Outer Banks. It sounds like that may be too far south for you, though. I'd stay away from Virginia Beach, unless you plan to venture inland to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, etc.

 

[Nemesis]

One more idea, I missed the golf requirement. Hyatt is about to open a new resort in Cambridge, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. It has a new golf course, restraunts,numerous pools and about an hour from Ocean City if you need the ocean. They have been pushing promos on the radio.

 

[Jeff]

Virginia Beach, VA
Hilton Head
Outer Banks (both a little south)
Bethany, Rehobeth, Dewey Beaches, DE


I'm partial to Cape May, it's where my parents live.

Sea Isle is a good time too.

 

[El Feo]

Kelly, it appears folks don't think there is much between VA and CT. If I were you, though, I'd concentrate on that stretch of coast between Cape May, NJ and the southern end of the Delmarva peninsula - close to beaches and plenty of golf out there.

By the way, any luck with Travelocity/US Airways on your brother's ticket?

 

[El Feo]

Oh, also - if you guys are into "Googie" or "Doo Wop" architecture, and want to go someplace slightly cheesy (and I mean that in a good way - think '40s, '50s, '60s and LOTS of neon), I can't say enough about the Wildwoods, New Jersey...even if you don't think you'd want to go right now, check it out at http://www.doowopusa.org/. There was a feature on the Wildwoods in Preservation magazine - read a blurb at http://www.nthp.org/magazine/archives/arc_mag/ja01.htm or look at last year's July/August issue if you can get your hand on a copy.

 

[Downtown]

El Feo - the cheaper flight was on a different airline (I booked US Air, by the way. eek!)

Anyway - I appreciate all the suggestions, everybody! It will be interesting to see how this all works out. We've never done a multi-family vacation before.

 

[Jeff]

Wildwood???

The Ghetto by the Sea!!!

 

[El Feo]

Wildwood???

The Ghetto by the Sea!!!

But I really LIKED that ghetto...

 

[Jeff]

It's usually referred to as "Kensington by the Bay." Kensington is a nasty neighborhood in Philly. Have you been to Wildwood lately? It's a dump. North Wildwood and the Crest aren't bad though. My parents live about 15 away from there, we used to go there all the time when I was growing up and I even had a house (if you want to call it that) there for a summer with a bunch of my friends when I was in high school.

 

[El Feo]

I have to confess, the only time I went was about 15 years ago. I was an art major in undergrad - photography - and my senior thesis was "American Roadside Culture," so I went for photos of the strippy honky-tonk atmosphere. It was in rough shape then, but really, all the cheesy motels etc., appealed to me somehow...I'd still like to go back.

 

[Jeff]

Imagine the rough shape it was in 15 years ago...fast forward to the present day with absolutely no maintenance or upkeep done on any of those buildings or motels and you have Wildwood.

Most of the town is boarded up now. It's a shame.

 

[Super Amputee Cat]

It's usually referred to as "Kensington by the Bay." Kensington is a nasty neighborhood in Philly. Have you been to Wildwood lately? It's a dump.

I was there in September of 2000. I agree with you that Wildwood has some problems but it is definatly preferable to the yuppiefied sh*thole to the north...Stone Harbor.

What a atrocity that place is: A sterile, phony, monocultural, hellhole for latte sipping a-holes. In case you don't know, they are tearing down all those little summer cottages along the beach for huge McMansions. When I spoke to some high-maintenance, vacuous "resident" about it, she basically said that those little houses "needed to be torn down." I wanted to rip her head off.

The rich Philly and New York pr*icks are overrunning southern New Jersey like cockroaches. I heard somewhere that over 5000 cottages have come down. Wildwood is one of the few places that has been relatively immune (although they are building condos there too)

I'd love for a hurricane to come along and wipe Stone Harbor out, but we'd all have to pay for it.