Budget Travel to Jersey Shore with Kids: Point Pleasant, NJ Point Pleasant is the best New Jersey Beach for a Budget Jersey Shore with Kids vacation. While the Jersey Shore may be known for partying it’s also a great family beach vacation. Point Pleasant is a great Family beach on the Jersey shore that makes for a wonderful cheap family vacation. I love how we can say on the quiet side of the boardwalk and still have access to amusement rides and other entertainment if we want to. They offer weekly entertainment in the summer such as fireworks and live bands. The best part is the awesome fresh seafood restaurants that get their seafood right off the boat.
Budget Travel to Jersey Shore with Kids Overview
The key to Jersey shore on a budget is to book a rental or book a hotel during the week when prices can be a fraction of the weekend price. If your accommodations include beach passes and are within walking distance to the beach that will save as well. We usually pack breakfast, snacks, and sometimes lunch to save even more.
We spent 3 nights in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, at the Atlantic Motel for $321 Total mid-week. It also Included beach passes for the 4 of us.
Tips for visiting Point Pleasant: Budget Travel to Jersey Shore with Kids
- Dig for sand crabs is one of my kid’s favorite activities. they are on the beach where the surf comes up.
- Check out a seafood market restaurant for fresh seafood at affordable prices
- check out the summer entertainment schedule
Budget Jersey Shore Hotel: Atlantic Beach Motel
We stayed at the Atlantic Beach Motel in Point Pleasant, NJ in July. The rooms have a fridge and a microwave as well as a small table. It was comfortable in size and clean. The shower was tiny, but we managed. The distance to the beach is .9 miles. It’s a little further than I would prefer but we pushed our beach cart loaded, and it wasn’t too bad- we were lucky with the breeze the heat wasn’t unbearable. I would have preferred something close but the most available were almost double the price. I would choose Atlantic Beach motel again if I couldn’t find anything closer within a similar price range.
Jenkins Beach: Budget Travel to Jersey Shore with Kids
The closest beach is Jenkins beach and beach passes are included for each night of your stay. This year (not sure if it’s every summer), they had events including every Wednesday night a live band which was a lot of fun, and Thursday night firework as well as a live band on the other side of the boardwalk. The Fireworks were amazing, and we could hear the band playing from the otherwise of the boardwalk as we sat about midway between both ends on the beach.
While we were at Jenkins beach the surf was rough. So rough that young children were not allowed into the water (wouldn’t have let them anyway) and no boogie boards were allowed for adults or teens. Our kids still loved jumping over the waves as they crashed and came ashore and their favorite thing was catching sand crabs. In fact, my son continues to search for sand crabs at every single beach we visit. We spent ours catching them.
Budget Jersey Shore with Kids Food in Point Pleasant
We ate at 3 Different restaurants and enjoyed all our meals and would eat at them again. In fact, the restaurants are one of the main reasons we will be back. Our family loves seafood and casual seafood restaurants are the best. There are a handful of seafood markets in the area that also serve hot meals. Shore Fresh Seafood Market and Restaurant allows you to Bring your own beverage (BOB). It’s very close to Jenkins Board walk. If you rent a house or a place with a kitchen you can also buy the fresh seafood from the market and make it itself. Steamed clams were $10 fresh $6 the scallops were really good and fresh that day. I ordered a pasta dish with scallops and shrimp and was very good.
Atlantic Offshore Fishery we ordered to go to eat in our car on our departure day. We ordered Lobster egg rolls, lobster bisque, and the lobster rolls. They also offer they have lobster meals for $17.99. The Lobster rolls were good. We got the lobster egg roll (3 sliced into 6 pieces total) which were also good and lobster bisque. Def go back for the lobster rolls.
We had dinner our second night at the Lobster Shanty. Its located near another popular restaurant and we could see it was very busy. Lobster Shanty was more reasonably priced and had the entrees we thought we would enjoy the most. We arrived, and the place was empty, and we were seated at a window that looked out to the river. We ordered 3 entrees to share among the 4 of us: pasta with white clam sauce, shrimp scampi with risotto instead of pasta (I heard saw someone order this and so glad I opted for this), and seafood pasta. All meals were wonderful, and the kids enjoyed the fried dough type bread they served when we arrived. The service was very good.
The bar at Jenkins Boardwalk has $2 and $3 draft specials right by where the band is set up, but I think it’s ok to bring your own too as the bar said bring your beers onto the beach.
Six Flags Great Adventure
Only 30 minutes away is Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. Since we purchase season passes and season dining passes we visit several Six flags all summer long. We had never visited the water park and decided we would check it out thinking it was included in the pass. However, water parks located outside the theme park do not include they charge $25 for the water park if you are a season pass holder of a different park. The water park doesn’t look as good at the new England one we visit all summer long, so we decided to not pay the $100 to enter and visit the theme park instead. The great thing about 6 flags NJ is they have several indoor rides. My children love the new batman ride which is more like a game.
Why we will visit Point Pleasant New Jersey Again
Point Pleasant is a short and easy drive for us for even an overnight trip. I absolutely loved the casual seafood restaurants and Jenkins Boardwalk (at least the side we were on) was very low key. I loved that they had live music and fireworks in the evening for entertainment. The beach was clean. We will be beach.
Under $1500
Here’s how to keep this trip under $1500 for a 5 night stay
- Book a Sunday to Friday stay and save almost $100/nt off weekend rates. You can book a 5 night stay for about $800.
- The rooms include beach passes for the number of night you stay.
- The rooms have a microwave and mini fridge so you can pack breakfast and lunch. Here’s how to eat out of your suitcase if your flying. The seafood restaurants were definitely reasonable. $300 food budget would allow you to have $60 a night for dinners out on average which is very possible in this area.
- Flying? Utilize southwest airline points and companion pass and take the train from NYC. its about a 2 hr train ride in. You will need to take taxis and uber but it would keep prices under $400 for transportation.
Products you may want for this trip
- Goggles
- Alligator Pool Float
- Papasan Pool Float
- Beach Blanket
- Foam Air Plane
- portable beach umbrella
- Inflatable Paddle Board
- Inflatable Kayak