Agave
This tequila bar and Mexican tapas restaurant feels like it’s straight out of Charleston, South Carolina. Located in The Walk at Harbor Square in Stone Harbor, order up a skillfully crafted cocktail and enjoy the live music and people watching on the pedestrian mall.

Cape May Point State Park
I’ll never get tired of walking the trails around these wetlands that surround our beloved lighthouse. There are various options (quick jaunts, and longer walks), all on boardwalk and/or fairly easy and flat terrain.

Guppi Sustainable Surf Co.
A local surf brand with a passion for sustainability & the sea, where all the apparel is made from recycled plastic and is eco-friendly. The softest tee you’ll ever wear, you’ll love her fun and contemporary designs.

Gusto Brewing Company
Keep it small and keep is weird is Gusto’s credo. A community-focused nano brewery that brews a variety of rotating beers across their tap list, but whose IPAs, pale ales, and specialty stouts have a cult-like following. A must-try if it’s on tap: their Great American Beer Fest bronze award winner, “Good Talk,” an Ordinary Bitter.

Harpoons
Harpoons on the Bay feels like North Cape May’s worst kept secret—especially in the summertime when you’ll want to be sure to get your name in early for a table—and yet still warrants the popular phrase, “if you know you know.” The sunsets are obviously to die for, but the bartenders are the best at slingin’ good beers and orange crushes, and you’ll definitely want to try some fresh seafood, and wash it down with their own key lime pie.

Kohler’s Bakery
The best cream-filled donut you’ll have, but don’t let that stop you from exploring their other baked goods (might I suggest a crumb bun). Kohler’s in Avalon is open seasonally, Memorial Day-Labor Day, but you can also snag pre-ordered goods Easter weekend and Mother’s Day weekend.

Lazy Bass
This bayside bar in the Grassy Sound ‘underneath’ the North Wildwood bridge is another great spot with awesome bartenders, a great cocktail menu, rotating food trucks, and multiple live bands/musicians every weekend. Big perk of the Lazy Bass: if you’ve got any kind of watercraft, you can dock it right at the Lazy Bass and walk right up to the bar! Vibes are always high at this spot!

Lizard Tail Swamp Preserve
Located in Cape May Court House in Middle Township, we discovered this nature preserve on a whim one April day when looking for walking trails. It’s a great area for birding and other wildlife, and taking in everything nature has to offer — favorites that spring day were many lizards and purple lupine.

The Lobster House — Raw Bar and Take Out
Our preferred dining option at this Cape May staple. Same great seafood, in a more casual, breezy environment. Order your favorites from either (or both!) menus and find a seat along the pier — just mind the seagulls, they’re just as crazy about the nosh.

Quahogs
Call it a shack, call it a hole-in-the-wall, I call this spot in Stone Harbor a fantastic place for better-than-traditional seafood dishes and incredible craft cocktails. Don’t miss happy hour at the bar, from 5-6pm when you can snag 12 wings or oysters for only $12 — and a margarita special on Thursday evenings, too! Don’t be surprised if you roll up and find a line right before opening, patrons are known to form a queue in hopes of snagging a seat at the bar.

Rising Tide charters
Captain Scott has been on the ocean, basically his whole life, and his knowledge and experience navigating the waters — whether you want to fish the waters of south Jersey, or celebrate one of life’s milestones with a party cruise — is expansive. Find him chartering out of Avalon Marine Center, off of Old Avalon Boulevard.