Boardwalk Towns Making Comeback

Online, May 15, 2012 (Newswire.com) - You can find boardwalk towns up and down the eastern seaboard, but New Jersey has perhaps the largest contingency of these ocean-side seasonal towns which usually got their start around the turn of the century. Last century that is! We visited a few of these towns seeking to answer the question; what is the allure of the Jersey shore?

What brings people to spend thousands on a family vacation with 2 star amenities when they could go to a 4 or even 5-star resort for the same kind of money? The words, sucker, dope, patsy, easy mark and victim all came to mind!

In order to find the answer, I decided to explore the destination of choice for Snooki and her dysfunctional gang from MTV's,The Jersey Shore . Seaside Heights is a borough located in Ocean County, NJ and is situated on a long and narrow peninsula that separates the bay from the Atlantic Ocean.

The first thing we did was examine the accommodations. We really only needed a day with this as every Motel seemed to be a carbon copy of each other. Some a bit cleaner than others, but all in all, a very expensive, 2-star room. Motels, though, only account for about 20% of the summer population, so we employed the services of a Realtor who took the day showing us the various "summer rentals" that were available. Also carbon copies of each other and I wouldn't even give the majority of these 1 star!

This, of course, makes the allure of the shore even more enigmatic. Why are people shelling thousands for a week in a run-down, old, musty apartment with beds that should have been replaced 10 years ago when they could be staying in unparalleled accommodations for the same or even less money? No, the answer wasn't in the accommodations. Perhaps it was the entertainment factor!

So, we strolled up and down the boardwalk thinking that the surge in tourism was by chance because of the ocean side entertainment and amusements. I thought it was quite interesting that you could purchase the same t-shirt in any one of 32 t-shirt stores found throughout the 1.5 mile stretch of boardwalk.

I should also mention that you can get the same temporary tattoo in any one of the 36 tattoo stands we counted over the same stretch of boardwalk. Honorable mentions also go to the 26 pizza places and 24 Cheese Steak/Sausage stands. We did find some games of chance to break up the monotony and actually did find at least one very unique attraction called the Bopping Heads , who could take your head and place it on someone else's dancing body. I actually found this very funny and considered making a video for myself, but the wait to have one done was very long as it seemed that half of the people on the boardwalk was perched around this attraction waiting to make a video.

I did a lot of people watching, I went on a few rides, I even had some pizza as I sat on the boardwalk watching some surfers during the early evening hours. My three days were coming to an end, and it was time to go home. As I sat and watched the surfers wait for that perfect wave, a strange feeling came over me. I didn't want to go home. I wanted to stay!

I found myself staying for another 3 days in a town once thought by myself as a bizarre way of spending your much needed vacation and money. Curiously, the town went from common to quaint. The entertainment and amusements went from redundant to boundless and just about every aspect of what I once thought was quite horrible became quite pleasant!

I actually had a great and memorable time, and even got to make that video for myself! The allure of the Jersey shore. While I still don't understand it, I learned to not question it! By the way, I now have reservations for Labor day weekend in the same summer rental!