Use caution in Asbury Park at night. While the areas around the bars in Asbury are safe, some of the city's residential neighborhoods are less hospitable for outsiders. Also, the highways are extremely dangerous, due to tourist traffic as well as drunk drivers. Police are known to enforce traffic laws vigorously in some smaller towns.
Although Asbury Park is a major LGBT tourist destination, be aware that the rest of the Jersey Shore is extremely conservative. Intolerance towards homosexuals is rampant and being openly gay or transgender on many boardwalks can invite danger. Local police tend to be very indifferent towards LGBT issues, even though NJ has strong hate crime and anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.
Wildwood, while generally safe near the boardwalk, has some neighborhoods that aren't as nice as those in most other shore towns. Serious crime against tourists is rare, but use common sense and try to avoid walking alone late at night, especially in the unlit neighborhoods more than a block or two from the boardwalk.
Atlantic City has some crime problems, but these areas are far away from the Boardwalk. Homeless people on the Boardwalk may become annoying, since there is so many of them, but if you don't want to give anything, just keep walking. Casinos are safe due to the high number of security personnel and video cameras.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Jersey Shore
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Jersey Shore - updated May 2024
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Jersey Shore Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
