I’m going on vacation to Atlantic City next month, on a tour/excursion bus. I’m going to have a full day, and then the night before and the morning after. Any advice for the trip? Anything I have to see or do, or alternatively shouldn’t see or do? I’m going to be staying at the Tropicana.
Ask the casino employees what restaurants they recommend. They’ll know the best deals on the best food.
Stick with the Casinos. Atlantic City proper is not a good area.
You may want to Google and see what shows are on the night you will be there. There is usually someone playing somewhere. Concerts and comedians abound.
If you are going in Mid September you may want to bring a light jacket. Fall whether could be moving in by then.
Some things:
AC is fun, but a lot of that fun ends 2 blocks west of the water (Marina Casinos not withstanding). Hard times are there so please: heads up & think safe.
You won’t have a rental car (your post didn’t say), so me saying “Go To The Smithville Inn, because I’ve never found one single thing bad on the menu, Ever, and the prices are Reasonable! Bonus points because they say its Haunted, but with food that good, I’d stick around even if I was dead too.” is probably just rude &will be wasted in the telling. It’s the same with trying to sell you on visiting Renault winery to try (and to possibly take home a bottle of) blueberry champagne. If the Casino Concierge knows of any van trips to either place, I know you will have fun. Yes, Smithville itself is a kitschy peddler’s village, but sometimes that’s fun too. If you do spend a full day at Smithville, Costello’s has a hot wing sauce worth trying on wings as lunch before dinner and yes you can have wine tastings at Tomasello’s.
The Casino dining in AC is great (but Man will they Soak you). I’m thinking you have some sort of package/club/discount/comp thing going on, because entrees (while very good) are not cheap. Yes, you can do a lunch buffet, but if all you remember about NJ
is an AC lunch buffet, Dear Og are you going to hate us. The AC Boardwalk can be fun to walk down (the casino people sometimes jog there early in the morning) but it really just connects all the casinos. I remember it being less fun at night, but that’s part of the heads up / think safe thing. There is a mall on it, but it’s so pricey it makes The Short Hills Mall look like COSTCO.
Pack a pair of comfy older shoes (loosen your laces) for walking and possibly sandals for the beach. You will be walking a lot. New shoes = blisters & blisters suck; avoid them at all costs.
There is a Jitney that will drive you from Tropicana (south end) onward north to Showboat along the road that parallels the water. I remember screaming for my life on it. It has a tendency to bounce like a pinball through traffic, oblivious to cars and lights.
(I tried to find Jesus on that trip; Jesus said “Fuck No! I’m not going on an AC Jitney. Are You Insane???") There’s bound to be one that goes to the marina casinos & back also. Still, walk where you can. That famous picture of the footprints in the sand with the caption about him carrying you? BS. That’s when he got tagged by a Jitney & knocked 50 feet. Angels are Still trying to sort out that paperwork.
There are (right at that 1-2 block mark) pawn shops galore. If you know your prices (because they certainly will) check them out. Haggle your best & if you find something cool, please post a picture. Truthfully, I’d rather you go home with a souvenir of something you really like, value and are into than with a deck of cards with a hole punched in it. Some interesting heirlooms from NY & NJ gamblers on losing streaks abound.
South of AC is Margate. It has Lucy the Elephant. Its cute and there are restaurants & beachside bars less than 100 feet away. I’m not aware of any real crime problems in Margate. All the streets in Margate have the same names as in Monopoly, BTW. 
Twenty minutes further south is Ocean City. It’s also very family oriented & has boardwalk rides geared towards little ones. There are always great restaurants in Ocean City; some come & go over time, but it’s so very hard for any bad ones to stay in business
(who’d go?). Yes, you will want to try Seafood; yes, it will be fresh. The downside is that the beach in Ocean City has sand fleas, so you don’t want to spread your blanket there.
Re: Sandy; Sandy did hit AC , but there was a lot of reconstruction. Where it was hit has been rebuilt. Sandy missed places south of AC. I know Wildwood wasn’t touched at all, but exactly where / what town the damage line was at I can’t say.
I know Smithville & AC Casinos were all fine & 100% as recently as a month ago.
You’ll be at the shore – go to the beach!
The September water temps will be in the 70°s, which is warm by Jersey Shore standards. The water may look rough to someone unaccustomed to ocean swimming; open water swimming takes a bit of specialized technique.
Actual dangerous conditions will be posted (coded flags at the beaches). Even experienced and adventurous swimmers abide by these warnings.
Other natural attractions are nearby.
Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge:
The Pine Barrens
The “Miss America” pageant has returned to Atlantic City, and to its long-time post-Labor Day calendar slot:
http://www.missamerica.org/default.aspx
Enjoy or avoid, as you prefer. Tickets are now required for a lot of the events that used to be free.
I’ll second the recommendation for seeing Lucy the Elephant.
You’re correct that I won’t have a car, so I’ll be on foot or public transportation. But thanks for the tips so far.
You probably can’t count cards. Especially if you spent a few hours on the internet reading about how to count cards. You can’t do it, and you will lose your ass trying. Take a set gambling budget, plan to lose it, but enjoy the ride.
Currently, the Revel Casino really wants your money. They announced on radio (Philadelphia market) that if you lose at slots, you get your money back. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that, but you might want to check it out if you’re planning on losing some quarters anyway.
You MUST go to the White House and have a cheesesteak with grilled onions and peppers. My grandparents used to live in Margate, and I can still taste those damn cheesesteaks and I haven’t set foot in there for 20 years.
It’s basically a scam. You get your money back in credits you can only use to play more slots at Revel and you have to go back to Revel every week for 20 weeks to get the full amount of your refund.
I don’t gamble in the traditional sense, but my now-girlfriend lived there around when we started out.
The thing I would stress most is that it isn’t Las Vegas Junior. It’s a shitty little Jersey Shore town that, in the hopes of generating revenue, transformed itself into a shitty little Jersey Shore town with casinos in it (one difference is that in Las Vegas, gambling is legal, and in Atlantic City, casinos can legally operate).
Don’t go away from the boardwalk (I don’t know that it’s bad–GF says it’s not great–but it is boring), unless you’re interested in Borgata/Revel, and there’s a reason Revel is losing money. I am told Revel is great if you like ostentatiousness.
How is the aquarium there? I saw they had one and I’m a sucker for aquariums. Is it decent? In a safe area? Worth a few hours?
You have to keep in mind that back in 1976 gambling was a big deal. The only legal gambling in the country was in Nevada. When Atlantic City legalized gambling it was getting gamblers from the entire East Coast.
Nowadays, there are casinos all over the country and most people can find one closer to home than Atlantic City.
Indeed. I think we’ve reached market saturation, and are about to head into a period of consolidation/mergers and closings.
Margate is awesome, and I grew up visiting Lucy every day during the summer.
If you mean the Atlantic City Aquarium, don’t waste your time or money. I took 8-year-old LittleDivine there, expecting to spend the whole day; we toured the whole place in about 45 minutes. Tiny, rinky-dink little place. Very boring, mostly local marine life, which is not very interesting or attractive.
The area it is in (Gardner’s Basin) on the waterfront is attractive, there are apparently tiny shops along the marina (they were closed when we were there on a weekday in May) with crafty-type things, and boat rides around the waterfront if you are into that. Walking around was very safe, I drove there but it’s been a while, I don’t remember it being particularly dangerous getting there.
Make sure your hotel room is on a high floor, unless you don’t mind the strong aroma of cigarette smoke wafting up from the casino all night.
Is the Trump Plaza italian restaurant still good? Had a great meal there once.
Until a fish chef gets hold of it. Order the bluefish! 