If you’re an East Coast Doper living in the state of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, The District of Columbia, or Virginia (maybe West Virginia also), where are you and what beach is generally considered to be your “local” beach?
I’ll tell you up front what I’m interested in is where, if there even is one, are the lines dividing what beach is considered the default beach destination that near everyone in your area goes.
For example, in the DC metropolitan area the default destination for most people is Ocean City, MD, Rehoboth Beach, DE, Chincoteague, VA, or anywhere in between. I’d imagine the dividing line between Delmarva beach people and Jersey Shore beach people is somewhere just south of Wilmington, Delaware because that’s the first bridge across the Delaware River, but I’m completely just WAGing there.
I grew up in northern NJ and live in NYC now. I suppose my local beaches now would be the Rockaways, Coney Island, Jones Beach, Jacob Riis, etc. but I never go to those. When I think of beach, it’s usually the Jersey Shore.
People with means around here spend time out in the Hamptons on Long Island or up in Maine and Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, etc.
It’s not as much geographical dividing lines as it is socio-economic ones.
Also, there are so many different places on the Jersey Shore it can depend on what mood you’re in.
Grew up in Norfolk, VA and in my youth spent most of my beach days at Ocean View Beach which oddly is a beach adjacent to the Chesapeake Bay as opposed to the Atlantic Ocean. It was a wide clean beach visited by mostly locals attracting few tourists.
Today, if someone says they’re going to “the beach”, they are most likely referring to Virginia Beach which is a basic tourist attraction lined with hotels, motels, and bars.
Since you seem to be defining beach as ocean, then Ocean City, MD is the closest to us. But what I’d consider the nearest beach would be something along the Chesapeake Bay - maybe Point Lookout Park or Chesapeake Beach, MD, or maybe Drum Point or Cove Point. But we’re not really beach people, so it’s a non issue for the most part.
In western Pennsylvania our go to beach back in the day was Ocean City, Maryland and Asseateaque Island.
Then, we switched to Hilton Head, South Carolina for a few years. The horrible, blatant racism of Hilton Head soured me on the south in general and we stopped going there.
Today I’d never consider a US beach as a vacation spot. Caribbean is where it’s at.
I live in the greater Philadelphia area and I suppose one of several beaches at the jersey shore is our local. That or Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.
I haven’t been to Rehoboth yet, but I haven’t cared for the Shore beaches I have visited. In my heart my beach will always be somewhere in California where I grew up. Probably Point Dume or Pismo Beach.
We go to Rehoboth beach most often. We make a day trip of it – drive early in the morning (about 2 and a half hours), get a good parking spot if we arrive before 10 AM, and stay until we get tired.
I live in Massachusetts. The closest decent beach is…the Virgin Islands or the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. The panhandle of Florida in places like Destin will also do in a pinch. I don’t see the point of cold water beaches. Even Oahu, Hawaii is a little chilly for my taste. Maine can work because they don’t even pretend that their beaches are anything but freezing water, rocks and lobster shacks.
The last two times I vacationed in Hilton Head (maybe 20 years ago?) there were protest parades made up of mostly pick-up trucks flying the confederate flag. People in these impromptu parades screamed various racial epithets that I then had to explain about to my kids.
I also met a “cute as a button” little girl, the daughter of the condo maintenance dude, who, when I told her we were from Pennsylvania, said (in the cutest southern accent), “my daddy says you Yankees all love treat your n****rs too good”.