Point Pleasant Beach is small enough to cover on foot and busy enough that you will not run out of things to do in a week. The town divides neatly into four worlds: the boardwalk, the beach, the water behind the boardwalk, and the downtown a few blocks inland. Most visitors only find the first two.
Here is how we would spend a week, in the order guests tend to discover it.
Jenkinson's Boardwalk
Jenkinson's is the reason most people know the town. It runs along the ocean and packs rides, arcades, mini-golf, an aquarium, food and live music into a stretch you can walk end to end in fifteen minutes — though nobody ever does it in fifteen minutes.
- The rides — a proper old-fashioned amusement area, geared more to families and younger children than to thrill-seekers
- The arcade — the reliable answer to a grey afternoon, and to teenagers
- Mini-golf — the traditional post-dinner activity, and the traditional post-dinner argument
- The aquarium — small, well done, and the best hour you can buy when it rains
- The food — funnel cake, fresh donuts in the morning, ice cream, and boardwalk pizza that earns its reputation
Jenkinson's runs a seasonal calendar of events and entertainment through the summer. It changes year to year, so check jenkinsons.com for the current schedule rather than trusting anything you read on a blog — including this one.
From our house, the boardwalk is a two to ten minute walk depending on which entrance you take. Late morning and after dinner are the pleasant times; midday on an August Saturday is an experience of a different kind.
The Beach Itself
The ocean beach runs the length of the boardwalk, and the character changes as you move north. The stretches by the boardwalk entrances are the busiest and the most fun if you want noise, food and people. North Beach, the quieter end, is where you go to actually read a book. It is a three-minute walk from our front door, which is the single feature guests mention most often in reviews.
Badges are required for anyone 12 and over during staffed hours, and there is no way to buy them online — we wrote a full guide covering 2026 badge prices, where to buy them and what you can bring onto the sand, including the cooler size limits that catch people out at the gate. Four adult badges come with the house, so guests here skip that entirely.
Beyond swimming
- Early-morning walks before the gates are staffed, when the beach belongs to joggers and gulls
- Surf fishing, and watching the people who are much better at it than you are
- Sunrise over the Atlantic, which is genuinely worth setting an alarm for once in a week
Lake Louise, Cooks Creek and the Manasquan River
This is the part visitors miss. Behind the ocean-facing streets sits a network of protected water: Lake Louise, Cooks Creek running out of it, and the Manasquan River beyond that, out to the inlet. It is flat, sheltered and almost entirely free of the crowds two blocks away.
- Kayaking and paddleboarding — the lake is calm enough for children and beginners, and two kayaks come free with the house
- The paddle out to the river — through Cooks Creek toward the Manasquan, a proper half-morning trip
- Boats and jet skis — the house has a private dock, with jet ski docking available for a fee
- The Manasquan Inlet — walk the wall, watch the boats come in, and stay for the fishing fleet
- Wildlife — swans on the lake most mornings; one guest review counts seven of them
Point Pleasant Beach also has a long-standing fishing and party-boat scene running out of the river side of town. Head-boat trips are an easy half-day for a group that wants something other than sand. Operators and schedules vary by season, so ask us and we will point you at whoever is running well that summer.
An evening on the lake side of town is the counterweight to a day on the boardwalk: the sunset is behind you rather than in front, the water goes glassy, and it is quiet enough to hear the fire pit.
Downtown Point Pleasant Beach
The downtown is a short walk or bike ride and does the job the boardwalk cannot. Antique shops, seafood restaurants, bars and a comedy club sit within a few blocks of each other, and the mood is closer to a small shore town than to an amusement pier.
- Antiques and browsing shops for a slow afternoon
- Seafood restaurants for the one proper dinner out that a week deserves
- Bars and a comedy club for an evening once the children are asleep
- Groceries and provisions for a house with a full kitchen — worth doing on arrival Saturday
Doing one downtown dinner and cooking the rest of the week at the house is how most of our guests handle food, and it is a large part of why a house beats a hotel for a family of six or eight.
Rainy Day Options
Every shore week gets one. The reliable indoor answers, in rough order of how long they buy you:
- The aquarium at Jenkinson's — the best of them, especially with younger children
- The boardwalk arcade — loud, dry and effective
- Downtown antique shops and browsing
- Board games, the sound system and the Smart TV back at the house — there is a reason we keep a full games shelf
- A drive up or down the shore, since the weather here is often local and twenty minutes changes it
How to Fit It Together
A pattern that works: beach in the morning while it is cool and the sand is empty, back to the house for lunch and a swim off the dock, boardwalk in the late afternoon and evening when the rides open properly. Keep one day for the water behind the house, one evening for downtown, and leave one afternoon completely unplanned — that is usually the one people remember.
Everything above is walkable or bikeable from the house, which has bikes in the shed and parking for two cars that you will barely touch. If you are still working out dates, our summer rentals guide covers how the Saturday-to-Saturday weeks run and which ones go first.
Base Yourself in the Middle of All of It
Three minutes to the sand, two to ten to the boardwalk, and the quiet water out the back door. Four bedrooms, sleeps eight.
Book direct — no service fees, no added taxes, and you are talking to the owner.