For most of my life, I've vacationed in Atlantic City pretty much exclusively. As a result, I've gotten to know the city quite well. There's a wealth of neat stuff down there, ranging from some excellent food to historical things to awesome natural spots. Jet boats? Sure. 1800s elephant tourist traps? Yeah. Pet friendly? Got you.
Given the knowledge I have about the city, as well as my propensity to waste time... I put together a pretty massive Google Docs list of these spots and some general tourism tips for the area.
Rated "saved for future use" by an Atlantic City resident, which is essentially the highest form of compliment a BENNY can receive from a Shore local. 🙂
Thoughts
I like Atlantic City (poker is fun; slot machines are boring). There's seriously great food there, and (see list above) there are many, many things to do in the city and surrounding areas.
I've been going to Atlantic City since I was in single digit ages, this video brings me great nostalgia. I started going around the era of the casino revival, saw the death of Atlantic City in the early 2000s, and then saw the mild semi-revitalization later on. I saw the Boardwalk Cats go from a troubling, terrible nuisance to a well-maintained, successful feral colony. It's been an interesting watch, and the area has held a certain level of fascination for me as an adult, given the history in the city as one of the first, if not the first, "Great American Vacation Spots."
That said, I don't know that I'd actually recommend it for a vacation spot.
Much of the city is very, very unsafe. "Stay on the boardwalk and in the casinos" is top tier advice if you don't know where you're going. It's not exactly accurate -- there are plenty of safe spots outside of the boardwalk -- but for a tourist new to the city, yeah, do that.
There are areas of the city that are very heavy on crime and drug use -- streets that you really don't want to walk down. Even on the boardwalk, there are some not-so-great characters and pretty wild things happening. Casinos are often a hotbed of nefarious activity, as well -- people tend to get rather spicy when money is on the line. Scenes like this one can happen anywhere, but that's more likely when there's alcohol and large sums of money involved.
The local government is infamously quite corrupt, with legitimately every single mayor since the city switched to mayoral government coming under fire for some crime or another. The roads are downright awful, with plenty of potholes and poor maintenance -- and some pretty crazy drivers, too. It is the type of city where you probably don't want to stop at red lights after dark.
A lot of that is very sad and sobering to see. It's a really wild trip and not always in the good way.
See Liminal Atlantic City for my vibes, or read Boardwalk Empire by Nelson Johnson for an excellent dive into the city's history from beginning to the modern day.