The Del, as regulars call it, is one of the last grand Victorian seaside resorts in the United States. Built in 1888 entirely without electric lights — Thomas Edison personally installed the electrical system a year later — the red-roofed wooden building with its conical towers and wrap-around verandas sprawls across the beach in a way that feels almost theatrical. Even if you are not staying here, the public areas are worth exploring: the Crown Room with its sugar-pine ceiling (assembled without a single nail), the long seafront terrace, and the broad beach that stretches in front of it.
The hotel has been a backdrop for celebrity and history in equal measure. Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis filmed Some Like It Hot here in 1958. Twelve US presidents have walked through the door. The gift shops sell Monroe memorabilia somewhat relentlessly, but the architecture speaks for itself.