Spring Lake sits immediately south of Belmar — you can walk between them along a connected boardwalk — but the atmosphere shifts almost immediately once you cross the border. The town is one of the wealthiest communities on the Jersey Shore, and it shows: wide-porched Victorian houses line the streets, gardens are carefully tended, and the boardwalk is free of arcades and concession stands. The freshwater lake after which the town is named sits in the middle of a shaded park at the centre of town, offering a quiet counterpoint to the ocean.
Where Belmar is loud, beachy, and democratic, Spring Lake is quiet, immaculately maintained, and proud of it. The beach is good — broad and clean, with a long uninterrupted stretch of sand — and the borough's strict rules keep it that way. The boardwalk is one of the longest non-commercial boardwalks on the Shore, meaning no rides, no funnel cake, no noise: just the Atlantic.
The boardwalk connection to Belmar makes the two towns a natural pairing. The round-trip walk or run of around five kilometres has unbroken ocean views and passes the inlet and the fishing pier. Cafes and lunch spots on Spring Lake's main street (Third Avenue) are reliably good, running toward the conservative end of the Jersey Shore dining spectrum. The off-season is particularly appealing here: the Victorians look their best in autumn light, and the quietude deepens pleasingly once the summer crowds leave.