Seaside Heights is the definitive Jersey Shore boardwalk experience — amusement rides, arcade games, funnel cake stands, and the smell of sausage sandwiches frying in the salt air. The Casino Pier rides extend over the ocean, and the beach below is broad and crowded in summer. It is unabashedly commercial and proudly so, and the locals wouldn't have it any other way.
The boardwalk draws enormous summer crowds — the town was familiar to audiences long before the MTV reality show brought it to a different kind of fame. If you're looking for a quieter beach experience, head south to Island Beach State Park. But if you want the full, unapologetic Shore boardwalk experience — the one New Jerseyans have been coming to since the early 20th century — this is it.