Asbury Park named one of world’s ‘best places to travel’

     Sunset over the iconic Wonder Bar in Sept. 2014 by Blur Revision Media Design.

    Sunset over the iconic Wonder Bar in Sept. 2014 by Blur Revision Media Design.

    Asbury Park, the Jersey Shore’s ever-revitalizing city by the sea, is one of the best places to travel in the world, according to a major travel magazine.

    Travel + Leisure’s “Best Places to Travel in 2016” ranks Asbury Park as #10 in a list of 50 destinations, ranging from the tropical Andaman Islands off India to Douro Valley in Portugal and everything in between.

    According to the publication, the list includes the 50 “biggest, buzziest destinations.”

    Here’s what the magazine says about Asbury Park:

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    In the song “My City of Ruins,” written in 2000, Bruce Springsteen described Asbury Park as a city of boarded-up windows and empty streets. A battering by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 didn’t help. But the Jersey Shore town, 90 minutes south of New York City, has started to recover, led by its gay and live-music scenes. Visitors to Asbury’s boardwalk can still have their fortunes told at Madam Marie’s Temple of Knowledge and play on vintage pinball machines (preserved at the Silverball Museum), but now they’ll also find clothing and jewelry at the Market at Fifth Avenue, sushi and tacos at Langosta Lounge, and surfboards and skateboards at Lightly Salted. A short walk from the beach, the Asbury Festhalle & Biergarten serves almost 100 varieties of beer, and famous venues like the Stone Pony—a Springsteen haunt—are still packed. The Empress Hotel on the oceanfront is the place to stay, at least until the 110-room Asbury opens this year. The first new hotel in the city in 55 years is part of a multimillion-dollar plan to revive a one-mile stretch of beachfront. Also in the works: a face-lift for Asbury Lanes, the beloved 1930s-era bowling alley.

    See the full list here.

    Photo courtesy of Blur Revision Media Design

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