Beach Haven named as among most picturesque East Coast towns
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Long Beach Island’s Beach Haven is among 21 of the East Coast’s most scenic towns, according to a travel website.
Expedia says it took into account “all elements of beauty” in compiling the list, which also includes, among others, Roanoke, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland; Block Island, Rhode Island; and Killington, Vermont.
“[T]he east coast is breathtakingly beautiful regardless of whether it’s frosted in a winter blizzard or glistening after a spring shower,” the ranking articles states.
And according to Expedia, the “charming seaside town […] stirs up feelings of yesteryear” and is a “summer oasis.”
The Beach Haven Historic District encompasses 30 square blocks from 5th Street to Chatsworth Avenue and from Bay Avenue to Atlantic Avenue.
The community, known as the Queen City because of its Victorian and Edwardian charm, was first established as a summer resort to accommodate wealthy Philadelphia residents.
According to the borough’s website, the Queen Anne style mansions built at the end of the 1800s “are among the most beautiful historic buildings in the state.”
Beach Haven is also well-known for Fantasy Island, the only amusement area in Long Beach Island, and the Bay Village shopping area.
It was also the location of the first of numerous Jersey Shore shark attacks that spurred panic during the summer of 1916.
In the Beach Haven incident, a 25-year-old man bled to death after a shark bit his legs while playing with his dog off the Engleside Avenue beach.
The latest Jersey Shore honor is just another in a string of recent accolades.
Last month, Coastal Living magazine named Cape May as one of country’s happiest seaside towns.
Ocean City was named the country’s beach town last year in a reader survey conducted by the same magazine.
Self-billed as “America’s Greatest Family Resort,” Ocean City was named the state’s most popular beach in 2009, 2014, and 2015.
In 2015, Travel + Leisure magazine ranked Asbury Park as number 10 in a list of 50 destinations to travel, ranging from the tropical Andaman Islands off India to Douro Valley in Portugal and everything in between.
The magazine in 2016 again bestowed honors on the Jersey Shore when its residents voted Cape May and Atlantic CIty as among 15 of the country’s favorite beach towns in the publication’s “America’s Favorite Places” survey.
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