Atlantic City offers an easy-to-reach grown-up escape for millions of East Coast parents. It has a beach, the oldest boardwalk in the United States, good restaurants and a cluster of big casino resorts, all within a few hours' drive of New York and an hour or so from Philadelphia.
A little history
Atlantic City built its first boardwalk in 1870, so that visitors would stop tracking sand into hotels and railway carriages. By the early twentieth century it was one of the most popular seaside resorts in America. The city's street names became famous worldwide through the board game Monopoly, whose classic American edition uses Atlantic City streets such as Boardwalk, Park Place and Marvin Gardens (in real life Marven Gardens, a neighbourhood just outside the city). New Jersey voters approved casino gambling in Atlantic City in 1976, and the first casino opened in 1978.
Where the casinos are
- The Boardwalk is lined with resorts facing the ocean, including several that have been rebuilt or rebranded over the years.
- The Marina district, a short drive from the Boardwalk, is home to some of the city's largest resorts, including the Borgata.
- Gambling age: in New Jersey you must be 21 to gamble in a casino.
A weekend plan
- Friday
- Drive down after work, check in, dinner with an ocean view
- Saturday
- Beach or a long Boardwalk walk, a spa or a nap, an evening at the tables
- Sunday
- Brunch, saltwater taffy for the people at home, drive back before bedtime
Eat well
Atlantic City's casino resorts have steakhouses, seafood restaurants and celebrity-chef outposts, but some of the best meals are older traditions: a sub sandwich from a local institution, fresh seafood and boxes of saltwater taffy from the Boardwalk shops.
Set a casino budget you will not regret
The best way to enjoy an evening at the tables is to treat it as the price of entertainment. Decide in advance how much you are happy to spend, split it into sessions, and stop when a session's money is gone. If you win, set a win goal and pocket some of it. Our step-by-step guide to budgeting fun money for a casino weekend shows how to build the fund over a few months. Watching a game while you are there? New Jersey was the state whose legal challenge led to the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to legal sports betting across the US; see our sports betting basics for parents.
If Atlantic City whets your appetite for something bigger, our Las Vegas parents' night out plan is the next step.