EVERY American owes it to themselves to go to Wildwood at least once in their lives. It's one of the strangest, most bizarre places on earth. Airbrush shirts? Fried twinkies? Absurdly dangerous amusement parks with accidents which routinely kill? The perpetual hint of teenage boardwalk gang violence? IT HAS IT ALL!
If you go to Wildwood, you owe it to yourself to do a few things: 1) Wildwood has a lot of 50s-style doo-wop motels which are a singular and unique experience and a lot of fun. 2) However, actually staying in a house with Wildwood regulars is an even more bizarre opportunity. Some of the strangest, most harrowing and hilarious moments of my life took place there. 3) Try to ride the entire length of the boardwalk on the tram car before the repeated "Watch the Tram Car Please" phrase destroys your will to live.
I think Wildwood is the best example of the uniqueness that is the Jersey Shore now that Seaside's been ruined because of that dumb show. It's kind of hard to think that the guido has become a caricature, since it was kind of a caricature to start with.
Atlantic City sucks, unless you like gambling and/or being surrounded by horrifying poverty.
The other shore towns down in South Jersey vary. Cape May is legitimately beautiful and has Victorian mansions and the like. Places like Sea Isle City and Ocean City are also pretty nice and more wholesome than Wildwood. You can get microbrews in Margate, so your tolerance on microbrew drinkers will depend on your tolerance of that town. Brigantine is quiet and nice and has a bar that's open 24/7/365 called The Rod'n'Reel.
As far as the rest of South Jersey: there's some beautiful state parks in the Pinelands (which can get really weird because of how barren they are). There's some weird small cities like Vineland/Salem/Bridgeton -- I don't know them so well but people I know who have been through them talk about how faded they are, but kind of cool in a weirded way.
The Philly burbs are kinda boring. People RAVE about The Pop Shop in Collingswood.
