Cape May beach tags 2026: prices, dates and where to buy

What a Cape May City tag costs in 2026

The pre-season price is the only real discount on this list, and it’s gone by May 1. If you already know you’re coming for more than three days next summer, order in December and save ten dollars a person. On a family of four that’s forty dollars, which is dinner.

The weekly tag runs Saturday to Saturday, not any seven days you like. Arrive on a Sunday and a weekly tag buys you six days, at which point two three-days may serve you better. Do the arithmetic before you get to the booth.

Who needs a tag and who doesn’t

Tags are required for ages 12 and up. Children 11 and under are free — no tag, no paperwork.

Veterans and active-duty military get free seasonal tags, but they have to be picked up in person. There’s no mail-order or online path for the free veteran tag, so build a City Hall stop into your first morning.

Where to actually buy one

• City Hall Tax Office, 643 Washington Street — Monday to Friday, 8am to 3pm. Cash or check only. No cards. This trips up more people than anything else on the page.
• Beach Tag Office, 704 Beach Avenue — 9am to 3:30pm.
• Four beach booths — Broadway, Gurney, Howard and Madison Avenues — open from May 23.
• Online through Jersey Cape Tags.

If you’re arriving on a Friday night in July and want to be on the sand by nine, buy online before you leave home or plan to hit one of the four booths. City Hall is closed weekends.

Rules people get caught by

All sales are final. There are no weather refunds. A rained-out week is a rained-out week.

Tags are not valid for rental-property use under City Code §158-2. If you own or manage a rental, you can’t buy a stack of season tags and leave them in the closet for guests. Renters buy their own.

You need a tag to use the ADA accessible beach mats. More on that below, because it surprises people every single year.

There are three different beach tag rules down here

This is the thing no one tells you. “Cape May” on a map covers several municipalities, and three of them handle beach access three different ways. A tag from one is worthless at the next.

Three things to take from that table.

Cape May Point’s season starts three weeks later. June 13, not May 23. Show up at the Point on the first weekend of June and there’s no tag booth and no guard — the beach is open, but you’re swimming at your own risk, same as any unguarded beach.

The Point is the better deal for military families. Cape May City gives the free tag to the veteran or service member. Cape May Point extends it to immediate family, with ID.

Lower Township is genuinely free. North Cape May, Villas, Cape May Beach and Sunset Beach need no tag on any day of any year. The tradeoff is real and worth stating plainly: there are no lifeguards on those beaches. Elsewhere in the county, Wildwood, North Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and Strathmere are also free.

Lifeguards: where they are, when they leave

The Cape May Beach Patrol guards a continuous run from The Cove to Poverty Beach — about 2.5 miles, roughly 25 stands, and around 60 guards at peak season. That’s a lot of coverage for a town this size, and it’s the practical reason to swim in the city rather than the free beaches west of it.

Hours are roughly 10am to 5pm. We say ‘roughly’ on purpose: the City’s own information and CapeMay.com don’t agree on whether guards come down at 5:00 or 5:30. Assume 5:00 and you’ll never be wrong.

After the stands come down, an emergency response team runs until dusk. That is not the same thing as a guarded beach. It means someone will come if something goes wrong — not that anyone is watching you.

One honest note on that table: in Cape May, ‘quiet’ is mostly a function of time, not place. The beach that’s shoulder-to-shoulder at noon in July has room to throw a football at 4:30.

All 19 Cape May City beaches, one by one

They are not interchangeable. Different crowds, different parking, different reasons to walk the extra four blocks. We’ve run them west to east, from The Cove down to Poverty Beach — the same 2.5 miles the Beach Patrol guards.

The west end: The Cove, 2nd Avenue, Broadway, Grant Street

The Cove. The far western corner where the beach turns and the water gets interesting. One of the city’s designated surfing beaches, which tells you what the bottom and the break are like. It’s also where people go to watch the light change without driving to the Point. Parking is the catch — you’re on the residential end and the closest legal spots go early.

2nd Avenue Beach. Next door to The Cove and quieter than anything in the middle, because it’s a genuine walk from the commercial stretch. First and Second Avenues meter 10am to 6pm, so an evening here costs nothing after six. The Sandpiper Beach Club sits at 11 Beach Avenue, which is your landmark for the west end of the numbering.

Broadway. One of the four beach tag booths, which makes it a sensible arrival beach if you haven’t bought online. Broadway meters run 10am to 6pm. The Sea Crest Inn is oceanfront right here. Families cluster near the booth end; walk two hundred yards west and the density drops off noticeably.

Grant Street. Steady, unremarkable in the best way, and less trafficked than Congress or Decatur. Grant Street meters also run the shorter 10am to 6pm window. Our pick when you want the middle-of-town amenities within reach but don’t want to set up inside the busiest quarter-mile.

The Promenade middle: Windsor, Congress Street, Steger Beach, Surfing Beach

Windsor. A short, well-used stretch backed by the Promenade. Good for a two-hour beach visit built around a walk and lunch rather than a full-day camp. Nothing dramatic to recommend or warn you about, which is itself useful information.

Congress Street. Congress Hall is a block behind you at 200 Congress Place, so this is the most hotel-fed beach in the city. Expect umbrellas set in rows and a crowd that turns over at check-in and check-out times. Congress Street and Congress Place are both premium $2.00-an-hour meter streets — the highest rate in town.

Steger Beach. Named for Steger Beach Services, the umbrella-and-chair operation that’s been renting on this sand for more than 80 years. If you don’t want to haul gear from the car, this is the stretch where that’s easiest to arrange. Rental rates change seasonally, so ask at the stand.

Surfing Beach (Gurney Street). The city’s named surfing beach, and one of the four tag booths is at Gurney. Boards in the water means it’s the wrong beach for a toddler with a boogie board and the right one if you actually surf. Know which of those you are before you set up.

Decatur to Madison: the walk-from-town beaches

Decatur Street. The shortest walk from the Historic District and the Washington Street Mall, which is exactly why it’s hard to park at. Decatur is a premium $2.00-an-hour street. Come on foot from town, or come before ten.

Jefferson Street. Effectively Decatur’s overflow, and often the smarter choice — one street over, same walk into town, a little less pressure on the sand. Fills from about 11am on a July Saturday.

Queen Street. Middle-of-the-map in every way. Reliable, guarded, and close enough to the Promenade that a bathroom run isn’t an expedition.

South Queen. A designated surfing beach, and the one most visitors walk past without realising the rules are different here. Boards and swimmers don’t mix well — check which side of the flags you’re on.

Madison. One of the four tag booths, and the Montreal Beach Resort sits right at Beach and Madison. Convenient, therefore busy, therefore best arrived at either before 10:30am or after 3:30pm. Also the free parking connection worth knowing: the Cape May Elementary School lot at Lafayette Street and Madison Avenue is free until 11pm, and it’s a walk from here rather than a hike.

The east end: Philadelphia, Reading, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Poverty Beach

Everything from Philadelphia Avenue east is where the town starts to let go. Fewer shops behind you, longer walks, and — the practical detail nobody prints — Beach Avenue east of Philadelphia Avenue meters only 10am to 5pm, the shortest paid window on the beachfront.

Philadelphia. The hinge point. Still close enough to the middle to have company, far enough east that you can put your towel down at 1pm in August without negotiating.

Reading. Quieter again. The Grand Hotel, Ocean Club, Periwinkle and Mahalo are all in the 1030s and 1040s of Beach Avenue behind this end, so there’s a steady hotel population without the day-tripper surge.

Pittsburgh. ICONA Cape May is at 1101 Beach Avenue here. A good compromise beach: real amenities behind you, genuinely thinner sand traffic than anything west of Madison.

Baltimore. Wide, plain and underused. This is where we’d send someone who wants a guarded beach with room around them and doesn’t care about being near a snack stand.

Brooklyn. The last of the named street beaches before Poverty. Rhythm of the Sea is at 1123 Beach Avenue, Peter Shields Inn at 1301, La Mer at 1317 — so the east end has beds, just not shops.

Poverty Beach. The far east end, up against the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center. Poverty Beach has the fewest crowds and the worst parking — that’s the trade, stated flatly. It’s a designated surfing beach, it’s guarded, and on an August Saturday it will be the emptiest guarded sand in Cape May. Bring what you need, because there’s nothing behind you but road.

Beach parking, honestly

Standard meters are $1.50 an hour — 25¢ buys 10 minutes — enforced 10am to 10pm. There’s a five-minute grace period, which is enough to walk back from the ice cream line and not enough to be strategic about.

Premium streets are $2.00 an hour. That list matters near the beach: Ocean Street, Decatur Street, Jackson Street, Perry Street, Congress Street, Congress Place, Mansion Street, South Lafayette Street, Carpenters Lane, Lyle Lane, the 600 block of Washington Street, the 500 block of Hughes Street and the 500 block of Columbia Street.

Some streets stop charging earlier. Beach Avenue east of Philadelphia Avenue runs 10am to 5pm. First and Second Avenues, Broadway, Grant Street, Mt. Vernon and Patterson Avenue run 10am to 6pm. Park on Broadway at 5:45pm and you’re paying for fifteen minutes of a whole evening.

Meters activate April 1 and most zones run through October 31, with some expanded zones going to December 31. From January 1 through March 31 they’re off entirely, which is one of the underrated pleasures of a winter Saturday here.

Some spots take no coins at all. Carpenter’s Lane, Mansion Street, Lyle Lane, the Jackson Street lot, the Welcome Center lot and north Beach Avenue are ParkMobile only. Download it before you’re standing there.

The free shuttle won’t help you get there in the morning. Cape May’s free, air-conditioned CNG buses run 4:00pm to 10:00pm only — daily June 19 to September 7 in 2026, weekends either side of that. Great for dinner and the evening beach. No use at all for a 10am beach run.

Charging an EV? ChargePoint stations sit at the Welcome Center (six of them), City Hall, Congress Hall (Tesla, guests) and La Mer (guests). There’s a FLO charger at the West Cape May Municipal Complex, and twelve Tesla Superchargers at the ACME on South Dennis Road in Cape May Court House, open 24/7 in a free lot.

Accessibility: mats, chairs, and the tag rule that surprises people

Cape May puts accessible beach mats down at beach entrances so wheelchairs, walkers and strollers can cross sand without sinking.

Mat locations and the city’s beach wheelchair program change season to season, so confirm before you plan a day around a specific entrance.

The free city shuttle is worth knowing about here too: the buses have wheelchair lifts, and both service animals and emotional support animals are welcome. Again — 4pm to 10pm only.

Beach rules: dogs, alcohol, surfing, fires

The free, unguarded window after Labor Day

This is the best-value week in Cape May and it’s hiding in plain sight. Once Labor Day, Monday, September 7, 2026 passes, beach tags stop being required and the lifeguard stands come down. Ocean temperatures hold around 72°F through September, air highs average about 76°F, and the crowds are simply gone.

The tradeoff is not subtle. Unguarded means unguarded. No stands, no flags, no one to signal a rip. If you swim in September, swim where other people are, stay closer in than you would in July, and don’t do it alone.

Weather-wise, the first week of September is the single strongest week of the Cape May year. We make that case month by month in our best time to visit guide.