What a Cape May B&B actually is

A Cape May B&B is typically a Victorian built between the 1870s and the 1890s, owned and run by people who live in it or next to it, with four to fifteen guest rooms. Breakfast is cooked and served at a set time, usually in one dining room, often at a shared table. There’s a porch. There are rockers. There are, almost always, house rules.

You’re not an anonymous guest with a keycard. You’ll meet the owner, you’ll probably meet the other guests over eggs, and the house has a rhythm you’re joining rather than one built around you.

For a lot of people that’s precisely the appeal, and it’s why they come back to the same house every October for fifteen years. For others it’s a week of low-grade social obligation. Both reactions are legitimate. The mistake is not knowing which one you’ll have.

Is a B&B right for this trip?

Not sure which side you’re on? Our guide to where to stay in Cape May runs the whole decision.

The Columbia Avenue spine

If Cape May has a bed & breakfast street, it’s Columbia Avenue. Six of the town’s inns sit on roughly two blocks of it, in address order:

• The Harrison — 613 Columbia Avenue
• The Mason Cottage — 623–625 Columbia Avenue
• The Mainstay Inn — 635 Columbia Street
• Casablanca — 709 Columbia Avenue
• The Bacchus Inn — 710 Columbia Avenue, directly opposite Casablanca
• The Dormer House — 800 Columbia Avenue

You can walk the entire row in a few minutes, which matters more than it sounds. If your first choice is booked, your second is three doors down and the walk to dinner is identical.

Columbia Avenue is also one of the three streets on Cape May MAC’s Architectural Walking Tour route, alongside Hughes Street and Ocean Street — a fair signal about the housing stock you’re booking into.

The catch is the same one every time: the 500 block of Columbia Street is a $2.00-an-hour premium meter zone, 10am to 10pm. Ask about parking before you ask about the four-poster.

Ocean Street and the blocks off Washington

The Queen Victoria® — 102 Ocean Street.
Beauclaire’s Bed & Breakfast — 23 Ocean Street.

Ocean Street’s advantage is specific and verifiable: the Ocean Street Trolley Stop, across from the Information Booth at Washington and Ocean Streets, is where every Cape May MAC trolley tour departs. If tours are part of your trip, you’re on the departure street.

You’re also a short walk from the Washington Street Mall — dinner, shopping and the theaters inside five minutes on foot.

Ocean Street is a $2.00-an-hour premium block, 10am to 10pm. Recurring theme of this page.

Stockton Avenue and the Jackson Street end

The Mooring — 801 Stockton Avenue, and Bedford Inn — 805 Stockton Avenue. Effectively next door to one another.

Angel of the Sea — 5 Trenton Avenue, which runs off Beach Avenue at around the 1100 block. That puts it closer to the quiet end of the beachfront than to the Washington Street restaurants.

The Carroll Villa — 19 Jackson Street, on the oldest street in Cape May. It appears on both the hotel and the B&B lists; we cover it on our Cape May hotels page, where it trades as the Carroll Villa Hotel.

Stockton Avenue is a good middle position — a few blocks from the beach, a few from dinner, and off the busiest streets.

The Beach Avenue inns

Two inns sit directly on the oceanfront, which makes them the answer for readers who want the B&B experience without the walk to the sand.

Rhythm of the Sea — 1123 Beach Avenue.

Peter Shields Inn — 1301 Beach Avenue, at the quieter, high-numbered end of the strip near Pittsburgh Avenue. It changed hands recently: Carl and Megan Messick are the new owners. If you’re reading anything written before 2026 about this property, treat the details as out of date, and confirm current arrangements when you call.

Beach Avenue at this end is metered on the shorter 10am–5pm window east of Philadelphia Avenue, which is a modest saving over the 10pm streets inland.

Washington Street

Inn at the Park — 1002 Washington Street. Worth noticing: the Emlen Physick Estate is at 1048 Washington Street, so you’re within sight of the 1879 Frank Furness house and the Carriage House. If your trip is built around the Physick Estate tours or the Harvest Brew Fest on September 19, this is the address.

Southern Mansion — 720 Washington Street. Also listed among the town’s hotels; we treat it as an inn.

Washington Street’s 600 block is $2.00 an hour, and the street runs down to the Washington Street Mall — so you’re between the Physick Estate and the shopping without needing the car for either.

West Cape May inns

Wilbraham Mansion — 133 Myrtle Avenue, West Cape May.
The Highland House — 131 North Broadway, West Cape May.

One borough over, and the parking problem disappears — parking in West Cape May is free. Over five nights, against a $2.00-an-hour meter running 10am to 10pm, that’s not a rounding error.

You trade a slightly longer walk to the beach and the restaurant blocks. In exchange you’re next to the West Cape May Farm Market at Backyard Park, 732 Broadway (Tuesdays, 3–7:30pm, June 23 through August 25) and Willow Creek Winery & Farm at 168 Stevens Street.

The Luther Ogden Inn is also in town and open — see the next section, because there’s a correction to make.

Guest houses: the quieter, cheaper cousin

A guest house sits one notch below a B&B on service and price. Same Victorian housing stock, often the same streets, but less formal apparatus — sometimes no cooked breakfast, sometimes shared bathrooms, a lighter touch from the owner.

931 Beach Guest House — 931 Beach Avenue.
Stockton Manor — Beach and Howard.

If you’re travelling alone, visiting in the shoulder season, or you simply intend to be out from breakfast until eleven at night, this category is worth a call before you pay B&B rates for a bed you’ll be asleep in.

2026: two things to get right

Both are the kind of thing a directory gets wrong for three years running.

Breakfast, and what 'included' actually means

At most Cape May inns, ‘breakfast included’ means a cooked breakfast, served hot, at a stated time, in a dining room. Not a buffet you graze at. Not a pastry basket.

Ask four questions when you book:

1. What time is breakfast served, and is it one seating or a window?
2. Is it a shared table or separate tables?
3. Can you accommodate my dietary requirements, and how much notice do you need?
4. What happens if we miss it?

The dietary question genuinely matters. A hotel kitchen improvises. A house cooking one menu for fourteen people at 8:30am often can’t — and will happily accommodate you with notice, and not at all at 8:29 that morning.

Some inns also serve afternoon tea, a wine hour or evening refreshments. Some don’t — a real differentiator between properties at similar rates.

Parking at a Cape May B&B

Settle this before you book anything else.

These houses were built in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. Very few have driveways, almost none have lots, and a house with eight guest rooms may hold two or three cars. Some inns have permit arrangements with the city. Some have nothing at all.

If you end up on the street: standard meters are $1.50 an hour, and premium blocks are $2.00 — including the 500 blocks of Columbia and Hughes Streets and the 600 block of Washington Street, plus Ocean, Jackson, Perry, Decatur, Congress Street and Congress Place. Which is almost every street on this page.

Meters run 10am to 10pm with a five-minute grace period, activate April 1, run through October 31 in most zones, and are off entirely January 1 to March 31. Several zones are ParkMobile only with no meter to feed — the Jackson Street lot among them.

Ask this exact question: ‘Is a parking space included with my room? If not, where do your guests park overnight, and what does it cost?’ Get the answer into the confirmation email. If the inn is in West Cape May, none of this applies — parking there is free.

Deposits, minimum stays and cancellation

Three things behave differently at an inn than at a hotel.

Minimum stays. Standard in season, and common on fall festival weekends. The four that fill up like August: Oktoberfest, September 26–27; Victorian Weekend, October 9–12; the Autumn Exit Zero Jazz Festival, October 23–25; and the Christmas Candlelight House Tour Saturdays, December 6, 13 and 20.

Deposits. Usually taken at booking, frequently non-refundable, sometimes a full night, sometimes the whole stay for shorter bookings.

Cancellation. Windows measured in weeks rather than days are normal, and some houses refund only if they re-let the room. That isn’t inns being difficult — it’s the arithmetic of a six-room business. It does mean travel insurance is worth pricing here in a way it isn’t for a motel.

Book direct where you can. The person who answers the phone at a Cape May inn is usually the owner.

B&Bs at Christmas

Most parking zones stop charging on October 31, though some run to December 31. Check the block your inn is on.

Every Cape May B&B and inn, by address

Names and addresses as we hold them, August 2026. No rates, room counts or ratings — we haven’t verified them.