If you haven’t settled on a hotel yet, start with our guide to where to stay in Cape May and come back.

Oceanfront on Beach Avenue

Beach Avenue is a single street with three distinct personalities depending on where along it you land. Here’s the strip, in address order.

The low-numbered end, near the Cove and Convention Hall

Sandpiper Beach Club — 11 Beach Avenue. The lowest street number on the strip, which puts it at the Cove end.

The Beach Shack — 205 Beach Avenue, and Summer Station — 217 Beach Avenue. Neighbours, two doors apart, at the Windsor Avenue end of the beachfront.

Jetty Motel — Second and Beach Avenue. Second Avenue puts you at the far Cove end, near the surfing beaches.

What this end gives you: proximity to the Cove, Convention Hall and the west end of the Promenade, plus meters on First and Second Avenues and Broadway that stop at 6pm rather than 10pm.

The middle blocks

Marquis de Lafayette Hotel — 501 Beach Avenue. Mid-strip, and the venue MAC uses for some of its Murder Mystery Dinners.

Heritage Inns — 721 Beach Avenue.

The Stockton Inns — 809 Beach Avenue, where Stockton Avenue meets the water.

Montreal Beach Resort — Beach and Madison Avenues.

Sea Crest Inn — oceanfront at Broadway.

This is the stretch closest to the middle of the Historic District, which makes it the best compromise on the whole page — ocean out front, and a walk of a few blocks to Washington Street.

The high-numbered end, toward Poverty Beach

Mahalo Cape May — 1033 Beach Avenue. Ocean Club Hotel — 1035 Beach Avenue. Periwinkle Inn — 1039 Beach Avenue. The Grand Hotel — 1045 Beach Avenue. Four properties inside twelve street numbers, effectively one block of oceanfront.

ICONA Cape May — 1101 Beach Avenue.

La Mer Beachfront Resort — 1317 Beach Avenue, and one of only two properties in town we can confirm offers guest EV charging.

This end is quieter, further from the Washington Street Mall, and closer to Poverty Beach. If your priority is a beach day with less foot traffic and you don’t mind driving or shuttling to dinner, this is your stretch.

The three historic hotels

These are the properties that come up in every conversation about Cape May, and they’re not interchangeable.

Our editorial read, stated as opinion: Congress Hall if you want the full resort experience and don’t mind that everyone else has heard of it too; The Chalfonte if you want the historic-district version; The Virginia if you want to walk out the door onto the Washington Street Mall.

In-town hotels off the beachfront

Two to five blocks inland, cheaper than the oceanfront in most seasons, and a much shorter walk to dinner.

Inn of Cape May — 7 Ocean Street. Ocean Street runs down to the beach and is a $2.00-an-hour premium block. MAC’s Channeling Dinner is held here.

Carroll Villa Hotel — 19 Jackson Street, next door to The Virginia on the oldest street in town.

The Victorian — 223 Congress Place, on the same short street as Congress Hall.

The Star — 29 Perry Street. Perry is another $2.00 premium block, and it puts you a block from the Washington Street Mall.

The South Winds — 14 Patterson Avenue. Patterson meters run 10am–6pm rather than to 10pm, which is a small but real saving.

The Beach Club on Madison Avenue — 605 Madison Avenue.

Elaine’s Cape May — 513 Lafayette Street, and The Boarding House — 810 Lafayette Street. Lafayette is the road you come in on from Exit 0, and it’s also where the Cape May Welcome Center (609 Lafayette Street) and the Harriet Tubman Museum (632 Lafayette Street) sit.

Camelot Motel — Howard and Stockton.

Cape Harbor Motor Inn — 715 Pittsburgh Avenue, which puts you on the harbour side rather than the beach side.

Motels and motor inns

A Cape May motel is not a compromise. It’s a different product, and for some trips it’s the correct one.

The motels and motor inns on our list: Jetty Motel (Second and Beach Avenue) · Camelot Motel (Howard and Stockton) · Cape Harbor Motor Inn (715 Pittsburgh Avenue) · West Cape Motel (307 Sunset Boulevard, West Cape May) · Periwinkle Inn (1039 Beach Avenue) · Sea Crest Inn (oceanfront at Broadway) · Summer Station (217 Beach Avenue) · The Beach Shack (205 Beach Avenue).

West Cape Motel deserves a specific mention for one reason: parking in West Cape May borough is free, so the meter arithmetic that shapes every other choice on this page doesn’t apply.

Boutique and small hotels

Lokal Hotel — 5 Stockton Place. Small-format, design-led.

Mahalo Cape May — 1033 Beach Avenue, at the high-numbered end of the strip.

Buttonwood Boutique Hotel — 115 Broadway, West Cape May. Free borough parking, a short walk from the Historic District.

The Star — 29 Perry Street, a block off the Washington Street Mall.

This is the category where you’re most likely to find the things a 1970s motel doesn’t have and a Victorian B&B won’t offer either — good coffee in the room, a bathroom renovated this decade, and no set breakfast hour.

Cottages, farm stays and West Cape May

Beach Plum Farm Cottages — 140 Stevens Street, West Cape May. Cottage accommodation on a working farm, on the same street as Willow Creek Winery & Farm at 168 Stevens Street. That’s a five-minute walk between the two.

The Virginia Cottages — historic Jackson Street, associated with The Virginia Hotel.

West Cape Motel — 307 Sunset Boulevard, West Cape May, on the road out to Sunset Beach and the WWII Lookout Tower.

Buttonwood Boutique Hotel — 115 Broadway, West Cape May.

Staying in West Cape May means free parking, a slightly longer walk to the sand, and being on the doorstep of the farm market at Backyard Park, 732 Broadway, on Tuesdays from 3–7:30pm, June 23 through August 25.

Picking by what you actually need

If you want a pool

Pools cluster in the beachfront motel-resort category and at the larger Beach Avenue properties. They’re far less common at the small in-town hotels and essentially absent from the historic housing stock.

We are not publishing a pool-by-pool list we haven’t confirmed. Call and ask two questions: is the pool heated, and what are its hours? An unheated outdoor pool in late September is a decorative feature.

If you’re bringing the dog

Policies vary property by property and change year to year, so ask before you book rather than trusting any list, including ours. Two things that are settled: dogs are allowed on Cape May City beaches November through March only (service animals year-round), and the free shuttle accepts service animals and ESAs.

If you’re traveling with kids

Beachfront motel-resorts, for the reasons in the motel section — a parking space at your door, an exterior room entrance, and a pool. The high-numbered Beach Avenue end (the 1000s and up) is quieter for early bedtimes; the low-numbered Cove end is closer to Convention Hall and the west Promenade.

More on the family side of the trip in our Cape May with kids guide.

If this is the splurge

Congress Hall (200 Congress Place) is the default answer and it’s the default for a reason. The Virginia Hotel (25 Jackson Street) is the smaller, quieter alternative with the better walk to dinner. ICONA Cape May (1101 Beach Avenue) and Montreal Beach Resort (Beach and Madison Avenues) are the oceanfront-first versions of the same idea.

Stated as opinion, not fact: if the splurge is about the building, go historic. If it’s about the view, go Beach Avenue. You can’t have the best of both in one room.

If you’re driving an EV

Guest charging we can confirm: Congress Hall (Tesla) and La Mer Beachfront Resort (1317 Beach Avenue). Public alternatives within reach of every hotel on this page: ChargePoint at the Cape May Welcome Center, 609 Lafayette Street (six stations) and at City Hall, FLO at the West Cape May Municipal Complex, and twelve Tesla Superchargers at the ACME on South Dennis Road, Cape May Court House, 24/7 in a free lot.

If you’d rather walk to dinner than to the sand

Book in-town: The Star (29 Perry Street), Carroll Villa Hotel (19 Jackson Street), The Virginia Hotel (25 Jackson Street), Inn of Cape May (7 Ocean Street) or The Victorian (223 Congress Place). All of them put the Washington Street Mall and the restaurant blocks within a few minutes on foot, and the beach within about ten.

Parking at Cape May hotels

Most hotels and motels here have on-site parking, which is the single biggest practical advantage they hold over the inns. But ‘parking available’ and ‘a space guaranteed with your room’ are different sentences. Ask which one applies, and ask how many spaces come with a booking if you’re arriving in two cars.

If you’re on the street: $1.50 an hour standard, $2.00 on premium blocks including Congress Place, Congress Street, Jackson Street, Ocean Street, Perry Street and Decatur Street — which is to say, most of the in-town hotel addresses above. Meters run 10am to 10pm, with a five-minute grace period.

Beach Avenue east of Philadelphia Avenue runs 10am–5pm. North Beach Avenue and the Jackson Street lot are ParkMobile only, with no meter — install the app before you arrive.

Meters are off entirely January 1 to March 31. They activate April 1 and most zones run through October 31.

Seasons, minimums and when rates move

We don’t publish rates, because Cape May room rates move by season, by night of the week and by property, and a number printed in August is wrong by October. What we can tell you is the shape.

Peak is July and August, plus Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day weekends. The beach season runs May 23 to September 7, 2026. Minimum-night stays are common through it.

The value windows are late May to mid-June and September to mid-October — with the caveat that four fall weekends behave 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.

The best-value week of the year, on the weather data, is the first week of September. Beach tags stop being required after Labor Day, lifeguards go off duty, and the ocean holds around 72°F through the month. Warm water, empty sand, shoulder rates — and unguarded swimming, which you should weigh honestly.

For the full month-by-month breakdown, see our guide to the best time to visit Cape May.

Every Cape May hotel, motel and resort, by address

Names and addresses as we hold them, August 2026. We’re not publishing rates, room counts or star ratings, because we haven’t verified any of them and neither has anyone else who’s publishing them.

Also worth knowing: the Southern Mansion (720 Washington Street), Wilbraham Mansion (133 Myrtle Avenue, West Cape May), Peter Shields Inn (1301 Beach Avenue) and the Luther Ogden Inn appear on some hotel lists but operate as inns. We cover all four on our Cape May bed & breakfasts page.