Cape May Winery Tour

A visit to Cape May Winery while in Jersey shore is worth doing. They offer winery tours year round including self-guided vineyard walks (tour of the vineyard) and inside their facility such as the fermentation room and the bottling area.

The first part of the tour will lead you to a room where you will be given an introduction about the art of wine-making. As you continue the tour, your tour guide will lead you to various facilities inside the winery as he will share to you about how and where the wines are processed and bottled.

processing area

fermentation room

fermentation room (back)

bottling area

Although tours are being offered all-year round. it is much more recommended to visit during the warmer months like summer. The vineyard during the winter is bare and dry, plus it can really be very cold during the tour outside. If ever you plan to visit in the colder months, be sure you are bundled up as you will be outdoors for the vineyard tour.

The highlight of the tour is the free wine-tasting. This will be done at the end of the tour at the tasting room. Included in the wine tasting is a fruit and cheese tray to pair it with your wine.

You will then pass by the shop after the wine tasting. They have many good collections of both dry red and white wines, sweet and dessert wines.

Cape May Winery is located at Townbank Road, in North Cape May, New Jersey.

Historic District Trolley Tour in Cape May

The perfect way to get acquainted with Cape May is to hop on those cheery, red trolleys and let your tour guide tells you about Cape May. You will learn and enjoy it in a most comfortable and easy way as well.

As you sit back and relax, you will see some of the highlights of the tour like the gingerbread houses, the oldest residential street in town, (Hughes Street) and the elegant Grande Dames of Cape May. You will also see and learn about the town's Victorian heritage and the historical past and present about Cape May as America's first seaside resort and about its maritime and seashore history.

A ginger bread house;Courtesy photo by Tripadvisor.com

You can take as many photos as you want. Just be sure your camera can take good and clear photos in a moving vehicle. This is the best time to take photos because the tour is done during daytime.

Christmas Candlelight House Tour

The Christmas House Tour in Cape May is a self-guided  evening tour to festively decorated residential homes, hotels, inns and even churches. Most decorated homes and centers are open to the public as people will enjoy the twinkling holiday lights and Victorian-style decors for a visit. This is one of Cape May's main attraction during the holiday season. It is filled not only with decorations but also with some caroling, strolling musicians and good old fashioned cheer.

Some participating homes, inns and hospitality centers offer warm beverages and traditional treats for visitors too!

When you sign up for the tour, you will be given a map as a guide. On the map are lists of participating homes and their addresses along with the street map on which these houses are numbered. Trolley stops are also indicated on the map, so if you plan to go for a faster pace, and you want to see all of the participating houses, boarding the trolley saves you time.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a good experience with this tour when I visited in December 2014. Well, every experience is different so don't get discouraged! There are some tips I want to share though for those who are planning to do this tour.

Since this is an evening tour, it gets cold at night, so don't forget to bundle up. Every home or inn you'll be visiting is heated though, so that would be a bonus. But remember that this involves a lot of walking. There are some houses that are a block away from one house to the other and the closer the distances, trolley stops are NOT in the area.

Next thing to consider: - as early as 6PM would already be peak hours, which means ALL trolleys are full and would NOT stop at the trolley stop if they are full! You can still probably make it to your next stop since it's a walking tour NOT unless when you are with a tour bus group and when your time is limited. Normally, trolley comes every 15 minutes in every trolley stop, but peak hours can last until around 9:30PM or even later. I experienced waiting for a trolley for almost an hour, - and ending up walking back later to where our bus was which was a 30-35 minutes walk! It so happened I was at the farthest area from where our bus was :((. So, instead of spending time seeing more houses, it was all spent walking back to the bus because I had to catch the time departure.

Unless you are living in the area for an overnight, or staying for a few nights, you are safe just to skip the trolley because there is no time to beat up.

So, there you go...you have the idea to keep in mind. We all deserve to enjoy the holiday festivities no matter what. The more you know what to expect, the more you would enjoy it.

Enjoy Christmas in Cape May!

West Cape May Guided Tour

It's one of the most pleasant experience to join this tour with multiple itineraries. I love to see a lot of things and places in one tour without having to worry about GPS directions and getting lost :). A big bonus if it's a guided tour as well.

Our motorcoach guided tour through West Cape May brought us to the tip of Cape May's peninsula, which is one of the most celebrated migratory locations in North America.

We visited Cape May Point State Park where a fully restored lighthouse built in 1859 is located.

The park is considered to be a popular tourist attraction for viewing the fall bird migration. There are observation platforms for wildlife viewing where visitors can witness the park's constantly changing coastal marsh and ponds, and dunes.

The Cape May lighthouse which is accessible within the park is another attraction frequently visited by tourists. It has 199 steps in order to reach the top and get a panoramic view of the scenic Cape May peninsula. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed for the season when we visited :(.

Near the beach is a WWII bunker that served as a gun emplacement and hiding place of 6-inch guns. It was built as one of the coastal defenses for the Delaware Bay in WWII and after the war, it was deemed obsolete and ultimately disarmed. The bunker and the two barracks buildings (which are now converted as the museum and office at the park) are the only ruins that was left after it was abandoned.

Sunset Beach is also a must-see when you're in Cape May. You can still see the sunken ship "Atlantus" halfway visible on the beach, just off the shore. The S.S. Atlantus was once one of the concrete ships that were built which hauled cargo and troops back and forth the Atlantic several times! In 1926, it was repaired and towed to Cape May, but was unfortunately hit by a storm in the summer of the same year and broke off some of its parts which caused it to run 150 ft. off the coast of Sunset Beach, N.J.

As of today, the ruins are deteriorating fast, since the ship began to split apart at the mid section in the late 50's. It is expected that sooner, the last of its visible remains will then be buried underneath the waves.

Me and the visible remains of  S.S."Atlantus"

Sunset Beach didn't only become famous because of S.S. Atlantus, but it is also considered as one of the East Coast's most unique beaches situated at the end of Sunset Blvd. way at the tip of South Jersey. It is here where you can view spectacular sunsets over the waters of Delaware Bay without any obstructions.

One interesting fact you would want to discover is about how to find beautiful gems known as "Cape May Diamonds". These are pure quartz crystals carried by the tides and appear as pebbles on the beach, just off-shore close to the Atlantus. Quartz comes in a variety of colors and is one of the common forms of minerals. They say that the source of these diamonds can be seen at the upper point of Delaware River, and some about 200 miles upstream that can take thousand of years to form, and then being swifted by strong flow of the sea sending these quartz pebbles ashore.

During early spring until late fall, tons of visitors gather at Sunset Beach to collect Cape May Diamonds, including Indian artifacts and other fossils. During winter months, most of the larger stones come ashore when the tide is considered to be stronger, especially during storms.

At the Sunset Beach are also 3 gift shops you can visit for shopping, a grill restaurant where you can grab a quick bite, and a mini-golf course with a magnificent view overlooking Delaware Bay!

Along Sunset Blvd. going toward Sunset Beach is the WWII lookout tower called Tower 23. It was built in 1942 and was used to spot enemy ships during WWII. It was one of the coastal defenses that is still standing today and restored in 2008-2009 by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC). Inside the tower is now a museum with built-in stair cases for the public to climb up to the top.

Holiday Lights Trolley Tour

Photo courtesy of homesteadcapemayrentals.com

Holiday lights at night in Cape May bring a lot of cheer to people in Cape May, New Jersey, both visitors and residents alike.

A trolley ride at night will be the best way to enjoy a front row view of the town's holiday decorations and lights along with stories of Christmas past shared by your trolley tour guide.

You can see the historic district mainly residential homes and inns glitter and sparkle with festive decorations, hear and see sing-alongs on the streets as well as Christmas music.

An important tip during this tour; - if you want to take photos, be sure your camera can get clear shots in a moving vehicle, and can take the glittering lights with a night focus feature.

Tour lasts about 30 minutes.