Atlantic City Gamble: Rolling dice on the rails

Created on Saturday, 07 August 2010 21:08

Published on Saturday, 07 August 2010 05:00

Written by Randy Garbin

I don’t gamble. I have too much respect for money and work too hard to earn it to derive any thrill out of losing it this way.

Vistas along this ride are generally best at the beginning and at the end of the line. Here we see the Betsy Ross Bridge across the Delaware River.

I wondered mainly what Atlantic City had to offer a family seeking to extend a sustainable, car-​free lifestyle to the Jersey Shore. We had no intention of visiting any casinos. Of all the beautiful beachfront this country has to offer, I suspect we can access only a tiny percentage of it by train.

The New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line starts in Philadelphia and rolls out across the Delaware taking a nearly straight shot across southern New Jersey to the new Atlantic City terminal next to the new convention center. We transferred from the SEPTA line at 30^th Street Station, which in and of itself is worth a visit. Jersey Transit provides only an automated ticket machine that takes most credit cards and cash. Adults pay $10 each way. Children over 5 pay $4.50. Total round trip fare for the three of us came to $49.00, plus our SEPTA fare of $16.00. And yes, the NJ trains have bathrooms.

Keep in mind that we never expected that rail transportation would cost less than the simple gasoline and parking cost if we took our car. For me, the value of these trips come from not having to deal with vacation traffic, and believe me, the Atlantic City Expressway on a summer weekend is no picnic.

I’ve usually found NJ Transit trains clean and relatively comfortable, and I found the same on this trip. No, this is not the Orient Express, but at least the trains have bathrooms, plenty of space to stretch out, and the varied panorama of South Jersey scenery just outside the window.

A.C.‘s spartan but efficient shuttle drops you off close to the boardwalk, but in stark surroundings. Signs indicating that this is a shuttle stop with schedules would go a long way to accommodating return trips.

The city and the casinos couldn’t make getting from the station to the boardwalk any easier. As you emerge from the station, you immediately find five or six shuttle busses ready to take you to various points along the beach. For us, the travel time to the Taj Mahal and Steel Pier took only about ten minutes. No parking worries. Very little actual walking. And as an added bonus, no beach tags required. So far so good.

After about an hour and a half on the sand, we began talking about lunch. In our immediate area on the boardwalk itself, we found ourselves with very limited choices: Hard Rock Café, House of Blues, and various kiosks and fry pits serving items as far down the health scale as you can imagine.

No problem. I have an iPhone with the Yelp app.

If you do brave a walk away from the boardwalk, you encounter some interesting vestiges of the city’s heyday. This modest, run-​down, but charming house sits less than a half-​block from the action. Behind it, you’ll find vast lots of nothing.

Problem. The highly rated restaurant Yelp told us was just a block away and a half block off the boardwalk was actually six blocks away. So much for Yelp. This was the fourth time Yelp and my iPhone have failed me in this manner.

This didn’t become apparent until after we walked a good quarter mile or more in 85-​degree sun (with a five-​year-​old trailing, mind you). The alternatives within view didn’t look much more appealing. By the time we opted to hop a ride on one of the push-​carts seen all over the boardwalk, and after bargaining down the young woman to about five dollars to go six blocks, we passed by Megan’s Good Grub & Pub, and my instincts told me to stop the cart.

Roadside Girl love mussels and gulped them down at Megan’s Good Pub & Grub, a real find on the boardwalk.

My hunch proved spot on. Despite the irritable child and the exasperated wife, we enjoyed an excellent meal and could choose from an ample selection of local ales. I can recommend the mussels and the baby sloppy Joes, not to mention the decidedly cosmopolitan, un-​Atlantic City, atmosphere. We didn’t walk the full length of the boardwalk, but we picked Megan’s as Roadside-​Approved.