Ocean-City Travel Guide
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For many Marylanders heading "downy ocean" or "to the shore" means only one thing: a summer vacation in Ocean City, designated an "All-American City" in 2001. It's gotten quite crowded on the beach, in the restaurants, and on Coastal Highway, but it's still Marylanders' favorite place to sunbathe, jump waves, eat, shop, and meet friends or make new friends. On a skinny stretch of barrier island less than 10 miles long, the attraction is that wide sandy beach, pounding surf, and ocean breezes. So many visitors arrive that for 3 months of the year, Ocean City is the second largest city in the state. (Only Baltimore has more people.) Ocean City's entire beach is open to the public.
The boardwalk, which stretches to 27th Street in the oldest part of Ocean City, is crowded with hotels, some of them dating back to the 1920s. And restaurants, ice cream stands, and shops fill in the gaps. It ends at the fishing pier with amusement rides, including a huge Ferris wheel.
Out on Coastal Highway, shopping centers, restaurants, hotels, and condos demand your attention and your money. Miniature golf courses are exceedingly popular: They're all crowded after dark, and there are some dandies. The quieter waters surrounding Ocean City, the bays of Assawoman, Sinepuxent, and Montego, attract fishermen, sailors, parasailers, and kayakers who like their water calmer. The inlet at the south end of the island was created during a fierce hurricane early in the 20th century. Its creation spurred the growth of the city's fishing industry since it made the trip to the ocean much quicker.
