Atlantic City Has it All

Atlantic City has long been a vacation destination for people of all ages. While the major draw to Atlantic City today is the availability of a variety of casinos, my husband and I made a pact not to spend our time vacationing in Atlantic City glued to a slot machine or stuck at a black jack table. Atlantic City after all presents many other enjoyable possibilities for visitors and we wanted to take advantage of them all. We weren't disappointed either because we discovered that Atlantic City has it all.

How to Get There. You can get to Atlantic city in a variety of ways according to where you are coming from and what your vacation plans are. Some people enjoy coming to Atlantic City by tour bus. This kind of travel can greatly reduce your own personal stress. Bus tours customarily take care of your hotel accommodations, provide food and play vouchers, do the driving for you and maybe best of all can help you feel like you are on vacation from the moment you get on the bus.

Mmy husband and I chose the driving alternative. This was a bit more tiring but it allowed us to stop and go as we chose and also gave us an on site car to travel away from the Boardwalk as we wished. We like the privacy of traveling together and the noise and atmosphere of bus travel didn't have a lot of appeal for us personally. Clearly it's a matter of taste and what one feels most comfortable with.

Reserving in Advance. For your own peace of mind it is always best when traveling to Atlantic City to make hotel reservations in advance. If you are traveling as part of a bus tour this will be handled for you. Of course then you are brought to a hotel that is chosen in advance by the bus company and not by you. We chose to drive which meant we also needed to make hotel reservations in advance. The key to our reservation was to make certain to choose a hotel that is on the Boardwalk.

There are lots of great hotels in Atlantic City, in fact you would have to put some effort into finding a bad hotel. But when you come to Atlantic City and you know that Atlantic City has it all, you want to be able to access all that Atlantic City offers without spending time going from an off Boardwalk hotel to where the action is. We made our reservation for a hotel that was rather centrally located on the Boardwalk and would recommend that kind of location to anyone traveling to Atlantic City.

Players Club Card One of the biggest hypes at casinos is to get a "Players Club Card" for the casino where you plan to spend most of your time. This card can provide you with some reduced prices and special offers. Mostly this card is used to count up the amount you spend gambling and then to give credits towards meals, shows, or hotel purchases. The basic idea is good but if you are only staying for a short time and don't plan to come back any time soon then the players card should not be your main focus. We found the cards to be of minimal value but we still have them hanging on our key caddy as a nice reminder of our trip.

If you plan to spend some serious money gambling however, getting a card is a good commons sense idea. It takes only a minute and can be picked up any of the casino card centers.

Making a Schedule We had been told so many times by so many friends that Atlantic City has it all that we really didn't want to miss anything. So we made an agreement to put ourselves onto a schedule that would allow us to taste a little bit of all that interested us at Atlantic City. This sounded easier than it really was. If you are having luck at the casino then the last thing you want to do is drag yourself away for a non-casino activity.

Still with a finite amount of money we also didn't want to put ourselves in the position of blowing all our gambling money on our first day. So we made a schedule and we really did try to keep to it . We didn't plan by the clock as much as by segments of time. Basically our schedule called for having our breakfast in our hotel-casino which, as many hotels do, offered a wonderful breakfast buffet at a very reasonable price. We knew that a hearty breakfast would mean that we could take off for lots of activity without the need to refuel for some time. We followed breakfast with a morning trip to the casino. After all it was right there and we needed to take the edge off our desire to gamble so that we would enjoy the rest of activities without feeling denied. It sounds silly but it really works.

After about an hour in the casino we were ready to take on an activity that would take us outside in the fresh air. The outdoor activity was usually followed up with a light but fun lunch. We used lunch as the fun part of our eating pattern. Breakfast and dinner we stuck to our diets but at lunch we had some fun without being too wild. Next would come an afternoon session at the casino. This might last longer than the morning session but was always kept under two hours. Any longer than that and we found our eyes stopped working well and the fun of the gambling began to deteriorate. The afternoon gambling was followed by a recuperating trip back to our room. Putting this break into our schedule allowed us to have a cold drink, take a relaxing shower, read a magazine, watch some television or usually refresh ourselves with a short nap. The day finished with dinner, an after dinner walk and according to our fortunes for the day a trip back into the casino. We are not big fans of the shows offered so that was not included on our schedule.

Outdoor Activities. When our schedule sent us outside there was plenty to see and do. We never really had to leave the Boardwalk. We could simply saunter along the the Boardwalk and enjoy looking out at the ocean view. But there's so much more. There is music, vendors, shops and people of all kinds to satisfy your need to people watch. We were usually content to simply get our fresh air close to our accommodations.

We also enjoyed getting into our car and taking a short ride to nearby Brigantine National Bird Sanctuary. The drive was less than a half hour and the rewards were incredible. The Sanctuary has a driving loop of several miles that allows visitors to view migrating birds of all kinds. You can get out of your car and simply enjoy the sites. There are sea and marshland birds of all descriptions. My husband and I are only very amateur bird watchers, but for a few hours this sanctuary completely removed all thoughts of gambling. It will always be a part of our future trips to Atlantic City.

After only a few days at Atlantic City we were totally convinced that not only that Atlantic City has it all, we also were pleased with the scheduling we used we made sure that we enjoyed all of it.