Stone Harbor - A Beautiful Jersey Shore Destination

Stone Harbor is located along the coast in southern New Jersey. This quaint seaside community sits to the south of 7 Mile Island in Cape May county, while Avalon sits to the north. During the off-season about 1,000 people live there year round but during the busy summer tourist season...those numbers can swell to over 20,000 people.

Welcome to Stone Harbor Beaches

This seaside community is what I call "quaint" as it has beautifully landscaped areas, extremely clean and well-kept, large beaches (beach tags required) and I love shopping their downtown district in all of the little boutique stores, gift shops and jewelry stores.

Boat Marina - Stone Harbor

We often stay in North Wildwood when visiting the south Jersey Shore and drive up to Stone Harbor at least once every trip. If you are in Wildwood, we highly suggest you take the coastal route up to Stone Harbor which is a gorgeous & very scenic drive along the coast. There is one small toll bridge you will need to go through so get out your change for that!

Stone Harbor - Business District

In the downtown shopping district you will find brick-paved sidewalks and many park style benches lining the street. There is metered (paid parking) up and down the main and side streets and most of the time you can easily find a spot. There are a few paid parking lots nearby too.

Stone Harbor - Shopping

I don't have the store names memorized yet but I can tell you about some of the ones I visit every time I'm in Stone Harbor. There is a very large hardware store that sells all kinds of fabulous souvenirs & home decor items and I can never walk out of there without buying something. There is a quaint Christmas gift shop that I love to visit to buy my coastal themed holiday ornaments and I can never leave without stopping in one of the many fudge shops. YUMMY!

Stone Harbor Water Tower

As you drive around the island and visit many of their attractions you will most likely see their famous "Stone Harbor Water Tower". I often see tourists getting out of their cars or walking by it taking souvenir photographs of it!

Stone Harbor Bird Sanctuary

Finally, one of the things we like to do is walk the FREE trails at the Stone Harbor Bird Sanctuary that is located on the southern portion of the island. They have 4 trails (easy walking trails) that are open to the public and FREE!

Stone Harbor - Bird Sanctuary

At times...parking can be tough when it's during the middle of the busy tourist season so you might have to drive around for a bit looking for a parking spot. Along the walking trails you will find park benches that you can sit down and relax on and informational boards along the paths that give you educational information about the area and the birds who live there.

Stone Harbor - Bird Sanctuary

We love visiting Stone Harbor in New Jersey. While we don't typically "stay" there...we do make yearly and bi-yearly visits there and absolutely LOVE the area. Out of all of the south Jersey Shore locations...Stone Harbor seems to be more on the quiet side which adds to it's quaintness! I think that is partly due to the fact that they don't have an "official" boardwalk, amusement park rides, water park, etc. like Wildwood does. Regardless, I love it's low-key atmosphere!

You can learn more about Stone Harbor and the surrounding area by visiting the New Jersey section here on our travel blog. It's a beautiful area to visit!

Note: Click on each photo in this post. It will open in a new window and will automatically enlarge so that you can see all of the details up close.