Family Fun at the Jersey Shore Alpaca Farm

Heading down to the south Jersey Shore and looking for a fun, family-friendly, totally affordable activity that's off the beaten path? Tired of the beach, boardwalk and typical tourist attractions? If so, you'll want to plan a visit to the Jersey Shore Alpaca Farm located near Cape May.

The Jersey Shore Alpaca Farm is a small farm owned and operated by Tim and Tish Carpinelli located near historic Cape May, New Jersey. If you're visiting Avalon, Stone Harbor, Sea Isle City, Wildwood or Cape May, you can reach the farm in less than 30 minutes by car. We were in Wildwood and it only took us 20 minutes to get there.

You'll want to visit their website for their current hours of operation. You can visit during public viewing days or schedule your own private farm tour. We planned ahead and scheduled a private farm tour which lasted approximately 45 minutes. Once we arrived, our tour guide met us at the fence to begin the tour. Please note...the farm tours run rain or shine, so dress appropriately and plan ahead for the ever-changing weather.

Before I give you any more information, I do want to state that this was our second visit to the Alpaca Farm. Last year we took our granddaughter and this year we took our entire immediate family. We had our 2 grandchildren, adult daughter and my mother-in-law along with us. Everyone really enjoyed the tour.

The beginning of your tour starts off with your guide giving you information about the Alpaca Farm and the animals that live there. You'll then be handed an apron and a pre-made bag of sliced carrot sticks to feed to the Alpacas. Our tour began with the "male" Alpacas where we met the blind Alpaca named Tiger (our granddaughter's favorite), Panda (one of my favorites), and I forget the name of the third male that we had a chance to meet. All three of them were friendly and adorable!

After visiting with the boys...we made our way into the pen that houses the female Alpacas. Several of the females came out of the barn and made their way to us. All of the females were friendly and we were able to pet them and feed them their favorite food...carrot sticks! While feeding them the tour guide will educate you about Alpacas and you can ask the guide any questions that you may have. We found our tour guide to be extremely knowledgeable & he was very patient in answering all of our questions that we had.

We spent a good 30 minutes in the "girls" pen feeding and petting them. If you heard that Alpacas can spit...that is true. However, these Alpacas were extremely friendly and NONE of them spit on us. They came right up to us and you could tell that they were used to having visitors around them. Our 10 year old granddaughter and 3 1/2 year old grandson absolutely loved being up close & personal with them!

Once your done with the farm tour you can go into their on-site little gift shop to pick up some souvenirs. You'll find handmade scarves, gloves, mittens, socks, sweaters, hats, ponchos, capes, blankets, plush animals. t-shirts, alpaca finger puppets, key chains, etc. They have a little video in the gift shop that you can watch which shows you one of the Alpacas being born. That was really cool to see.

You'll find the Jersey Shore Alpaca Farm located on 521 Route 47 South in Cape May, New Jersey 08204. You can reach them by phone at 609-889-4957 and visit their website or follow the farm over on Facebook. We had a great time and definitely will visit again.