Things To Do in Ocean City, MD

For many Marylanders, heading "downy ocean" or "to the shore" means only one thing: a summer vacation in Ocean City, a 10-mile stretch of skinny barrier island. It's often quite crowded on the beach, in the restaurants, and on Coastal Highway, but it's still Marylanders' favorite place to enjoy the sun and the water. 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 3-mile-long 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. Restaurants, ice-cream stands, and shops fill in the gaps. The boardwalk ends near the fishing pier, which has amusement rides and 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.

A fascinating self-guided Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Ocean City is available at the visitor center on 40th Street.

Especially for Kids -- Ocean City, which claims to be the number-one family resort on the East Coast, is home to several amusement parks and child-oriented activities. Before you head for the attractions, look for coupons for everything from miniature golf to go-carts, at either the visitor center or in one of the local newspapers, such as Sunny Day or Beachcomber.

The shopping in Ocean City may not be high class, but there's a lot of it. The boardwalk, the outlet center, dozens of strip malls along Coastal Highway, and small-town antiques shops in nearby Berlin are all happy to take visitors' money.

If you enter town from the Route 50 bridge, you can't miss the Ocean City Factory Outlets (www.ocfactoryoutlets.com), a half-mile from the bridge, on the mainland at the intersection of Golf Course Road. The 20-plus brand-name outlets include Harry and David's, Gap, and Jos. A. Bank. Parking is free and plentiful; a daily shuttle also stops at a variety of O.C. hotels from late July to mid-September (check the website for a schedule). The complex is open Sunday through Thursday from 10am to 6pm (until at least 8pm June-Aug), and Friday and Saturday from 10am to 9pm.

The Tanger Outlets, in Rehoboth, have a much bigger selection -- and Delaware charges no sales tax. Serious shoppers may want to head north.

Perhaps the most popular and populated shopping destination in O.C. is the boardwalk -- 27 blocks of souvenirs, candy, restaurants, snack shacks, and, of course, T-shirts. You'll find much of the same merchandise in all the souvenir shops, but there are a couple places worth visiting. Ocean Gallery World Center, at Second Street (tel. 410/289-5300; www.oceangallery.com), is a trashy standout, with its mosaiclike facade of art from around the world -- and that's on the outside. Its three stories are full of art posters, prints, and original sofa-size oil paintings. The Kite Loft, at Fifth Street (tel. 410/289-6852), has a large selection of kites (from simple to really cool), flags, windsocks, and toys. You may even see a pig fly. There's another location on 131st Street.