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Cape May-Lewes
attractions abound, from outdoor recreational opportunities and historical sights to museums, shopping and dining. Each town is unique, and each provides both bay and ocean beaches for swimming and sunning, pleasure boating, surf and deep sea fishing, beachcombing, whale and dolphin watching and surfing. You can sail on a tall ship or rent a small boat to tour Delaware Bay. Lewes is known for its marinas and charter boats – for a day of fishing on the deep sea or cruising and sightseeing vessels. Just one mile east of Lewes is Cape Henlopen State Park with 4,000 acres and a sandy peninsula that features four miles of beach and rolling Atlantic Ocean waves. Cape Henlopen is the site of the “Great Dune,” the highest sand dune between Cape Hatteras and Cape Cod. The Park is a great place for walking the Cape’s shoreline, or for swimming, surf fishing, shelling and crabbing. Picnic areas are also available with covered pavilions. Cape Henlopen is also home to the Seaside Nature Center, which features five 1,000-gallon aquariums, a quarter mile long pier, and a refurbished World War II observation tower. Cape May and Lewes are both popular spots for birding, and other non-beach activities include tennis, golf and bicycling.
The town of Cape May is an attraction unto itself. Called “Victorian Cape May,” the whole town has been designated as a National Historical Landmark. Guides lead daily walking tours and trolley tours through the town that last about an hour and a half; self-guided tours are also available. A couple of the highlights include the Emlen Physick Mansion, where actors play the roles of the Physick family, and the Mainstay Inn, formerly Jackson’s Clubhouse of the 1870s.
Several lighthouses dot the coast of Cape May. They include the Cape May Point Lighthouse, which has marked the entrance to Delaware Bay since 1859, and the Victorian Gothic style Hereford Inlet Lighthouse. The Absecon Lighthouse is the tallest in New Jersey at 171 feet.
As one of the oldest towns in America, Lewes is filled with a plethora of historic shops, buildings and homes. A walking tour is the best way to see everything in this town. The area that is now Lewes that was first discovered by Henry Hudson in August of 1609, and the first settlement was established by the Dutch in 1631. There are twenty structures on the historic walking tour, including the Ryves Holt House, the oldest house in Delaware, built in 1665. The historic district of town also includes a wide range of shops, including art galleries and antique shops, and many fine restaurants. Lewes has also become a prime eco-tourism spot, where you can explore sand dunes and tide pools, quiet pine forests and unspoiled marshlands. The Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge offers over 8500 acres of unlimited outdoor experiences. Also not to be missed while visiting the Cape May-Lewes area is the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which is the world’s longest twin suspension bridge that soars high above the Delaware River, just north of the Delaware Bay.
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