Inn at the Shore. (Belmar, NJ)

[rating:5]

I had a nice week and a half off from work. I spent the first half with my son locally at home. Attending some school events, bumming around and working out.

The following week I took four days and went with my wife to this lovely inn at Belmar called “The Inn at the shore“. I’d been to Belmar once before and I remember finding it very peaceful and relaxing. Seeing as though this is what me and my wife were looking for, we decided to take a trip out here. I have never watched the stupid show “the jersey shore”, but thankfully this inn and the neighborhood is far removed from the stupidity that the show seems to promote.

The house is lovely, built in the 1800’s it’s definitely old, but I loved it. It has a large wrap around porch where you and yours can sit and enjoy the lovely birds singing, or perhaps a competitive game of battleship like we did. Yes my wife won, even though it was her first time playing. Make sure to use some “off” mosquito repellent because the mosquitoes apparently enjoy the birds song as well! The innkeepers provided us some complimentary “off” to use.

Speaking of the innkeepers, Tom and Rosemary Volker are some of the kindest folks you could ever wish to meet. From the moment we arrived, they greeted us by name, before we had reached the porch or even checked in! “You must be Angel and Christine right”, said Tom upon seeing us walking towards his property.

They greeted us and proceeded to show us to our room, provided our keys and gave us a brief tour of the house. When you walk in you feel immediately transported to a different time, rustic furniture, lovely family pictures, board games, and even some VHS tapes can be seen as you take in the house’s internal makings. For those of you that don’t know what a VHS tape is, it’s what goes in a VCR. Old school baby.

We stood at the “Courtney Rose” room, it’s small and cozy, great for a lover’s getaway. There is a full size bed in the room, and though adequate, I must say for me and my wife it was a bit small. Probably due more to the fact that I’m not a very small person, though my wife is. Sleeping there was a bit uncomfortable for both of us. Next time we’ll get a room with a bigger bed.

There is an air conditioner in the room. That is nice as you can then set the room temperature that you are comfortable with. The small sink sits inside the bedroom itself and there is a private bathroom. Most rooms share a bathroom and we are not fans of that type of sharing so we took the private bathroom option, downside being the smaller bed.

There is a lot of greenery outside the house, so naturally mosquitoes will bum around. Before going to sleep the first night we saw a bunch of mosquitoes camping out on the ceiling, presumably waiting for us to go sleep to attack! No sir, y’all ain’t gonna get us! I grabbed my flip flops, climbed on the bed and went to town on all those damn mosquitoes! By the end of my slaughter I must have killed about 10 mosquitoes. Any survivors must have told their friends that the gig was up, because after my first massacre, mosquitoes were no more to be found in the room.

The bathroom is a decent size, toilet is an ok size, small but capable of handling my heavy duty booty! The shower is also somewhat small but met our needs just fine, it’s one of those cool raised claw bathtubs or whatnot.

Breakfast was alright, nothing too fancy, but seemed homemade. For someone like me who is in training, I wasn’t too concerned with getting a massive heavy breakfast, the Mrs did point out that it was rather limited in quantity and options. My guess regarding this is that for the first few days we were the only ones there, so they probably saw no point in wasting a lot food making huge elaborate meals that would end up going to waste. That’s fair from my point of view, we were both satisfied, I think we just expected a bit more as the last inn we went to provided a humongous breakfast.

Orange juice, scrambled eggs, some sausages and a few pieces of fruit are just fine by me. Tom makes this special granola mix, his own recipe, my wife loved it! If you go make sure you give it a try, its pretty good.

There is a also small pantry where you can store your food items and the inn provides refreshments in the fridge for your consumption. I definitely drank some of that sprite.

While there we tried a few restaurants, each that will have it’s own review. We also took out the Inn’s bikes for a nice spin around the neighborhood, bike riding out there was a lot of fun. The Inn also provided us with complimentary admission to the “Atlantic fitness club” for a day. Wait till you hear about that place, AMAZING!

Staying at the inn also entitles you to use their beach passes which are required for admission to the beach. Though we didn’t spend much time there as it was a bit chilly during our stay.

Pretty much all you need is provided for you here. I saw some reviews with people complaining about the pictures, teddy bears, and quiet area, to those people I’ll say this:  IT’S A BED AND BREAKFAST, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT TO FIND? “THE SITUATION” STAYS ELSEWHERE SO GO AWAY AND STOP BAD MOUTHING THESE LOVELY PEOPLE!

I recommend this place for a nice peaceful getaway. It’s just what the doctor ordered. If you are looking for what you see on the “jersey shore” television show, this town, this area, is not the place for you.