Historic Hotels & Inns in Ocean Grove

The neighborhoods

Where to stay, by area

The Great Auditorium and the Tent Colony

Ocean Grove began here: Methodist ministers held their first prayer meeting on July 31, 1869, and the Great Auditorium, built in 1894 to seat almost 10,000 and seating 6,250 today, is ringed by the Tent Colony, 114 canvas tents raised over wooden platforms by May 15 and taken down in the fall. The Auditorium opens free for hosted visits on summer weekdays from 12:30 to 2 p.m., and the Historical Society’s free museum faces Auditorium Park. None of the five inns is inside the tent ring, but all are a walk away in a town of about a square mile.

Ocean Pathway and the beachfront

The Great Auditorium faces Ocean Pathway, which ends at a boardwalk beach entrance; the founders stepped each building back from its neighbor for the last two blocks so every house kept a sea view. Hotel Albatross is on Ocean Pathway, the Laingdon faces the ocean on Ocean Avenue, and the Lillagaard is less than a block from the beach on Abbott Avenue. The Camp Meeting Association owns and runs the beach, where everyone over age 11 needs a badge in season.

Main Avenue

Main Avenue is Ocean Grove’s downtown, a street of family-owned shops and restaurants two short blocks from the boardwalk, with the Academy Bus stop from New York. The Majestic, with 15 rooms, a penthouse suite and a BYOB dining room open year-round, and The Quaker Inn, at Central Avenue with 28 rooms and five porches, are both here.

Before you book

Planning your stay

Getting around

Ocean Grove is 60 to 90 minutes by car from New York City and about 90 from Philadelphia, on Route 33 East from the Garden State Parkway or Route 18. By train, NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line runs from New York Penn Station to Asbury Park, a block west of Main Street, and to Bradley Beach, with most trains changing at Long Branch; the Chamber of Commerce puts the trip at about 93 minutes. Academy Bus runs from Port Authority to Main Avenue in about 95 minutes, and Hotel Albatross will fetch guests from the train by golf cart in daylight.

Parking

All parking in Ocean Grove is free street parking, with no meters or time limits, but most homes have no driveways and spaces are scarce in summer, especially near the Great Auditorium, so the Camp Meeting Association suggests the west and south sides of town. None of the five inns advertises its own lot; Hotel Albatross will meet guests at their car by golf cart. Neptune Township has debated a resident permit pilot for years, but the Camp Meeting Association’s current directions still list free parking.

When to go

Summer is the season: in 2026 lifeguards worked daily from June 19 to September 7, Sunday worship was held in the Great Auditorium from June 14 to September 13, and Camp Meeting Week ran July 26 to August 2, followed by Illumination Night on August 8. The beach, once closed until noon on summer Sundays, has opened on Sunday mornings since the 2024 season under a state DEP order. Off-season, the Chamber’s Holiday House Tour is on Saturday, December 5, 2026, and the Laingdon and the Majestic’s dining room stay open year-round; the 2027 calendar wasn’t published when we checked.

Accessibility

The inns are multi-story Victorians: the Quaker Inn and the Lillagaard say they cannot accommodate wheelchairs, the Laingdon’s rooms are on its second to fourth floors, and Hotel Albatross has an elevator. The Camp Meeting Association keeps beach wheelchairs at the Webb, Embury, Ocean Pathway and Bath avenue entrances, with staff to push guests down to the sand, and NJ Transit lists Asbury Park station as accessible but not Bradley Beach.

Before you book

The Quaker Inn, the Lillagaard and the Laingdon require two nights on peak-season weekends, and the Laingdon three on holiday and event weekends. Deposits are steep: 100% at booking at the Quaker Inn and the Lillagaard, 30% at the Majestic and the first night at the Laingdon. Age rules run from 25 to book at Hotel Albatross to 12 and up at the Lillagaard and all ages at the Quaker Inn, and beach badges come free with rooms at Hotel Albatross and the Majestic.