The Wildwoods squeezed more mid-century motel architecture into three miles of Jersey shore than anywhere in America. A lot of it is still open.
Every published Wildwoods motel on MotelTrip. Click any pin to go to the listing.
After the Second World War, a generation of returning soldiers pointed their new cars at the Jersey shore and found a town building itself in concrete, plastic and neon. Nobody called it Doo Wop at the time. The plastic palms and boomerang rooflines came first. The name arrived years later, given by critics trying to describe what had already happened.
Most of it should have been torn down by now, and much of it was. The Doo Wop Preservation League spent years fighting for what remained. A few of the survivors now carry the National Register designation. The rest just keep taking reservations.
The ten worth driving across New Jersey for are below. Then the full directory, every motel we list in the Wildwoods, town by town.
Ten that define the style
The motels worth driving across New Jersey for.
Caribbean Motel
Most visitors have already seen the crescent building in photographs, the levitating staircase, the red script sign against the sky. The Doo Wop Preservation League organized in large part around protecting this property, which tells you where the Caribbean sits in the hierarchy.
Pyramid Motel
The sign is an orange neon pyramid, tilted to a diamond angle. The awning matches. On Pittsburgh Avenue since 1960, and impossible to drive past without noticing.
Astronaut Motel
Wildwood went to the moon before NASA did. The red sign advertising the fact has been doing so since 1961.
Jolly Roger Motel
Pirates on the boulevard since 1959. Full-tilt nautical kitsch executed with a straight face.
Lollipop Motel
People pull over just for the sign. Candy-striped, roughly billboard scale, it has been making drivers slow down since the sixties.
Imperial 500 Motel
The name borrowed from American auto culture, the lines from 1955. One block from the beach and not much about it has changed.
Pink Champagne Motel
The color is a specific shade of pink that had a very specific window of cultural acceptability. That window was 1962. The Pink Champagne Motel has not noticed it closed.
Sea Chest Motel
On the National Register. Still a working motel. The Sea Chest is the argument for why the Doo Wop Preservation League exists.
Tropicana Motel
Sign, pool, sixty years on Atlantic Avenue. If you want to understand why people came to Wildwood in 1960, book a room here.
All Wildwoods motels
Every motel in North Wildwood, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest that we list. Not all of them are Doo-Wop. All of them share a zip code with the ones that are.