Do Senior Citizens Need Beach Tags In New Jersey?

Imagine that you've lived in the Garden State your entire life. You never left. You worked hard, paid your taxes, and were an upstanding citizen. The last thing you should have to worry about during your golden years, in my humble opinion, is coughing up money to enjoy the coastline that YOUR hard-earned tax dollars have gone to preserving during your lifetime.

My mom and I usually head to Brigantine for our beach days now. When I was younger, Wildwood was always our main beach town. Usually the Crest, but you can't beat those epic Wildwood nights, right? Bobby Rydell's song even says so.

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Nowadays, Wildwood is too far for my mom to travel just for the day. When I introduced her to Brigantine, she fell in love with it immediately. As a Gloucester County resident, it's the closest beach to her in both measurements of miles and time. The vibes are immaculate and everybody is so relaxed. She love spending her summer days in Brigantine.

Usually, we plan a day prior to the start of the season to go enjoy a nice lunch in town and pick up our beach tags. Due to the craziness of life this year, we didn't get to set that up prior to the start of summer 2024. She was nervous that because she wasn't able to secure her senior citizen beach tag for Brigantine (free, by the way), she'd have to pay the daily fee for her first beach day.

That got me thinking.... do NJ beaches REALLY charge senior citizens if they don't have their beach tags on them? Would they accept her ID to prove she's passed the age of needing to pay for her usage of the beach? Luckily, I'm happy to report that the Brigantine beach tag checkers were just fine with that. My mom's not the one to try to ditch them. She showed them her ID to prove she was free and they wished her a happy day.

Is that how most of NJ's beaches would have handled that situation? I'm not sure. I can confidently say that the majority of beaches here in the Garden State don't require senior citizens to pay for their beach tags. I'm not sure what the rest of them would do, though, if a senior didn't have his or her beach tag on their person.

Let us know if you any answers on the app!