Atlantic City, on Jersey’s Absecon Island, has been a popular tourist hotspot since the early 1850s. First created as a rail terminal resort, Atlantic City has evolved over the centuries and is now a bustling boardwalk town (more on that later) that is home to a vibrant community of locals and tourists.
Atlantic City attractions are the hallmark of this town, and there are so many to choose from! We’ve compiled the ultimate list of the top 3 things you should do in Atlantic City, as well as some extras!
Atlantic City Attractions: Live it Up!
A Short History Lesson on Atlantic City
As the real-life model for the hugely popular board game Monopoly, Atlantic City is known for being home to the US’s first proper boardwalk, established in 1870. Not only that, but it is also the home of the first Ferris wheel in the world, which was built in 1892!
It is also the place where colored postcards were first produced. It even hosted the Miss American Beauty Pageant, before it was moved to Las Vegas in 2006. As you can see, Atlantic City attractions have always been the keystone of this town.
New Jersey’s most exciting resort town has certainly made its mark on the movies and is regularly used as a stand-in for Sin City – eagle-eyed residents may have recently recognized the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel and the Showboat in the 2021 movie, Army of the Dead.
The city is, of course, where classic movies like $5 A Day, Bounty Hunter, and Atlantic City are set, and it has even played host to A-Listers like Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Julie Roberts, and George Clooney as they filmed crucial scenes in The Godfather III and Ocean’s Eleven.
Meanwhile, on the small screen, ‘America’s Playground’ had the starring role in HBO’s smash drama, Boardwalk Empire. The show itself is based on Atlantic City attractions in the early 20th century.
In order to portray a more authentic Prohibition Era Atlantic City, it was filmed almost entirely on a specially-built soundstage located over in Brooklyn. Still, short of building a time machine and traveling back to the 1920s, there wasn’t much more than showrunner Terence Winter could’ve done about it.
As anyone who’s watched the immensely popular series would’ve thought, Atlantic City was quite the center for rum-running and was awash with speakeasies during the Great Depression.
It’s perhaps a bit of an understatement to say that the town has had a vibrant nightlife for quite some time! There have always been many Atlantic City attractions to enjoy.
Today, that spirit of nighttime frivolity is epitomized in the many casinos that can still be found lining the boardwalk.
Casino Gaming in Atlantic City
Ready to live it up at more Atlantic City attractions? After Las Vegas, Atlantic City is the hotspot for casino gaming in North America.
It currently houses a total of 12 different casino resorts, which are also elaborate hotels, concert halls, and conference centers. Each as seemingly lavish as the next, the casinos are divided into four locations: uptown, midtown, and the Marina Enclave.
The oldest casino hotel in town is the Resorts Casino, which was established in 1978. The first-ever fully legal casino in the US outside of Nevada.
On opening day, hoards of locals, lined up along the boardwalk – each