Summer in Lakewood has a sound. It’s the ice cream truck jingle drifting down the block at five in the afternoon, the sizzle of a hundred barbecues, and the happy noise of kinderlach racing their bikes down the sidewalk while the sun refuses to set. If your family has never done a Lakewood summer, you’re missing out on one of the sweetest seasons in Jewish family life.
Lakewood in July and August runs on a rhythm all its own. Camps are in full swing, the bungalow colonies are humming, and all over town, grandparents are hosting grandchildren while families settle into villas for a week or two of the good life. One well-planned week here can feel like a whole summer vacation.
The Jersey Shore Is Right There
Here’s what surprises first-timers: Lakewood sits about twenty minutes from the Jersey Shore. Point Pleasant, Belmar, Bradley Beach — the boardwalks, the mini golf, the arcades, the salt air — it’s all a short, easy drive away.
That changes the whole math of a beach vacation. Instead of paying beach-town prices for a cramped rental, you sleep in a comfortable Lakewood villa, drive out after breakfast, spend the day on the sand, and head home before the evening traffic. Pack a cooler, bring the sunscreen, and you’re back in time for supper.
Do the shore two or three times in a week and the kids will think you took them on a grand vacation. The secret is that Lakewood makes the perfect base camp — the beach by day, and a real town with real food and real minyanim by night.
Zeidy and Bubby Season
Summer in Lakewood has a second name: grandparent season. All season long, zeidys and bubbys open their doors for a week or two with the grandchildren, and half the town’s villas are filled with exactly that scene.
If you’re the grandparent, you know the drill. Your kids need a break, the kinderlach need an adventure, and you get the nachas of a house full of beautiful noise. A villa makes it work: the grandkids get their own rooms, there’s a backyard for the morning energy, and when you need to rest, there’s a door that closes.
One piece of advice from the veterans: plan one real outing a day and let the rest of the day breathe. A morning at the shore, an afternoon in the backyard with the sprinkler, an evening walk after supper — that’s a perfect Lakewood day. The kinderlach will remember it for years, and you’ll actually enjoy it instead of just surviving it.
Long Evenings, Slow Days
Summer days are long, and in Lakewood that’s a gift. When the sun doesn’t set until after eight-thirty, the whole day stretches out. Supper at seven, a walk at eight, and the little ones still land in bed at a decent hour.
Those long evenings were made for the simple things. An after-supper stroll around the block. A trip to the park while it’s still light out. Sitting on the porch with a cold drink while the kinderlach ride their scooters up and down the driveway. On summer evenings the parks fill up with families doing exactly this — bring a ball, bring a neighbor, and let the day wind down slowly.
There’s a feeling to a Lakewood summer evening — the golden light, the warm air, the sound of kids playing a block away — that makes you want to stay outside just a little bit longer.
The Small Pleasures
Every Lakewood summer runs on small rituals, and the evening ice cream run is chief among them. The town’s kosher ice cream shops and pizza spots become summer headquarters for half the neighborhood, and there’s nothing like piling the whole mishpacha into the car for a ten-minute trip that feels like an event.
Build your own traditions: the nightly walk for ice cream, the Thursday night pizza run, the Friday afternoon challah pickup with a stop at the park on the way home. These are the things your kids will talk about in September. The villa is the backdrop, but the rituals are the vacation.
Planning Your Summer Villa Week
Summer weeks go fast — the good villas book up early, especially the ones with backyards and enough bedrooms for a whole mishpacha. A few things worth looking for: an honest headcount of bedrooms and bathrooms (including the baby who “can sleep anywhere” — she can’t), a real backyard, central air conditioning for those August heat waves, and a washer and dryer, because beach towels and sandy bathing suits multiply on their own.
Proximity to a shul matters too. When minyan is a five-minute walk, the whole week runs smoother. And if you can swing a Sunday-to-Sunday stay, take it. The first two days everyone is settling in; by day three, the real vacation begins.
That’s where a LakewoodHosts villa earns its keep: room for everyone, a kitchen that actually works for a frum family, and a backyard the kinderlach won’t want to leave.
Ready to claim your best weeks of the summer? Browse the villas at LakewoodHosts and lock in your dates before the season fills up.
