I believe I am the first ever trip report for the exotic, hard to reach destination of Atlantic City, New Jersey

• 4 days, 3 nights in mid June
• Claridge Hotel - $75/night. Perfectly serviceable hotel right on the beach that isn't one of the casinos, cheaper but nice enough, cool touch with golden age of AC decor. Easily walkable to everywhere you would want to go
• Travel - very easy from my hometown of Philadelphia, there are ~hourly trains from 30th Street Station, and the trip is about an hour. I know NJT also has frequent bus service, but did not take one
• Getting around: there is a free shuttle to all the hotels from the train station. You can walk most places you need to, there is also transit around via the Jitneys, which are basically minibuses

I had a few days of PTO I needed to use or lose and I wanted to go to the beach, and unlike most of the Jersey Shore, your parents didn't have to rent the same house for 40 years to find a place to stay in AC

Overall, I had a nice time! Just wanted a relaxing beach vacation on the cheap and got exactly that. I don't like gambling and I had no problem avoiding it and not being bored

• The beach is a standard New Jersey beach with a boardwalk. Not crowded, though I was early in the season. Was a bit worried about people stealing your stuff when you were swimming, but did not see that at all. I had no problem covertly bringing some beers onto the beach. All exactly what I was looking for
• White House Subs - this is AC's "tourist famous" place so I was prepared to get a bit ripped off (just as in Philadelphia, Pat's and Geno's cheesesteaks are fine but you can get better ones elsewhere). I could not be more wrong. These sandwiches are HUGE. The "full" option for about $20 was basically 2.5 normal hoagies. And these are some THICK boys too - absolutely stuffed with toppings. Great deal, great food. Only recommendation is that if you're going to order a hot sub, get the small as the hot ones don't reheat as well
• Tony's Baltimore Grill: awesome place. Great italian food, great pizza, and astonishingly great prices on drinks. You do not see $3 non happy hour drafts anywhere these days. Imagine a great dive bar that also served good food
• The Vue: this is the Claridge's rooftop bar. Nice happy hour, great view, without the high prices of the casino rooftops
• Setaara: upscale French-Afghan fusion food. Really really good, amazing ambiance (they had a live piano player). Really wonderful fine dining experience, and for what it was, very reasonably priced. I was very surprised to find a place like this in AC
• Pho Sydney: I had no idea, but AC has a big Vietnamese population and there are a number of Pho places. I picked a random one to nurse my hangover and had a great experience, absolutely ENORMOUS portions of pho for very reasonably priced. Extremely no frills decor, lots of communal seating, everyone eating there was locals - all exactly what you want

Atlantic City has had a rough history and its known for casinos and crime, but I had a really great experience and I highly recommend it for somebody looking for a beach vacation that is both inexpensive and where there's a lot to do beyond the beach. The boardwalk is vibrant (though there are some more run down sections), there are a ton of concerts and shows and music acts, there is a ton of great food. Basically, imagine if they plopped the "edgy but cool" part of a city on the beach and surrounded it with skyscraper casinos

Not the usual /r/solotravel review but hey, solo traveling to the beach is still solo travel