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A Night at the Sea Palace Motel and Toms River's Timeless Charm

2026-05-17

We rolled into Toms River late last night after surviving Philadelphia traffic and what can only be described as the bugs of Motel 6. Our beds for the night was the Sea Palace Motel. Upon arrival, the lady in reception immediately launched into a polished sales pitch attempting to upsell us into the adjacent Sea Palace Inn next door which, to be fair, did look considerably more sophisticated with its illuminated balconies and more modern appearance. The adjacent hotel itself also appeared to be populated entirely by people standing on balconies chain smoking cigarettes and weed while staring silently into the night in the direction of ‘Babe’s Convenience Store’ .. We took the original booking option. Meanwhile the Sea Palace Motel … our original booking … was almost completely empty, which instantly made it feel significantly quieter and, strangely, more safe. No smoking balcony people. No microwaves. No Ferret Man. Perfect. Toms River is one of those nostalgic shore towns that still feels connected to the golden age America. The whole area exploded in popularity during the 1950s and 60s when families from New York and Philadelphia would head here for beach holidays, arcades and th…

Topics: Escape rooms Family Travel Reflection

Matthew Eaves — escape room franchise founder, operator, and writer. Also: franchise, posts, contact.