Winter Weekend Guide: Atlantic City
STAY
It’s worth noting here that most of the big casino hotels in AC will do just about anything to get you in the door—most basic Greyhound tickets also come with a gambling voucher at the casino of your choice—but as the city tries to distance itself from its reputation as a gambling-only town (hence, the massive “DO AC” campaign it launched a couple of years back), boutique non-casino hotels have started cropping up, and a lot of ’em are pretty great.
In particular, I’d recommend The Chelsea (obviously no relation to that other Chelsea Hotel). It’s specifically geared toward young people (and even has an entire section of cheaper rooms, “The Annex,” to prove it), and boasts a crazy figure-8 hot tub (with waterfalls!), as well as Dining on the Fifth, one of the best restaurants in the entire city (like a lot of them, it’s got incredible access to local seafood, and this place does better things with its resources than most). Plus, once you stay there, they will straight up never. Stop. Offering. Deals. I’ve unsubscribed from their email listserv at least five times since staying there once, and still get several cheap room offers a week. Spammy, sure, but I wouldn’t be bummed about it if more places I liked tried to offer me cheap things, constantly. In any case, this place is also on the boardwalk right next to the Tropicana, putting you squarely in the center of things.