Located on Maryland's beautiful Eastern Shore of Maryland is a resort that over 8 million people visit annuallyOcean City, Maryland. Although advertised as a year round resort, most of the tourist activity is during the summer months.
The main attraction is a 10-mile long pristine beachfront, which borders the Atlantic Ocean and three miles of boardwalk occupied with, shops, restaurants and an amusement area. This is an excellent place to spend a vacation and there are many ways to spend a vacation there besides strolling on the beach.
The beginning of Ocean City dates back to 1869 when a businessman built a cottage named the Rhode Island Inn on the beachfront, which he rented out to guests. Soon others followed his lead and developed the area as other small cottages and boarding houses sprang up around the beachfront.
The first hotel, The Atlantic Hotel, was not built until July 4, 1875, a date that is considered to be the beginning of Ocean City. That hotel was destroyed by fire in 1925 but rebuilt in 1926 and still operates today.
The boardwalk, known as Atlantic Avenue was not built until 1902 by hotel owners for the guest. It was not a permanent fixture for it could be rolled up and stored when the tide came in. The permanent one was not constructed until 1910, then expanded in 1920 but destroyed by a hurricane in 1962. It was then rebuilt and extended to its current 3-mile length.
The construction of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952 and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in 1964 made travel to the resort easier and facilitated development. Today the resort is well known through the Eastern Seaboard and attracts many visitors from there.
There are many, many fine hotels to stay in during your visit. This writer has stayed in several on the boardwalk and those were well maintained and had friendly personnel working there. Of course these boardwalk hotels are not inexpensive. Rates do drop during weekdays however.
Many other fine hotels not on the boardwalk are also available. It's always a good idea however to do a little research on the internet to read reviews on hotels you may be interested in. I have found these reviews very helpful most of the time.