1 Month In Ocean City, MD – Here’s What We Did

After spending a couple of weeks in Frederick, MD, we moved on to Ocean City, MD for the month of November.

We booked so long there because I knew I’d be extremely busy leading up to Thanksgiving. I run a website called GC Galore which covers every gift card deal available and there are a ton of deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With most retailers running Black Friday deals all week to prevent crowding concerns as a result of COVID, the deals started even earlier than normal.

Knowing that I’d be spending much of each day working on that site, we didn’t want to spend time packing, unpacking and moving, nor feel like we had to rush around seeing a location so as not to miss out.

Spending a month in Ocean City was therefore perfect. We stayed at the oceanfront which meant the beach was always right there. It was off-season which meant a lot of places were closed and so we weren’t going to miss out on a ton of activities due to work, but there was still enough stuff to do nearby during our downtime.

Here’s everything we got up to in Ocean City, from where we stayed to where we ate to things we did.

Where We Stayed

We booked the entire month at the Hyatt Place Ocean City which is on the boardwalk. It was a fantastic stay from beginning to end, so check out this review for more about why we loved it so much.

Due to my Globalist status, we were upgraded to an oceanfront room with a balcony which meant we got to enjoy this view every day:

What We Did

Like I mentioned earlier, much of my time in Ocean City was spent working on one of my other websites. We did get to enjoy a few activities though, such as going for walks along the boardwalk. There were signs asking people to wear masks if social distancing wasn’t possible; seeing as we were visiting in off-season, it was much quieter than it normally would be, so we were rarely within 6 feet of anyone else walking along.

At the end of the boardwalk (15 blocks from our hotel) was the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum. At $5 for entry, it was great value and had lots of interesting information about the life-saving and early coast guard service, along with some history of Ocean City. Here’s what the museum is like and why you should check it out if visiting Ocean City.

Another museum we visited was at Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park near Cambridge, MD which is just over an hour from Ocean City. It’s definitely worth visiting if you’ll be in the area as it shares more about Harriet Tubman’s life from early childhood to being a key part of the Underground Railroad.

In addition to the National Historical Park, there were many other sites to visit in the area as that’s where Harriet Tubman grew up. We therefore went on a driving tour to visit was many of them as we could.

Shae wanted to go biking along the boardwalk during our stay, but bike rentals cost $10-$20 per hour. Seeing as she wanted to bike every other day or so, she ended up buying a bike from Walmart for $100 as that saved a decent amount over what she would’ve paid to rent one for a month. We didn’t get a bike rack sorted out in time to take it with us when we moved on to Baltimore, so we donated it to Diakonia, a homeless shelter in Ocean City.

We have a little doggie backpack for Truffles, so she sometimes went out riding with Shae.

I was never awake early enough, but on at least one morning Shae went down to the beach to enjoy the sunrise.

A couple of days before Thanksgiving I was busy working, so Shae and Truffles went to the Ocean Pines Farmers & Artisans Market as they had a special popup for Thanksgiving.

The night before Thanksgiving we visited Winterfest of Lights. Apparently it was run a little differently this year due to COVID, but this was our first time visiting Ocean City and so it didn’t bother us that it wasn’t its “traditional” setup.

Everyone wore masks and did a good job physically distancing. There was a half mile path around a small lake with Christmas lights all the way around and it was a lovely way to spend the evening. Wednesday nights were pet-friendly nights, so Truffles got to join us.

Shae’s dad and his fiancée joined us in Ocean City for a few days over Thanksgiving, so we got to spend some time with them over that period.

Shae got to see her mom too, albeit over the internet. On a couple of evenings during our time in Ocean City they did a virtual paint night.

When we visited Australia back in 2017 we bought some solar-powered Christmas lights. Ever since then, we’ve dressed up our car for the holidays and this year was no exception!

It wasn’t only our car which got dressed for Christmas – our hotel room did too despite it still being a month before Christmas.

What Truffles Did

Truffles got to join us at Winterfest of Lights, as well as to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park. She wasn’t allowed inside the museum there, so Shae and I took it in turns to go inside while the other waited outside with Truffles.

Truffles got to enjoy several long walks along the boardwalk during our stay, but her favorite was getting to play on the beach. Dogs aren’t allowed on the beach or boardwalk in Ocean City from May 1 to September 30, but once October 1 hits then they’re allowed.

To allow her to run around but still keep her on leash, we attached a super-long piece of thin rope to her harness. This meant she could chase after her ball, but we could still grab hold of the rope if we needed to (we didn’t).

Shae also did a couple of photoshoots with her – one on the beach and one at the hotel.

Where We Ate

Although we had our portable kitchen with us, the absence of a regular kitchen meant we ate out a little more than normal. We’re still not comfortable eating inside restaurants due to COVID, so we either ate outside or took food to go.

My favorite restaurant was Higgins Crab House. They had a large tent outdoors but which had good ventilation and delicious food. You can read my full review here, but here are a couple of photos for now to whet your appetite.

We had a couple of $10 credits to use at Grubhub from our Amex Gold cards. There were very few restaurant options on Grubhub in Ocean City, although that might be due to the location’s seasonality as a lot of restaurants and attractions close after September ends.

One of the only actual restaurants available in the app was Touch of Mediterranean. I ordered a gyro platter from there a couple of times and it was very tasty. The meat wasn’t greasy, the rice was flavorful and it was good getting some salad in my body!

I say it was good getting salad in my body as we didn’t always eat particularly healthily. After visiting the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum, we stopped at Brothers Bistro on the way back to eat on their patio. Shae ordered a pizza and I got a burger and fries; Shae’s pizza was good, while my burger was fine, but nothing spectacular.

Another day when we headed to the far end of the boardwalk we got some fries from Thrasher’s French Fries as they’re apparently an Ocean City institution. They had a fun vinegar dispenser you could use with your foot – just don’t hold your hands under it thinking it’s hand sanitizer!

Next door to our hotel was Coastal Salt. They had a lot of outdoor seating overlooking the beach with heaters spread around, so that and the fact that it was one of the only restaurants open on the beach meant it was always fairly busy out there.

We stopped by for lunch one day; Shae got the lobster grill cheese and I ordered their crab cake sandwich. Both our meals were tasty and our server was excellent.

While Shae was at the Ocean Pines Farmers & Artisans Market, she bought a giant cinnamon roll from one of the vendors there. With a cinnamon roll as large as this being covered in so much icing, we knew we were in for a good time and we weren’t disappointed – it was possibly the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever had. (n.b. I put the key card next to it to help show how large it was!)

For Thanksgiving dinner, we ordered our meal to go from the Princess Royale hotel. They were offering dinner with salads, bread rolls and pumpkin pie slices for $100 for four people. The food ended up being much better than we were expecting and, at $25 per head, was fairly good value seeing as it meant we didn’t have to prepare anything ourselves or wash dishes after!

Ocean City seemed to have a few restaurant institutions. Thrasher’s French Fries was one of them and Dumser’s Dairyland was another.

We got chocolate soft serve one evening, pineapple Dole Whip another and a banana split another night.

Final Thoughts

Shae and I really enjoyed our time in Ocean City. Our hotel was fantastic, we had good weather for much of our stay even though it was November, there was good food and several things to do even though it was off-season.

In fact, I was glad we visited in off-season. It meant it was much more relaxed at the beach, plus it made it much easier to physically distance from people as I imagine it would’ve been much busier over summer despite COVID.