Heading down to the south Jersey Shore and looking for a fun, family-friendly activity that's off the beaten path? Tired of the beach, boardwalk and typical tourist attractions? If so, you'll want to plan a visit to the Jersey Shore Alpaca Farm located near Cape May.
Jersey Shore Alpaca Farm is a small farm owned and operated by Tim and Tish Carpinelli located near historic
Cape May, New Jersey. If you're visiting Avalon, Stone Harbor, Sea Isle City, Wildwood or Cape May, you can reach the farm in less than 30 minutes by car. We were in Wildwood and it only took us 20 minutes to get there.
You'll want to visit their website for their current hours of operation. You can visit during public viewing days or schedule your own private farm tour. We planned ahead and scheduled a private farm tour which lasted approximately 45 minutes. Once we arrived, our tour guide met us at the fence to begin the tour.
Before you get started you'll be given some information about the Alpaca Farm and the animals that live there. You'll then be handed an apron and a pre-made bag of sliced carrot sticks to feed to the Alpacas. Our tour began with the "male" Alpacas and with "Oliver" who came right up to the fence. He's very friendly and allowed us to pet and feed him. The other boys joined in a few minutes later.
After visiting with the boys...we made our way into the pen that houses the female Alpacas. Several of the females came out of the barn and made their way to us. All of the females were friendly and we were able to pet them and feed them their favorite food...carrots! While feeding them the tour guide will continue to educate you about Alpacas and you can ask the guide any questions that you may have. We found our tour guide to be extremely knowledgeable & she was very patient in answering all of our questions that we had.
We spent a good 30 minutes in the "girls" pen feeding and petting them. If you heard that Alpacas can spit...that is true. However, these Alpacas were extremely friendly and NONE of them spit on us at all. They came right up to us and you could tell that they were used to having visitors around them. Our 9 year old granddaughter absolutely loved being up close & personal with them! What a great experience for children and adults!
There were two Alpacas that really stood out as our favorites: Oliver (one of the males) and Tory (one of the females). They were friendly and you could really tell that they enjoyed having us there feeding and petting them. Our granddaughter spoke about those particular two Alpacas for hours during our trip to the Jersey Shore.
Once your done with the farm tour you can go into their on-site little gift shop to pick up some souvenirs. You'll find handmade scarves, gloves, mittens, socks, sweaters, hats, blankets, plush animals and other items. We bought our granddaughter a pair of fingerless gloves for the wintertime season. I found their prices to be reasonable, considering they're handmade, high-quality items.
You'll find the
Jersey Shore Alpaca Farm located on 521 Route 47 South in Cape May, New Jersey 08204. You can reach them by phone at 609-889-4957 and visit their website or follow the farm over on
Facebook. We had a great time and definitely would visit again.
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