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If the weather is nice on weekends you will find several of the bike rental places open and renting bikes.

If you are looking for a weekday rental that might be tougher. Continental Cycles at 72nd Street (410.524.1313) is open year most days and they rent bikes, but they are not near the boardwalk. You can get a list of bike rental places here and call ahead to see who is open when. I've know Dandy Don's (11th Street) and Mikes (North Division Street (410.289.5404) are both open in the off season.

Plenty of shops and restaurants will be open and there are a few events planned:

Fallfest of Fine Art: 5-6 November st the Convention Center

There is an art exhibit and a craft show at the Convention Center at 40th Street that weekend.

During weekends you will find lots of shops and places open. If it is nice weather, about half of the boardwalk shops will be open.

Old Pro Mini Golf is open year round. They have indoor and outdoor courses at 68th and 136th Streets. Planet Maze Laser tag is open year round, at least on weekends. On nice weekends Baja go carts are open in West OC. Marty's Playland and Sportland arcades at the south end of the boardwalk are open almost every day year round. If the weather is nice many of the bike rental places will be open.

You will still find many restaurants open including Fager's, Captains Table, Seacrets, Lombardi's, Harborside , Horizons (in Clarion) and BJs are all open year round, just to name a few. The larger hotels (and their restaurants) including Dunes Manor, Carousel, Princess Royal, Clarion, and Holiday Inn (both locations) are also open year round.

Have fun in OC!

I go to OC with my family including 4 kids ages 10 to 17 year round. We always find plenty to do and plenty of places to go and eat.

During weekends you will find lots of shops and places open, but significantly fewer during the week.  If it is nice weather about half of the boardwalk shops will be open on weekends, but only a few during the week.

Old Pro Mini Golf is open year round. They have indoor and outdoor courses at 68th and 136th Streets. Planet Maze Laser tag is open year round, at least on weekends. On nice weekends Baja go carts are open in West OC. Marty's Playland and Sportland arcades at the south end of the boardwalk are open almost every day year round.

You will still find many restaurants open, again with more open weekends than during the week. Fager's, Captains Table, Seacrets, Lombardi's, Harborside , Horizons (in Clarion) and BJs are all open year round, just to name a few. Most of them will be open all week in early November.

The larger hotels (and their restaurants) including Dunes Manor, Carousel, Princess Royal, and Holiday Inn (both locations) are also open year round.

Have fun in OC!

There are no major events scheduled or that time, but there will still be plenty of fun things to do in OC.

For a special dinner I recommend either Fager's Island (great food, great sunset views) or Captain's Table for dinner. Both are outstanding. If you want to try something really unique call the Grove Market in Bishopville. You need to get a reservation. The Grove is on St Martin's Neck Road (the road between the two bridges on Route 90) Road, about 2 miles from Route 90. The place is not at all fancy (you sit in white plastic chairs), but the food may be the best I've ever had anywhere. Call them 2 weeks in advance (410.352.5055) for a reservation for a spectacular meal. Their menu changes every night based on what they can get fresh. Be aware they are cash only. I've been there several times and it is always a special treat. It runs about $75 per person with appetizer, dinner, desert, drinks, and tip.

I go to OC with my family including 4 kids ages 10 to 17 year round. We always find plenty to do and plenty of places to go and eat.

During weekends you will find lots of shops and places open, but significantly fewer during the week.  If it is nice weather about half of the boardwalk shops will be open. The shops have irregualr schedules so it is difficult to be specific about which ones are open when. Ocean Gallery is open most of the time as are several Candy Kitchen Shops and Edwards.

Old Pro Mini Golf is open year round. They have indoor and outdoor courses at 68th and 136th Streets. Planet Maze Laser tag is open year round, at least on weekends. On nice weekends Baja go carts are open in West OC. Marty's Playland and Sportland arcades at the south end of the boardwalk are open almost every day year round.

You will still find many restaurants open, again with more open weekends than during the week. Fager's, Captains Table, Seacrets, Lombardi's, Harborside , Horizons (in Clarion) and BJs are all open year round, just to name a few. Most of them will be open all week in early November.

The larger hotels (and their restaurants) including Dunes Manor, Carousel, Princess Royal, and Holiday Inn (both locations) are also open year round.

Have fun in OC!

Seacrets will be open and they have live entertainment all weekend! 

Also the Harborside in West OC is a great place, they also serve awesome lunch and dinner! 

You'll still find some shops and restaurants open.  The indoor rides at Trimpers should still be open as well. But the rides and such will be closed. 

There are lots of great trails to hike and bike in the Ocean City area. There are also several kayak tours around the nearby coastal bays, rivers, and swamps.

Hiking
For hiking there are the two obvious choices, the beach and the boardwalk. There are also a couple of interesting historic self-guided walking tours of downtown ocean city. You can get the guides to these two tours here and here. Ocean City's Northside Park at 127th Street has several walking and biking trails.

Most of the biking paths below also accommodate hiking.

Biking
From mid May to Late September bikes are allowed on the 2.25 mile boardwalk from 2am to 11am. Outside of this time they are allowed anytime.

There is a bike lane for the entire 10 mile length of OC on Coastal Highway, but you will be riding in a lane shared with buses and turning cars.

However, if you drive (or ride) up to Delaware, traffic gets much lighter in Fenwick Island and north and riding on Coastal Highway there is much less stressful. You can ride pretty far north on a bike Lne, at elast to Bethany and probably much further

You can rive across the first Route 90 bridge and park at the Nature area on the Isle of Wight. Take St Martin's Neck Road (the road crossing Route 90) and ride into the Lighthouse Sound area and along the back bays.

You can take the Route 50 bridge to the park and ride lot (left at the first light after crossing the bridge). Park there and then ride down Route 611  towards Assateague. There is a bike lane most of this route. There are lots of great side streets to ride on there too.

All of these Routes are safe and scenic. They also let you ride as short or long a distance as you desire.

This site lists 7 cool bike trips to and around OC with maps and directions. The longest is 144 miles from Baltimore to OC and the shortest is a 10 mile trip to Assateague. You can easily modify these routes to fit your needs.

Kayaking and Canoeing
Ayers Creek Adventures offers some great kayak and canoe tours of the waterways in the area. They will often customize a tour to meet your group's needs.

Have fun in OC!

Gary,
There is a public fishing area behind the Convention Center at 40th Street. You will need a license to fish at this public pier. You can certainly be dropped of right next to it and there may even be parking right there next to these docks too. The fishing area at the Oceanic Pier at the inlet is also fairly accessible and you won't need a liscences for this commericial pier.

At this time of year most events are on the weekends. Next weekend is Corvette Weekend and you will see hundreds of Corvettes start arriving in town on Wednesday and Thursday for the show next weekend.

Oktoberfest is also going on on 14-15 October and includes a craft fair at the Convention Center. More info can be found here.

Have fun in OC!