When Sam Hernandez met his wife in 2010, he had never been to the beach in New Jersey.

Born and raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn, he’d always associated the Jersey Shore with the tan-and-party lifestyle of the MTV reality show. But his soon-to-be-wife, a New Jersey native, insisted he visit.

Once he was there, he was pleasantly surprised.

“I felt at home in Asbury Park because it had a feeling of Brooklyn about it,” he said. “It had some grit, it had some artiness to it, it had some edge. But it also had something beautiful about it.”

Now Mr. Hernandez, a 41-year-old consultant and entrepreneur, regularly takes his family to visit Pier Village, an oceanside complex in Long Branch, 15 minutes north of Asbury Park, staying either at the Bungalow Hotel there, or the newly opened Wave Resort.