Beyond the Turnpike and the Stereotypes Lies a State of Stunning Beaches, Soaring Mountains, World-Class Culture, and Irresistible Food
There is perhaps no state in America more consistently misunderstood, more casually dismissed, or more stubbornly underestimated than New Jersey. It is the butt of a thousand jokes, the target of reflexive condescension from people who have never ventured beyond its airports and highway corridors, and the victim of a cultural caricature built from reality television, pollution mythology, and the peculiar American habit of looking down on density. Ask someone who has never spent real time in New Jersey what they think of it, and you will likely hear something about the Turnpike, the smell near Newark, or a reference to a television show about organized crime.
Ask someone who actually knows New Jersey, and you will hear something entirely different. You will hear about the most beautiful barrier island beaches on the entire East Coast. About a Pine Barrens wilderness larger than any national park in the northeastern United States that sits virtually unknown in the middle of the most densely populated state in the country. About Victorian resort towns of extraordinary charm and architectural richness. About the Delaware Water Gap, one of the finest outdoor recreation areas in the Mid-Atlantic. About a farm belt that earns New Jersey its nickname as the Garden State honestly, producing tomatoes, blueberries, cranberries, peaches, and corn of exceptional quality. About a food culture shaped by Italian, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Indian, Korean, Portuguese, and dozens of other immigrant communities that makes New Jersey, in terms of culinary depth and variety, one of the most exciting eating destinations in the country. About Princeton, one of the most beautiful university campuses in the world. About Cape May, a National Historic Landmark city containing the largest collection of Victorian architecture in America.
The people who know New Jersey tend to love it with a fierceness that puzzles outsiders until those outsiders actually spend time there. Then it tends to make perfect sense. This article is an invitation to discover what those people already know: that New Jersey, approached with an open mind and a spirit of genuine exploration, is one of the most rewarding travel destinations on the eastern seaboard.
Understanding New Jersey’s Geography
New Jersey is a small state, the fifth smallest in the country by land area, covering approximately 8,700 square miles. But within that compact space, it packs an extraordinary range of landscapes, communities, and experiences. It is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, the Delaware River to the west, and the Hudson River and New York Harbor to the northeast. Its position between New York City to the north and Philadelphia to the southwest has shaped its character profoundly, giving it a cultural and economic dynamism that derives partly from proximity to two of the great cities of the world while maintaining a distinct identity of its own.
The state is generally divided into three geographic regions. The north contains the Highlands, the Ridge and Valley region, and the Piedmont, a landscape of rolling hills, rivers, and reservoirs that extends into the New York metropolitan area and contains some of the state’s most affluent and historically significant communities. The center of the state is dominated by the Pinelands, a vast coastal plain of pine and oak forests, cedar swamps, and slow, tea-colored rivers that is one of the great natural surprises of the American East. The south is a mix of agricultural lowlands, the Atlantic coast, and the Delaware Bay shore, culminating in the Victorian splendor of Cape May at the state’s southernmost tip.
THE JERSEY SHORE
No discussion of New Jersey travel can begin anywhere other than the Jersey Shore, which is not merely a geographic designation but a cultural institution, a seasonal way of life, and for millions of people in the Mid-Atlantic states, the defining experience of summer. The Jersey Shore extends for approximately 130 miles along the Atlantic coast, from Sandy Hook at the northern tip to Cape May at the southern end, encompassing a diverse collection of barrier islands, beach towns, seaside resorts, and boardwalk communities that range from the raucously commercial to the quietly elegant.
The Shore is experienced through its towns, each of which has developed a distinct personality over the course of a century or more of summer visitation. Understanding those personalities is the key to finding the Shore experience that suits you best.
Asbury Park, located in Monmouth County in the northern Shore, has one of the most dramatic transformation stories in American beach town history. It was developed in the 1870s as a planned resort community of Victorian elegance, declined catastrophically through the second half of the 20th century following race riots in 1970 and decades of disinvestment, and has emerged in the 21st century as one of the most creatively vibrant small cities on the East Coast. The reinvention of Asbury Park is rooted in its arts and music culture. The Stone Pony, a modest rock and roll club on Ocean Avenue, is one of the most historically significant music venues in American rock history, the place where Bruce Springsteen built his legend and where Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes defined a sound. Springsteen’s relationship with Asbury Park is so deep and so extensively documented in his music that the town functions as a kind of living monument to his work, and pilgrimages by devoted fans are a genuine phenomenon. Beyond the Springsteen mythology, Asbury Park has developed a rich gallery scene, a thriving restaurant and bar culture, a welcoming LGBTQ community, and a boardwalk that mixes nostalgia with contemporary creativity in ways that feel genuinely exciting.
Spring Lake, just south of Asbury Park, represents the Shore’s opposite pole of refinement and serenity. One of the wealthiest and most beautiful beach communities on the East Coast, Spring Lake is a town of grand Victorian and Edwardian homes set along tree-lined streets, with a gorgeous non-commercial boardwalk, two spring-fed lakes that give the town its name, a charming downtown of independent shops and restaurants, and a beach that is among the cleanest and least crowded on the Shore. It is the kind of place that rewards a slow pace and rewards it handsomely.
Point Pleasant Beach is a classic Shore town with a lively boardwalk featuring the beloved Jenkinsons amusement park, arcade games, carnival rides, and beach bars, a solid stretch of wide beach, and the kind of summer energy that captures what many people mean when they say they love the Jersey Shore. It is unpretentious, fun, and essentially uncomplicated.
Seaside Heights, made internationally famous and locally complicated by the MTV reality show that bore its boardwalk’s name, is a raucous, intensely commercial beach town that embodies the loudest and most exuberant version of Shore culture. The boardwalk, rebuilt and revitalized after being devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, is a nonstop festival of rides, games, food stands, and entertainment. It is not for everyone, but it is undeniably alive.
Long Beach Island, accessed via the bridge from Manahawkin on the mainland, is an 18-mile-long barrier island of extraordinary natural beauty that contains a collection of quiet, family-oriented beach communities including Beach Haven, Surf City, and Barnegat Light. The Barnegat Lighthouse, a red-and-white striped beacon at the island’s northern tip known affectionately as Old Barney, is one of the most photographed landmarks in New Jersey and can be climbed for panoramic views across Barnegat Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, and the surrounding barrier island landscape. Long Beach Island has a devoted, multigenerational following among families who return summer after summer, and its combination of beautiful beaches, relatively modest development, and genuine community character makes it one of the most rewarding Shore destinations.
Island Beach State Park, located on a barrier island south of Seaside Heights, is one of the last undeveloped stretches of barrier island on the entire Eastern Seaboard. The park protects nearly 10 miles of pristine Atlantic beachfront backed by maritime forest, freshwater bogs, and coastal dunes in a state that has been intensively developed for over a century. Swimming, surfing, fishing, and nature study are the activities here, and the experience of walking the beach at Island Beach State Park, without a commercial structure in sight, is a rare and powerful one.
Ocean City, a family-friendly resort town that has been alcohol-free since its founding by Methodist ministers in 1879, is one of the most beloved Shore destinations for families across the region. Its wide, immaculate beach, 2.5-mile boardwalk packed with shops and food stands, and reputation for wholesome, safe summer fun attract families who return generation after generation. The boardwalk’s Shriver’s Salt Water Taffy and Fudge, in continuous operation since 1898, is a Shore institution.
Stone Harbor and Avalon, neighboring communities on Seven Mile Island in Cape May County, represent the Shore’s most exclusive and refined beach experience south of Spring Lake. These are places of beautiful homes, pristine beaches, excellent restaurants, and boutique shopping, with a quiet, sophisticated atmosphere that distinguishes them from the louder Shore communities to the north. The Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, a marine research and education center with a salt marsh trail and rehabilitation program for diamondback terrapins, is a wonderful attraction for nature-minded visitors.
CAPE MAY
At the very southern tip of New Jersey, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Delaware Bay, sits Cape May, a city of such concentrated Victorian architectural splendor, such genuine historic charm, and such gracious resort tradition that it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, one of only a handful of entire cities in America to receive that designation.
Cape May has been a resort destination since the early 19th century and was one of the first seaside resorts in America, attracting presidents, socialites, and middle-class families who came by steamboat from Philadelphia and other cities to enjoy the sea air and the social pleasures of a summer resort. After the Civil War, when Victorian prosperity unleashed a building boom, Cape May was rebuilt in an explosion of architectural exuberance that produced the extraordinary collection of gingerbread cottages, Italianate villas, Queen Anne mansions, and Gothic Revival houses that still define the city’s character.
Walking the streets of Cape May’s historic district is one of the great architectural pleasures of the American East. The variety of styles, ornamental details, paint colors, and decorative features is astonishing and endlessly interesting. The Washington Street Mall, a pedestrian shopping street in the heart of the historic district, is lined with excellent restaurants, boutiques, and galleries. The Emlen Physick Estate, an 1879 Stick Style Victorian mansion designed by architect Frank Furness and operated as a museum by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities, is the finest house museum in the Shore region and offers tours that illuminate the domestic life of a prosperous Victorian family. The Cape May Lighthouse, built in 1859 at the tip of the cape, can be climbed and offers extraordinary views across the confluence of ocean and bay.
Cape May’s natural setting is as remarkable as its architecture. The confluence of the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay, and the location of the cape at the intersection of multiple bird migration flyways, makes it one of the premier birdwatching destinations in North America. Every spring, millions of shorebirds descend on the beaches of the Delaware Bay shore in one of the most spectacular wildlife events in the eastern United States, timing their arrival to coincide with the spawning of horseshoe crabs, whose eggs provide the caloric fuel these birds need to complete their migrations to Arctic breeding grounds. The Cape May Bird Observatory, one of the most respected birding organizations in the country, operates centers and programs throughout the cape region and provides resources for birders of all experience levels.
The Cape May Winery, one of several vineyards that have established themselves in the Cape May peninsula, produces wines that take advantage of the maritime microclimate and the well-drained sandy soils of the cape. Wine tourism has become an increasingly significant part of the Cape May visitor economy, and the Cape May Wine Trail encompasses a growing number of producers.
The food scene in Cape May has matured significantly in recent decades, driven by a sophisticated visitor base and excellent local seafood. Cold Water Creek Cafe, the Ebbitt Room, and the Merion Inn are among the restaurants that have built strong reputations for quality. Fresh Cape May beach plums, harvested from the maritime shrubs that grow on the cape’s dunes in late summer, appear in jams, jellies, and preserves that make wonderful local souvenirs.
THE PINE BARRENS
In the heart of New Jersey, surrounded on all sides by one of the most densely populated and intensively developed metropolitan regions in the world, lies one of the most improbable natural landscapes in America. The Pine Barrens, also known as the Pinelands, covers approximately 1.1 million acres of the state’s coastal plain, more than a million acres of pine and oak forest, cedar swamps, bogs, rivers, and wetlands that has been officially protected as the Pinelands National Reserve since 1978.
The Pine Barrens is a landscape of otherworldly quality, particularly to those who encounter it for the first time while driving inland from the Shore or south from the suburbs of Trenton or Camden. The forest, dominated by pitch pine and several species of oak, grows in sandy, nutrient-poor, acidic soil that was largely unsuitable for conventional agriculture, which explains why this vast wilderness survived relatively intact while the surrounding region was developed. The understory, in season, is painted with the blooms of wild blueberries, mountain laurel, and orchids. The rivers, known as cedar streams or cedar creeks, run dark amber with the tannins of cedar roots and support populations of rare plants, insects, and amphibians found nowhere else in the world.
The Pinelands is one of the great canoeing destinations in the eastern United States. The Mullica, Batsto, Oswego, Wading, and Toms rivers all flow through the forest in dark, sinuous channels perfect for a day or weekend of paddling. Several outfitters in the Pinelands offer canoe and kayak rentals with shuttle services, making it easy for visitors to organize self-guided trips. The experience of paddling a cedar stream through the Pinelands on a clear day, the water the color of strong tea, the banks lined with cedar and spagnum moss and carnivorous sundews, the forest silent except for birdsong and the occasional splash of a river otter, is one of the most memorable natural experiences available anywhere in the Northeast.
Batsto Village, located within Wharton State Forest in the heart of the Pinelands, is a preserved 19th-century industrial village built around an ironworks and later a glass factory that operated in the forest for nearly two centuries. The village contains more than 30 historic structures including the ironmaster’s mansion, workers’ cottages, a grist mill, a sawmill, a post office, and a general store, all preserved in varying states of restoration and open for guided and self-guided tours. The ironworks at Batsto produced munitions for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, a historical footnote that adds dimension to this already fascinating site.
The Pinelands is also home to a unique cultural tradition. The Pineys, as the descendants of the original European settlers of the Pinelands are known, maintained a distinct and largely self-sufficient culture for generations, harvesting timber, charcoal, and cranberries from the forest while remaining largely outside the mainstream of New Jersey society. Their legacy survives in place names, local customs, and in the folk culture that has been carefully documented by ethnographers and folklorists over the past century.
The cranberry industry, established in the Pinelands in the mid-19th century, remains economically significant today. New Jersey is one of the leading cranberry-producing states in the country, and the flooded bogs of the Pinelands in October, when the cranberries are harvested and the water is turned crimson by the floating berries, create one of the most visually spectacular agricultural scenes in the Northeast. Several cranberry growers in the Burlington and Ocean County areas offer tours and harvest festivals in the fall.
THE DELAWARE WATER GAP AND THE NORTHWEST
The northwestern corner of New Jersey, where the Delaware River has carved a dramatic gap through the Kittatinny Ridge, is the state’s most rugged and scenically spectacular region, a landscape of mountain ridges, forested valleys, waterfalls, and clear rivers that rewards outdoor enthusiasts with some of the finest recreation in the Mid-Atlantic states.
The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area straddles the Delaware River along the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border for approximately 40 miles and encompasses more than 70,000 acres of protected land. The park offers an extraordinary range of outdoor activities: hiking on the Appalachian Trail, which passes through the park along the Kittatinny Ridge; swimming and sunbathing on river beaches; canoeing and kayaking the Delaware; fishing for trout, bass, and shad; cycling on dedicated trails; and cross-country skiing in winter. The views from the ridge, looking out across the river valley and the rolling Pennsylvania hills on the opposite shore, are among the finest in the entire Mid-Atlantic region.
Waterloo Village, a historic 18th-century iron forge and later canal town located along the Morris Canal in Sussex County, is one of New Jersey’s most significant historic sites. The village contains more than 20 preserved historic structures and interprets the history of the Morris Canal, an engineering marvel of the early 19th century that used an inclined plane system to raise and lower boats over the difficult terrain of northern New Jersey.
High Point State Park, in the far northwestern corner of the state near the New York border, contains the highest elevation in New Jersey at 1,803 feet above sea level. The High Point Monument, a 220-foot obelisk atop the summit, can be seen for miles in every direction, and the views from its base on a clear day encompass three states. The park’s trails, ponds, and swimming beach make it a popular destination for day hikers and campers from the surrounding metropolitan area.
The Appalachian Trail enters New Jersey from the Delaware Water Gap and crosses the Kittatinny Ridge for approximately 72 miles before entering New York State near the town of Ringwood. The New Jersey section of the trail, while not the most dramatic in the entire 2,190-mile route, offers excellent ridge walking with frequent views and passes through some of the most accessible wilderness in the northeastern United States.
Sussex County, in the far northwest, is home to a thriving agricultural community that has increasingly embraced agritourism. Farm stands, pick-your-own orchards and berry farms, farmers markets, and working dairy farms that welcome visitors dot the landscape. The Sussex County Farm and Horse Show, held annually in August, is one of the largest agricultural fairs in the Northeast.
THE SKYLANDS REGION AND THE HIGHLANDS
Running through the northern portion of the state, the New Jersey Highlands form a region of ancient rock, forested ridges, pristine lakes, and quiet river valleys that serves as the primary watershed and water supply for much of the densely populated areas to the east and south. The Highlands contain some of New Jersey’s most beautiful natural landscapes and some of its most charming historic communities.
Ringwood State Park, in the heart of the Highlands near the New York border, encompasses Ringwood Manor, the elegant 51-room home of the Hewitt family, descendants of the ironmasters who built a significant industrial fortune in the New Jersey Highlands. The manor is furnished with 19th-century antiques and offers tours that provide a window into the domestic life of Gilded Age industrialists. The adjacent New Jersey Botanical Garden at Skylands, set on a 1,000-acre estate with a Tudor Revival mansion, formal and informal gardens, and extensive woodland plantings, is one of the finest botanic gardens in the region and is particularly spectacular in spring when the azaleas, rhododendrons, and lilacs are in bloom.
Jockey Hollow and the Morristown National Historical Park preserve the sites where George Washington’s Continental Army encamped during two of the most difficult winters of the Revolutionary War. The army’s 1779-1780 winter at Jockey Hollow was, by most accounts, worse than the famous winter at Valley Forge, with soldiers enduring record cold, inadequate food and clothing, and near-total collapse of the supply system. The well-maintained trails through Jockey Hollow, past reconstructed soldier huts and through the same oak and hardwood forest that the Continental soldiers would have known, are haunting and moving.
The town of Morristown itself, the county seat of Morris County, has an attractive downtown with good restaurants, museums, and historic sites. The Morris Museum, one of the oldest and most distinguished museums in New Jersey, has collections spanning natural history, fine and decorative arts, and performing arts, and hosts an active program of exhibitions and performances.
Princeton, in the central part of the state, is one of the most beautiful college towns in the world, and Princeton University’s campus is among the finest examples of collegiate Gothic architecture in America. The FitzRandolph Gate, the Nassau Hall, the University Chapel, and the campus quadrangles form an ensemble of extraordinary architectural coherence and beauty. The Princeton University Art Museum is free to visit and houses one of the finest university art collections in the country, with particular strength in European old masters, American art, and Asian art. The town’s Nassau Street offers excellent independent bookshops, restaurants, and galleries. Albert Einstein lived and worked in Princeton for the last twenty years of his life, and his modest home on Mercer Street is a private residence, though it remains a landmark for those who wish to pay their respects to one of history’s greatest scientists.
CULTURAL LIFE AND CITIES
New Jersey’s position between New York City and Philadelphia, and its own dense and diverse population, has produced a remarkably rich cultural life that is often overlooked in the shadow of its two great neighboring cities.
Newark, New Jersey’s largest city and the hub of the state’s urban core, has its own cultural institutions of genuine national significance. The Newark Museum of Art, the largest museum in New Jersey, houses collections of American art, Tibetan art, and science exhibitions that would be the pride of many larger cities. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, opened in 1997 on the Newark waterfront, is one of the finest performing arts facilities in the Northeast, home to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and host to major touring productions and artists. The Prudential Center, a major sports and entertainment arena, hosts the New Jersey Devils NHL team and major concerts. Ironbound, a Newark neighborhood centered on Ferry Street, is one of the great Portuguese and Brazilian dining destinations in the United States, a dense concentration of excellent restaurants, bakeries, and butcher shops that represents one of the most authentic and exciting immigrant food communities in the Northeast.
New Brunswick, home to Rutgers University, has a lively downtown with excellent restaurants, theaters, and the State Theatre New Jersey, a beautifully restored 1920s theater that presents major touring productions and performances. The Zimmerli Art Museum on the Rutgers campus houses the world’s largest collection of Soviet nonconformist art, a genuinely remarkable and unexpected collection.
Hoboken and Jersey City, directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, have both developed into thriving cultural and culinary destinations in their own right. Hoboken’s Washington Street is lined with excellent restaurants and bars, and the Hoboken waterfront offers spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline. Jersey City’s arts scene has flourished as artists priced out of Manhattan and Brooklyn have relocated across the river, and the city’s diversity, reflected in its extraordinary restaurant landscape ranging from Filipino to Egyptian to Senegalese, makes it one of the most interesting food cities in the region.
The New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, the state capital, houses collections of fine art, archaeology, and natural history, with a noteworthy collection of works by New Jersey artists. The William Trent House, a 1719 Georgian mansion in Trenton, is the oldest house in the city and a significant example of early American domestic architecture.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR HISTORY
New Jersey holds a place of extraordinary importance in the history of the American Revolution, and the state’s Revolutionary War sites are among the most significant and best-preserved in the country. More military engagements took place in New Jersey than in any other state during the Revolution, earning it the designation “the Cockpit of the Revolution.”
Washington Crossing State Park, on the Delaware River in Mercer County, preserves the site where George Washington led his Continental Army across the icy Delaware River on the night of December 25-26, 1776, in the desperate gamble that led to the pivotal American victories at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. The park contains a visitor center with exhibits on the crossing, a copy of Emanuel Leutze’s famous painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware, and preserved buildings from the colonial era. The annual reenactment of the crossing, held on Christmas Day, draws thousands of spectators.
Monmouth Battlefield State Park preserves the site of the Battle of Monmouth, fought in June 1778 in intense summer heat, one of the largest battles of the Revolution and the engagement in which the legendary Molly Pitcher is said to have taken her fallen husband’s place at a cannon. The park’s extensive trail system allows visitors to walk the battlefield terrain and understand the movement of forces during the engagement.
Red Bank Battlefield Park in National Park, New Jersey, on the Delaware River, preserves the site of the Battle of Red Bank, where a vastly outnumbered American garrison successfully repelled a Hessian assault in October 1777, a victory that helped delay the British resupply of Philadelphia and boosted American morale during a difficult period of the war.
THE GARDEN STATE’S AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE
New Jersey’s nickname as the Garden State was earned honestly, and despite the state’s reputation for industrial and suburban development, agriculture remains a vital and vibrant part of the New Jersey economy and food culture.
The state produces more than 100 different crop varieties commercially, with particular distinction in tomatoes, blueberries, cranberries, peaches, sweet corn, asparagus, and peppers. The Jersey tomato, ripened in the long summer heat on the sandy soils of the coastal plain, has a flavor reputation that approaches legendary status among serious cooks in the region. Jersey tomatoes at the peak of summer, sliced thick and eaten with nothing more than salt, good olive oil, and fresh basil, represent one of the great simple pleasures of East Coast eating.
The blueberry industry of New Jersey is the longest established commercial blueberry operation in the United States. Elizabeth White of Whitesbog in the Pinelands collaborated with USDA botanist Frederick Coville in the early 20th century to develop the first commercially viable cultivated blueberry, and the descendants of those original plants still produce fruit in Burlington County. Whitesbog Village, now a historic site within Brendan Byrne State Forest, is open for tours and hosts a blueberry festival every June.
Farm stands dot the rural roads of Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland counties throughout the summer and fall, and the experience of pulling off a country road in early August to buy a flat of Jersey tomatoes or a basket of peaches directly from the farm is a genuine and irreplaceable New Jersey pleasure. The Battleview Orchards in Freehold, Terhune Orchards in Princeton, and Stony Hill Farm in Chester are among the many farm operations that have embraced agritourism with pick-your-own programs, farm markets, and seasonal events.
FOOD AND DRINK CULTURE
New Jersey’s food culture is one of the most diverse, vibrant, and underappreciated in the United States, shaped by a century and a half of successive immigrant waves that have layered flavor traditions upon one another in ways that produce a culinary landscape of extraordinary richness.
The New Jersey diner is a cultural institution that deserves its own discussion. The state has more diners per capita than any other in the country, and the New Jersey diner, with its laminated menus of heroic length, its chrome and neon exterior, its vast portions, its bottomless coffee, and its round-the-clock availability, is one of the quintessential American eating experiences. The Tick Tock Diner in Clifton, the Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights, and the Summit Diner in Summit are among the most beloved, but virtually every community in the state has its local diner and its fierce loyalists.
Italian-American food culture runs exceptionally deep in New Jersey, rooted in the enormous Italian immigrant communities that settled in cities like Newark, Trenton, and Hoboken in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Delis and pork stores, pizzerias, pastry shops, and family-style Italian restaurants of communities like Garfield, Lyndhurst, and the North Ward of Newark represent a culinary tradition of extraordinary authenticity and quality. Sorrento’s in Newark, the Spirito’s Restaurant in Elizabeth, and the many red-sauce institutions of the Italian-American shore communities have devoted followings that span generations.
The pork roll, known to some as Taylor ham, is a processed pork product of New Jersey origin that occupies a place of near-totemic significance in the state’s food culture. A breakfast sandwich of pork roll, egg, and cheese on a hard roll, ordered from any New Jersey deli or breakfast cart, is the definitive morning meal of millions of New Jerseyans and a taste experience that inspires fierce loyalty in those who grow up with it.
The bagel is another arena of New Jersey pride. The combination of New York metropolitan area water chemistry, a long tradition of skilled bakers in the Jewish immigrant communities of the state, and the general density of competition has produced a bagel culture in New Jersey of exceptional quality. H&H Bagels may be across the river, but dozens of New Jersey bagel shops produce product that stands comparison with the best in New York City.
The craft beer and craft spirits industry has grown significantly in New Jersey over the past decade. Kane Brewing Company in Ocean Township, Carton Brewing in Atlantic Highlands, Cape May Brewing Company in Cape May, and Departed Soles in Jersey City are among the producers drawing national attention. The New Jersey wine industry, centered primarily in the Garden State Wine Growers Association’s member wineries scattered across the state, has also developed a following, with Laurita Winery in New Egypt and Unionville Vineyards in Ringoes among the most respected producers.
THE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
New Jersey has contributed to American arts and entertainment with a productivity entirely disproportionate to its geographic size. The roll call of major artists, musicians, writers, and performers with deep New Jersey roots is staggering.
Bruce Springsteen, born in Long Branch and raised in Freehold, is the state’s most beloved cultural figure, the poet laureate of working-class New Jersey life and one of the greatest rock performers in American history. His connection to the Shore, to Asbury Park, to the specific landscapes and communities of Monmouth County, runs through his music with such specificity and love that listening to his albums while driving the roads of central New Jersey becomes a kind of multimedia experience. Sinatra, born in Hoboken in 1915, brought a different but equally indelible New Jersey quality to American popular music. Whitney Houston, born in Newark, was among the greatest vocalists in the history of popular music. Jon Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny, Patti Smith, Queen Latifah, and Lauryn Hill are among the many other major musical figures with New Jersey roots.
The literary tradition is equally strong. Philip Roth, born and raised in Newark’s Weequahic neighborhood, drew on that specific New Jersey world for some of the greatest American novels of the 20th century. His Newark is as richly imagined and as specific in its geography and culture as Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha. Walt Whitman spent the last years of his life in Camden, across the Delaware from Philadelphia, and his home there is preserved as a museum. Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark and raised in Paterson, the industrial city that also inspired William Carlos Williams’s epic poem of the same name.
The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton is one of the finest regional theaters in the United States, consistently producing work of national significance. The Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn has launched numerous Broadway productions and is one of the most important nonprofit musical theater organizations in the country. The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, named for the jazz legend who was born and raised in that Monmouth County city, presents an eclectic program of music, theater, and comedy in a beautifully restored historic venue.
PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATION
New Jersey is extremely well served by transportation infrastructure, benefiting from its position in the heart of the northeastern megalopolis. Newark Liberty International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the United States, with extensive domestic and international connections, and is in many respects the most convenient air gateway to New York City, sitting as it does just minutes from the center of the metropolitan area.
New Jersey Transit operates an extensive rail and bus network connecting communities throughout the state to New York City and Philadelphia, making car-free travel feasible for visitors based in the major urban centers who wish to explore the northern and central parts of the state. However, the Shore, the Pine Barrens, the Delaware Water Gap, and much of the southern part of the state are most practically explored by car.
The Garden State Parkway runs the length of the state from north to south along the coastal plain, providing access to virtually every Shore community. The New Jersey Turnpike is the primary north-south route through the metropolitan corridor and is indeed utilitarian and somewhat grim, but it is also remarkably efficient for covering distance quickly. The scenic byways of the state, including Route 9, which passes through the heart of the Shore communities, Route 206 through the Pine Barrens and Skylands, and Route 29 along the Delaware River, offer far more interesting traveling.
Accommodation runs from major hotel chains in Newark, Princeton, and the urban centers to historic bed-and-breakfasts and boutique hotels in Cape May and the Victorian Shore towns to enormous hotel-casino complexes in Atlantic City. Cape May in particular has a superb collection of Victorian bed-and-breakfast inns of exceptional quality and character, and staying in one of these beautifully restored historic homes is a significant part of the Cape May experience.
The climate is four-season continental, with hot, humid summers along the coast that moderate somewhat inland, colorful autumns, cold winters that occasionally bring significant snowfall, and pleasant springs. The Shore season runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day in terms of peak activity, though many Shore communities have extended their seasons significantly in recent years, and visiting in September or early October, when the crowds have thinned but the weather remains beautiful and the water still warm, is increasingly recognized as the ideal time.
Conclusion
New Jersey rewards the visitor who arrives willing to set aside the stereotypes and engage with the actual place. It is a state of extraordinary contrasts: wild and urban, historic and contemporary, refined and exuberant, quiet and alive with energy. It contains within its compact borders more variety, more history, more natural beauty, and more genuine culinary and cultural richness than states many times its size.
It is the state where Washington crossed the Delaware and turned the tide of a revolution, and where Bruce Springsteen turned the experiences of working-class Shore-town teenagers into the soundtrack of a generation. Where Victorian gingerbread cottages line the streets of Cape May and carnivorous plants grow in the ancient solitude of the Pine Barrens. Where the most diverse restaurant streets in America sit alongside cranberry bogs and blueberry fields that have been harvested for centuries. Where the Atlantic crashes against barrier island beaches of extraordinary beauty just a short drive from some of the most significant cultural institutions in the Northeast.
The jokes about New Jersey are old, tired, and wrong, told by people who do not know the place. The people who do know it, who have eaten a Jersey tomato at the height of summer and walked the Victorian streets of Cape May at dusk and paddled a cedar stream through the cathedral silence of the Pinelands, tend not to find the jokes particularly funny. They find them puzzling, mostly. They find them puzzling because they know what New Jersey actually is, and what it actually is bears so little resemblance to the caricature that the distance between the two seems almost comical.
Come and see for yourself. That is the only real answer. Come and see, and let New Jersey show you, as it has shown so many skeptical visitors before, exactly what it is made of.
New Jersey — The Garden State. Tougher than you think, more beautiful than you expect, and better than you have been told.
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