New Jersey fits a lot into a small state. On a single fall weekend you could climb a six-story wooden elephant, hike a stretch of the Appalachian Trail, paddle a tea-colored river through the Pine Barrens and watch the sunset light up the Manhattan skyline from a park that faces the Statue of Liberty. That range is what makes the best things to do in New Jersey hard to fit on one list, and why this one has 101 of them, from Cape May’s Victorian streets to the Delaware Water Gap.
The list runs region by region and is ranked within each: the Shore from Cape May to Sandy Hook, North Jersey’s Hudson waterfront and mountains, Central Jersey’s river towns and battlefields, and South Jersey’s pine forest and bay. Every entry says whether it’s free or paid, when it’s open, how long the drive is from Midtown Manhattan and Center City Philadelphia, and who it suits, with prices checked in September 2026. The big New Jersey tourist attractions are all here, and so are a lot of places the big lists leave out.
Quick answer: For a first trip, pick one Shore town (Cape May for Victorian streets and quiet beaches, Wildwood or Atlantic City for boardwalk rides and nightlife), then add one day inland: the Statue of Liberty ferry from Liberty State Park, the Mount Tammany hike at the Delaware Water Gap, Princeton, or Six Flags Great Adventure. You’ll need a car for most of this list. Summer is Shore season, but September has warm water and far fewer crowds.
Last updated September 24, 2026. Prices, hours, closures and event dates were checked on September 23-24, 2026, against each attraction’s or agency’s own website, and every price is dated in the text. Drive times are light-traffic routing estimates, explained in How this list works.
- Free and excellent: the beaches of Atlantic City and the Wildwoods (no beach tags), every boardwalk, Liberty State Park, Paterson’s Great Falls, Morristown National Historical Park and the Princeton University Art Museum.
- Book ahead: timed tickets at Grounds For Sculpture, Saturday parking passes at Duke Farms, Ringwood Manor tours and the Hindenburg-site tours at Lakehurst, which need two weeks’ notice.
- Gone or closed: Kingda Ka at Six Flags (demolished in 2025), Ocean City’s Wonderland Pier, the Palisades’ Giant Stairs, the Walt Whitman House in Camden (until about summer 2027) and, after this season, Clementon Park. See What’s changed.
- Costs to expect: state park fees are back (an annual pass is $50 for NJ residents and $75 for everyone else), most Shore towns charge $7 to $15 a day for beach badges in summer, and NJ Transit fares rise 3% every July 1.
On this page: Top 10 | How this list works | By trip type | Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May | Shore: LBI to Sandy Hook | North Jersey | Central Jersey | South Jersey | Anywhere in the state | All 101 at a glance | When to go | Getting around | What’s changed | What to skip | FAQ
The 10 Best Things to Do in New Jersey at a Glance
Short on time? These are the best places to visit in NJ if you only get a few days, chosen to show the whole state rather than ten beaches in a row.
| Pick | Region | Cost (Sept. 2026) | Best season | From NYC | From Philly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Cape May’s Victorian district | Shore, south | Free to walk; tours $20 | May to Oct., December | 3 hr 15 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 36. Liberty State Park and the Statue ferry | North | Park free; ferry $26 | All year | 20 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 3. Atlantic City Boardwalk | Shore, south | Free | All year | 2 hr 45 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 37. Mount Tammany hike | North | Free | April to November | 1 hr 30 min | 2 hr 15 min |
| 2. Wildwood Boardwalk and Morey’s Piers | Shore, south | Free beach; rides extra | Memorial Day to Labor Day | 3 hr 15 min | 1 hr 50 min |
| 64. Six Flags Great Adventure | Central | From $45 online | April to October | 1 hr 35 min | 1 hr 15 min |
| 63. Princeton | Central | Free | All year | 1 hr 20 min | 1 hr 5 min |
| 20. Sandy Hook | Shore, north | $20 parking in summer | June to September | 1 hr 30 min | 2 hr 5 min |
| 21. Asbury Park | Shore, north | Badges $7 to $10 a day in summer | All year | 1 hr 20 min | 1 hr 40 min |
| 81. Batsto Village and the Pine Barrens | South | Free; mansion tours $3 | April to October | 2 hr 20 min | 1 hr 5 min |
How This List Works
The 101 entries are grouped by region, and within each region they’re ranked, best first. Numbers run straight through the page, so #37 is always Mount Tammany. The regions:
- The Shore, south (1-19): Atlantic City to Cape May, the resort towns closest to Philadelphia.
- The Shore, north (20-35): Long Beach Island to Sandy Hook, the beaches New Yorkers reach first.
- North Jersey (36-62): the Hudson waterfront across from Manhattan, the Gateway cities of Newark, Paterson and the Meadowlands, and the Skylands’ mountains and lakes.
- Central Jersey (63-80): Princeton, Trenton, the Delaware River towns and the farm country between I-78 and I-195, plus Six Flags.
- South Jersey (81-95): the Pine Barrens, the Camden waterfront and the farm towns toward Delaware Bay.
- Anywhere in the state (96-101): diners, pork roll, farms, wine, the beach train and a lighthouse weekend.
Each entry opens with a marker saying whether it’s free or paid, then explains why it’s worth your time and what to watch out for. The Plan it line gives the season, hours and dated prices, how to get there without a car where that’s possible, and a drive time from Times Square and from Philadelphia’s City Hall. Those drive times come from OpenStreetMap routing data, rounded to five minutes, and assume light traffic. They know nothing about the Friday afternoon backup at the Garden State Parkway tolls or the Sunday crawl home from the Shore, so add an hour or more on summer weekends. For anything on the Hudson waterfront, the PATH train or a ferry usually beats the tunnels.
Things to Do in New Jersey by Trip Type
Nobody needs all 101 things to do in NJ on one trip. Start with the row that matches yours.
The Jersey Shore, South: Atlantic City to Cape May
This is the half of the coast with the biggest boardwalks, the casinos and the state’s best-preserved Victorian town, and it’s the Shore that Philadelphia drives to. From Center City it’s about 1 hr 20 min to Atlantic City and 2 hours to Cape May; from Midtown Manhattan, budget 2 hr 45 min to 3 hr 25 min before traffic. Summer is peak season. September may be better: the ocean is about as warm as in August, and in most towns nobody checks beach tags after Labor Day.
1. Cape May’s Victorian Historic District
Free to walk; tours from $20. Cape May is the rare beach town where the streets are the main event. The entire city was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and its blocks of porches, turrets and gingerbread trim are the reason it tops this list. Cape May MAC, the nonprofit that runs the town’s museums and tours, bills it as the oldest seaside resort in the country. Start on the Washington Street Mall, three car-free blocks of shops and cafes dedicated in 1971, then wander the side streets toward the beach. You’ll come back with more photos of front porches than you meant to take.
Plan it: Guided tours of the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate, a Frank Furness design at 1048 Washington Street, cost $20 for adults and $15 for children 3-12 (2026 prices). Cape May MAC’s narrated Historic District Trolley Tour runs all year from the Ocean Street stop at the same price; times change by season, so check the MAC calendar. Season: all year, with May, June, September and December the sweet spots. Drive: 3 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow a full day. Best for: couples, first-timers, history.
2. The Wildwood Boardwalk and Morey’s Piers
Free beach and boardwalk; rides extra. The Wildwoods are the Jersey boardwalk at full volume: roller coasters and rides on three amusement piers (Surfside, Mariner’s and Adventure), two water parks, arcades and pizza by the slice, along a boardwalk that the yellow Sightseer tram car runs for 2 miles and 38 blocks. The beaches in Wildwood, North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest are free, with no beach tags at all, which makes this the best-value family beach on the Shore. Older lists call the middle pier Mariner’s Landing; Morey’s now calls it Mariner’s Pier.
Plan it: Morey’s sells ride ticket cards, ride wristbands and water-park combos online. In late September the piers open on weekends only, and Morey’s Oktoberfest runs on weekends through October 11, 2026. The tram car runs daily from late May through Labor Day weekend: $5 one way, or $13 for unlimited rides until 5 p.m. (2026 fares). Season: Memorial Day to Labor Day, plus fall weekends. Drive: 3 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 50 min from Philadelphia. Allow a full day. Best for: families, teens, budget beach days.
3. The Atlantic City Boardwalk and Steel Pier
Free. The country’s first boardwalk opened here on June 26, 1870, a footpath 8 feet wide and a mile long, according to the Atlantic City Free Public Library. Today it runs a little more than 4 miles through Atlantic City, and about 5.75 miles counting neighboring Ventnor, up to 60 feet wide. Casinos, candy shops, arcades and the Steel Pier’s rides line it the whole way. The beach below is free, with no tags, and lifeguards are on duty from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in season. Walk it once in daylight for the ocean and once after dark, when the casino signs light up the shoreline.
Plan it: Steel Pier, at 1000 Boardwalk, sells ride tickets at $2.08 each ($2 cash). Each ride takes several tickets, tickets never expire, and the observation Wheel is priced separately (2026 prices). Its rides are seasonal, so check the pier’s calendar. The Atlantic City Jitney costs $3 a ride in cash. Season: all year for the boardwalk. Drive: 2 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia; NJ Transit’s Atlantic City Rail Line also runs from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. Allow a half day. Best for: first-timers, night, budget.
4. Cape May Lighthouse
Paid to climb ($12 adults). The 1859 tower stands 157 feet 6 inches tall in Cape May Point State Park, near the spot where Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic. The climb is 217 steps from the ground to the top, 199 of them on a cast-iron spiral, and the light is still an active Coast Guard aid to navigation. From the gallery you look out over the dunes, the ponds of the state park and the water on two sides.
Plan it: Adults $12; children 3-12 and veterans $8; active military free (2026 prices, Cape May MAC). The last climb is 15 minutes before closing, and the tower closes when there’s lightning. Hours change with the season, so check before you go. The state park around it has trails, observation platforms over the ponds and a World War II gun battery locals call the Bunker. Drive: 3 hr 25 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 1 to 2 hours with the park. Best for: couples, first-timers, kids who can handle stairs.
5. Sunset Beach and the SS Atlantus
Free. Sunset Beach, at the end of Sunset Boulevard in Lower Township, faces west across Delaware Bay, so the sun sets over the water here, which almost never happens on the Atlantic coast. Just offshore sit the remains of the SS Atlantus, a concrete freighter built during World War I, when steel was short. It was towed here in 1926 to become part of a ferry dock, broke loose in a storm on June 8, 1926 and ran aground, and it has been stuck ever since: 2026 is its 100th year. People comb the sand at the waterline for “Cape May diamonds”, quartz pebbles polished by the surf.
Plan it: On summer evenings at 7 p.m., a flag that once draped a veteran’s casket is lowered as the sun goes down. In 2026 the ceremony ran on Saturdays from Memorial Day weekend through June, then Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays in July and August, ending the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. The rest of the year you get the sunset without the ceremony. Drive: 3 hr 25 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow an hour, timed to sunset. Best for: couples, budget, photographers.
6. Lucy the Elephant, Margate
Paid, guided tours only. In 1881 a Philadelphia developer named James Lafferty built a wooden elephant six stories high on the beach south of Atlantic City, and she’s still there, a National Historic Landmark since 1976 and exactly as odd up close as she looks in photos. The only way inside is a guided tour, which leaves about every 45 minutes. Her outside was restored in 2022; in March 2026 Senator Cory Booker secured $350,000 in federal money toward repairs inside, and a separate visitor center is planned for people who can’t manage the climb.
Plan it: Adults $9, teens 13-18 $8.50, children 3-12 $5, military free (posted rates, 2026). Through October 2026 she’s open daily, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends; from November 2 to December 8 she’s closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and early in 2026 she opened only on weekends from January to March, so call 609-823-6473 before you drive. Season: all year. Drive: 2 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 hour. Best for: families, first-timers, anyone with a camera.
7. Ocean City’s Boardwalk
Free boardwalk; beach tags in summer. Ocean City is the Shore’s family town, with about 2.5 miles of boardwalk from 23rd Street to St. James Place and a long-standing ban on alcohol sales. The Music Pier, dedicated on July 4, 1929, still hosts summer concerts, and Shriver’s, which calls itself the oldest business on the boardwalk, dates to 1898 and still makes saltwater taffy at its shop at 9th Street. If you want rides, go to Playland’s Castaway Cove; Gillian’s Wonderland Pier closed for good in October 2024.
Plan it: Beach tags are required for everyone 12 and older from June 1 through Labor Day: $10 a day, $20 a week, or $35 for the season in 2026 ($30 if bought before June 1); veterans and active military go free with ID. Castaway Cove, at 1020 Boardwalk, runs rides on weekends into mid-October. The town’s big nights are Night in Venice, a decorated boat parade in late July, and First Night on New Year’s Eve. Drive: 2 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 25 min from Philadelphia. Allow a full day. Best for: families, budget.
8. Whale and Dolphin Watching from Cape May
Paid (from $30). Boats leave Cape May’s harbor for the mouth of Delaware Bay and the ocean beyond, where bottlenose dolphins are the usual summer sighting and whales are possible, most often from midsummer into fall. The Cape May Whale Watcher sails from March to December and backs its trips with a guarantee: if you don’t see marine mammals, you get a free pass that never expires. That promise tells you how often the trips come back with sightings.
Plan it: The Cape May Whale Watcher runs cruises at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.; two-hour trips start at $30 and three-hour whale and dolphin trips at $40. The Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center, operating since 1987, runs dolphin and whale trips aboard the American Star. It’s colder on the water than on the beach, so bring a layer. Drive: 3 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 to 3 hours. Best for: families, couples, nature lovers.
9. Fall Hawk Watching at Cape May Point
Free. Every fall, hawks, falcons and eagles flying south along the coast bunch up at the tip of the Cape May peninsula before crossing Delaware Bay, and counters from the Cape May Bird Observatory, run by New Jersey Audubon, have tallied them from Cape May Point since 1976. The state park estimates that about 30,000 raptors pass in a typical year, with historic highs above 80,000. You don’t need to be a birder to enjoy a platform full of people shouting about a peregrine.
Plan it: The Hawk Watch Platform is in Cape May Point State Park, the same park as the lighthouse (#4). Migration builds through September, and the biggest raptor flights usually come from late September to mid-October. Three marked trails loop through the park’s ponds, dunes and marsh, and the shortest is a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk. Drive: 3 hr 25 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: birders, couples, budget.
10. Atlantic City’s Casinos
Free to walk in; 21 and over to play. Nine casino hotels hold Atlantic City’s licenses in 2026: Bally’s, Borgata, Caesars, Golden Nugget, Hard Rock, Harrah’s, Ocean, Resorts and Tropicana. Resorts opened first, in 1978, and Hard Rock and Ocean are the newest, both from 2018. Even if you never touch a slot machine, they’re where the city’s shows, spas, steakhouses and late nights happen. One thing older guides skip: casino floors are exempt from New Jersey’s indoor smoking ban, casinos here can still allow smoking on up to 25% of the gaming floor, and some floors smell like it.
Plan it: State law bars anyone under 21 from gambling or lingering on a casino floor. Hotel rooms here carry 13.625% in taxes, plus per-night fees at casino hotels. Drive: 2 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia; NJ Transit’s bus 319 runs from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Allow an evening. Best for: adults, night, rainy days.
11. Absecon Lighthouse, Atlantic City
Paid ($10 adults). A few blocks from the Boardwalk in the Inlet neighborhood, Absecon Lighthouse calls itself New Jersey’s tallest, and its 228 steps are the most of any lighthouse on this list. It’s a quieter half hour than anything on the Boardwalk, and the view from the top puts the whole resort, from the casinos to the marshes behind them, in one frame.
Plan it: From September to June it’s open Thursday to Monday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; in July and August it’s open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The last climb starts 30 minutes before closing. Adults $10, seniors and college students $9, children 4-12 $6, active military and children under 4 free (2026 prices). Drive: 2 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 hour. Best for: families with older kids, history.
12. The Doo Wop Motels of the Wildwoods
Free to look. Wildwood and Wildwood Crest still have stretches of 1950s and ’60s motels with swooping rooflines, plastic palm trees and neon signs, a style known here as Doo Wop. Dozens were demolished in the 2000s, so the survivors are worth a slow drive down Ocean Avenue before more of them go. The best time is after dark, when the signs come on.
Plan it: The Doo Wop Experience museum, at 4500 Ocean Avenue in Wildwood, has 1950s and ’60s memorabilia, vintage furniture and a retro malt shop, with a Neon Sign Garden of restored motel signs outside. It keeps seasonal hours, so check before you go. Cape May MAC also runs a Doo Wop trolley tour in season. Drive: 3 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: design fans, photographers, night.
13. Cape May County Park & Zoo
Free. A real zoo that charges nothing, in Cape May Court House, about 20 minutes’ drive north of Cape May. Admission and parking are both free (donations are welcome), and it’s open every day of the year except Christmas, which makes it the Shore’s best plan for a gray day with kids.
Plan it: Open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through October 29, 2026, then 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. through March 11, 2027. Parking is first come, first served. Drive: 3 hr 5 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 to 3 hours. Best for: families, budget.
14. The Cape May-Lewes Ferry
Paid (foot passengers from $11). The crossing from North Cape May to Lewes, Delaware, takes about 85 minutes and covers 17 miles of open water at the mouth of Delaware Bay. It’s the best cheap boat ride on this coast, and a foot-passenger round trip makes an easy day out: ride over, walk around Lewes, ride back for the sunset.
Plan it: Fares from September 1 to October 31, 2026: a car under 20 feet costs $36 to $41 one way ($68 to $78 round trip), because since June 1, 2026 car fares rise as a sailing fills up, so book early for the lowest price. The driver now pays a passenger fare on top: adults 14 to 61 pay $11 one way or $20 round trip, seniors 62 and up $9 or $16, and children under 14 ride free. Drive: 3 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day for a round trip. Best for: couples, families, a side trip to Delaware.
15. Christmas in Cape May
Free to wander; house tours ticketed. Cape May dresses its Victorians for December the way other beach towns dress up for the Fourth of July, and it’s the best reason to see the Shore in winter. Cape May MAC’s Christmas Candlelight House Tours, running since 1974, open decorated inns, homes and churches for a self-guided evening walk. Congress Hall, the grand hotel on Beach Avenue, runs a Winter Wonderland with its own tree lighting.
Plan it: The 2026 Candlelight House Tours are on Saturdays, December 5, 12 and 19, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Congress Hall’s Winter Wonderland runs Thursday to Sunday from November 27 to December 31, 2026, and the tree lighting is Friday, December 4. December weekends book up, so reserve rooms early. Drive: 3 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow a weekend. Best for: couples, families, holiday trips.
16. Forsythe’s Wildlife Drive
$4 per car. Just north of Atlantic City, an 8-mile, one-way loop runs across the salt marshes of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, with the casino towers on the horizon and egrets, herons and ducks in the foreground. The refuge covers more than 48,000 acres and has recorded more than 360 bird species, so there’s something moving in any season.
Plan it: The Wildlife Drive is open every day from sunrise to sunset for $4 per car. The visitor information center in Oceanville is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring binoculars and bug spray in summer. Drive: 2 hr 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: birders, photographers, budget.
17. Island Waterpark at Showboat, Atlantic City
Paid. The indoor water park at the Showboat on the Boardwalk opened in 2023 and has everything a wet week at the Shore needs: Slide Island’s five waterslides plus bigger slides like the Barracuda Blaster and Sonic Serpent, a FlowRider surf machine, the Island Drift lazy river and separate pools for small kids and adults. It’s Atlantic City’s best answer to a rainy day at the beach.
Plan it: In September and October 2026 it’s open Friday and Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. (plus Monday, October 12), and closed Monday to Thursday; hours change by month. Tickets are sold by date on the park’s website. Drive: 2 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: families, teens, rainy days.
18. Boardwalk Hall’s Giant Pipe Organ
Free concerts; organ tours by reservation. Inside Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, the Boardwalk arena that is also a National Historic Landmark, sits the Midmer-Losh organ, built between 1929 and 1932 with 33,112 pipes. The volunteer committee restoring it calls it the largest and loudest musical instrument on Earth. Only about 60% of it works so far, with full restoration expected around 2030, and a free noon concert in the main arena is still one of the strangest, best half hours in Atlantic City.
Plan it: Free 30-minute noon concerts run daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with a few fall dates (October 14 and 21 in 2026). Curator’s Tours of the organ chambers and restoration shop run on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. from April to December, by reservation through the Historic Organ Restoration Committee. Drive: 2 hr 40 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 hour. Best for: music lovers, rainy days, the curious.
19. Historic Cold Spring Village
Paid ($14 adults). Costumed interpreters work at 1800s trades on a 30-acre site of restored buildings just north of Cape May: blacksmithing, printing, woodworking, basket weaving and bookbinding. The village calls itself New Jersey’s largest open-air living history museum, and after a few beach days it’s a good change of pace for kids.
Plan it: Regular 2026 hours are weekends from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through October 4, then special events only. Adults $14, children 3-12 $10, under 3 free. The Route 9 gate is closed, so enter on Seashore Road (735 Seashore Road). Drive: 3 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 50 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 to 3 hours. Best for: families, history.
The Jersey Shore, North: Long Beach Island to Sandy Hook
The northern half of the Shore is closer to New York and easier to reach without a car. NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line runs from Penn Station to Red Bank, Asbury Park, Belmar, Spring Lake and Point Pleasant Beach, and Seastreak ferries cross from Manhattan to the Highlands. The towns also vary more than in the south, from Asbury Park’s music and food to Spring Lake’s hush and Seaside Heights’ neon. Drives from Midtown run from about 1 hour to 2 hr 30 min; from Philadelphia, 1 hr 15 min to 2 hr 5 min.
20. Sandy Hook
Free off-season; $20 beach parking in summer. Sandy Hook, the sandy spit at the northern tip of the Jersey Shore, is part of Gateway National Recreation Area, so its beaches come with no boardwalk, no badges and no high-rises: ocean on one side, the bay and the Manhattan skyline on the other, and the historic buildings of Fort Hancock in between. The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, first lit on June 11, 1764, is the oldest operating lighthouse in the United States. In March 1776, a patriot raiding party carried off its eight copper lamps and four casks of whale oil.
Plan it: The park is open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. From the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, beach lots cost $20 a day or $100 a season, paid by card at cashless booths between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., and the lots close when they fill on summer weekends. Parking at Fort Hancock is always free. This fall the visitor center (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.), lighthouse tours (1 to 3:30 p.m., first come, first served) and the History House (1 to 4:30 p.m.) open Friday to Monday. Seastreak’s beach ferry from Manhattan runs in summer only, with advance tickets ($60 round trip for adults in 2026). Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 2 hr 5 min from Philadelphia. Allow a full day in summer. Best for: NYC day-trippers, beach purists, history.
21. Asbury Park
Free boardwalk; beach badges in summer ($7 to $10 a day). Asbury Park is the Shore town for people who aren’t sure they like Shore towns: more restaurants and bars than rides, a music scene built around the Stone Pony, open since 1974 at 913 Ocean Avenue, and a boardwalk with the 1929 Convention Hall at one end and the old Casino at the other. One catch: Convention Hall has been largely closed since about 2021 for structural safety. In August 2026 the state awarded $75 million in tax credits toward a $130 million restoration, but there’s no reopening date. The Grand Arcade walkway through it stays open.
Plan it: 2026 badges cost $7 on weekdays and $10 on weekends and holidays, or $70 for an adult season badge; children 12 and under are free. The Sea.Hear.Now festival takes over the beach in mid-September (September 19-20 in 2026; 2027 dates aren’t announced). NJ Transit’s coast line stops in town, so you can leave the car in New York. Drive: 1 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Allow a day and a night. Best for: couples, music fans, NYC day-trippers, night.
22. Island Beach State Park
Paid per car ($6 to $20 in summer). South of Seaside Park the barrier island simply stops being developed. Island Beach State Park is dunes, ocean beach and bayside marsh with one road down the middle and very little else, the closest thing the northern Shore has to wilderness. On a July weekend it’s also popular enough that the gates close to new cars once the lots fill, so come early or come on a weekday.
Plan it: 2026 entry per car from Memorial Day to Labor Day: $6 on weekdays and $10 on weekends for NJ residents, $12 and $20 for non-residents. Off-season it’s $5 and $10, and walkers and cyclists get in free. In summer the gates open at 7 a.m. on weekends and 8 a.m. on weekdays, and the park closes at 8 p.m. (dusk off-season). Once you’re in, the beach costs nothing more. Drive: 1 hr 55 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Allow a full day. Best for: beach purists, anglers, families who don’t need a boardwalk.
23. Long Beach Island and Beach Haven
Free island; badges in summer ($7 to $11 a day). LBI is one long, narrow island reached by a single causeway, with six beach towns strung end to end and a quieter, more residential feel than the boardwalk towns. The long-delayed rebuild of the Route 72 causeway bridges was essentially finished in January 2026, so older warnings about construction backups no longer apply. Beach Haven, near the south end, has the island’s rides: Fantasy Island charges nothing to get in or park, and you pay for rides.
Plan it: 2026 daily badges run $7 to $11 depending on the town. In Long Beach Township they’re required for ages 12 and up from June 20 to September 7, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fantasy Island’s last 2026 ride day is October 3, with unlimited-ride wristbands at $20, $25 or $30 by session. The Beach Haven Chowder Cook-Off, successor to the old LBI Chowderfest, is October 3-4, 2026. Drive: 2 hr 10 min from NYC, 1 hr 30 min from Philadelphia. Allow a day or a week. Best for: families, couples, beach weeks.
24. Barnegat Lighthouse
Free park; climb the tower in season. “Old Barney” stands at the north tip of Long Beach Island, across the inlet from Island Beach. It was designed in 1857 by Lt. George G. Meade, the Army engineer who later commanded the Union army at Gettysburg, and first lit on January 1, 1859. It reopened for climbing in June 2023 after a $1.3 million restoration, and its 217 steps end at a gallery looking over Barnegat Bay, Island Beach State Park, LBI and the ocean. Below it, a 1,033-foot walkway runs along the top of the south jetty, and in winter it’s one of the best places on the coast to see harlequin ducks and common eiders.
Plan it: Climbing has been listed as daily, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., from Memorial Day to Labor Day; for off-season hours and any climbing fee, call the park office at 609-494-2016. The tower’s original first-order Fresnel lens is in the free Barnegat Light Museum at 501 Central Avenue, open weekends in June and September and Tuesday to Sunday in July and August. The self-guided Maritime Forest Trail is a 0.2-mile loop through one of the last patches of maritime forest in New Jersey. Drive: 2 hr 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 45 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: families, birders, photographers.
25. Ocean Grove
Free to walk; beach wristbands in summer ($13 a day). Next door to Asbury Park, Ocean Grove is its opposite: a Victorian town founded in 1869 as a Methodist camp meeting, with the Great Auditorium at its center and a colony of canvas-fronted summer tents around it. The auditorium, built in 1894, once seated almost 10,000 people and still holds 6,250, and its Hope-Jones organ, dedicated in 1908, has more than 13,000 pipes. It’s a lovely, slow place to walk, and a strange one if you’ve just come from the Stone Pony.
Plan it: Free organ concerts run on summer Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. (July 30 to September 3 in 2026). Beach wristbands cost $13 a day in 2026, and a season badge is $105. You can walk over from Asbury Park’s south end. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: couples, history, architecture.
26. Jenkinson’s Boardwalk, Point Pleasant Beach
Free boardwalk; beach, rides and aquarium extra. Point Pleasant Beach’s boardwalk is largely Jenkinson’s: an amusement park, arcades, a private beach, bars and an aquarium, all under one name and all within a short walk. That makes it the most practical Shore day for a North Jersey family, because the rainy-day backup is already there.
Plan it: Summer beach admission is $14 on weekdays and $15 on weekends for ages 12 and up. Rides take credits ($1 each) or a three-hour weekday wristband ($48.95 to $52.95). This fall a limited set of rides runs at half price from noon to 6 p.m. on September 26 to October 4 and October 10-12, 17-18 and 24-25, 2026, with trick-or-treating on the last two weekends. The aquarium is open daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.: adults $19, seniors $15, children 3-11 $13 (its wheelchair lift is out of service until about October 31). NJ Transit’s coast line stops in town. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Allow a day. Best for: families, rainy days.
27. Seaside Heights and Casino Pier
Free boardwalk; badges in summer ($13 a day). Seaside Heights is the Shore’s party boardwalk, and yes, it’s where MTV’s Jersey Shore was filmed. Casino Pier’s rides stand out over the beach, and the town’s restored Dr. Floyd L. Moreland Dentzel/Looff Carousel, built in 1910 and in Seaside Heights since 1932, turns again in its own building at Sampson Avenue, at the north end of the boardwalk. It reopened in July 2024 after years of restoration and is one of just four wooden carousels left in New Jersey. Older guides still send you to the Casino Pier arcade to find it; it has moved.
Plan it: Badges cost $13 a day or $75 for the season in 2026, and children under 12 are free. Casino Pier’s rides run weekends through October 11, 2026, and its Breakwater Beach water park is closed for the season. The carousel’s 2026 hours weren’t posted, so check with the Seaside Heights Historical Society first. NJ Transit ran summer buses to Seaside Heights in 2026. Drive: 1 hr 50 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Allow a day and a night. Best for: teens, night, budget.
28. Red Bank and the Count Basie Center
Free to wander; show tickets extra. Red Bank is a river town on the Navesink with a real arts calendar, anchored by the Count Basie Center for the Arts. The 1,568-seat theater opened in 1926 as Reade’s Carlton and was renamed in 1984 for William “Count” Basie, who came up on nearby Mechanic Street, and performers from Tony Bennett to Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr have played it. Pair a show with dinner downtown and you have the best car-free night out on the northern Shore.
Plan it: NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line stops in Red Bank on its way from New York Penn Station and Newark. The center’s second stage, The Vogel, books smaller shows. Drive: 1 hr 10 min from NYC, 1 hr 45 min from Philadelphia. Allow an evening. Best for: couples, music fans, NYC day-trippers.
29. Spring Lake
Free to walk; badges in summer. Spring Lake is the quiet, well-kept end of the Monmouth County shore: big old houses, calm streets and a boardwalk with no shops or rides on it. The borough’s own history page calls it a two-mile non-commercial boardwalk, and it’s made for an early-morning walk.
Plan it: A 2026 season badge cost $110 ($80 for seniors), and children under 12 are free. NJ Transit’s coast line stops in town. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: couples, quiet beach days, walkers.
30. Belmar
Free to walk; badges in summer ($12 a day). Belmar, just north of Spring Lake, is a livelier beach town with a train station, which makes it one of the easiest Shore beaches to reach from Manhattan without a car. NJ Transit’s coast line stops here, though most trips south of Long Branch mean a change there to a diesel train.
Plan it: 2026 badges cost $12 a day or $80 for the season ($32 for seniors), and children 13 and under are free. Buy train tickets in the NJ Transit app or at a machine, because buying on board adds $5. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Allow a day. Best for: NYC day-trippers, groups of friends, budget.
31. Silverball Retro Arcade, Asbury Park
Paid (from $7.50). A boardwalk arcade where you pay by time and every machine is set to free play: more than 200 pinball machines and arcade games from the 1930s to 2024, from Medieval Madness and The Addams Family to Donkey Kong. It’s the best rainy-hour plan on the northern Shore, and it’s open late.
Plan it: 1000 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park. Open 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday to Thursday and until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. A half hour costs $7.50, an hour $10, up to six hours $20 and a full day $25; spectators pay $5, and military and veterans get 20% off. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: rainy days, night, teens.
32. Keansburg Amusement Park
Pay per ride. On Raritan Bay rather than the ocean, Keansburg’s amusement park has been running since 1904 and is the low-key, old-fashioned alternative to the big boardwalk piers: kiddie rides, go-karts, games and the Runaway Rapids water park next door, opened in 1996. It’s close enough to New York for an after-work summer evening.
Plan it: Ride tickets are $1.50 each, or 50 for $45.95 (2026). The 2026 season ends after September 27, and Runaway Rapids closed on Labor Day; the park reopens in spring. Drive: 1 hr 5 min from NYC, 1 hr 45 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: families with young kids, budget.
33. Monmouth Park Racetrack
Paid ($7 general admission). Thoroughbred racing a few miles from the ocean in Oceanport, with a summer meet built around the $1 million Haskell Stakes in July. It’s a cheap, easygoing summer afternoon even if you’ve never read a racing form.
Plan it: The 2026 meet ran May 9 to September 13, with the Haskell on July 18. General admission was $7, children 12 and under and veterans got in free, and parking was free. NJ Transit’s coast line stops at the track’s own station, but only on live racing days. Drive: 1 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Season: May to September. Allow an afternoon. Best for: adults, summer afternoons.
34. Tuckerton Seaport
Paid ($5). A maritime village on 40 acres along Tuckerton Creek, on the mainland across the bay from Long Beach Island, that keeps the traditions of the Barnegat Bay baymen alive. It began as the Barnegat Bay Decoy and Baymen’s Museum, and you can climb its lighthouse, which doubles as the gift shop.
Plan it: Admission is $5; children under 5, active military and veterans are free. September hours were Friday to Monday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; check for later in the fall. Drive: 2 hr 10 min from NYC, 1 hr 25 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: families, history, a rainy LBI day.
35. Popcorn Park Animal Refuge
Paid ($12 adults). A small sanctuary in Forked River for rescued animals, run by the Associated Humane Societies. It isn’t a zoo in the usual sense, which is the point: the animals are here because they needed somewhere to live, and the visit supports their care.
Plan it: Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., last entry 3:30. Adults $12, seniors 62+ and children 3-11 $7, military $8, under 3 free (2026). No outside food and no pets. Drive: 1 hr 50 min from NYC, 1 hr 15 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: families, animal lovers.
North Jersey: The Hudson Waterfront, the Gateway Cities and the Skylands
North Jersey has two personalities. Along the Hudson, Hoboken, Jersey City and Weehawken face Manhattan across the river, and Newark, Paterson and the Meadowlands sit 15 to 30 minutes from Midtown without traffic: this is where New York visitors can add New Jersey without renting a car. Farther north and west, the Skylands rise into the Highlands and the Kittatinny Ridge, with the Delaware Water Gap, the Appalachian Trail and the highest point in the state, all within 1 to 2 hours of Manhattan. From Philadelphia almost everything here is a 2- to 3-hour drive, so plan an overnight.
36. Liberty State Park and the Statue of Liberty Ferry
Free park; ferry $26 for adults. You can start the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island trip from New Jersey instead of Manhattan. Statue City Cruises, the only ferry authorized to land on both islands, sails from the old Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal at Liberty State Park, and boats from this side stop at Ellis Island first. A detail most visitors never hear: since a 1998 Supreme Court ruling, most of Ellis Island, the part built on landfill, has been New Jersey’s. Before or after the boat, walk the park’s waterfront for a wide, head-on view of Lower Manhattan.
Plan it: Ferry tickets cost $26 for adults, $23 for seniors 62+ and $17 for children 4-12; under-4s ride free, and pedestal or crown access adds 30 cents (National Park Service prices, 2026). Through October 12, 2026, boats leave Liberty State Park every 45 minutes from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and if you start after 2 p.m. you won’t have time for both islands. Ferries run every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ferry parking is Lot 8 on Audrey Zapp Drive, $7 per car. Without a car, take the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to Liberty State Park station and walk or bike about a mile. Drive: 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow 4 to 5 hours with both islands. Best for: first-timers, families, NYC day-trippers.
37. Mount Tammany, Delaware Water Gap
Free. The Delaware River cuts a notch straight through the Kittatinny Ridge here, and Mount Tammany is the New Jersey side of the notch. The Red Dot Trail climbs about 1,200 feet in 1.2 miles, much of it over rock, to ledges that look straight across the gap at Pennsylvania’s Mount Minsi and down at the river. Most hikers go up the Red Dot and come down the Blue Blaze Trail, a loop of about 3 miles. It’s the most rewarding short hike in New Jersey, and everyone knows it: the lot at the Dunnfield Creek Natural Area fills quickly on summer weekends.
Plan it: Park at the Dunnfield Creek Natural Area or Kittatinny Point, just off I-80 at the Pennsylvania border; go early on weekends. The recreation area charges no entrance fee (a $10-per-vehicle amenity fee applies at fee areas such as Turtle Beach), and it covers about 70,000 acres on both sides of the river. The rock is slick when wet, so wear real shoes. The Kittatinny Point visitor center is usually closed from fall to Memorial Day weekend, and swimming is banned at Kittatinny Point because the river is dangerous there. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 2 hr 15 min from Philadelphia. Season: all year; mid-October for color. Allow 3 hours. Best for: hikers, NYC day-trippers with a car.
38. Hoboken’s Waterfront
Free. Hoboken is the easiest win on this list for anyone staying in Manhattan: one PATH ride, a riverside path with a head-on view of Midtown and a main street full of bakeries, bars and restaurants. The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway runs through town, part of an 18.5-mile path along the New Jersey side of the river that’s free and open around the clock; walk north toward Weehawken (#56) for the skyline at its best. Sinatra fans can find the bronze star on the wall of the condo building that now stands at his birthplace, 415 Monroe Street, and Carlo’s Bakery, the one from TV’s Cake Boss, still sells from 95 Washington Street.
Plan it: PATH trains cost $3.25 a ride (since May 3, 2026). Since May 17, 2026, weekends have direct Hoboken trains to both the World Trade Center and 33rd Street. Street parking is scarce, so leave the car behind. Drive: 10 min from NYC without traffic (the tunnels rarely cooperate), 2 hr 5 min from Philadelphia. Season: all year; best at sunset. Allow 2 to 3 hours. Best for: NYC day-trippers, couples, first-timers.
39. Liberty Science Center
Paid (date-based pricing). A big hands-on science museum at the edge of Liberty State Park, which makes it a natural rainy-day pairing with the ferry (#36). Its Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium reopens on September 26, 2026, after an upgrade that included new laser projectors. Planetarium shows are an add-on to general admission, and there’s no planetarium-only ticket.
Plan it: Prices vary by date, so buy online. Active-duty military and veterans get in free with ID, and Bank of America cardholders are free on the first full weekend of each month. The center is closed September 22-25, 2026, then reopens with posted hours of 10 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. Parking is $7 in a 750-space state-owned lot; when it’s full, use the light-rail lot at Liberty State Park station, three minutes’ walk away. Drive: 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow 3 to 4 hours. Best for: families, rainy days.
40. Paterson Great Falls
Free. A waterfall in the middle of an industrial city is strange enough; the reason it’s there is stranger. Alexander Hamilton chose the Great Falls of the Passaic as the power source for a planned manufacturing city, and the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, founded in 1791, built Paterson around it. The National Park Service calls Hamilton the city’s founder. The river drops into a narrow chasm you can watch from Overlook Park, and after a heavy rain the noise carries down the block.
Plan it: The grounds are open every day, but the Overlook Park lot at 72 McBride Avenue Extension closes at dusk, and cars left after sunset can be towed. Rangers are on site Wednesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There’s no visitor center or restroom while a new center is built. Weekend parking is tight; overflow is at the Paterson Museum, 2 Market Street. Drones are banned. Drive: 30 min from NYC, 2 hr 10 min from Philadelphia. Season: all year; spring and after storms for the most water. Allow 1 hour. Best for: budget, history, NYC day-trippers.
41. American Dream
Free to enter; each attraction is ticketed. This is less a mall than an indoor theme-park district that happens to have shops: Nickelodeon Universe’s rides, the DreamWorks Water Park, a SEA LIFE aquarium, a LEGOLAND Discovery Center and Big SNOW, which bills itself as North America’s only indoor, real-snow ski slope open all year. On a sleety February Saturday it’s the most useful building in the state. It’s also the easiest place in New Jersey to spend a lot of money fast, so pick one or two attractions and buy online.
Plan it: Prices posted in September 2026: Big SNOW’s two-hour slope ticket was on sale at $47.99 (rentals extra), LEGOLAND Discovery Center tickets started at $29.99 and SEA LIFE at $24 for adults. Hours vary by attraction and day. NJ Transit buses 85, 703 and 772 stop at the complex. Nickelodeon Universe prices on nickelodeonuniverse.com are for the Mall of America park in Minnesota, not this one. Drive: 15 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow a half day per big attraction. Best for: families, teens, rainy days.
42. Morristown National Historical Park
Free. Washington and the Continental Army spent the winter of December 1779 to June 1780 here, which the Park Service calls the coldest winter on record, and the park preserves both halves of that story. In town, the Ford Mansion was Washington’s headquarters; a few miles south, Jockey Hollow has replica soldier huts on the site of the Pennsylvania Brigade’s camp, and quiet trails through the woods where the army froze. It’s the best Revolutionary War site in the state for understanding what the war actually cost the soldiers.
Plan it: Washington’s Headquarters Museum (30 Washington Place) and the Jockey Hollow Visitor Center (586 Tempe Wick Road) are open Thursday to Monday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; the grounds are open daily, sunrise to sunset. The Ford Mansion is by guided tour only, with free passes handed out first come, first served at the museum desk. One museum gallery is closed for construction this fall. Everything is free. Drive: 50 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: history, families, budget.
43. Thomas Edison National Historical Park
Paid ($15, card only). In West Orange you can walk through the laboratory complex where Thomas Edison and his staff worked on research, prototypes and products, with the machine shops still laid out on belts and pulleys. Nearby Glenmont was the family home: Edison bought it in 1886 as a wedding present for his wife, Mina, for $125,000.
Plan it: The laboratory complex at 211 Main Street is open Thursday to Monday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $15 for ages 16 and up, paid by card; 15 and under are free. Glenmont’s 30-minute house tours run only on weekends this fall and are reserved on Recreation.gov; everyone starts at the lab’s visitor center. The park closes for the winter from January 1 to February 25, 2027. Drive: 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 to 3 hours. Best for: history, families with older kids, rainy days.
44. Stairway to Heaven and the Pochuck Boardwalk
Free. This stretch of the Appalachian Trail in Vernon climbs about 900 feet up Wawayanda Mountain on rock steps, the “stairway” of the name, to Pinwheel’s Vista, a ledge high above the Vernon Valley. The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference lists it as 3 miles out and back, about 2.5 hours. Across Route 94, the trail crosses the Pochuck Boardwalk, the longest elevated boardwalk on the entire Appalachian Trail, with a 144-foot suspension bridge over Pochuck Creek: flat, easy and good for anyone who doesn’t want the climb.
Plan it: The trailhead parking area is on Route 94, 2.3 miles north of its junction with County Route 515. It’s small, so come early on weekends or hike midweek. The footing near the top is rocky. Drive: 1 hr 10 min from NYC, 2 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Season: all year; October for color. Allow 3 hours. Best for: hikers, NYC day-trippers with a car.
45. High Point State Park
Free after Labor Day; $5 to $20 per car in summer. The summit of the Kittatinny Ridge in the state’s northwest corner is 1,803 feet above sea level, the highest point in New Jersey, and it’s crowned by the 220-foot High Point Monument, a veterans’ memorial built from 1928 to 1930. Colonel Anthony and Susie Kuser gave the land in 1923 and paid for the monument. The climb adds a long view over the ridges and valleys of the tri-state corner.
Plan it: The monument’s interior is open, staffing permitting, Wednesday to Sunday from Memorial Day to Labor Day and on weekends only from Labor Day to Columbus Day (October 12, 2026), 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Entry is free from Labor Day to Memorial Day weekend; in summer it’s $5 on weekdays and $10 on weekends for NJ residents, $10 and $20 for non-residents (2026). The park has more than 50 miles of trails, including the Appalachian Trail. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 3 hr 5 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 to 4 hours. Best for: families, hikers, fall color.
46. MetLife Stadium
Paid (event tickets). The home of both the Giants and the Jets hosted eight 2026 World Cup matches, including the final on July 19, which Spain won 1-0 over Argentina in extra time. For most visitors, though, this is simply the place for an NFL Sunday or a stadium concert, and the rules are strict enough that knowing them in advance saves you a long walk back to the car.
Plan it: Bags must be clear and no bigger than 12 x 6 x 12 inches, or a small clutch, or a one-gallon clear freezer bag; backpacks, fanny packs and seat cushions are banned, and bag check outside the gates costs $5 at non-NFL events (free at NFL games). For big events, NJ Transit runs shuttle trains from Secaucus Junction to the Meadowlands station, and Coach USA’s 351 bus runs from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Drive: 15 min from NYC without event traffic, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Season: NFL from September to January; concerts mostly in summer. Allow the whole evening. Best for: sports fans, NYC day-trippers.
47. Turtle Back Zoo
Paid ($22 adults). Essex County’s zoo in West Orange is compact, well kept and close enough to Manhattan for a half day. It has more than 100 species from five continents: giraffes and lions in African Adventure, red pandas and Amur leopards in Amazing Asia, a walk-through aviary of budgerigars in the Australian Outback and a colony of 29 African penguins. Kids tend to remember the extras, though: a miniature train through South Mountain Reservation, an Endangered Species Carousel and a dinosaur-themed playground.
Plan it: 560 Northfield Avenue, West Orange. Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Adults 13 and over $22; children 2-12 and seniors 62+ $19; under 2 free (posted rates, 2026). Howl-O-Ween trick-or-treating runs October 31, 2026, 4 to 8 p.m. The Edison lab (#43) is about 10 minutes away. Drive: 35 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 3 hours. Best for: families with young kids.
48. State Line Lookout and the Palisades
Free to look; parking fees at some areas. The Palisades are the cliffs you see from Manhattan’s West Side, and the New Jersey section of Palisades Interstate Park, founded in 1900, covers 2,500 acres along 12 miles of riverfront and clifftop. State Line Lookout, near the New York border in Alpine, is the easy payoff: park, walk to the railing and take in the long view over the Hudson. More than 30 miles of trails run along the top of the cliffs and the shore below, from Fort Lee Historic Park north.
Plan it: One famous route is off the table: the Giant Stairs, a boulder scramble at the foot of the cliffs, is closed for a rockfall assessment with no reopening date, whatever older hiking guides say. Parking fees apply at several park areas; check njpalisades.org. Drive: 30 min from NYC, 2 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Season: all year; fall color is the peak. Allow 1 to 3 hours. Best for: hikers, couples, NYC day-trippers.
49. The Newark Museum of Art
Paid ($10 adults). New Jersey’s big general art museum has a planetarium (tickets extra) and the historic Ballantine House, which is included with admission. It’s an easy add-on to a night in Newark’s arts district: the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, open since 1997 and home to more than 13 million visits by its own count, and the Prudential Center, where the New Jersey Devils, Seton Hall basketball and the New York Sirens play, are both nearby.
Plan it: Open Thursday to Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Adults $10; children, seniors 65+, teachers and students $8; free for Newark residents, military and veterans. The planetarium ($10) is closed for maintenance through September 30, 2026. There’s no on-site parking during construction; the nearby Hahne & Co. garage charges up to $25, or $13 prebooked. Drive: 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 50 min from Philadelphia; NJ Transit and PATH trains stop at Newark Penn Station. Allow 2 to 3 hours. Best for: rainy days, art lovers, night (with a show).
50. Branch Brook Park’s Cherry Blossoms
Free. Every April, Newark’s Branch Brook Park turns pink, and a lot of New Yorkers never realize one of the region’s best cherry blossom shows is 25 minutes from Midtown. The 360-acre park, designed by the Olmsted firm, was the first county park in the United States opened to the public, and Essex County’s Cherry Blossom Festival marked its 50th year in April 2026.
Plan it: The 2026 festival ran April 4-19, ending with Bloomfest on the final Sunday; the 2027 dates hadn’t been announced by late September. Bloom timing depends on the weather, so watch the county’s updates in March. Drive: 25 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Season: April for blossoms; a pleasant city park the rest of the year. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: couples, photographers, budget.
51. Old Mine Road, Millbrook Village and Buttermilk Falls
Free. Old Mine Road runs north from I-80 along the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a route the Park Service calls 375 years old, past fields, woods and river views. About 12 miles in, Millbrook Village is an interpretive 19th-century village where volunteers open buildings for demonstrations on select days in summer and fall; you can walk the grounds any time. Farther north, Buttermilk Falls, which the Park Service calls one of the tallest waterfalls in New Jersey, sits at the foot of a steep trail.
Plan it: This is a drive to check before you start. The northern 3.5 miles of Old Mine Road (Jager Road to Route 206) have been closed since April 6, 2026 for repaving, with no reopening announced as of late September; other sections close every winter. The Main Street bridge in Walpack is also closed, so the Park Service routes Buttermilk Falls visitors through Stokes State Forest via Struble Road and Mountain Road. The Buttermilk Falls trail climbs 1,104 feet in 1.4 miles, and swimming and wading are banned within 50 feet upstream of the falls. Drive: 1 hr 40 min from NYC to Millbrook, 2 hr 30 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: road-trippers, history, fall color.
52. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
Free. Twenty-six miles from Times Square, the Great Swamp is a 7,853-acre refuge of marsh, woods and meadow, and in 1968 its eastern section became the first wilderness area designated on Interior Department land. The boardwalks at the Wildlife Observation Center are the best spot for turtles, frogs and snakes, and Pleasant Plains Road is good for watching wildlife from the car.
Plan it: The refuge is open every day from sunrise to sunset, with close to 11.5 miles of foot trails. The Helen C. Fenske Visitor Center is open Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Bring bug spray from late spring to fall. Drive: 55 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: birders, families, budget.
53. Skylands and Ringwood Manor
Free garden; manor tours $10. Ringwood State Park holds two estates worth an afternoon. Skylands is New Jersey’s official botanical garden: 96 acres of formal gardens around a 44-room stone manor house designed by John Russell Pope in the 1920s, free to visit every day of the year. A mile away, Ringwood Manor, a National Historic Landmark district of 582 acres, was home to generations of ironmasters and later the summer estate of the Cooper and Hewitt families, who gave it to the state in 1938.
Plan it: The botanical garden is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in daylight saving time and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in winter. Ringwood Manor’s guided tours run Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: adults $10, seniors $8, children 6-12 $5; call ahead (973-962-2240), because tours depend on the day’s schedule. Parking is free except on summer weekends and holidays, when it’s $5 for NJ cars and $7 for others, cash only. The Skylands Road entrance is closed on weekends and holidays, so use Morris Road. There’s no swimming anywhere in the park. Drive: 1 hr from NYC, 2 hr 40 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: couples, garden lovers, history.
54. Mountain Creek
Paid (activities priced separately). Vernon’s four-peak resort is a ski area in winter, a lift-served bike park and zip-line site in fall, and, in summer, a water park on the grounds of the old Action Park. The Cabriolet, an open-air lift, runs up the mountain for fall foliage rides, and the resort holds Fall Fest weekends from September 26 to October 25, 2026.
Plan it: Fall hours for the Cabriolet are Thursday noon to 6 p.m. and Friday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Daytime zip tours cost $59.99, and two-hour night zip tours run weekends in October for $65. No 2026-27 ski opening date had been posted by late September; lift tickets are sold online only. The water park’s 2026 season has ended. Drive: 1 hr 15 min from NYC, 2 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: skiers, families, thrill-seekers.
55. Lake Hopatcong
Free after Labor Day; per-car fee in summer. New Jersey’s largest lake is 9 miles long, with 2,500 acres of water, and it was once the main water source for the Morris Canal. Hopatcong State Park, at the south end, has a beach, a boat launch and the small Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum in the old canal locktender’s house. The easiest way onto the water is Miss Lotta, a 57-foot tour and dining boat that sails from Nolan’s Point from May through October.
Plan it: Park entry is free from Labor Day to Memorial Day weekend; in summer it’s $6 on weekdays and $10 on weekends for NJ residents, $10 and $20 for others, and lifeguarded swimming ends on Labor Day. The museum opens only on select dates (in fall 2026: October 18 and 29, November 8 and 21, December 5 and 20) or by appointment. There’s no boat rental in the park, but private marinas around the lake rent them. Drive: 1 hr from NYC, 2 hr 15 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: families, boaters, summer afternoons.
56. Hamilton Park, Weehawken
Free. Boulevard East runs along the top of the Palisades in Weehawken, and Hamilton Park, a small green at Hamilton Avenue, looks straight across the Hudson at Midtown. The name isn’t decoration. A plaque beside the Hamilton monument marks the Weehawken dueling grounds on a ledge below, where Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton on July 11, 1804. Come at dusk, when the skyline lights up.
Plan it: It’s a residential street, so parking takes patience. Drive: 10 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Season: all year. Allow 30 minutes. Best for: couples, photographers, NYC day-trippers.
57. Sunrise Mountain, Stokes State Forest
Free after Labor Day; per-car fee in summer. Sunrise Mountain rises to 1,653 feet on the Kittatinny Ridge, and the state calls it the second-highest mountain in New Jersey. The drive up Sunrise Mountain Road, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, ends near a stone pavilion with 360-degree views over the Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, High Point and Sussex County farmland, and it’s a good perch for the spring and fall hawk migrations. Nearby, Tillman Ravine is a cool hemlock gorge with small waterfalls.
Plan it: Stokes charges no entry fee from Labor Day to Memorial Day weekend; in summer it’s $5 on weekdays and $10 on weekends for NJ residents, $10 and $20 for others (2026). Sunrise Mountain Road closes to cars from December 15 to April 15. The forest has more than 63 miles of trails, including 12.5 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Drive: 1 hr 45 min from NYC, 3 hr 5 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: hikers, fall color, sunrise photographers.
58. Rutt’s Hut, Clifton
Paid. New Jersey takes its hot dogs seriously, and Rutt’s Hut in Clifton has been serving them since 1928. The house specialty is the “Ripper,” deep-fried until the casing cracks and splits, topped with the house relish, a secret blend of mustard and spices. Order it at least once before you decide how you feel about it.
Plan it: The website doesn’t post hours, so check before you go. Drive: 20 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 30 minutes. Best for: food lovers, budget.
59. Medieval Times, Lyndhurst
Paid ($76.95 adults). A dinner show in the Meadowlands with jousting knights on horseback and an arena crowd cheering for its assigned knight. It’s pure theater and it knows it, and on a rainy night with kids it’s hard to beat.
Plan it: Adults $76.95 and children $46.95, plus tax and fees; the code 15MT takes 15% off through December 31, 2026 (posted prices, September 2026). 149 Polito Avenue, Lyndhurst. Drive: 15 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: families, rainy days.
60. Space Farms Zoo & Museum
Paid ($26 adults). A family zoo in the Sussex County countryside that began in 1927 as a general store, repair shop and animal shelter, and grew into more than 500 animals of over 100 species. Its museum buildings are the other half of the fun: more than 50 antique cars and motorcycles, horse-drawn carriages and sleighs, over 500 antique dolls and what the museum calls one of the largest antique firearms collections in the country. It’s old-fashioned and a little eccentric, which is the charm of it.
Plan it: Open daily through November 1, 2026, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last entry 4 p.m.). Adults 13-64 $26, seniors $25, children 3-12 $22 (2026). 218 County Road 519, Sussex. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 2 hr 55 min from Philadelphia. Pair it with High Point (#45). Allow 3 hours. Best for: families, the curious.
61. Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center
Paid ($15 adults). A small, well-made museum on the Montclair State University campus for the Yankees catcher and longtime Montclair resident who gave the language “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Baseball fans will linger; everyone else gets a good hour and a lot of quotes.
Plan it: Open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. (Mondays and Tuesdays are for school groups). Adults $15; children under 18 and seniors $10; veterans and Montclair State students free. The address is 8 Yogi Berra Drive, Little Falls. Drive: 25 min from NYC, 2 hr 5 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 hour. Best for: baseball fans, rainy days.
62. The Morris Museum’s Mechanical Music
Paid ($12 adults). The Morris Museum in Morristown holds the Guinness Collection: 750 mechanical musical instruments and automata, plus more than 5,000 rolls and barrels, with over 150 pieces on display. Time your visit for the demonstration, when staff start the machines up, because an automaton that actually moves is a lot more fun than one behind glass.
Plan it: Demonstrations run Wednesday to Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission is $12, or $8 for seniors and children 3-12. Morristown National Historical Park (#42) is a few minutes away. Drive: 45 min from NYC, 2 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: rainy days, curious adults.
Central Jersey: Princeton, Trenton and the Delaware River Towns
Yes, Central Jersey exists. The band of the state between roughly I-78 and I-195 is the part most visitors drive straight through on the Turnpike, and it holds much of the state’s Revolutionary War story: Washington crossed the Delaware here, won at Trenton and Princeton, and fought at Monmouth. It also has Princeton, the river towns of Lambertville and New Hope, Six Flags and 70 miles of canal towpath. From Philadelphia most of it is within about an hour and a half; from Manhattan, allow 1 hour to 1 hr 45 min.
63. Princeton
Free. Princeton gives you an Ivy League campus, a walkable main street and, since October 31, 2025, a major free art museum in a striking new building. The Princeton University Art Museum reopened in galleries designed by Adjaye Associates, about 146,000 square feet across nine pavilions and roughly double its old space. Nassau Hall, finished in 1756, briefly served as the U.S. Capitol in 1783, when the Continental Congress met here for four months. Walk the campus lawns, then Nassau Street for coffee and bookstores.
Plan it: The art museum is free and open every day: Monday to Wednesday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday until 8 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Its Art@Bainbridge gallery on Nassau Street opens Friday to Sunday. For a campus walk, the student-built Adora app works as a self-guided tour; student-led tours through the admission office require registration. Drive: 1 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 5 min from Philadelphia. Allow a day. Best for: first-timers, couples, art lovers, rainy days.
64. Six Flags Great Adventure
Paid ($45 online, $90 at the gate). New Jersey’s big theme park, in Jackson, is still a coaster destination even without Kingda Ka, the 456-foot record-breaker that was imploded on February 28, 2025. El Toro, the wooden coaster, got substantial sections of new track for 2026, and the Wild Safari now runs as guided open-air truck rides included with admission, boarding inside the theme park near Runaway Mine Train and Medusa; you can no longer drive your own car through it. Fall is a good time to go, with Fright Fest on select nights from September 18 to November 1, 2026.
Plan it: Buy online. In September 2026 a daily ticket cost $45 online (plus a processing fee of up to $9.99 and tax) against $90 at the gate, and the 2027 Gold Pass, valid for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027, was $99 online (its listed price is $115). Fright Fest’s haunted mazes need a separate pass. Holiday in the Park, cancelled in 2025, returns on select nights from November 21, 2026 into early January. Kingda Ka’s replacement slipped to 2027: Bakunawa, a spinning launch coaster that Six Flags bills as the world’s fastest and tallest (382 feet, 100 mph). The Hurricane Harbor water park next door needs its own ticket. Drive: 1 hr 35 min from NYC, 1 hr 15 min from Philadelphia. Season: late March to early January, on a changing calendar. Allow a full day. Best for: teens, thrill-seekers, families.
65. Grounds For Sculpture
Paid ($25 adults, timed tickets). In Hamilton, just outside Trenton, a landscaped sculpture park and museum sets contemporary works among gardens, groves and ponds, some of them playful enough to win over kids who claim to hate museums. It’s the best-designed outdoor art space in the state, and it rewards a slow walk more than a checklist.
Plan it: Adults $25; seniors 65+, military, veterans and healthcare workers $18; students 6-17 $12; children 5 and under free. Timed tickets are required, so book ahead. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Tuesdays. 80 Sculptors Way, Hamilton. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow 3 hours. Best for: couples, art lovers, families.
66. Lambertville and New Hope
Free to wander. Lambertville, on the New Jersey bank of the Delaware, and New Hope, Pennsylvania, work as one town joined by a toll-free steel truss bridge that opened in 1904, after the “Pumpkin Flood” of October 1903 swept away the covered bridge before it. So many people walk across that the bridge commission has counted up to 14,000 pedestrian crossings on a single weekend day. Lambertville is the antiques half, with the Golden Nugget Antique Flea Market just north of town, and the D&R Canal towpath (#73) runs right through it.
Plan it: The Golden Nugget runs year-round on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, outdoors from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. and in its indoor shops from 8 a.m., with free entry and parking. Lambertville’s ShadFest is held in late April (April 25-26 in 2026). Drive: 1 hr 35 min from NYC, 1 hr from Philadelphia. Allow a day. Best for: couples, antiques hunters, walkers.
67. Washington Crossing State Park
Free off-season; parking fee in summer. On Christmas night in 1776, Washington’s army crossed the Delaware and came ashore here before marching on Trenton. The New Jersey park keeps the landing ground and the Johnson Ferry House, an 18th-century farmhouse and tavern by the ferry that officers probably used that night. The famous reenactment of the crossing launches from the Pennsylvania side, at Washington Crossing Historic Park.
Plan it: The park’s visitor center museum is closed until a new building opens; the state expects that in 2026 but hasn’t set a date. A parking fee applies from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. The Christmas Day crossing is on December 25, 2026, from noon to 3 p.m. (the boats cross at 1 p.m.), free with registration, on the Pennsylvania bank; the ticketed First Crossing event is December 13 ($10 adults). Drive: 1 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: history, families.
68. Trenton: The Old Barracks and the State Museum
State Museum free; Old Barracks paid. New Jersey’s capital has two strong history stops a short walk apart. The Old Barracks, built in 1758 to house British soldiers during the French and Indian War, became an army hospital in 1777, where Dr. Bodo Otto oversaw smallpox inoculations for the Continental Army, and it has been a museum for more than a century. The New Jersey State Museum on West State Street is free, with galleries and a planetarium that seats 140 under an 8K dome.
Plan it: The State Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; planetarium shows cost $10 for ages 13 and up and $5 for ages 3-12, and weekend parking next to the museum is free. The Old Barracks is at 101 Barrack Street; check its site for current hours and admission. Come back for Patriots Week (December 26-31), when the Battle of Trenton is reenacted in the streets on December 26, 2026, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 45 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: history, families, rainy days.
69. Monmouth Battlefield State Park
Free. The Battle of Monmouth, fought here on June 28, 1778, was one of the Revolution’s major battles, and the park, opened in 1978, keeps the ground wide open: farm fields and woods near Freehold, with the visitor center on Combs’ Hill looking over the field where the armies met. It’s a good place to walk, even if you skip the history panels.
Plan it: Call the park office (732-462-9616) for visitor center hours. The reenactment is usually held on a weekend in late June; 2026’s was June 20-21, the 2027 date hasn’t been announced, and the 250th-anniversary reenactment is tentatively set for June 17-18, 2028. Drive: 1 hr 10 min from NYC, 1 hr 15 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: history, walkers, budget.
70. Duke Farms
Free (free Saturday parking passes required April to October). Doris Duke’s former estate in Hillsborough is now 2,700 acres of woods, meadows and wetlands run by her foundation, with 20 miles of paved and gravel trails you can walk or bike and a greenhouse orchid range. Bring a bike, or rent one from the on-site stations through an app, because the distances are real.
Plan it: Open Tuesday to Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Sundays and Mondays. From April through October, every Saturday visit needs a free parking pass, released each Monday at noon for that Saturday, and they often run out. There’s no public tram, and the Farm Barn Cafe is closed through October 31, 2026. No pets. 1112 Dukes Parkway West, Hillsborough. Drive: 1 hr 5 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: cyclists, walkers, families, budget.
71. Northlandz, Flemington
Paid ($40 online). Northlandz calls itself the world’s largest model railroad display, and walking through it you stop arguing: 8 miles of track, more than 100 trains, over 400 bridges and 35-foot canyons, built almost single-handedly by Bruce Williams Zaccagnino over more than 35 years. It’s part museum and part obsession, and a sure rainy-day win for train-mad kids and their grandparents.
Plan it: Open daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Online tickets in September 2026 cost $40 for adults, $32.50 for children 2-11 and $35 for teachers, seniors and military; buying at the door costs a little more. The outdoor train ride is extra ($18 for adults). 495 Route 202, Flemington. Drive: 1 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: families, rainy days, the curious.
72. Sourland Mountain Preserve
Free. A 6,358-acre county preserve on the Sourland Mountain ridge, between Princeton and Flemington, with steep, rocky trails through deep woods and boulder fields that draw climbers as well as hikers. It’s the wildest-feeling walk within half an hour of Princeton.
Plan it: Open daily from dawn to dusk. Trails are steep, rocky and uneven, marked with colored blazes; wear hiking shoes. Leashed dogs are welcome and alcohol isn’t allowed. It’s run by the Somerset County Park Commission (908-722-1200). Drive: 1 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 to 3 hours. Best for: hikers, dog owners, boulderers.
73. The Delaware and Raritan Canal Towpath
Free. The Delaware and Raritan Canal opened in 1834 and closed after the 1932 season, and its towpaths now make more than 70 miles of flat, crushed-stone trail, one of the best easy bike rides in the Northeast. The prettiest stretch follows the feeder canal beside the Delaware, from Frenchtown south through Bulls Island, Stockton and Lambertville to Washington Crossing and Trenton; the main canal runs from Trenton past Princeton and Kingston to New Brunswick. Six river bridges, including the pedestrian bridge at Bulls Island, let you loop back along Pennsylvania’s canal path on the other bank.
Plan it: Open sunrise to sunset, with no fee. Canoes and kayaks are allowed on the canal (you carry around the locks), and rental outfits work at Griggstown and Princeton from spring to early fall. Good starting points are Bulls Island, Lambertville and Kingston. Drive: about 1 hr 10 min from NYC or Philadelphia to Kingston. Allow a morning or a whole day. Best for: cyclists, families, walkers, budget.
74. Historic Village at Allaire
Paid ($5). The restored buildings of the Howell Iron Works, a 19th-century company town run by James P. Allaire, now form a living history village set in 1836, with craft shops, a bakery, a general store and more than 50 events a year. Next door, the volunteer-run Pine Creek Railroad, founded in 1952, gives 15-minute rides on a narrow-gauge line.
Plan it: Village admission is $5 for ages 4 and up on regular weekend days, April through November. The craft shops and historic homes open on weekends, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the bakery and general store Friday to Sunday. Train rides run on weekends from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., every half hour, for $6 (age 3 and up). It’s in Allaire State Park, about 15 minutes from the beach at Belmar. Drive: 1 hr 30 min from NYC, 1 hr 30 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: families, history, a gray day at the Shore.
75. A Hot-Air Balloon Flight over Hunterdon
Paid (about $225 to $350 a person). A sunrise or sunset flight over Hunterdon County’s farms and river valleys is the most memorable splurge on this list. Several operators fly from launch sites such as Solberg Airport in Readington; flights last roughly 30 minutes to an hour, and most finish with a champagne toast.
Plan it: Prices posted by three operators in 2026 ran from about $225 to $350 per person for a shared flight, depending on party size and how you pay, and about $825 for a private flight for two. Flights go at sunrise and a few hours before sunset, weather permitting; cancellations for wind and weather are common, so keep your dates flexible. The New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning at Solberg Airport was cancelled in 2024 and 2025, so check the organizer’s site before you plan around a 2026 date. Drive: 1 hr 15 min from NYC, 1 hr 35 min from Philadelphia. Allow 3 hours. Best for: couples, celebrations.
76. Round Valley Reservoir
Free after Labor Day; per-car fee in summer. New Jersey’s largest reservoir covers 2,350 acres, is about 180 feet deep and holds up to 55 billion gallons, ringed by the ridge of Cushetunk Mountain. It’s also the only New Jersey state park with wilderness camping: sites on the far shore that you can reach only by boat or on foot, 3 to 6 miles along the rugged Cushetunk Trail.
Plan it: Entry is free from after Labor Day to Memorial Day weekend; in summer it’s $5 on weekdays and $10 on weekends for NJ residents, $10 and $20 for others (2026). Swimming is allowed only at the separate beach area in summer, when lifeguards are on duty, and never in the main reservoir. Wilderness campsites cost $17 a night for residents and $22 for non-residents. Drive: 1 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 30 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day, or a night. Best for: hikers, campers, paddlers.
77. New Brunswick: The Zimmerli, Rutgers Gardens and the State Theatre
Mostly free. Rutgers’ hometown has three good reasons to stop. The Zimmerli Art Museum on campus is free. Rutgers Gardens, the university’s 180-acre public botanic garden, is free too, with a Friday farmers market through November 20, 2026. And State Theatre New Jersey, a 1921 vaudeville and silent-film palace reborn as a nonprofit performing arts center in 1988, brings touring Broadway shows, orchestras and comedy downtown.
Plan it: The Zimmerli is open Wednesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and weekends noon to 5 p.m.; it’s closed Mondays, Tuesdays and all of August. Rutgers Gardens is closed Mondays and otherwise opens at 8 a.m., closing at 5 p.m. from October through March (7 p.m. in spring and summer); the market runs Fridays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The State Theatre has no lot of its own, so use the city’s parking decks. NJ Transit’s Northeast Corridor trains stop in New Brunswick. Drive: 55 min from NYC, 1 hr 25 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day or an evening. Best for: art lovers, budget, rainy days.
78. Princeton Battlefield and Morven
Battlefield free; Morven $15. On January 3, 1777, Washington won what the state calls his first field victory over British troops on the farm fields just south of Princeton. The 85-acre battlefield park keeps the open ground, the Thomas Clarke House, where the mortally wounded General Hugh Mercer was treated, and a colonnade marking a common grave. Back in town, Morven, New Jersey’s governor’s residence from 1945 to 1981, is now a museum and garden. Drumthwacket, the current governor’s house down the same street, has paused its public tours.
Plan it: Morven, at 55 Stockton Street, is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (the garden daily, dawn to dusk): adults $15, seniors 60+ $12, students and youth 7-18 $10, children 6 and under free, with free parking. At the battlefield, the famous Mercer Oak collapsed in 2000; a tree grown from one of its acorns stands beside the stump. Drive: 1 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 2 to 3 hours. Best for: history, couples.
79. The Hindenburg Site at Lakehurst
Donation-based tours; book two weeks ahead. The Hindenburg caught fire and crashed while landing at Naval Air Station Lakehurst at 7:25 p.m. on May 6, 1937, killing 36 people, and the landing site is still inside what is now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The Navy Lakehurst Historical Society runs tours that include the crash site and the enormous Historic Hangar One. It’s a moving and slightly surreal visit, and because it’s an active military base, you can’t just show up.
Plan it: Tours run 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays, plus the second Saturday of the month from November to March and the second and fourth Saturdays from April to October. Register at least two weeks ahead; walk-ins aren’t allowed. Drive: 1 hr 45 min from NYC, 1 hr 15 min from Philadelphia. Allow a morning. Best for: history, aviation fans.
80. Trenton Tomato Pie
Paid ($16 for a small plain pie). Trenton’s contribution to American pizza is the tomato pie: a thin, well-done crust with the cheese laid down first and the tomato on top. Both of the old names have moved a few miles east to Robbinsville. Papa’s, opened in April 1912 by 17-year-old Joe Papa on Butler Street in Trenton, calls itself the oldest continuously family-owned pizza restaurant in the country; its house specialty is the mustard pie, with spicy brown mustard under the cheese. De Lorenzo’s, founded in 1947 in Trenton’s Chambersburg neighborhood, is the other half of a long local argument.
Plan it: Papa’s, at 19 Robbinsville-Allentown Road, opens daily at 11 a.m.; a 14-inch plain pie is $16 and a 16-inch is $17. De Lorenzo’s, at 2350 Route 33, is closed Mondays and serves lunch Tuesday to Friday and dinner Tuesday to Sunday. Drive: 1 hr 20 min from NYC, 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow an hour. Best for: food lovers, families.
South Jersey: The Pine Barrens, the Camden Waterfront and the Delaware Bay
Inland South Jersey is the least known part of the state and, for Philadelphians, the closest: the Camden waterfront is 10 minutes from Center City, and the Pine Barrens begin about 45 minutes out. The Pinelands National Reserve covers about 1.1 million acres, 22% of New Jersey’s land, a flat, sandy forest of pitch pine and tea-colored rivers with a scattering of old iron and glass villages. Beyond it lie blueberry and cranberry country, farm towns and the quiet Delaware Bay shore. From Manhattan most of it is 2 hours or more away.
81. Batsto Village
Free village; mansion tours $3. Batsto, founded in 1766, is the best place to understand the Pine Barrens’ odd history: an iron- and glassmaking company town in the middle of the forest, with the ironmaster’s mansion, a gristmill and sawmill, workers’ cottages, a general store and a post office. That post office first opened in 1852, still hand-cancels every stamp and has never been given a ZIP code. The village sits in Wharton State Forest, the largest single tract in New Jersey’s state park system, so the trails and rivers start right outside.
Plan it: Mansion tours run Wednesday to Sunday at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. and cost $3 for ages 12 and up and $1 for ages 6-11, with 15 people per tour. Free guided walks of the village run from March to October when staff are available. An entrance fee applies only on weekends and holidays from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The Country Living Fair fills the village on October 18, 2026. Drive: 2 hr 20 min from NYC, 1 hr 5 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: history, families, Pine Barrens first-timers.
82. Paddling the Pine Barrens
Paid (from $55 for a kayak). The Pine Barrens’ rivers run the color of strong tea, and a day on the Batsto, Mullica, Wading or Oswego is the best way to see this forest. The current is gentle, the banks are white sand and pitch pine, and for long stretches there’s nothing to hear but paddles. Outfitters shuttle you and the boat to a launch upstream and pick you up at the end.
Plan it: Pinelands Adventures in Shamong, run by the Pinelands Alliance, covers the Batsto and Mullica rivers, with self-guided day trips from $55 for a single kayak and $90 for a canoe for two, reservations required. It no longer runs the upper Batsto, where a collapsed old railroad bridge now blocks the river. Mick’s in Chatsworth, on the Wading and Oswego, closes for the season after September 26, 2026. Bring water and bug spray, and plan to be off the river by late afternoon. Drive: 2 hr from NYC, 50 min from Philadelphia. Season: spring to October. Allow a full day. Best for: paddlers, families with older kids, nature lovers.
83. Adventure Aquarium, Camden
Paid (from $32.99). Camden’s waterfront aquarium opened in 1992 as the New Jersey State Aquarium and now has Nile hippos, a shark tunnel and its signature Shark Bridge, an 81-foot suspension bridge over the 550,000-gallon Shark Realm tank, which the aquarium calls the longest V-shaped suspension bridge in the world. It counts more than 15,000 animals, and it’s the best rainy-day plan in South Jersey.
Plan it: Tickets use date-based pricing, from $32.99 plus tax for general admission; seniors save $2, children save 15%, and preschoolers 2-5 can get a free Pre-K pass. Entry is timed, last admission is 90 minutes before closing, and it’s closed on Thanksgiving. A visit takes 2 to 3 hours; school groups are usually gone by 1 p.m., so weekday afternoons are calmer. Battleship New Jersey (#84) is next door. Drive: 2 hr from NYC, 10 min from Philadelphia. Best for: families, rainy days, Philly day-trippers.
84. Battleship New Jersey
Paid ($35 adults). The Iowa-class battleship moored on the Camden waterfront was built across the river at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, commissioned in 1943 and served from World War II through the Cold War, and the museum bills her as America’s most decorated battleship, with 19 battle and campaign stars. You can explore the decks, a gun turret and the engine room on your own, and families can even sleep aboard in the crew’s bunks.
Plan it: Self-guided tickets cost $35 for adults, $30 for seniors and students, $8 for children under 8 and $25 for veterans; active military go free. A guided tour ($45 for adults) leaves daily at noon. Since Labor Day the ship has been open Thursday to Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last boarding at 4), and closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Overnight stays are an $85 donation per person. Expect steep ladders: wheelchair access is limited to the main deck. Parking runs $11 to $20. Drive: 2 hr 5 min from NYC, 10 min from Philadelphia. Allow 3 hours. Best for: history, families with older kids, Philly day-trippers.
85. Haddonfield
Free. Haddonfield is one of the nicest small downtowns near Philadelphia, a PATCO ride from Center City, with an unlikely claim to fame. In 1858 the bones of a dinosaur, Hadrosaurus foulkii, were found here, and ten years later a cast of its skeleton at Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences became the first mounted dinosaur the public could see anywhere in the world. A statue of “Haddy” stands downtown, and it has been New Jersey’s official state dinosaur since 1991.
Plan it: PATCO stops in Haddonfield, and Collingswood (#91) is two stops closer to the city, so the two make an easy car-free afternoon. Drive: 1 hr 55 min from NYC, 15 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: Philly day-trippers, families, walkers.
86. Whitesbog Village
Free. The cultivated blueberry started here. Whitesbog, a cranberry village founded in 1857, was New Jersey’s largest cranberry farm in the early 1900s, and Elizabeth Coleman White, the owner’s eldest daughter, began growing blueberries between the bogs. The state credits Whitesbog as the place the highbush blueberry was first cultivated, and in 2004 the blueberry became New Jersey’s official state fruit. Today the village and its bogs are part of Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, free to wander any day of the year.
Plan it: The grounds are open daily, sunrise to sunset. On Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., volunteers open the buildings and the 1924 general store, and a guided tour runs on the first Saturday of each month. The cranberry harvest usually runs from late September into the first week of October; you can watch from the viewing spots, but not from the bogs. In blueberry season, from the last week of June to early August, you can pick in the fields for a $5 donation. Drive: 2 hr from NYC, 1 hr from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: families, history, budget.
87. Cranberry Country: Chatsworth and Double Trouble
No admission fees posted. The Pine Barrens’ bogs are where New Jersey grows its cranberries, and fall is when to see them. Chatsworth, a tiny Pinelands town, holds its Cranberry Festival on the third full weekend of October (October 17-18, 2026, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine), and the lines can be long. Near Bayville, Double Trouble State Park preserves a whole cranberry company town, bought by the state in 1964, with a sorting and packing house from 1909 and 1916, a sawmill, a schoolhouse and pickers’ cottages. Don’t expect a harvest there: cranberry production at Double Trouble ended in 2010, so for the harvest itself, go to Whitesbog (#86).
Plan it: Neither the festival nor the state park posts an admission fee. The festival has ATMs on site, but bring cash to skip their lines. Double Trouble’s trails follow old service roads past the former bogs. Drive: 2 hr 5 min from NYC, 1 hr from Philadelphia to Chatsworth. Allow a half day. Best for: families, history, fall weekends.
88. Storybook Land
Paid ($42.95 online). A family-owned park of storybook scenes and gentle rides near Atlantic City, entertaining small children since 1955, with 19 rides and dozens of themed stops. In December its Christmas Fantasy with Lights covers the park in more than a million lights on select nights.
Plan it: 2026 admission is $42.95 online or $45.95 at the gate for ages 2 to 64, and $39.95 for seniors and military. In fall it opens on weekends, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a Fall into Fun festival on select dates through October 16 and trick-or-treat weekends on October 17-18 and 24-25. Christmas Fantasy runs on select nights from November 14 to December 30, 2026; the park then closes until spring. Drive: 2 hr 35 min from NYC, 1 hr 10 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day. Best for: families with kids under 8.
89. Historic Smithville
Free to stroll. Historic Smithville grew around a one-room stagecoach inn built in 1787, rediscovered in 1949 and reopened as a restaurant in 1952; old buildings from around South Jersey were moved in to make a village of about 50 shops, eateries and an inn. It’s an easy, low-effort detour 20 minutes from Atlantic City, and at its best in the holiday season.
Plan it: Fall 2026 shop hours (September 2 to November 26) are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays, with longer hours from November 27 to December 23. GPS units may not recognize “Smithville”, so enter 615 E. Moss Mill Road, Galloway. Drive: 2 hr 25 min from NYC, 1 hr 20 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: couples, shoppers, holiday trips.
90. WheatonArts, Millville
Paid ($14 adults). On a 45-acre wooded campus in Millville, WheatonArts keeps South Jersey’s glassmaking going: the Museum of American Glass, working studios where you can watch glass and pottery being made, a folklife center, and a fellowship program that brings glass artists from around the world.
Plan it: Open April through December, Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed January to March. Adults $14, seniors $13, students $8, children 5 and under free; veterans and active-duty military families get in free. The Festival of Fine Craft is October 3-4, 2026. Demonstration times aren’t posted in advance, so ask at the gate. Drive: 2 hr 40 min from NYC, 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow 3 hours. Best for: art lovers, families, rainy days.
91. Collingswood
Free. Collingswood is a few PATCO stops from Center City and has one of the region’s best small-town farmers markets: every Saturday morning from May to the Saturday before Thanksgiving, under the train tracks downtown, running since May 2000. Get there early, buy more tomatoes than you need and walk Haddon Avenue afterward.
Plan it: The market runs 8 a.m. to noon, rain or shine, on Atlantic Avenue between Collings and Irvin avenues, beneath the PATCO line; take the train or use the free lots behind the Haddon Avenue shops. Drive: 2 hr from NYC, 10 min from Philadelphia. Allow a morning. Best for: Philly day-trippers, food lovers, budget.
92. Red Bank Battlefield Park
No admission fee listed. On October 22, 1777, Hessian troops attacked Fort Mercer, an American fort on the Delaware at what is now National Park, New Jersey, and were thrown back with heavy losses by Colonel Christopher Greene’s Rhode Island Regiment. The James and Ann Whitall House, a 1748 farmhouse that served as a field hospital after the battle, still stands in the park, and the riverside lawns make it a peaceful Revolutionary War stop 20 minutes from Center City.
Plan it: The Gloucester County park is open daily, sunrise to sunset, except Christmas and New Year’s Day. Whitall House tours run April through October, Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 100 Hessian Avenue, National Park. Drive: 2 hr 5 min from NYC, 20 min from Philadelphia. Allow 1 to 2 hours. Best for: history, Philly day-trippers, budget.
93. Cowtown Rodeo and Farmers Market
Paid ($28 adults for the rodeo). Yes, New Jersey has a rodeo, and it’s a real one. Cowtown, in rural Salem County, bills itself as the longest-running weekly professional rodeo in the United States, with Saturday-night shows from Memorial Day weekend through the end of September. Its farmers and flea market, on the same grounds since 1926, runs all year with more than 400 vendors.
Plan it: The last rodeo of 2026, on September 26, is sold out, and 2027 dates aren’t posted yet. In season, the rodeo starts at 7:30 p.m.; adults pay $28 and children 3-12 $12, parking is free, and it’s BYOB with small coolers. The market is open every Tuesday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 780 Harding Highway (Route 40), Pilesgrove. Drive: 2 hr 25 min from NYC, 45 min from Philadelphia. Allow an evening. Best for: families, the curious, Philly day-trippers.
94. Fort Mott and the Fort Delaware Ferry
Free park; ferry $15 for adults. Fort Mott, on the Delaware River in Salem County, is a coastal fort begun in 1896, whose big guns once sat behind a 750-foot-long parapet, and a half-mile trail leads to Finn’s Point National Cemetery, where 2,436 Confederate prisoners of war are buried. In season, a small ferry crosses from Fort Mott to Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island, the Civil War prison that held as many as 10,048 Confederate prisoners at one time.
Plan it: The 2026 ferry season, which began in late April, ends on September 27; in spring and fall it runs on weekends only. Round-trip tickets cost $15 for adults, $14 for seniors and military and $8 for children 2-12, booked through Delaware State Parks. Drive: 2 hr 35 min from NYC, 55 min from Philadelphia. Allow a half day with the ferry. Best for: history, families.
95. Renault Winery
Paid (tours and tastings). Louis Nicholas Renault, a winemaker from France’s Champagne region, founded this winery near Egg Harbor City in 1864, and it kept making wine through Prohibition under medicinal and religious exemptions. Renault bills itself as the oldest continuously operating winery in the United States. It’s a small resort now, with a hotel, golf course and restaurants, but the historic winery rooms are the reason to come.
Plan it: Tour and Taste visits, a guided walk through the old winery rooms followed by a tasting of three wines and a small charcuterie plate, run on Saturdays and Sundays at noon and 2 p.m.; book ahead, since late arrivals aren’t refunded. It’s about 30 minutes from Atlantic City. Drive: 2 hr 35 min from NYC, 1 hr 5 min from Philadelphia. Allow 2 hours. Best for: couples, wine lovers.
Anywhere in New Jersey: Food, Farms and Two Classic Outings
Some of the best things to do in NJ don’t have a single address. These six work all over the state, and most of them cost less than the tank of gas somebody else will pump for you.
96. Eat at a Jersey Diner
Paid. New Jersey has more diners than any other state, somewhere between about 450 and 530 by recent counts, and it used to build them too: Jerry O’Mahony’s company in Bayonne alone turned out more than 2,000 prefabricated diners between 1917 and 1956. The classic Jersey diner has a menu you could read for an hour, breakfast at any time and a counter where nobody minds if you linger. Two very different examples: the Summit Diner, a 1939 railroad-car diner across from the Summit train station, run by the same family since 1928, and the Tops Diner in East Newark, just across the Passaic River from Newark.
Plan it: The Summit Diner (1 Union Place, Summit) is open Monday to Saturday, 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; it’s across from the NJ Transit station. The Tops Diner (500 Passaic Avenue, East Newark) is open daily, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Order disco fries, fries under gravy and melted cheese, at least once. Where: statewide. Best for: everyone, late nights, budget.
97. Order a Pork Roll, Egg and Cheese
Paid. The state’s signature breakfast is a sandwich of sliced, griddled pork roll, a fried egg and American cheese on a hard roll, and what you call it tells people where you grew up: “Taylor ham” in the north, “pork roll” in the south, and an argument in between. The meat dates to 1856, when John Taylor of Hamilton Square refined a family recipe into what his company still calls Taylor’s “Sugar Cured” Ham. After the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the company says, it couldn’t legally be sold as ham, so it became pork roll. Case’s, the other big name, dates to 1870.
Plan it: Almost every diner, deli and bagel shop in the state makes one, usually until lunchtime. Order it “salt, pepper, ketchup” and nobody will ask where you’re from. Where: statewide. Best for: everyone, breakfast.
98. Pick Your Own Fruit (With a 2026 Warning)
Paid (by the pound or by entry ticket). The Garden State nickname is earned on its farms. The picking calendar starts with strawberries from mid-May into June, then blueberries from mid-June into August, peaches through late summer, and apples and pumpkins in the fall, and the state’s Jersey Fresh website lists farms that let you pick your own. One honest warning for fall 2026: a freeze on April 20-21 damaged fruit crops across the state, and the USDA declared all 21 counties a disaster area. Apple picking this year is scarce; Terhune Orchards in Princeton calls its apples very limited, and some farms have none. Pumpkin picking, hayrides and corn mazes are the safer bet this fall; check each farm’s page before you go.
Plan it: Terhune Orchards’ Fall Family Fun Weekends run on Saturdays and Sundays through November 1, 2026 ($19.95 in advance or $24.95 on the day for ages 3 and up; picking costs extra). Johnson’s Corner Farm in Medford runs its Fall Harvest daily through November 1, with pumpkins at 99 cents a pound (there’s no apple picking there this year after the April freeze). Check each farm’s picking page on the morning you go, because crops change daily. Where: statewide. Best for: families, fall weekends.
99. Taste New Jersey Wine
Paid (tastings from about $22). New Jersey has four federally recognized wine regions, from the Warren Hills in the northwest to the Outer Coastal Plain and the Cape May Peninsula in the south, and dozens of wineries. In 2012 a blind tasting at Princeton University pitted ten New Jersey wines against five from Bordeaux and five from Burgundy, and the state’s growers still like to point out how close it came. Three good places to start, one in each part of the state: Unionville Vineyards in Hunterdon County, William Heritage Winery in Mullica Hill and Willow Creek Winery outside Cape May. Renault (#95) is the history lesson.
Plan it: Unionville (9 Rocktown Road, Ringoes) pours daily from noon to 5 p.m., with hosted six-wine tastings Thursday to Monday for $22 a person. William Heritage’s Mullica Hill tasting room is open Monday to Saturday, noon to 9 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. Willow Creek, on a 50-acre estate in West Cape May, is open daily, and reservations are strongly encouraged. Pick a designated driver. Where: statewide. Best for: couples, groups of friends.
100. Take the Train to the Beach
Paid (NJ Transit fares). You don’t need a car for a beach day from New York. NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line runs from New York Penn Station and Newark to Long Branch, Asbury Park, Belmar, Spring Lake, Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head, several of them within walking distance of the sand. From Philadelphia, the Atlantic City Rail Line runs from 30th Street Station to Atlantic City, where the beach is free. In summer 2026 NJ Transit also ran buses to Seaside Heights, Wildwood and Cape May.
Plan it: Most trips to stations south of Long Branch involve a change there to a diesel train. Buying a ticket on board adds $5, so use the NJ Transit app or a machine, and remember that fares rise 3% every July 1. Summer bus round trips to Wildwood or Cape May started at $35.50 in 2026. Where: statewide. Best for: NYC and Philly day-trippers, budget, anyone who hates Parkway traffic.
101. Do the Lighthouse Challenge
Paid ($10 registration). Once a year, on the third weekend of October, lighthouses up and down the state open together for the Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey: 11 lighthouse sites, four life-saving stations and a museum, from Sandy Hook down to Cape May and up the Delaware Bay to Paulsboro. Collect a souvenir at each stop and you’ve seen the whole Jersey coast in two days, which is either a great road trip or a competitive sport, depending on who’s driving. The 2026 Challenge is October 17-18.
Plan it: The $10 registration buys a souvenir at each site; some towers may charge their own climbing fees. Plan on long days, because Sandy Hook to Cape May alone is about a three-hour drive. Where: statewide. Best for: road-trippers, lighthouse fans, fall weekends.
All 101 New Jersey Attractions at a Glance
Every entry in one table: whether it’s free, when it works and how far it is. Drive times are light-traffic estimates from Times Square and Philadelphia’s City Hall; “Varies” means you can do it all over the state.
| # | Attraction | Region | Cost (2026) | Season | From NYC | From Philly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cape May’s Victorian district | Shore, south | Free; tours $20 | All year | 3 hr 15 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 2 | Wildwood Boardwalk and Morey’s Piers | Shore, south | Free; rides extra | Summer, fall weekends | 3 hr 15 min | 1 hr 50 min |
| 3 | Atlantic City Boardwalk and Steel Pier | Shore, south | Free; rides extra | All year | 2 hr 45 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 4 | Cape May Lighthouse | Shore, south | $12 | All year | 3 hr 25 min | 2 hr |
| 5 | Sunset Beach and the SS Atlantus | Shore, south | Free | All year | 3 hr 25 min | 2 hr |
| 6 | Lucy the Elephant | Shore, south | $9 | All year | 2 hr 45 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 7 | Ocean City’s boardwalk | Shore, south | Free; tags in summer | All year | 2 hr 45 min | 1 hr 25 min |
| 8 | Whale and dolphin watching | Shore, south | From $30 | March to December | 3 hr 20 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 9 | Hawk watching at Cape May Point | Shore, south | Free | September to November | 3 hr 25 min | 2 hr |
| 10 | Atlantic City’s casinos | Shore, south | Free entry, 21+ | All year | 2 hr 45 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 11 | Absecon Lighthouse | Shore, south | $10 | All year | 2 hr 45 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 12 | Doo Wop motels | Shore, south | Free | Summer, fall | 3 hr 15 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 13 | Cape May County Park & Zoo | Shore, south | Free | All year | 3 hr 5 min | 1 hr 40 min |
| 14 | Cape May-Lewes Ferry | Shore, south | From $11 | All year | 3 hr 20 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 15 | Christmas in Cape May | Shore, south | Free; tours paid | Late Nov. to Dec. | 3 hr 15 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 16 | Forsythe’s Wildlife Drive | Shore, south | $4 per car | All year | 2 hr 30 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 17 | Island Waterpark | Shore, south | Paid | All year | 2 hr 45 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 18 | Boardwalk Hall’s pipe organ | Shore, south | Free concerts | Summer; tours April to Dec. | 2 hr 40 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 19 | Historic Cold Spring Village | Shore, south | $14 | Summer to early Oct. | 3 hr 15 min | 1 hr 50 min |
| 20 | Sandy Hook | Shore, north | $20 parking in summer | All year | 1 hr 30 min | 2 hr 5 min |
| 21 | Asbury Park | Shore, north | Free; badges in summer | All year | 1 hr 20 min | 1 hr 40 min |
| 22 | Island Beach State Park | Shore, north | $5 to $20 per car | All year | 1 hr 55 min | 1 hr 40 min |
| 23 | Long Beach Island | Shore, north | Free; badges in summer | All year | 2 hr 10 min | 1 hr 30 min |
| 24 | Barnegat Lighthouse | Shore, north | Free park | All year | 2 hr 30 min | 1 hr 45 min |
| 25 | Ocean Grove | Shore, north | Free; beach $13 | All year | 1 hr 25 min | 1 hr 40 min |
| 26 | Jenkinson’s Boardwalk | Shore, north | Free; rides extra | Summer; aquarium all year | 1 hr 30 min | 1 hr 35 min |
| 27 | Seaside Heights and Casino Pier | Shore, north | Free; rides extra | Summer to mid-Oct. | 1 hr 50 min | 1 hr 35 min |
| 28 | Red Bank and the Count Basie Center | Shore, north | Shows paid | All year | 1 hr 10 min | 1 hr 45 min |
| 29 | Spring Lake | Shore, north | Free; badges in summer | All year | 1 hr 30 min | 1 hr 35 min |
| 30 | Belmar | Shore, north | Free; badges $12 | Summer | 1 hr 25 min | 1 hr 35 min |
| 31 | Silverball Retro Arcade | Shore, north | From $7.50 | All year | 1 hr 25 min | 1 hr 40 min |
| 32 | Keansburg Amusement Park | Shore, north | Rides $1.50 a ticket | Spring to September | 1 hr 5 min | 1 hr 45 min |
| 33 | Monmouth Park | Shore, north | $7 | May to September | 1 hr 15 min | 1 hr 40 min |
| 34 | Tuckerton Seaport | Shore, north | $5 | All year | 2 hr 10 min | 1 hr 25 min |
| 35 | Popcorn Park Animal Refuge | Shore, north | $12 | All year | 1 hr 50 min | 1 hr 15 min |
| 36 | Liberty State Park and the Statue ferry | North | Free; ferry $26 | All year | 20 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 37 | Mount Tammany | North | Free | All year | 1 hr 30 min | 2 hr 15 min |
| 38 | Hoboken’s waterfront | North | Free | All year | 10 min | 2 hr 5 min |
| 39 | Liberty Science Center | North | Paid | All year | 20 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 40 | Paterson Great Falls | North | Free | All year | 30 min | 2 hr 10 min |
| 41 | American Dream | North | Free entry; attractions paid | All year | 15 min | 2 hr |
| 42 | Morristown National Historical Park | North | Free | All year | 50 min | 2 hr |
| 43 | Thomas Edison National Historical Park | North | $15 | Late Feb. to Dec. | 30 min | 1 hr 55 min |
| 44 | Stairway to Heaven | North | Free | All year | 1 hr 10 min | 2 hr 55 min |
| 45 | High Point State Park | North | Free off-season | All year | 1 hr 30 min | 3 hr 5 min |
| 46 | MetLife Stadium | North | Event tickets | Fall; summer concerts | 15 min | 2 hr |
| 47 | Turtle Back Zoo | North | $22 | All year | 35 min | 2 hr |
| 48 | State Line Lookout and the Palisades | North | Free | All year | 30 min | 2 hr 20 min |
| 49 | Newark Museum of Art | North | $10 | All year | 25 min | 1 hr 50 min |
| 50 | Branch Brook Park’s cherry blossoms | North | Free | April | 25 min | 2 hr |
| 51 | Old Mine Road and Millbrook Village | North | Free | Spring to fall | 1 hr 40 min | 2 hr 30 min |
| 52 | Great Swamp refuge | North | Free | All year | 55 min | 2 hr |
| 53 | Skylands and Ringwood Manor | North | Free; tours $10 | All year | 1 hr | 2 hr 40 min |
| 54 | Mountain Creek | North | Paid | All year | 1 hr 15 min | 2 hr 55 min |
| 55 | Lake Hopatcong | North | Free off-season | May to October | 1 hr | 2 hr 15 min |
| 56 | Hamilton Park, Weehawken | North | Free | All year | 10 min | 2 hr |
| 57 | Sunrise Mountain | North | Free off-season | Mid-April to mid-Dec. | 1 hr 45 min | 3 hr 5 min |
| 58 | Rutt’s Hut | North | Paid | All year | 20 min | 2 hr |
| 59 | Medieval Times | North | $76.95 | All year | 15 min | 2 hr |
| 60 | Space Farms Zoo & Museum | North | $26 | Late March to Nov. 1 | 1 hr 25 min | 2 hr 55 min |
| 61 | Yogi Berra Museum | North | $15 | All year | 25 min | 2 hr 5 min |
| 62 | Morris Museum’s mechanical music | North | $12 | All year | 45 min | 2 hr |
| 63 | Princeton | Central | Free | All year | 1 hr 20 min | 1 hr 5 min |
| 64 | Six Flags Great Adventure | Central | From $45 online | Late March to early Jan. | 1 hr 35 min | 1 hr 15 min |
| 65 | Grounds For Sculpture | Central | $25 | All year | 1 hr 30 min | 55 min |
| 66 | Lambertville and New Hope | Central | Free | All year | 1 hr 35 min | 1 hr |
| 67 | Washington Crossing State Park | Central | Free off-season | All year | 1 hr 45 min | 1 hr |
| 68 | Trenton’s Old Barracks and State Museum | Central | Museum free | All year | 1 hr 30 min | 45 min |
| 69 | Monmouth Battlefield | Central | Free | All year | 1 hr 10 min | 1 hr 15 min |
| 70 | Duke Farms | Central | Free | All year (Tue. to Sat.) | 1 hr 5 min | 1 hr 35 min |
| 71 | Northlandz | Central | $40 | All year | 1 hr 15 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 72 | Sourland Mountain Preserve | Central | Free | All year | 1 hr 20 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 73 | D&R Canal towpath | Central | Free | All year | 1 hr 10 min | 1 hr 10 min |
| 74 | Historic Village at Allaire | Central | $5 | April to November | 1 hr 30 min | 1 hr 30 min |
| 75 | Hot-air balloon flight | Central | $225 to $350 | All year | 1 hr 15 min | 1 hr 35 min |
| 76 | Round Valley Reservoir | Central | Free off-season | All year | 1 hr 20 min | 1 hr 30 min |
| 77 | New Brunswick: Zimmerli, gardens, theater | Central | Mostly free | All year | 55 min | 1 hr 25 min |
| 78 | Princeton Battlefield and Morven | Central | Free; Morven $15 | All year | 1 hr 25 min | 1 hr |
| 79 | Hindenburg site, Lakehurst | Central | Donation | All year, by reservation | 1 hr 45 min | 1 hr 15 min |
| 80 | Trenton tomato pie | Central | From $16 | All year | 1 hr 20 min | 55 min |
| 81 | Batsto Village | South | Free; tours $3 | All year | 2 hr 20 min | 1 hr 5 min |
| 82 | Paddling the Pine Barrens | South | From $55 | Spring to October | 2 hr | 50 min |
| 83 | Adventure Aquarium | South | From $32.99 | All year | 2 hr | 10 min |
| 84 | Battleship New Jersey | South | $35 | All year | 2 hr 5 min | 10 min |
| 85 | Haddonfield | South | Free | All year | 1 hr 55 min | 15 min |
| 86 | Whitesbog Village | South | Free | All year | 2 hr | 1 hr |
| 87 | Chatsworth and Double Trouble | South | No fees posted | October | 2 hr 5 min | 1 hr |
| 88 | Storybook Land | South | $42.95 online | Spring to Dec. 30 | 2 hr 35 min | 1 hr 10 min |
| 89 | Historic Smithville | South | Free | All year | 2 hr 25 min | 1 hr 20 min |
| 90 | WheatonArts | South | $14 | April to December | 2 hr 40 min | 55 min |
| 91 | Collingswood’s farmers market | South | Free | May to November | 2 hr | 10 min |
| 92 | Red Bank Battlefield Park | South | No fee listed | All year | 2 hr 5 min | 20 min |
| 93 | Cowtown Rodeo and market | South | Rodeo $28 | Rodeo late May to Sept. | 2 hr 25 min | 45 min |
| 94 | Fort Mott and the Fort Delaware ferry | South | Park free; ferry $15 | Ferry late April to Sept. | 2 hr 35 min | 55 min |
| 95 | Renault Winery | South | Paid | All year | 2 hr 35 min | 1 hr 5 min |
| 96 | A Jersey diner | Anywhere | Paid | All year | Varies | Varies |
| 97 | Pork roll, egg and cheese | Anywhere | Paid | All year | Varies | Varies |
| 98 | Pick your own fruit | Anywhere | Paid | May to October | Varies | Varies |
| 99 | New Jersey wine | Anywhere | From $22 | All year | Varies | Varies |
| 100 | The train to the beach | Anywhere | NJ Transit fare | Summer | Varies | Varies |
| 101 | The Lighthouse Challenge | Anywhere | $10 | Third weekend of October | Varies | Varies |
When to Go: New Jersey Season by Season
New Jersey has four real seasons, and each one changes what’s worth doing. The weather figures below are NOAA’s 1991-2020 averages for Newark and Atlantic City and its ocean temperature averages for the coast.
| Season | Weather | Best for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer (June to August) | Newark highs of 82 to 87°F; the ocean averages 74 to 76°F in July at Cape May and Sandy Hook, and about 69°F at Atlantic City | Beaches, boardwalks, water parks, Shore concerts, the Sunset Beach flag ceremony | Beach badges, full lots at Sandy Hook and Island Beach, Friday and Sunday traffic, peak room rates |
| September | Highs near 78°F; the ocean is still 72 to 74°F | Beaches without badges or crowds, Cape May’s hawk migration, the Sea.Hear.Now festival | The peak of hurricane season, around September 10 |
| October and November | Newark highs of 55 to 66°F | Fall color (mid-October in the north), Fright Fest at Six Flags, the cranberry harvest, pumpkin farms, the Lighthouse Challenge | Many Shore businesses cut hours or close; 2026 is a poor apple year after an April freeze |
| December to February | Newark highs of 40 to 45°F, with lows from the mid-20s to about 31°F | Christmas in Cape May, Holiday in the Park, skiing at Mountain Creek and Campgaw, Atlantic City shows | Most Shore attractions and some Skylands roads close for the winter |
| March to May | Newark highs of 51 to 73°F; the ocean is still about 57°F at Atlantic City in May | Cherry blossoms at Branch Brook Park, Lambertville’s ShadFest, the New Jersey Renaissance Faire (weekends from May 22, 2027), the Soar & Shore Airshow at the turn of the season (May 29-31 in 2026; June 4-6 in 2027) | Many attractions still keep weekend-only hours |
Getting Around: Cars, Trains and Tolls
Most of this list needs a car. New Jersey Transit covers the Hudson waterfront, Newark, Atlantic City and the northern Shore towns well, and the rest of the state much less so. What catches visitors out:
- Tolls: get an E-ZPass. The Atlantic City Expressway went all-electronic on January 4, 2026; without a transponder you pay roughly double the E-ZPass rate plus $1 per bill, and the full length costs $6.30 with E-ZPass. Garden State Parkway and Turnpike tolls rose 3% on January 1, 2026, and most of their plazas still take cash. Driving into Manhattan costs $16.79 at peak with E-ZPass at the Port Authority crossings, plus the $9 congestion charge south of 60th Street.
- Gas: you can’t pump your own. By state law an attendant fills the tank (diesel pumps excepted), so stay in the car and tell them how much.
- Trains to the Shore: NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line runs from New York Penn Station and Newark to Red Bank, Long Branch, Asbury Park, Belmar, Spring Lake, Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head; most trips south of Long Branch involve a change there. Buy tickets in the app or at a machine, because buying on board adds $5.
- Atlantic City: the Atlantic City Rail Line runs from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, and NJ Transit’s bus 319 runs from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. In summer 2026 there were also buses to Seaside Heights, Wildwood and Cape May.
- Across the Hudson and the Delaware: PATH trains cost $3.25 a ride (since May 3, 2026) between Manhattan, Hoboken, Jersey City and Newark. From Philadelphia, PATCO trains run to Collingswood and Haddonfield.
- Newark Airport: on weekdays from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., buses replace the AirTrain between the rail station and the terminals through November 13, 2026 (the AirTrain still runs on weekends and between terminals). The NJ Transit airport ticket includes the AirTrain fee.
- This fall: NJ Transit runs temporary rail schedules on nearly every line from October 11 to about November 15, 2026, while the second track moves onto the new Portal North Bridge. Check the schedule before a weekend trip.
What’s Changed: Closures and Old Advice to Ignore
A lot of New Jersey’s attractions changed between 2024 and 2026, and plenty of guides haven’t caught up. Before you plan around something you read elsewhere, check this list.
| Place | What changed |
|---|---|
| Kingda Ka, Six Flags Great Adventure | Closed in November 2024 and imploded on February 28, 2025. Its record-breaking replacement, the Bakunawa spinning launch coaster, slipped from 2026 to 2027. |
| Wild Safari, Six Flags | You can’t drive your own car through it anymore. Guided open-air trucks are included with park admission. |
| Wonderland Pier, Ocean City | Closed for good in October 2024. The building reopened in 2025 as an arcade and pizza shop without rides, and in September 2026 the city issued an unsafe-structure notice. Ride at Playland’s Castaway Cove instead. |
| Clementon Park, Camden County | Its owners announced in September 2026 that they are closing the park after the 2026 season and offering it for sale. |
| Giant Stairs, Palisades | Closed to all use for a rockfall assessment, with no reopening date. |
| Convention Hall, Asbury Park | Largely closed since about 2021. A $130 million restoration was announced in August 2026, with no reopening date. |
| Walt Whitman House, Camden | Closed from December 1, 2025 for renovation and a new visitor center; the target reopening is summer 2027. His tomb at Harleigh Cemetery is open daily. |
| East Point Lighthouse, Delaware Bay | The building has been closed since the historical society’s lease ended in September 2024; the grounds are open. |
| The Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor | The Stone Harbor campus is closed for a rebuild. The institute reopens on November 7 at a temporary home in Cape May Court House, on weekends. |
| Washington Crossing State Park | The visitor center museum is closed until a new building opens. |
| Old Mine Road, Delaware Water Gap | The northern 3.5 miles have been closed since April 6, 2026 for repaving, with no reopening announced by late September. |
| Drumthwacket, Princeton | Public tours of the governor’s residence are paused. |
| Festival of Ballooning, Readington | Cancelled in 2024 and 2025; check the organizer for 2026. |
| The Hambletonian, Meadowlands | The August 8, 2026 race was the last at the Meadowlands for now; it moves to Indiana for 2027-2029. |
| Miss America | No longer held in Atlantic City. Miss America 2027 was crowned in West Palm Beach, Florida. |
| The Atlantic City airshow | Now the Soar & Shore Airshow, held in late spring (May 29-31 in 2026, the weekend after Memorial Day) rather than midweek in August. The 2027 show is set for June 4-6. |
| State parks | Entrance and parking fees came back on July 1, 2024, after two free years. The annual pass is $50 for residents and $75 for non-residents. |
| Red Bull Arena, Harrison | Renamed Sports Illustrated Stadium in December 2024. |
What to Skip, and What to Rethink
- Driving down the Shore on a summer Friday afternoon. Leave early in the morning, travel midweek or take the train (#100). Coming home on a Sunday afternoon is just as bad.
- Paying for a beach badge you don’t need. Atlantic City’s beaches and the Wildwoods’ are free, and at Sandy Hook and Island Beach you pay per car, not per person.
- Driving into Manhattan for the day. Between the $16.79 peak Hudson crossing and the $9 congestion charge, the PATH at $3.25 or an NJ Transit train is cheaper, and usually faster.
- The Atlantic City Expressway without E-ZPass. Toll-by-plate costs about double, plus a $1 fee on every bill.
- American Dream on a whim. Getting in is free, but every attraction has its own ticket. Choose one or two and book online.
- Old lists. Kingda Ka, Wonderland Pier’s rides, the drive-through safari and the Giant Stairs are all gone or closed; so is the Walt Whitman House until 2027.
- Mount Tammany or Stairway to Heaven at 11 a.m. on a summer Saturday. The lots are small and fill fast. Go early or on a weekday.
- Skipping inland entirely. The Shore is the headline, but the Water Gap, Princeton, the Pine Barrens and the battlefields are why New Jersey keeps surprising people. Even two inland days change the trip.
Things to Do in New Jersey: FAQ
What is New Jersey best known for?
For visitors, it’s the Jersey Shore: boardwalks, beach towns and Atlantic City’s casinos along the whole Atlantic coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May. Beyond the beaches, New Jersey is known for its Revolutionary War battlefields, diners and pork roll, the Manhattan skyline from the Hudson waterfront, the Pine Barrens, and farm produce like blueberries, cranberries and Jersey tomatoes.
What are the best things to do in New Jersey for first-time visitors?
Start with Cape May’s Victorian district and lighthouse, a night on the Atlantic City or Wildwood boardwalk, the Statue of Liberty ferry from Liberty State Park, and Princeton’s campus and free art museum. If you like the outdoors, add the Mount Tammany hike at the Delaware Water Gap. You’ll want a car for everything except the Hudson waterfront.
What can you do in New Jersey for free?
Plenty: the beaches in Atlantic City and the Wildwoods (no beach tags), every boardwalk, Liberty State Park, Paterson’s Great Falls, Morristown National Historical Park, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Zimmerli in New Brunswick, the Cape May County Zoo and the D&R Canal towpath. Many state parks charge per car only in summer.
What is there to do in NJ on a rainy day?
Head for Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, Adventure Aquarium in Camden or American Dream in East Rutherford, which has an indoor water park, a real-snow ski slope and a theme park under one roof. Other good bets are Northlandz’s giant model railroad, Island Waterpark in Atlantic City, Silverball’s pinball arcade in Asbury Park and Medieval Times.
What are the best things to do in New Jersey for adults?
Try Atlantic City’s casinos and shows (you must be 21 to gamble), Asbury Park’s music scene and restaurants, a winery tasting in Hunterdon County or near Cape May, a sunrise balloon flight, Cape May’s inns and whale-watching boats, or a Giants or Jets game at MetLife Stadium. For something quieter, walk the Princeton campus or the D&R Canal towpath.
Do you need a car to visit New Jersey?
For most of the state, yes. The exceptions are the Hudson waterfront (PATH trains from Manhattan cost $3.25), Newark, the northern Shore towns on NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line, and Atlantic City, which has a rail line from Philadelphia and buses from New York. The Pine Barrens, the Skylands and most of South Jersey need a car.
When is the best time to visit New Jersey?
September is hard to beat: the ocean is still in the low 70s, most beach towns stop checking badges after Labor Day, and the summer crowds thin out. Summer is best for boardwalks and water parks, October for fall color, farms and Halloween events, and December for Cape May’s Christmas tours and Six Flags’ Holiday in the Park.
Sources and How We Checked
We checked the prices, hours, closures and dates on this page on September 23-24, 2026, against the official websites of the attractions, operators and agencies that run them, and against news reports for closures and changes. This guide was compiled from those sources rather than from first-hand visits, and every price is dated in the text. The main sources:
- National Park Service: Sandy Hook, Gateway National Recreation Area
- National Park Service: Delaware Water Gap current conditions
- New Jersey State Park Service (NJDEP)
- NJ Transit: Jersey Shore service
- NOAA coastal water temperature guide, plus NOAA’s 1991-2020 climate normals for Newark and Atlantic City
- Cape May MAC (Cape May Lighthouse, the Physick Estate and trolley tours)
- Six Flags Great Adventure
We also checked each attraction’s own site, including Lucy the Elephant, Morey’s Piers, Jenkinson’s, Liberty Science Center, the New Jersey State Museum, Grounds For Sculpture, Batsto Village, Adventure Aquarium, Battleship New Jersey, WheatonArts and the farms and wineries named above. Drive times come from the Open Source Routing Machine (project-osrm.org) using OpenStreetMap road data, measured from Times Square and Philadelphia City Hall and rounded to five minutes.
New Jersey Tourism Guide is an independent publication. We are not affiliated with Visit New Jersey or the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism, the National Park Service, NJ Transit or any attraction listed here, and no one paid to be included.
Photo Credits
- The Cape May Lighthouse at sunset: photo by King of Hearts, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- The Pink House, Cape May: photo by Smallbones, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
- Lucy the Elephant, Margate: photo by Acroterion, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- The Asbury Park boardwalk: photo by Acroterion, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Barnegat Lighthouse at dawn: photo by LoloMullen, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Lower Manhattan from Liberty State Park: photo by Dtabb73, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Mount Tammany and the Delaware Water Gap: photo by Famartin, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
- The Great Falls, Paterson: photo by FirozAnsari, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Nassau Hall, Princeton: photo by Smallbones, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
- Batsto Village: photo by Frederikto, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)