I know this is hard to believe for people who only hear stereotypes about our state, but New Jersey has a lot of natural beauty. Northwest NJ and the Delaware Water Gap area have a lot of beautiful forested areas, and the Delaware River is so crisp and clear up there. Great for kayaking and tubing! All along the Delaware in Central NJ there are cute river towns like Frenchtown, Stockton, Lambertville, and Washington’s Crossing. These are really cute little downtowns with bars & restaurants, shops, and live entertainment. Plus with Lambertville there’s New Hope right across the bridge. We have farmstands with fresh Jersey corn, tomatoes, and peaches all over the place (remember, we’re the Garden State!), plus loads of local wineries. The Pine Barrens are beautiful for hiking and biking. Then we’ve got the shore. I will grant that NJ beaches don’t hold a candle to some other places further south along the eastern seaboard (though I will say that the beaches with tags are a pretty good experience), but you don’t really go down the shore just for the beaches. You go for the boardwalks, plus the casinos in Atlantic City. We also have Great Adventure, which I think every Jersey kid grows up going to.
And we have pork roll, the best breakfast meat ever.
So yeah, come check us out. You might be surprised!
I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to write this out. I definitely had stereotypes about NJ being less than pleasant based on all the memes, but I realize I should probably reconsider that. A wine -> casino -> boardwalk tour sounds like it could be fun (I have no idea of the geography so no clue if this is possible).
Yup! Every time I see a post deriding NJ, I feel the need to post a love letter to NJ as a rebuttal haha
Casino & boardwalk are easy to do together. Those are both on the shoreline. There are loads of wineries so depending on what you felt like doing, it would be easy to squeeze that in too. The nice thing about New Jersey is that it isn’t huge, so if you’re up for a bit of driving you can see a lot.
I had grandparents who lived in Philadelphia and every summer we would go down the shore to Wildwood when we were kids. Just spending days laying on the beach making sand castles, digging up clams and harassing the horseshoe crabs. Then going to the boardwalk and getting salt water taffy and playing games. Good times.
I’m from South Jersey, not sure who is keeping the Olive Gardens open but it’s not me. I don’t know what you’re looking for, but it’s a nice state for the most part, but I’ll admit I’m biased. I think most of the shit is because New York and Philadelphia have us sandwiched in between them and they’re very vocal cities with a lot of pride in themselves so we’re the easy punching bag. Just don’t force us to pump our own gas and there won’t be any problems!
Is there anything with visiting New Jersey for? (Asking in good faith. I just haven’t ever heard anything good)
Yes, quite a lot actually!
I know this is hard to believe for people who only hear stereotypes about our state, but New Jersey has a lot of natural beauty. Northwest NJ and the Delaware Water Gap area have a lot of beautiful forested areas, and the Delaware River is so crisp and clear up there. Great for kayaking and tubing! All along the Delaware in Central NJ there are cute river towns like Frenchtown, Stockton, Lambertville, and Washington’s Crossing. These are really cute little downtowns with bars & restaurants, shops, and live entertainment. Plus with Lambertville there’s New Hope right across the bridge. We have farmstands with fresh Jersey corn, tomatoes, and peaches all over the place (remember, we’re the Garden State!), plus loads of local wineries. The Pine Barrens are beautiful for hiking and biking. Then we’ve got the shore. I will grant that NJ beaches don’t hold a candle to some other places further south along the eastern seaboard (though I will say that the beaches with tags are a pretty good experience), but you don’t really go down the shore just for the beaches. You go for the boardwalks, plus the casinos in Atlantic City. We also have Great Adventure, which I think every Jersey kid grows up going to.
And we have pork roll, the best breakfast meat ever.
So yeah, come check us out. You might be surprised!
I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to write this out. I definitely had stereotypes about NJ being less than pleasant based on all the memes, but I realize I should probably reconsider that. A wine -> casino -> boardwalk tour sounds like it could be fun (I have no idea of the geography so no clue if this is possible).
Yup! Every time I see a post deriding NJ, I feel the need to post a love letter to NJ as a rebuttal haha
Casino & boardwalk are easy to do together. Those are both on the shoreline. There are loads of wineries so depending on what you felt like doing, it would be easy to squeeze that in too. The nice thing about New Jersey is that it isn’t huge, so if you’re up for a bit of driving you can see a lot.
Princeton and surrounding area is also worth a pit stop.
Ahh I’d had something about Princeton but I must’ve lost it in editing! Yeah Princeton is beautiful :)
I had grandparents who lived in Philadelphia and every summer we would go down the shore to Wildwood when we were kids. Just spending days laying on the beach making sand castles, digging up clams and harassing the horseshoe crabs. Then going to the boardwalk and getting salt water taffy and playing games. Good times.
I’m from South Jersey, not sure who is keeping the Olive Gardens open but it’s not me. I don’t know what you’re looking for, but it’s a nice state for the most part, but I’ll admit I’m biased. I think most of the shit is because New York and Philadelphia have us sandwiched in between them and they’re very vocal cities with a lot of pride in themselves so we’re the easy punching bag. Just don’t force us to pump our own gas and there won’t be any problems!
The tourists.
Edison Labs is cool to visit I guess.