9 Best Towns In New Jersey For A Two-Day Recharge
Cape May is the country's oldest seaside resort. A New Jersey flea market in Lambertville runs more than 200 vendors. George Washington once ran a war from a house in Cranbury. All three sit a short drive from most of the state, and that is the whole point of these nine towns. Each is small enough to cross on foot and close enough to reach on a Friday evening. The shore towns trade on Victorian streets and beach ice cream. The river towns run on antiques and old mills. The northern ones lean on state parks and small breweries. Pick one, or string a few together, and let the weekend handle the rest.
Cape May
The southern tip of the state holds the country's oldest seaside resort. Cape May has been sending people to the beach since before the United States had many other beaches on offer, and it has the receipts: more than 600 preserved Victorian buildings and a National Historic Landmark designation covering the entire city. The history and the low-key shoreline make it a strong opening move for a two-day reset.
Book a room at the Carroll Villa Hotel, a family-owned place with 19 guestrooms done up in period Victorian style, and you will not have far to go for breakfast, since The Mad Batter Restaurant sits right downstairs. Order the crab cakes, or a fresh-squeezed orange juice mimosa. Then claim a patch of Cape May Beach, where the sand runs pale and the water stays cool deep into summer; get there early if you want to set up before everyone else has the same idea. If the beach is not calling, Cape May Stage runs a rotating slate of plays in its historic venue.
Historic Smithville
What started as a colonial stagecoach stop has spent the last several decades reinventing itself as a village built for a slow weekend, about 12 miles from Atlantic City. Just outside it, the Colonial Inn spreads 30 rooms across four buildings: the Main House, the Country Inn, the Barn, and the Village Rooms.
Lakeside Grill handles lunch, with burgers, melts, and a long roster of salads and wraps. Dinners get busy enough that waits can approach an hour, though the New York strip steak makes a decent case for standing around. Each fall the village throws an Oktoberfest with food, beer, and more than 100 juried crafters, and between rounds you can browse the stalls, take a paddleboat out on Lake Meone, or lose a couple of dollars to a raffle run by a local nonprofit.
Red Bank
About 60 miles up the coast from Smithville, Red Bank runs on music and the arts. The Two River Theater is where you catch the new and the original, and over the past two decades it has grown into one of the busier theater companies in the region.
Overlooking the Navesink River, the Molly Pitcher Inn is a waterfront hotel with 106 rooms that pairs an early-twentieth-century feel with modern comforts. For something with more of a pulse, or considerably less of one, book a walk with Requiem of the Reaper, a ghost tour whose local guides spend an hour after dark introducing you to Red Bank's least-living residents and most-haunted addresses.
Ocean Grove
Ocean Grove sits dead center on the Jersey Shore, wedged between Asbury Park to the north and Bradley Beach to the south, and a weekend here is built around the sand. Ocean Grove Beach is one of the cleanest and most family-friendly stretches on the shore.
In summer, the Great Auditorium hosts classical concerts and other events inside a wooden hall built in 1894 to resemble the inside of an upturned ship, which is either a tribute to shipwrights or a warning, depending on your seat. Afterward, get a scoop at Day's Ice Cream, a summer institution where the line regularly runs out the door. To stay, find the bright-yellow Carriage House, a bed and breakfast with 13 rooms, eight of them with balconies and ocean views, and a full breakfast buffet before your morning walk downtown.
Spring Lake
Just south of Ocean Grove, the small resort of Spring Lake pulls visitors from across the state with two miles of beach and a studied lack of anything else to do. Stay at The Breakers, a longtime fixture right on the sand, and settle into the town's whole proposition: a quiet pace, long ocean views, and boutiques where other shore towns put arcades.
Walk the downtown shopping district, where the storefronts line tree-shaded streets, and when a day on foot catches up with you, stop at Sundae Times Ice Cream Parlor for a scoop off a very long list of sundaes. In July, that counts as a full itinerary.
Clinton
Clinton sits on the South Branch of the Raritan River, where a four-story red grist mill anchors what may be the most photographed view in the state. The Red Mill is the centerpiece of the Red Mill Museum Village, a 10-acre site holding more than 40,000 artifacts, and every October the grounds turn into the Haunted Red Mill. Across town, the Hunterdon Art Museum fills a nineteenth-century stone building with work by established and emerging artists and runs classes for children and adults.
The Riverside Victorian Bed and Breakfast leans all the way into the theme, with period furnishings, modern comforts, a homemade breakfast, and good coffee in the morning. Guests who wander back after 4 p.m. find afternoon refreshments and the day's newspaper waiting, which is about the pace Clinton is going for.
Cranbury
About 50 miles southeast of Clinton, Cranbury is one of the oldest towns in New Jersey, and it has the guest list to prove it: George Washington used a house here as his headquarters in the days before the 1778 Battle of Monmouth, with Alexander Hamilton among the officers passing through. Your first stop should be The Cranbury Inn, a rustic restaurant with a broad menu and a full bar that has been feeding people since 1780 and still runs local events all year. To sleep somewhere other than a chain hotel, drive 15 minutes to Princeton and the 16-room Peacock Inn, a small hotel in a preserved historic setting.
Spend a day outdoors at the Plainsboro Preserve, where more than five miles of trails wind through beech woods and meadows to the shore of McCormack Lake, a good place to stop for a picnic. If hiking is not the plan, the Elizabeth M. Wagner History Center will bring you up to speed on the town's long past.
Lambertville
On the banks of the Delaware River, about 32 miles from Cranbury, Lambertville has kept most of its nineteenth-century fabric intact, Victorian houses and all, along tree-lined streets. Bed down at the Lambertville Station Restaurant and Inn, where the morning brings a newspaper and a continental breakfast. The town also runs one of the largest antique markets in the state: the Golden Nugget Flea Market opens every weekend with more than 30 indoor antique shops and over 200 outdoor vendors, which is more than enough to swallow an afternoon and a fair chunk of your wallet.
For dinner, Revolution Woodfire Grille builds its menus around wood-fired proteins from an open kitchen. The outdoor dining garden sits under a canopy of lights and mature trees, with small oil lamps on the tables filling in the tavern feel.
Newton
Up in Sussex County, Newton pairs a deep local history with a downtown busy enough to fill a weekend. Put your feet up at the Ampersand Inn, ten rooms with breakfast served in a sun-filled dining room where the hosts are glad to walk you through the building's history.
Start the day at Kittatinny Valley State Park, all glacial lakes, old rail beds, and hiking trails; in winter, the Paulinskill Valley Trail belongs to the cross-country skiers. Afterward, take a seat in the tasting garden at Angry Erik Brewing, which pours house beers next to non-alcoholic options for whoever drew the short straw on driving. In late summer, Sussex County Community College screens an outdoor movie on campus worth planning a Saturday around.
Recharging Close To Home
These nine towns cover a lot of ground without asking for much of your time. The shore towns trade on sand and summer programs, the river towns on antiques and old mills, and the northern towns on state parks and quiet trails. Any one of them fits inside a two-day weekend, and several sit close enough to string together. For anyone who already lives in New Jersey, a real reset rarely takes more than a short drive and a decision to slow down.
