New Jersey Travel Guide - New Jersey 2025 Official Travel Guide
Nostalgia Lives Here
2024-12-05 09:03:55
Voyage to the vintage, embrace history and the past, take home throwback treasures and embellish the future with a new appreciation of bygone times.
Thrift & Antique Destinations
Front Street in Keyport offers assorted vintage shops catering to the functional-nostalgia trend for goods like vinyl LPs, Pyrex dishware and retro lamps. Prowl yesteryear shops and estate finds along the riverside streets of Lambertville—known as the “Antiques Capital of NJ”—or hunt rare finds at the indoor-outdoor Golden Nugget Antique & Flea Market. Explore a co-op treasure trove of vintage finds at The Old Mill Antique Mall, a red roadside barn in Mullica Hill including two floors’ worth of collectible coins, sports memorabilia, tools and toys. Period-style paintings, mirrors, vintage dolls, glassware, cast iron urns, fountains and more catch the eye at The Andover Village collection of shops. Collingswood’s Downtown Haddon Avenue attracts thrifters and collectors to appealing shops selling everything from mid-century modern furniture to pinball machines.
Architectural Gems
Check out retro digs in The Wildwoods, aka “Doo-Wop Capital of the World,” boasting the largest collection of midcentury modern hotels/motels, “Fabulous Fifties” commercial buildings and vibrant neon signs. With more than 600 charming cottages and buildings, Cape May Historic District is pure eye candy for fans of resplendent late-Victorian architecture. NJ’s newest luxury retreat, Pendry Natirar, brings contemporary majesty to the renovated Tudor-Style Mansion, located on a 90-acre estate in Peapack. Catch a concert at a former 1937 Art Deco-style movie house, The Landis Theater in Vineland, with a revamped neon façade welcoming tribute bands, magicians and more. Glimpse into early America at Historic Cold Spring Village, recreating life in the Gilded Age with meticulously restored homes, a brewery, school and trade shops that showcase authentic period details and craftsmanship.
Time-Capsule Museums
Compelling tales of centuries past resonate in the grounds and buildings of the pre-Revolutionary Old Barracks Museum in Trenton. Step inside a zinc mine that delves into the region’s rich mining history and become dazzled by touchable fluorescent minerals at Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg. Embrace railroadiana at Whippany Railway Museum, with outdoor displays of restored train excursions and a caboose ride option, or tour Northlandz, the World´s Largest Miniature Wonderland & Model Railroad Museum. With automotive history that’ll make you want to pull the brakes, there’s always a new detour on memory lane at the Vintage Automobile Museum of New Jersey in Point Pleasant. As a working maritime village, Tuckerton Seaport & Baymen’s Museum keeps the area’s nautical traditions and boat-building heritage alive.
Spotlight on Lighthouses
Once brightly lit beacons for mariner safety in the Atlantic Ocean for centuries, 23 lighthouses still line the Jersey shorelines (with 11 welcoming visitors). Look up at history at an unusual 1764 octagonal tower in Sandy Hook—NJ’s oldest—or at the traditional cone design of the state’s tallest in Absecon. Towers tucked into lighthouse keepers’ homes stand tall in Hereford Inlet while a museum resides at Barnegat Light’s one-room former schoolhouse at the tip of Long Beach Island.
Want to see them all? There’s no better time than the third weekend of October, when the annual Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey takes place, challenging visitors to hit 11 lighthouse sites, three lifesaving stations and one museum over the two-day weekend. A small registration fee enables you to collect a souvenir from each site!
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