New Jersey Tourism BoardWhat’s New
• 75th Annual Baby Parade (August 6), parade for young children and families topped with bands, floats and dignitaries honouring the baby parade queen.
• Shore Chefs Crab Cake Cook-Off: Taste fare from the best chefs in the Garden State as they battle for the Best Crab Cake Award (August 21 and 22).
• “Thunder over the boardwalk”: Atlantic City Airshow: Unique in its location over the beach, ocean and Boardwalk, this show creates thrills with parachute teams, fly-bys and formations (August 25).
Attractions
• Liberty State Park: The nation’s most important symbols of freedom, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, can be seen and visited from Liberty State Park by picking up the ferry. Jersey City.
• Princeton: Ivy League town with historic landmarks, trendy shopping, classic accommodations, dining spas, museums and galleries.
• New Jersey State Museum: Features original New Jersey and captured Confederate flags, interpretive displays and descriptive map of significant battles fought in New Jersey. Trenton.
• Adventure Aquarium: “Swim with the Sharks” and come within inches of sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks, nurse sharks and barracuda, and a 12-metre suspended Shark Tunnel with 26 sharks. Camden.
New Jersey Tourism Board• USS New Jersey: The most decorated battleship in history is a museum and houses exhibits of the ship’s past. Camden.• Liberty Science Center: Hundreds of amazing experiences in six exhibition areas show science and technology as they really exist in daily life. Jersey City.
• Wildwood: Boasts the largest Ferris wheel on the east coast, an eight-kilometre stretch of white-sand beaches and a vast array of amusements, shops and eateries.
Events
• Cape May Jazz Festival (April & November), Cape May.
• Cherry Blossom Festival (April), Newark.
• World Series of Birding (May), Cape May.
• NJ Seafood Festival (June), Belmar.
• St. Ann’s Italian Festival (July), Hoboken.
• New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge (October), statewide.
• WheatonArts Festival of Fine Craft (October), Millville.
• Patriot’s Week (December), Trenton.
Places
• Greater Atlantic City Region: 24-hour gaming; Ocean Life Center; world’s first boardwalk, Absecon Lighthouse; golf and sporting paradise; outlet and upscale shopping.
• Historic Smithville and the Village Green: Quaint setting for shopping and dining, plus train rides, a carousel for the kids and boating on Lake Meone.
• Duke Farms: 11 indoor gardens featuring stunning seasonal displays. Enjoy biking and birding plus a Japanese Outdoor Garden tour. Hillsborough.
• Historic Cold Spring Village: Open-air living history museum comprised of 26 early American buildings with interpreters in period costume plying their trades and crafts. Cape May.
Hidden Gems:
• Valley Shepherd Creamery: An old-fashioned creamery and farm featuring sessions on making artisan sheep milk cheeses and Ewe-gurt by hand; hayride to the cheese aging cave in the hillside of Long Valley. Morris County.
• Northlandz: 100 miniature trains; and La Peep dollhouse; a 94-room mini-mansion; doll museum; art gallery; and music hall with a 2,000-pipe organ.
• Hammonton: Visit the Tomesallo Winery, the largest grape producer in the state and savour their fine wines. It’s also the Blueberry Capital of New Jersey.
Did You Know?
• State Motto: Liberty and Prosperity
• State Flower: Violet
• State Bird: Eastern Goldfinch
Fast Facts
Region: MID-ATLANTIC
Direct Flights: Air Canada, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines, United, US Airways
Sales Tools: New Jersey Official Travel Guide; travel agent section on website
Info: New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism
1-800-VISIT-NJ
www.visitnj.org