Raised in the Garden State, globe-trotting chef Anthony Bourdain half-jokingly offered this pearl on New Jersey restaurants: The seal of approval is a photo of a Sopranos cast member in the window. Well, just as that mob epic is off the airwaves, another stereotype worth retiring is New Jersey’s tired pop culture tag as a polluted wasteland. Without denying the heavy industrial and transportation sector surrounding Newark Liberty International Airport—and the traffic woes of the Turn-pike—nothing could be further from the truth.
Instead, the Garden State brims with dense forests, expansive hills, a 126-mile coastline, and renowned agricultural produce, and it thrives on agritourism, ecotourism and a progressive focus on the environment and sustainability.
Breathe easy—it’s New Jersey.
Atlantic City
The arrival of the green revolution in this fabled seaside casino resort is hard to miss. Greeting the city’s more than 30 million annual visitors as they come into downtown are the lazily turning 379-foot-tall propellers of the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm, the state’s first such facility. The Atlantic City Convention Center is in the sustainability act, too. In June, the center announced plans to install what will be the largest single-building solar energy project in the U.S., providing more than a quarter of its daily electrical needs.
Under a 20-year agreement, the center is hiring a private company to install solar panels on 290,000 square feet—about two-thirds—of its main rooftop.
“Coupled with other sustainability initiatives,” says Gary Musich, vice president of convention development for the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority, “this project will significantly reduce energy costs while helping the environment.”
With billions in capital investments complete and another $10 billion planned for the next five years, Atlantic City’s luxe transformation marches on. This June also saw the opening of the 43-story, 800-room Water Club, A.C.’s first new non-gaming hotel.
An extension of the adjacent Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, the hotel’s highlights include five swimming pools and the Immersion Spa, a two-story sanctuary on the 32nd floor.
The resort transformation includes expanded outdoor recreation options, including parasailing and some 20 golf courses within an hour’s reach. And with a host of other mega-projects planned and under way, sustainability also figures in the city’s impressive recycling of some 70 tons of non-traditional construction material.
“We aim to be a true green meetings destination,” Musich says.
Southern Shore/Cape May
Looking for a “shore” meeting bet with plenty of fresh-air amenities and ocean scenery? Then keep your eye on the resurgent Wildwoods. Long a nostalgia, tourist and family draw, with its vintage motel collection and Doo-Wop theming, this three-town boardwalk and beach community is undergoing a classic back-to-the-future reincarnation aimed right at the broader meetings market.
The excitement starts with its superior 260,000-square-foot, ocean-facing convention center, where bookings are up. The teardown of aged rooming houses and motels, combined with upscale growth, has lured a wave of second-home owners, significantly changing the area’s demography. The next three years will see a slate of meetings-capable high-rise hotels in a designated 10-block district close to the convention center.
The convention center is already a natural draw. Its translucent roof admits plenty of light, and its east-facing glass walls provide stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean.
Three miles south is Cape May, a Victorian-era classic and the oldest seashore resort in the U.S. There’s world-class bird watching, Sunset Beach is spiritual calm defined, and return visits are guaranteed to the immensely popular Cape May Zoo.
Meadowlands Liberty Region
Directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, this region improbably mixes a vast transportation infrastructure with more than 13,000 acres of estuaries and protected marshlands.
Home to many unique species of residential and migratory birds, the Meadowlands’ extensive network of waterways, once left for dead, has been successfully revived as an eco- tourism and outdoor destination.
The efforts of organizations including the New Jersey Audubon Society and Hackensack Riverkeeper have paid off in promoting the area’s natural assets, creating a variety of unlikely havens for bird-watchers, hikers and kayakers.
Examples include the Greenbrook Sanctuary, 165 acres of woodland atop the magnificent Palisades Cliffs, a trail-rich area just north of the George Washington Bridge. Hackensack Riverkeeper offers educational tours aboard specially rigged pontoon boats, plus guided kayak and canoe trips. And the Mill Creek Trail offers complete immersion in an urban wilderness that includes 260 species of birds and the remnants of a white cedar forest.
Central New Jersey
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year is the acclaimed Cora Hartshorn Arboretum & Bird Sanctuary in Short Hills. Welcoming some 1,300 school trips annually, this veritable Eden features walking trails, a glacier-cut stone amphitheater, 45 species of trees and one of the state’s greatest concentrations of wildflowers.
In Summit, the event-capable Reeves-Reed Arboretum is a beautiful 12-acre venue blossoming with flower, herb and lily gardens. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the State Register of Historic Places, its grand estate and gardens represent design trends by prominent landscape architects of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
The Skylands
Arguably New Jersey’s most scenic and unspoiled destination—and certainly among its most historic—this five-county region in the state’s northwestern corner is a tapestry of farms, parks, lakes, and rivers.
Giulia Iannitelli, executive director of the Skylands of New Jersey Tourism Council, counts agritourism and ecotourism among the area’s draws. To learn about the region’s myriad pick-your-own farms, festivals and roadside markets, she recommends visiting the state’s “Jersey Fresh” website,
Exemplifying the rich farm tradition is the 120-acre Valley Shepherd Creamery in Long Valley, a working sheep farm where groups can learn about artisanal cheese-making.
Within 25 miles of the Delaware River, rural Warren and Hunterdon counties are great small meeting escapes, with local canoeing and hot-air ballooning. Golfers love the event-ready Architects Golf Course in Phillipsburg, also home to the corporate retreat-favorite Lazy River Outpost.
With sustainability awareness growing at hotels across the state, several hotels in the Skylands area are making big green statements of their own.
The Olde Mill Inn in Basking Ridge, for instance, only uses Green Seal-approved cleaning agents for guest laundry. With a host of conservation and recycling initiatives, the Bridgewater Marriott hotel has earned the EPA’s prestigious Energy Star rating. And the Crystal Springs Resort’s progressive commitment to ecologically sensitive development is part of its record of environmental excellence.
Central Jersey Shore
This is where the locals—and many New Yorkers—come to go to the beach. The 90 miles of coastline in Ocean and Monmouth counties is home to New Jersey boardwalk and amusement pier institutions such as Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant. Popularly known as LBI (look for the bumper sticker on many a New Jersey car), Long Beach Island is a 21-mile barrier island and summer colony full of restaurants, amusements and history.
Equidistant from Philadelphia and New York and about an hour north of Atlantic City, Ocean County is home to attractions such as Six Flags Great Adventure Theme Park, Hurricane Harbor Water Park and the Tuckerton Seaport, a 40-acre maritime village.
The county’s barrier beaches provide for a range of water sports, including sailing, windsurfing and parasailing. Fishing and crabbing are popular, and captained charter boat rentals for up to six people are widely available.
Distinctive among Monmouth County’s collection of ocean and bay beaches is Sandy Hook Gateway National Park. Along with wide beaches and recreational trails, this peninsular treasure trove includes America’s oldest continuously operating lighthouse and historic Fort Hancock, its circa-1890 officers’ homes and barracks still standing at attention.
Delaware River Region
Running between Philadelphia and Atlantic City and framed by the Delaware River and Delaware Bay, this five-county region in South Jersey includes most of the legendary 1.1 million-acre Pinelands, the first and largest National Reserve east of the Mississippi.
Within this vast oak and pine forest wilderness are historic villages, berry farms and extensive wetlands, along with the persistent legend of the mythic “Jersey Devil.”
Three state forests within the Pinelands—Wharton, Brendan T. Byrne and Bass River—are perfect for outdoor and eco-adventures, such as recreational canoeing on Wharton’s Mullica River.
Running 74 miles along the Delaware and Raritan Canal, a namesake state park has a towpath for jogging and bicycling, along with fishing and canoeing, while the 2,500-acre Mercer County Park hosts hundreds of diverse events every year.
The historic Princeton region is famed as the site where the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War in 1783 and where the new Congress first met. Home to seven of the top 50 meeting and conference centers in New Jersey, the Princeton area collection also encompasses elegant outdoor event venues, including Grounds for Sculpture, a 35-acre sculpture park with two museum buildings, and the Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton’s grandest country estate.
For More Info
Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority 609.449.7101
www.atlanticcitynj.com
Cape May County Departartment of Tourism 609.463.6415 www.thejerseycape.com
Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority 609.729.9000 www.wildwoodsnj.com
Meadowlands Liberty CVB 201.605.1059 www.meadowlandslibertycvb.com
Monmouth County Department of Economic Development and Tourism 732.431.7476 www.visitmonmouth.com
New Jersey Tourism Commission 609.777.0885 www.state.nj.us/travel
Ocean County Tourism 732.929.2000 www.oceancountytourism.com
Princeton Regional CVB 609.924.1776 www.visitprinceton.org
Shore Region Tourism
Council 732.244.9283 www.shoreregion.com
Skylands of New Jersey Tourism Council 908.213.9176 www.skylandstourism.org
Somerset County Business Partnership 908.218.4300 www.scbp.org
Southern Shore Regional 856.453.2177 www.njsouthernshore.com
South Jersey Tourism Corporation 856.757.9400 www.visitsouthjersey.com
