Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome back to Exploring America, state by state. After the skyscrapers and waterfalls of New York, today we're crossing into New Jersey, a state that gets teased more than almost any other and honestly doesn't deserve most of it. New Jersey is known as the Garden State, and once you get past the highways everyone complains about, you find exactly that rolling farmland, thick pine forests, and 130 miles of legendary shoreline. This is the birthplace of the boardwalk, the home of the 24 Hour Diner, and the setting behind some of the most iconic music and stories in American culture. New Jersey has a personality far bigger than its size, and it rewards anyone willing to get off the turnpike and actually look around at what's really here. The Garden State Parkway along the shore gives you access to beach town after beach town, each with its own personality, from quiet Victorian streets to boardwalk energy. Just a few exits apart from inland, Route 206 cuts straight through the Pine Barrens, over a million acres of pine forest and sandy soil that feels nothing like the New Jersey people imagine. With long, straight roads and almost no development for miles. At a stretch up north, Route 80 through the Delaware Water Gap offers dramatic mountain and river scenery as the Delaware river cuts through the Kittatinny Ridge, with pull offs that give you long views down the valley and down at the southern tip. The drive into Cape May takes you past marshes and quiet farmland before arriving at one of the best preserved Victorian towns in the entire country. With gas lamps and painted lady houses lining nearly every street, the Pine Barrens themselves are the state's best kept secret, a massive quiet wilderness most visitors never realize exists, home to rare plants, cedar swamps, and the legendary Jersey Devil folklore that locals still tell around campfires. Batstow Village, an old iron working town preserved inside the Pine Barrens, feels like stepping into the 1800s with barely another visitor in sight most weekdays. The Great Falls in Paterson, a genuinely massive waterfall inside an urban setting surprises almost everyone who sees it for the first time. Tucked right behind a historic mill district and sandy hook at the northern edge of the Jersey shore offers quiet beaches, an historic lighthouse, old military fortifications, and sweeping views back toward the New York City skyline. Across the bay, Atlantic City's boardwalk is the classic New Jersey postcard, lined with casinos, arcades and saltwater taffy shops stretching for miles along the beach. With the ocean always just steps away, Cape May's entire downtown is a National Historic Landmark, packed with colorful Victorian mansions turned into inns, making it one of the most photographed small towns on the entire East Coast. Liberty State park gives you one of the best views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline anywhere, all without paying a New York City price tag or fighting New York City crowds and Six Flags Great Adventure, one of the largest amusement parks in the country, draws thrill seekers from up and down the coast every summer, along with a drive through Safari park right next door.
[00:03:20] A few things worth Atlantic City's casino restaurants often charge steep prices for food. You can get better and cheaper just blocks away in the surrounding neighborhoods. Boardwalk games in the busier shore towns are designed to look easier than they actually are, so treat them as entertainment rather than an investment you expect to win. And parking in Wildwood or Cape May during peak summer weekends can turn into a serious hunt, so arrive early or look into municipal lots slightly outside the main strip to save both time and money. New Jersey is genuinely easy RV territory along the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike, both wide, well maintained highways connecting the shore to the rest of the state with minimal fuss. The challenge comes in the shore towns themselves during peak summer where narrow streets and limited parking make navigating a larger rig tricky, so many RV travelers park at a campground outside town and drive a smaller vehicle in for beach days. Inland, the Pine Barrens and Northern Mountain roads are wide open and comfortable for RVs of any size, with plenty of pull offs along the way for paid camping. Campgrounds near Cape May put you close to the beach with full hookups and easy highway access to the rest of the shore. Atchen Family Campground inside Wharton State Forest offers a lakeside base right in the heart of the Pine Barrens, with swimming and canoe rentals just steps from your site for free or low cost camping. Wharton State Forest allows dispersed backcountry camping in the designated areas throughout the Pine Barrens, one of the more generous free camping options on the entire east coast, though a permit is required and rules should be checked ahead of time. Worthington State Forest, up near the Delaware Water Gap, also offers affordable, quieter camping away from the shore crowds right along the river.
[00:05:11] Atlantic City's casino resorts offer full scale stays with entertainment, spas and ocean views built right in a completely different pace from the rest of the shore. Cape May's Victorian bed and breakfasts give you a much quieter kind of stay, often in beautifully restored century old homes with wraparound porches and Wildwood's classic Doo Wop motels with their retro neon signs and kidney shaped pools are practically a piece of mid century Americana all on their own budget, friendly and absolutely full of character and charm.
[00:05:45] NJ Transit's extensive rail and bus network connects nearly every corner of the state with direct lines into both New York City and Philadelphia that make day trips easy without ever needing a car once you arrive.
[00:05:58] The PATH train links northern New Jersey directly into Lower Manhattan in a matter of minutes and down at the shore, the Atlantic City Jitney offers a fun old school way to get up and down the boardwalk corridor without worrying about parking at all. During the busy season, New Jersey takes its food very seriously, Starting with the 24 hour diner, a genuine state institution with more locations per square mile than almost anywhere else in the entire country.
[00:06:25] Order a pork roll, egg and cheese sandwich known locally as Taylor Ham, depending on which part of the state you're in. A breakfast argument that never really ends between neighbors and co workers alike along the boardwalk, funnel cake and saltwater taffy are practically mandatory stops. And don't skip a proper Jersey tomato in summer, considered by many locals to be the best in the entire country thanks to the state's rich sandy farmland soil.
[00:06:52] Head out to Cape May for a whale and dolphin watching boat tour, one of the best kept secrets on the east coast for spotting marine life close to shore without a long trip out to sea. Rent a canoe and paddle through the quiet tea colored rivers of the Pine Barrens for an afternoon completely removed from anything resembling a highway or a crowd. Spend an evening at the Wildwood Boardwalk Arcades, a genuinely nostalgic experience even if you've never been there before in your life.
[00:07:20] And catch a show at one of the state's classic drive in movie theaters, a piece of Americana that New Jersey has kept alive better than almost any other state in the country.
[00:07:30] Summer is peak Jersey Shore season, with beach badges required at most town beaches and boardwalks buzzing every night of the week from Memorial Day onward. Bookshore town accommodations well ahead of Memorial Day through Labor Day since rooms disappear fast at the popular towns. Visiting early in the week rather than weekends will save you both money and crowds at nearly every beach town along the coast. Shore towns run noticeably higher in summer, especially for lodging, but you can eat extremely well at diners and boardwalk stands for well under $20ameal almost anywhere in the state. Inland areas and the Pine Barrens are dramatically more affordable, with camping often costing 25 to $40 a night. Balancing a shore stretch with an inland stretch keeps your overall trip budget very reasonable while still hitting the highlights. Cell coverage is excellent along the shore corridor, the turnpike and both major metro areas bordering the state on either side. It drops off noticeably once you're deep inside the Pine Barrens, so download offline maps before heading into that quieter, forested interior where signal can disappear entirely. That's New Jersey. A state holding boardwalks, quiet pine forests, and Victorian seaside towns, all inside one often misunderstood set of borders. Next time, we're heading into Pennsylvania, a state of rolling Amish countryside, Revolutionary War history, and one of the most important cities in the founding of America. Pack the cooler, and I'll see you there.
