The 1907 Beaux-Arts Hoboken Terminal by architect Kenneth Murchison serves as the main gateway to New Jersey for millions of Manhattan commuters, with NJ Transit commuter rail, PATH trains reaching World Trade Center in 5 minutes, NY Waterway ferries across the Hudson, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail connecting to Jersey City. The Terminal's Tiffany stained-glass ceiling, copper sheathing, and Ferry Concourse preserve one of America's best-preserved railway terminals. Just steps north, Washington Street stretches 14 blocks as Hoboken's main thoroughfare lined with 19th-century brownstones, Italian bakeries, bars where Frank Sinatra drank at Leo's Grandevous since 1939, and the historic Carlo's Bakery from Cake Boss.

Frank Sinatra was born at 415 Monroe Street on December 12, 1915 to Italian immigrant parents Marty and Dolly Sinatra, and a brass star marks the spot though the original home was demolished. The surrounding neighborhood preserves the Italian-American community that raised him, with Piccolo's Clam Bar still operating since 1955 and St. Francis Church where he was baptized. The Hudson Waterfront Walkway stretches 1.3 miles along the river with Frank Sinatra Park offering the best free skyline view of Manhattan anywhere, featuring the 9/11 Memorial engraved with 56 Hoboken residents who died that day, and passing Pier A Park's 5-acre lawn perfect for picnics and concerts.

Liberty State Park spans 1,122 acres of riverfront parkland in Jersey City offering the closest land-based views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, with the Statue of Liberty ferry departing directly from the park's terminal at Liberty Landing Marina. The park contains the Liberty Science Center (300,000-square-foot interactive museum), the restored Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal where millions of immigrants boarded trains after being processed at Ellis Island between 1892-1954, and the Flag Plaza commemorating 9/11 with the Empty Sky Memorial containing 746 names of New Jersey victims. The park hosts the annual

Newark's Ironbound District along Ferry Street hosts New Jersey's largest Portuguese community with over 60,000 Portuguese speakers, offering authentic bacalhau, bifana pork sandwiches, sardines grilled on the street, and port wine at restaurants like Seabra's, Casa Vasca, and Iberia Tavern some operating 60+ years. The neighborhood expanded with Brazilian immigration in the 1990s, adding churrascaria steakhouses like Fornos and Brasilia. Just north, Branch Brook Park contains the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in America with 5,000+ trees outnumbering Washington DC's Tidal Basin, peaking in mid-April with the annual Cherry Blossom Festival drawing 50,000 visitors.

American Dream Mall adjacent to MetLife Stadium is a 3-million-square-foot entertainment and retail complex that finally opened in 2019 after 17 years of construction and $5 billion investment, featuring Nickelodeon Universe indoor theme park with 35 rides including the world's steepest coaster, DreamWorks Water Park (the western hemisphere's largest indoor water park), a 16-story indoor ski slope called Big SNOW (the only indoor real-snow skiing in North America), the Sea Life aquarium, and LEGOLAND Discovery Center. The surrounding Meadowlands Sports Complex hosts the Meadowlands Racetrack (opened 1976) with harness racing and the annual Hambletonian Stakes.

Princeton University is the eighth-oldest college in America founded in 1746 with a 500-acre Gothic Revival campus including Nassau Hall (1756) where the Continental Congress met after the Battle of Princeton, Firestone Library's 7 million volumes, and the Princeton University Art Museum's 112,000-work collection currently rebuilding with a Sir David Adjaye design reopening in 2025. Albert Einstein lived at 112 Mercer Street from 1935 until his death April 18, 1955 (closed to the public but visible from the street), walking daily to the Institute for Advanced Study where he held a lifetime position. Nassau Street shopping district and campus tours run daily from Frist Campus Center.

Asbury Park along the Jersey Shore became famous when Bruce Springsteen played The Stone Pony starting in 1974, writing his breakthrough album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. about the boardwalk community. The Stone Pony at 913 Ocean Avenue still hosts summer concerts with Springsteen occasionally dropping in for surprise performances, while the adjacent Convention Hall (opened 1930) and the restored 1931 Paramount Theatre preserve the Palace Amusements era. The 1.4-mile boardwalk with the Asbury Park Splash Park, craft cocktails at Pascal & Sabine, and vintage shops along Cookman Avenue have revitalized the town after decades of decline following the 1970 riots.

Cape May at the southern tip of New Jersey preserves over 600 Victorian buildings in the Washington Street Mall and surrounding historic district, with the 1879 Physick Estate, the 1859 Cape May Lighthouse (157 steps to the top for panoramic views), and gingerbread B&Bs like the Mainstay Inn making Cape May a National Historic Landmark. Just 11 miles north, Wildwood's two-mile boardwalk features America's best-preserved collection of 1950s-60s Doo Wop motels including the Caribbean (1957), Bel Air (1961), and Isle of Capri (1959) with neon signs and plastic palm trees, plus Morey's Pier amusement parks.

The Atlantic City Boardwalk was the world's first boardwalk when constructed in 1870, now stretching 4.3 miles past 9 operating casinos including Borgata, Hard Rock, and Ocean Casino Resort, the Steel Pier amusement park with a 227-foot Ferris wheel, and the historic 1929 Boardwalk Hall where Miss America ran from 1921-2004. Just south in Margate, Lucy the Elephant has stood since 1881 as America's oldest surviving roadside attraction, a 65-foot-tall wooden elephant designed by James V. Lafferty with a howdah observation deck on her back, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and tourable inside her belly.