Liberty Park, New Jersey

A main gateway to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ offers much more than a boat ride to the harbor. With over one thousand wooded acres, it offers amazing views of Manhattan, and it’s waterside, so fishing, crabbing, and kayaking are popular. Visitors can easily hop on a ferry to the statue or Ellis Island, but upon return, the Central Railroad Terminal of New Jersey museum offers more insight into what early immigrants went through to become Americans.

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Seasonal Tip (submitted by reader Amanda Vazquez): The 4th Annual City of Water Day Festival is a free day-long event celebrating the potential of the NY-NJ harbor and waterways hosted by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. This year’s festival will take place on Saturday, July 16 on both Governors Island and at Liberty State Park. The celebration will include dragon boat puppet creations; touch tanks with sea stars, clams, whelks, hermit crabs, and horseshoe crabs; a reptile show with turtles, snakes and more. Festival goers will also have the opportunity to kayak, sail and fish. This free event includes free ferry rides between event locations in New York and New Jersey; a flotilla of kayakers and other human-powered boaters; special children’s activities; a Waterfront Activity Fair; food; live music; and more!

Park Hours: 6 am to 10 pm daily

Cost: No admission cost; parking is $7 a day.

Directions: Liberty Park is located at 1 Audrey Zapp Drive, Jersey City, NJ.

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