The long, skinny state of NEW JERSEY has been at the heart of US history since the Revolution , when a battle was fought at Princeton , and George Washington spent two bleak winters at Morristown . As the Civil War came, the state's commitment to an industrial future ensured that, despite its border location along the Mason-Dixon line, it fought with the Union.

That commitment to industry has doomed New Jersey in modern times. Most travelers only see "the Garden State" (so called for the rich market garden territory at the state's heart) from the stupendously ugly New Jersey Turnpike toll road which, heavy with truck traffic, cuts through a landscape of gray smokestacks and industrial estates. Even the songs of Bruce Springsteen , Asbury Park's golden boy, paint his home state as a gritty urban wasteland of empty lots, gray highways, lost dreams and blue-collar tragedy. The majority of the refineries and factories hug only a mere fifteen-mile-wide swath along the turnpike, but bleak cities like Newark , home to the major airport, and Trenton , the capital, do little to improve the look of the place and the state suffers from a major image problem.

But there is more to New Jersey than factories and pollution. Alongside its revolutionary history, Thomas Paine and Walt Whitman both wrote nostalgically of the happy years they spent there; while the northwest corner near the Delaware Water Gap is traced with picturesque lakes, streams and woodlands. Best of all, the Atlantic shore offers many bustling resorts, from the tattered glitz of Atlantic City to the glorious kitsch of Wildwoods and the old-world charm of Cape May.  TOP

Newark International Airport (tel 973/961-6000) is the fastest-growing gateway to the US, served by all the major international carriers and popular for its convenient access to Manhattan (a 30min bus ride away; $11) rather than for being in New Jersey.

Numerous Amtrak trains pass through Newark, Princeton and Trenton, en route between Philadelphia, New York and Washington, DC. There's also a service that links Philadelphia and Atlantic City. Greyhound covers most of the state, while New Jersey Transit (tel 973/762-5100 or 1-800/772-2222) also provides a good train and bus service, extending to Philadelphia and New York as well as out to the coast. New Jersey's south coast is connected to Delaware by the Cape May-Lewes ferry (in Cape May tel 609/886-1725; in Lewes tel 302/645-6313).  TOP

Inland New Jersey
Traveling west on the interstates from the shore or from New York City, visitors see the New Jersey of popular imagination: heavily industrialized, a cultural desert, peppered with run-down cities like Trenton and Paterson. Newark , the state's largest city, is perhaps the nation's drabbest, redeemed only by its efficient airport, new performing arts center, and views over the Hudson to the Statue of Liberty (which is, incidentally, in New Jersey waters). The one place that holds interest in inland New Jersey is Princeton , an Ivy League town that makes a pretty if limited stopoff.

New Jersey Shore
New Jersey's Atlantic coast, a 130-mile stretch of almost uninterrupted resorts - some rowdy, many pitifully run-down and faded, a few undeveloped and peaceful - has long been reliant on farming and tourism. No profitable ports were established, nor did short-lived attempts at whaling come to anything. In the late 1980s the whole coastline suffered severe and well-publicized pollution from ocean dumping, but today the beaches, if occasionally somewhat crowded, are safe and clean: sandy, broad and lined by characteristic wooden boardwalks , some of which, in an attempt to maintain their condition, charge admission during the summer. The rundown glitz of Atlantic City is perhaps the shore's best known attraction, but there are also quieter resorts like Spring Lake and historic Victorian Cape May , plus local gems like Wildwood that are worth the journey further down the coast.  TOP