Travel Guide of Hoboken, New Jersey for: W Hoboken Rating: 4.0 Pearls

Hoboken, New Jersey, United States

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Pier C Park, Hoboken, New Jersey

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Hoboken, New Jersey Summary

What It's Like

Hoboken is a small, dense city in northern New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan (across from Chelsea and the West Village, to be exact). In general, Hoboken is a quiet, mostly residential neighborhood -- no skyscrapers; no congested traffic; no all-night crowds. Its handful of pubs and sports bars mix with some Italian restaurants, the occasional natural food store, historic homes, and the Stevens Institute of Technology campus. Hoboken's well-manicured piers, parks, and riverfront jogging paths add to the city's charm, and are all evidence of the neighborhood's recent redevelopment and renewal. At night, parts of Hoboken can become very dark and desolate (relative to New York, that is), but it is, in general, a very safe, comfortable neighborhood for tourists; it's just not very exciting.

Jersey City, by contrast, is the second largest city in New Jersey. Its skyscrapers and diverse, historic neighborhoods make it feel a bit more like a safe, slightly quieter version of New York City -- though its museums, parks, and handful of art galleries don't earn quite the same level of international attention (save for Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, both technically in Jersey City). Like Hoboken, Jersey City is also just across the water from Manhattan; a ferry or a PATH commuter train to Lower Manhattan can take as little as 10 minutes.