Bergen County

Bergen County is in the Gateway region at the northeastern corner of New Jersey. Bergen County and its many inner suburbs constitute a highly developed part of the New York City metropolitan area.

Municipalities

• 1 Hackensack — the county seat
• 2 East Rutherford — home of the Meadowlands Complex, where the NFL's New York Giants and New York Jets play football
• 3 Englewood — has several sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places
• 4 Fort Lee — a residential community across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan that has a strong Korean-American presence
• 5 Garfield - a city of 30,000 with a station on NJ Transit's Bergen County Line
• 6 Glen Rock
• 7 Haworth — a suburban community with a small downtown
• 8 Montvale — The last exit on the Garden State Parkway before New York State. Not much of a downtown but lots of service industry and conveniently located between shopping areas in Paramus and Palisades Center mall in West Nyack. Home to one of the oldest Dairy Queens in the country and the establishment remains the same since its opening.
• 9 Palisades Park
• 10 Paramus — a shopping destination for New Yorkers, with three major malls
• 11 Park Ridge — a borough with a few historical sites
• 12 Ridgewood — a wealthy suburban community
• 13 River Edge — home of the New Bridge that was crossed by the Continental Army and General Washington as they retreated from the British attack on New York City on November 20, 1776
• 14 River Vale — location of the Baylor Massacre Historical Site, a Revolutionary War surprise attack on September 27, 1778 on a Continental regiment
• 15 Rutherford — has several sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places
• 16 Teaneck — home to large Jewish and African American communities, and a thriving arts scene
• 17 Westwood — the “Hub of Pascack Valley” has a scenic downtown
• 18 Wyckoff — has several sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Understand

Bergen County is one of the four original counties in New Jersey. Before New Jersey was what it is today, its earlier borders extended to what are now Passaic and Hudson county. Bergen County is 239 sq mi (620 km²) of land in the northeast corner of the state, and its population is just over 900,000 people. Bergen County is #16 out of the top 20 wealthiest counties in America, behind New York as #2, Westchester as #7, and San Francisco as #10.

Get in

To get to Bergen County, you can take many different means of transportation. If you're flying, you can fly into Newark International Airport for commercial flights and Teterboro Airport (TEB ^IATA) for private flights. If flying into New York makes you happier, you can fly into La Guardia Airport or John F. Kennedy International Airport. All of these airports are within 40 minutes from Bergen County.

Anywhere south, get onto the Garden State Parkway North — any of the exits between 160 and 172 will be able to take you to Bergen County. There are some other highways that can also take you there, but this is the most direct and least confusing way.

If you're coming from the north or east, like New York City, Massachusetts, or Connecticut, you can take the George Washington Bridge (NJ/NY lingo "the GW") or the Tappan Zee Bridge. For the GW, follow signs coming off the bridge for Rt. 4 E, then for Rt. 17 N, then signs for the Garden State Parkway N. If you're taking the Tappan Zee, when you get off, follow signs for I-287 W, then take the 14A exit towards New Jersey. After that, merge onto the New York State Thruway, and take the School House Rd. exit which will lead you into Montvale in Bergen County.

There are also lots of great hotels to stay in that are all over BC. Depending on your price range, there are plenty of Holiday Inns to stay at or you can check in to a Hilton or Mariott.

There are Holiday Inn Expresses in Ramsey and Paramus and a Hilton and Mariott in Woodcliff Lake. Because BC is so small, no matter where you stay, everything is within a half hour of where ever you'll be.

Get around

The best way to get around Bergen County is to drive, and there are lots of places to rent cars for a weekend, otherwise you're stuck taking public transportation which only takes you to "working" parts of the area, not the fun parts.

• Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Newark Intl Airport, 162 US Highway 1 and 9, Newark, +1 973-242-3400

At La Guardia:

• Avis +1 973-961-4300 or +1-800-230-4898
• Hertz +1 973-621-2000 or +1 800-654-3131

Although there is no train service in the eastern parts of Bergen County, a project is underway to extend the Hudson Bergen Light Rail north to Englewood.

Buy

One thing that is true about New Jersey is that no matter where you are, you are always 15 minutes away from a mall. In Bergen County, there are three malls.

• Paramus Park Mall (in Paramus)
• Garden State Plaza (in Paramus)
• The Shops at Riverside Square (in Hackensack)

Bergen County has one of the strictest "blue laws" in the country—virtually all Sunday shopping is banned, with the few exceptions including supermarkets, convenience stores, gas stations, and restaurants. Paramus has even stricter blue laws that ban all work on Sunday except in groceries, restaurants, and entertainment venues. The ban on Sunday shopping is a state law that can be rejected on a county-by-county basis by voter referendum; Bergen County is the only county that has refused to reject the state blue law.

Drink

Because Bergen County is such a "family" place, there isn't much of a crazy night life in town. A short 20-minute drive takes you to Nyack, the "it" place to be for a trendy night life.

If you like the pub/bar scene, in Pearl River, New York, which borders Park Ridge in Bergen County, you can go to The Saloon for a more townie, toned down place to have a drink.

If you're still itching for more, New York City is close: take the George Washington Bridge or the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel to downtown NYC for great restaurants and bars.

The local place for LGBT nightlife is Club Feathers in River Edge.

See and do

• County parks Ski, skate, jog, cycle, golf, picnic, camp overnight, tour a zoo, visit a Revolutionary War site, swim, hike, play softball and tennis. Bergen County parks offer golf courses, horseback riding stables, an environmental center, a zoo and plenty of places to picnic and play.
• Darlington County Park: Mahwah. 2 swimming lakes with sandy beaches, changing rooms, snack bar, picnic areas, sand volley ball courts, fishing lake, tennis, handball and basketball courts.
• Bergen County Zoological Park in Van Saun County Park (Forest and Continental Avenues in Paramus): a train ride, extensive playground, and the zoo which is home to a wide variety of wild and domestic animals, and different species of birds.
• Campgaw Mountain County reservation, Campgaw Road in Mahwah: camping, alpine skiing, snowboarding, night skiing, snow tubing. Children's Programs and Lessons. Ski info: +1 201-327-7804
• The Hermitage, Ho-Ho-Kus: Historic house museum that incorporates an 18th-century stone house that was visited during the Revolutionary War by George Washington and is the site where Aaron Burr met and married Theodosia Prevost.
• Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, showcases the natural world. It includes wildlife art and big game collections.
• New Jersey Children's Museum, Paramus, has 30 neat exhibits including a kid-sized grocery, the World of Animal Senses, a fire truck, New Jersey's largest kaleidoscope, and a medieval castle where children dress up as knights, princesses, fairies and kings.
• Historic sites: 18th, 19th & 20th century landmarks
• County golf courses
• Cultural events: Films, concerts, art shows, theatre
• The Bergen Performing Arts Center is Bergen County's largest theater.
• The Bergen County Players are a community theater groups. For nearly 70 years, they have been entertaining area residents and performs at the Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell.
• The American Stage Playhouse in Teaneck features revivals as varied as Forever Plaid and The Bad Seed as well as several new and works every season.
• Westervelt-Lydecker House in Woodcliff Lake southwest of Park Ridge is a home built in 1750 with artifacts from the 18th century.
• Sky Zone, a trampoline and active entertainment park for children, is in Allendale, northwest of Park Ridge