Less famous than New Hope, Pa., its neighbor just a mile across the Delaware River, quaint Lambertville is no less charming and engaging. It's true that this former mill and canal-transport village developed a following as a weekend destination later than New Hope, but especially since the late 1990s, its really blossomed into a charming vacation spot - here you'll find gay-friendly B&Bs, antiques shops, galleries, and cafes. And everything is within easy walking distance of New Hope. Also, since New Jersey legalized same-sex civil unions in 2007, the town has become a popular venue for commitment ceremonies.
Lambertville has a climate typical of the Philadelphia/New York City region, with beautiful and temperate spring and fall weather, warm and sometimes muggy summers, and colder winters that typically see occasional snow showers and even a storm or two each year.
Average high-low temps are 39F/21F in Jan., 63F/39F in Apr., 87F/63F in July, and 67F/42F in Oct. (later in the month is prime leaf-peeping season). Precipitation averages 3 to 5 inches/mo. year-round, with summer generally seeing the most rain.
Lambertville is a small, peaceful old mill town with about 4,000 residents and a storybook locale on the east bank of the Delaware River, just across from the longtime gay-popular weekend community and artists' colony of New Hope, Pa. It's surrounded to the east by hilly, country village in largely rural Hunterdon County, due north of Philadelphia and about 70 miles southwest of New York City.
Driving distances to Lambertville from prominent places and points of interest are:
Atlantic City: 100 miles (1.5 hrs)
Baltimore: 140 miles (2.5 hrs)
Boston: 280 miles (4 to 5 hrs)
Montreal: 415 miles (6 to 7 hrs)
New Hope, PA: 2 miles (5 min)
New York City: 70 miles (75 min)
Philadelphia: 40 miles (50 min)
Princeton: 20 miles (35 min)
Pittsburgh: 320 miles (5 to 6 hrs)
Toronto: 475 miles (7.5 to 8.5 hrs)
Washington, DC: 170 miles (3 hrs)
Most visitors to Lambertville, a popular weekend destination with Philadelphians and New Yorkers, arrive by car. But Lambertville is also easily accessible from any of the major airports serving Philadelphia and New York City. You could rent a car from any airport and drive here, but there's also Trans-Bridge Lines daily bus service between Lambertville and Newark Airpot, New York City, and JFK Airport. From Philadelphia and its airport, you can take SEPTA regional rail service to Doylestown, Pa., where you can take a taxi the 12 miles to Lambertville.
Mid- to Late May: New Hope Gay Pride, although set across the river in New Hope, is very much a celebration for the entire region's GLBT community.
Lambertville's charming downtown is a haven of shopping, especially for antiques stores and art galleries. You can also walk 10 minutes across the bridge over the Delaware River into New Hope, where you'll find plenty more shopping.
From New Hope, you can also explore the many attractions in Bucks County, Pa., including Washington Crossing Historic Park; Peddler's Village, a community of some 70 restaurants and specialty stores; the esteemed James A. Michener Museum of Art, which with branches in Doylestown and New Hope; and the fanciful, 13th-century-inspired mansion, Fonthill.
You can better plan your gay Lambertville visit by consulting some of the following links, among them nearby Philadelphia's excellent GLBT newspaper Philadelphia Gay News, which includes coverage of Lambertville and New Hope.
You can obtain tourism information from the Lambertville Chamber of Commerce, and local info on the Lambertville/New Hope area from New Hope's GLBT Pride and Tourism Committee New Hope Celebrates, the Gay New Hope website, and also FunMaps New Hope.
Lambertville is one of several charming New Jersey hamlets on or near the Delaware River, an area sometimes referred to as New Hope's "Left Bank." Lambertville's commercial success was aided by a canal - the Delaware-Raritan Canal runs north-south through town. the town has a more substantial retail center than New Hope's. Antiques and clothing shops have replaced what used to be a light-industrial landscape, and several excellent restaurants have opened here in recent years. Many gay locals prefer the less frenetic pace of Lambertville and dine out here as often as in bustling and somewhat more touristy New Hope. Other quiet but scenic villages in the region worth exploring include Ringoes, Stockton, Frenchtown, Milford, and Clinton.
The general region has never aggressively marketed itself as a gay destination, but local businesses and tourism offices have lately begun advertising more to the GLBT market, especially since New Jersey passed same-sex civil union legisltation in 2007, making the entire region popular with gay honeymooners. Also, neighboring New Hope has developed a highly festive and popular Gay Pride festival, which takes place in mid-May.
There's been a gay presence in the area for decades, albeit mostly on the Pennsylvania side of the river, dating back to when New Hope developed a following as an artists' community. In the 1930s and '40s, the area began to draw musicians and writers, many of them from New York City, including Dorothy Parker, S.J. Perelman, Oscar Hammerstein, Moss Hart, and Pearl Buck. The opening of the Bucks County Playhouse in 1939 precipitated a gay presence in town. Built in the rustic shell of Benjamin Parry's old 18th-century grist mill, the theater brought New Hope a regular summer tour of actors and stagehands, many of whom began settling here for at least part of the year. Today the playhouse is tremendously successful.
Lambertville and New Hope now have several gay-owned accommodations, and most of the straight-owned inns are highly welcoming of gay visitors. Probably the most famous gay business in the region is the Raven, an inn-restaurant-nightclub just a short drive away in New Hope. It's ground-zero for revelers but also a fine getaway for couples seeking romance - it's become especially fashionable since the energetic young owners completely overhauled the property in 2005 and 2006. Another great gay-friendly dining option is Marsha Brown Creole Kitchen.
