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New Jersey’s largest city, Newark is located just to the west of lower Manhattan where the Passaic River flows into Newark Bay. In addition to being a major air, shipping and rail hub, it hosts some excellent museums, performing arts venues and landscaped gardens, together with a vibrant restaurant scene in the Ironbound district.

The New Jersey Performing Art Centre is one of the largest in the country, home to both the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and State Opera, and hosting a range of cultural performances, an annual jazz festival and a free outdoor concerts during the summer months. The Prudential Centre is where the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils play, while the Arts District’s Newark Museum boasts around 80 galleries of art and natural science exhibits, ranging from Native American to the largest Tibetan art collection in the Western Hemisphere. The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart is one of the city’s most striking pieces of architecture, designed in a French Gothic style and hosting a regular schedule of concerts throughout the year.Right next door lies the leafy walkways of the Branch Brook Park, renowned for having the largest collection of cherry trees in the United States and a Farmers and Community Market. Military Park is another great location to let off some steam, with its imagination playground popular with kids, while the Riverfront Park offers magnificent views of the Passaic River, particularly at night.

Newark is well serviced by public transport, with Newark Penn station the major transport hub, located just to the east of the downtown area. The Newark Light Rail system also has two lines which connect with destinations across the city and to neighbouring towns.

Newark was first settled in 1666 by Connecticut Puritans from the New Haven colony and designed as a religious-based community. While new settlers arrived with different ideas and its theocratic assembly of the faithful didn’t endure, Newark fast developed into a major transport hub, with its port one of the most important along America’s East Coast.