Free Things to Do in New Hope
People ask us this constantly, usually while waiting for a table. The river, the canal, the bridge between the two states, the galleries on both sides of it. Here's what we tell them.
Walk the canal towpath
The Delaware Canal runs parallel to Main Street, a block off the river, and the old mule towpath beside it is now a flat crushed-stone trail. No gate, no fee, open sunrise to sunset. You can pick it up within a couple of minutes of leaving here and walk as far as you feel like going, because the thing runs sixty miles.
Head north and it thins out fast into trees, water, and the occasional heron standing in the shallows. Head south and you get more of the backs of old houses and their gardens. Either direction is flat the entire way, which is why you see everyone on it: runners, strollers, people on bikes, people walking dogs at eleven at night.
One honest warning: it holds water. After a heavy rain the low stretches turn to mud and stay that way for a day or two. Wear something you don't mind ruining.
Cross the bridge into another state
The New Hope–Lambertville Bridge has a pedestrian walkway and no toll, and walking it is the single best free thing in town. Halfway across you're standing over the Delaware with the river running out in both directions, Pennsylvania behind you and New Jersey in front, and it does not get old.
Go at dusk. The light on the water is the whole point, and both towns start turning their lights on while you're out there.
Explore the galleries
This stretch of the Delaware has been an artists' colony for well over a century, and it still shows. New Hope has galleries and working studios up and down Main Street and tucked into the side alleys and courtyards off it, and the doors are open to anyone who wants to come look.
Keep going over the bridge and Lambertville picks up right where New Hope leaves off, heavy on art and antiques. The Artists' Gallery on Bridge Street and Highlands Art Gallery on Union Street are both worth your time, with plenty more scattered up the side streets. Make an afternoon of it and hit both towns.
The New Jersey side has its own towpath too, along the Delaware and Raritan Canal, if you want to keep walking once you're over there.
The Lambertville farmers market
Sunday mornings, roughly nine to noon, over at the library on Lilly Street. Free to wander, and you don't have to buy anything to enjoy it, though you probably will. It's a real market rather than a tourist one, which means produce and bread and people who know each other.
Markets like this shift with the seasons and the weather. Worth a quick check before you make the trip.
The grounds at Washington Crossing
This is where Washington actually crossed the Delaware on Christmas night in 1776, and the park grounds are open dawn to dusk for free. You can walk the riverbank, look at the crossing site, and read the markers without paying anything or booking anything.
Be clear on what's free and what isn't. The grounds cost nothing. The guided tours of the historic buildings and the climb up Bowman's Hill Tower are ticketed separately, so if that's what you came for, check their site first. Same goes for Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve nearby, which charges admission.
Just walk Main Street
Obvious, but people skip it. The buildings along Main are eighteenth and nineteenth century and most of them still have their original bones. There's public art tucked around the borough, alleys worth turning down, and the whole strip is walkable end to end in twenty minutes if you don't stop, which you will.
When You've Walked Enough
We're at 90 S. Main Street, right in the middle of it, with a patio and a fire pit and a bar that's open until 2 AM. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday, 4 to 6.