Looking for an all day adventure with a little hiking, quaint lunch, main street shopping, and a cold, crisp cider to end your day?!?!?! Well, I have the itinerary for you.
Day Trip Itinerary, Central Jersey:
- Willow Wood Arboretum
- Sally Lunn’s Tea Room & Restaurant
- Burnt Mills Cider
Starting off at Willow Wood Arboretum for your hike! There is plenty of parking and plenty to see, a whole whopping 131 acres. Bring a snack, pack a lunch, hike until you don’t want to hike no more. There is a mix of gardens, structures, water feature, statues, and giant fences that make you feel like you should be in the movie Jurassic Park. I ended up finding some Adirondack chairs to sit, enjoyed a snack, and took in the vast depths of the open field and high trees picturing dinosaurs running across them.
Currently they have statues on display that are on loan from Seward Johnson Atelier’s Collection until November 2023. The park does remain open year round from 8am to dusk and is free.
Sally Lunn’s Tea Room & Restaurant:
Next stop is a few minutes drive to the main street of Chester. Just off the main street is Sally Lunn’s Tea Room and boy is that worth a stop. There are over fifty flavors of loose tea to pick from. They have such a cute food menu and the most amazing homemade pies, pastries, and desserts. I love how all the desserts are made in a different dish.
This Victorian Parlor is a perfect stop to refuel with lunch or you can grab a tea and dessert to hit the main street for shopping. The main street is filled with a wide variety of stores from clothing, knick knacks, body products, candy shop, ice cream shop, general store, and many more restaurants to try out. One of my favorite stores to check out is the Maple Shop!
Whenever you want to hit that crisp cider, make your way back on route 206 past Willow Wood Arboretum to Burnt Mills Cider in Bedminster. There is a small taproom and then outside has picnic tables, chairs, and two fire pits to enjoy in the field. You can bring outside food, along with being children and pet friendly. They offer nonalcoholic drinks and they do have a rotating schedule of food trucks.
With the end of summer and fall approaching they have some of the best choices to pick from. On the way out is Jersey summer, peach, blue and staying around a bit longer is fall spice and cider moon. I will be on the look out for their ginger cider. This is definitely one of my preferred stops on the Somerset County Tourism Sip and See Passport.
This was such an enjoyable day out and about! I barely scratched the surface of Willow Wood Arboretum and look forward to getting lost on the trails. Sally Lunn’s has so much to offer, I’ll never be able to try one of every type of tea they have, but I sure will make the attempt. And Burnt Mills is just a happy place to be. This is something I can easily envision myself and friends doing a few times a year to appreciate each of the seasons view, food, and drink selections.
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